If you are organized, how do you do it?

[serendipitous journey]

I sort of have planner envy. All those posts on the K-8 board 'round springtime with people who plan their year and make it "open and go" for themselves. Does anyone here do that? I'm trying to figure out if it is possible/desirable for accelerated and intense little ones. I can sort of imagine doing subjects as chains of events (like, MUS Gamma --> MUS Delta --> AoPS + Khan or something like that) but the details change over time; for ex. right now Button gets daily reviews of MUS Beta but I wouldn't have expected he'd need it.

 

anyhow: anybody have luck with yearly planning?

:bigear::bigear::bigear:

[LittleIzumi]

Hmmm. I have unit studies planned for the year, following BFSU and a couple of interest-led ideas. I have our daily subjects (not how much we'll do, but what subjects in what order). It is all subject to change if we need to, though. The Drama's math slot just switched from Singapore to MEP, for instance. I also just moved classification down about 5 weeks. No biggie.

[serendipitous journey]

Hmmm. I have unit studies planned for the year, following BFSU and a couple of interest-led ideas. I have our daily subjects (not how much we'll do, but what subjects in what order). It is all subject to change if we need to, though. The Drama's math slot just switched from Singapore to MEP, for instance. I also just moved classification down about 5 weeks. No biggie.

neat-o .... [how] do you record what you do?

thanks!

[QueenieReighn]

For me, I have an advanced plan for the year by subjects with certain goals to be met by certain times. Then I fill in the specifics covered each day as I go. For example, I have geography and the book I'm using for it written down to be done on every Monday and then, after that time slot of work has been finished, I fill in which pages we covered and/or a short description of the activity we did or if we finished the book. That way I can adjust what we are doing very easily, see if it was actually completed for the day quickly, and still have a plan of attack already for the day when we start. :-)

[regentrude]

I am a very organized person - BUT: I do not lesson plan. I spend a lot of time researching materials that best fit my kids, but then we are very relaxed about school. My kids choose their own schedule, work on whatever topic they want for however long they wish. The next time we resume where we have left off. With my high schooler, I need to make sure that everything averages out and nag a bit if a subject gets neglected, but my Middle schooler pretty much goes according to his interests, within the framework of resources I provide for him.

 

I did make lose schedules for my high schooler, basically to know whether she stays on track (as in, chapter such and such this week, finish section so-and-so by that date). We were off-schedule the second week of school

 

With DS I consider this a waste of time. I'd rather make sure he spends enough time learning, and I insist on daily math. Anything else - it will be fine. And with an elementary school age kid, I would worry even less - as long as math, reading and writing get done, anything goes.

[MissKNG]

I tried to lesson plan math once and got too frustrated having to re-write my plans since dd would blow through stuff so fast. So I stopped.

 

Noeo is scheduled for me, which we loosely follow. But I pretty much look in each subject I want to do that day and mentally decide on how much material we should go through. I use an upright metal file holder to hold our main curricula and pull out what I plan on using for the day and lay it on the counter.

 

That's it. Clear as mud??

 

Normally I'm not a "seat of your pants" or "play it by ear" sort of gal but with an aggressive learner, I have no choice!:tongue_smilie:

[Tree House Academy]

Heart of Dakota plans out my year. I plan by the week and add in any extras, put dates at the top, etc. so I can account for life "happening." :)

[WishboneDawn]

I am just getting a workable system in place. For organizing supplies see my sig. For planner stuff, I chucked (finally!) the planners. I bought notebooks. In one I write my daily plans for the next day - chores, errands, calls, school work, etc. That's my general notebook for running the house.

 

In another I write down plans and record what my daughter has done for history (her least structured subject so far - I'll need to do this for science and art-music as well I think). I do that to have a record for when Harry gets to her grade. That's for records and future planning. Most of what we use is open-and-go or the kids know it's always _____ number of pages or exercises a day so I don't really need to plan it out much.

 

Catherine also has a notebook where she recorded her weekly schedule on the first page and then each page after that is where she records marks for the week in her subjects and marks down accomplishments/homework/whatever. I'll use this for year end reporting somehow. She has to convert any marks into percentages so it's sneaky math practice as well.

 

I was always looking for the perfect system. I finally realized it doesn't exist and rather then buying a planner or wasting toner, I could just get out of neutral and start writing stuff down. Works well right now.

[regentrude]

In another I write down plans and record what my daughter has done for history (her least structured subject so far - I'll need to do this for science and art-music as well I think). I do that to have a record for when Harry gets to her grade. That's for records and future planning..

 

I have both my kids keep an agenda and record what they worked on in which subject for how long each day.

I keep very good records... AFTER the fact ;-)

[momofsbandeg]

I loved this so much that I jumped on Amazon and ordered the dish drainers. They will be here by Wednesday. Organization is on the way.:D

 

Thanks for sharing,

Tasha

 

 

I am just getting a workable system in place. For organizing supplies see my sig. For planner stuff, I chucked (finally!) the planners. I bought notebooks. In one I write my daily plans for the next day - chores, errands, calls, school work, etc. That's my general notebook for running the house.

 

In another I write down plans and record what my daughter has done for history (her least structured subject so far - I'll need to do this for science and art-music as well I think). I do that to have a record for when Harry gets to her grade. That's for records and future planning. Most of what we use is open-and-go or the kids know it's always _____ number of pages or exercises a day so I don't really need to plan it out much.

 

Catherine also has a notebook where she recorded her weekly schedule on the first page and then each page after that is where she records marks for the week in her subjects and marks down accomplishments/homework/whatever. I'll use this for year end reporting somehow. She has to convert any marks into percentages so it's sneaky math practice as well.

 

I was always looking for the perfect system. I finally realized it doesn't exist and rather then buying a planner or wasting toner, I could just get out of neutral and start writing stuff down. Works well right now.

[rwjx2khsmj]

I plan for the year by outlining what I want to get done in each subject for each child during each week. My planning really only involves noting lesson numbers or page numbers for the subject. If we get the lessons accomplished, I check them off. If something must be carried over, I pencil it in on the following week.

 

The planning is done down the left side of the paper with plenty of room for notes and changes on the right. Nothing is set in stone but it gives me a good frame work for getting things done. The system works perfectly for me.

[WishboneDawn]

I have both my kids keep an agenda and record what they worked on in which subject for how long each day.

I keep very good records... AFTER the fact ;-)

 

You'll notice I edited that.:001_smile: It started as I first described but Catherine has since taken it over.

[Embassy]

I plan the entire year in advance so it is open and go. I work part-time and have no time to plan during the school year. For some things I know my child's pace and for other things I have to make slight adjustments as we go. Here is a blog post on how I organized this school year. When my oldest was young I wouldn't have been able to lay out an entire school year. I tried and he quickly changed my preset pace. But now I've kinda tuned into his level and pace so I can plan out a year with only minor changes.

[2smartones]

I plan the entire year in advance so it is open and go. I work part-time and have no time to plan during the school year. For some things I know my child's pace and for other things I have to make slight adjustments as we go. Here is a blog post on how I organized this school year. When my oldest was young I wouldn't have been able to lay out an entire school year. I tried and he quickly changed my preset pace. But now I've kinda tuned into his level and pace so I can plan out a year with only minor changes.

I could've written that response myself!

[chepyl]

I use Edu-Track. I downloaded the lesson plans for Singapore Math and Rod and Staff English from the website and uploaded them to my program. I then added spelling, science, SOTW, penmanship, and reading manually. There is a repeating activity button that works great! I could set penmanship daily with a few clicks, spelling was entered with an automatic change to the list number. And science and history took about 30 minutes each to enter with the repeating tool.

 

Do we follow it exactly? No, but it takes a few clicks to bump lessons up and down. I can sort the lessons by day or subject. If we move faster than expected, I highlight the subject and bump everything up a few days. If we miss a day and we plan to make the work up, I just bump it forward a day.

 

I click a check box and add any notes or grades as we work through assignments each day. If it's done, it is a different color.

 

I can print off a list of assignments for the week or day if I desire. As DS gets older, this will be great for sending him to work independently for a few assignments.

 

You just need the right tool, test out some computer programs or try a written planner. It is not too hard (I am not really an organized person.)

[boscopup]

I use HST+. Some subjects I do at the recommended pace (like science and history, plus composition since he's writing phobic... and I'm just doing FLL at the pace recommended, though he *could* go faster... I'm not in a hurry with grammar). Math is the main subject that goes faster and is unpredictable. Luckily, HST+ lesson plans don't include dates! :D I have MM4 planned out for the "year" (it won't take a year). I actually have multiple versions of this, because I first thought we'd slow down to 2 pages a day instead of one section a day (a section usually being 2-3 pages a day, sometimes 4 or 5, but that's rare... 3 is pretty common). Well, we got started, and I realized that that was too slow for him. So we're again doing one section per day. He likes that pace. I have already made lesson plans for MM5, though we won't need them until closer to the end of the year. They're ready and waiting anyway. :)

 

Each week, I submit assignments to the assignment grid from the lesson plans. I only do a week at a time, because I can usually predict (based on content) what we'll get done that week. And if I'm off, it's usually only by a day, and that's not a big deal. For example, the day we did bar graphs, DS saw the line graphs for the next day and wanted to do that too! :lol: Since we're finally "at his level", it's much easier to predict what we'll do. I couldn't really do that in, say, MM2, where we were skipping whole chapters because he fully understood the material. But even when we were in MM2, it was still easy to "plan" because again, I was doing it a week at a time. The full year's lesson plans were in the program, and can be reused by the next 2 kids. If I don't need something, I just mark it as "used" and it disappears from my sight. :)

 

I'm a box checker, and so is my son. We do best with a daily checklist. As long as I make it each week, we're good.

[8filltheheart]

I am very organized. I cannot not plan b/c w/ a very large family, life would take over and nothing would get done as thoroughly as it needs to be. That said, I don't write out plans for my kids under 3rd grade. My experience has been that the under 3rd/sometimes even 4th grade crowd simply do not learn in a predictable enough of a pattern to make planning worthwhile. Until their progression is more "stable", we simply adapt daily.

 

I write out very specific plans for my older kids in most subjects, but even then, only in about 6 week chunks to allow room for appropriate tweaking. Some subjects I don't take control over and let them pace themselves. (and this only works w/highly motivated children that are honestly accountable to themselves. And I would not take this approach w/a child that isn't incredibly mature or one that is easily distracted. For example, my ds that is doing AP cal this yr will be generating his own plans/pace. The content is beyond my ability and he knows far better than I do what needs to be done. However, he is completely self-motivated and holds himself to a higher standard than I do. :lol:)

[LittleIzumi]

neat-o .... [how] do you record what you do?

thanks!

 

My state doesn't require records so I haven't bothered with that.

[Beth in SW WA]

I am organized but I don't write lesson plans. We school year-round (with breaks here & there for field trips/family travel) and do-the-next-thing in each subject. We work for a designated amount of time each day on certain subjects. I know my unwritten 'goals' are being achieved through weekly evaluation of progress.

 

Daily:

Bible -- 30 min

Math -- 90 min

History/Science/Lit Reading -- 1 hour (dd8 reads every spare moment)

Grammar/Writing/Spelling/Vocab -- 90 min

Spanish (dd8 only) -- 30 min

Piano/Violin -- 30 min

[serendipitous journey]

Thank you, everyone! This has been such a help, and I hope for others who read the thread too ...

 

Reading over the replies, I realize that 1) Button and I like structure; and 2) it probably makes sense to plan starting with what I CAN plan, and just sketch the other stuff in until it's more plan-able (perhaps college :)). I do want to record things more than I am, esp. for recycling for Bot-bot, and at the moment all my great ideas are smeared across my Google docs in no coherent order.

 

So with your good feedback my Action Plan is: to start recording what we have actually done each day, post-hoc, in my nifty paper homeschool planner; and next month I'll purchase and get to know HST+ which sounds like a good fit for us. Last night I did write down what our daily plan is (we do most things every day) so I'm sure to hit the important stuff in the meantime. I'm also taking the idea I ran across on the K-8 forum today to get the fundamentals going (these we do every day) and add the other subjects one.at.a.time :)

 

confession: I'm actually not "starting" first grade (in my own head, which is where reality resides, yes?) 'till January 1, so that I feel organized for it. This is a total secret from Button, who would be devastated not to be in first grade on the PS schedule, and a source of constant amusement for DH, since Button's reading and math are above grade level. But I am always relieved to tell myself "it's okay, you don't start until after the holidays!" :D (maybe a blushing face would be better)