For those of you who plan ahead, how far ahead, and what's your approach?

[Halcyon]

I have a word table with our subjects on the left side, and days of the week above. I know how many days i want to do each subject per week (5x a week for Math, 2x a week for Science, etc) Up til now, i fill this in in pencil AFTER we complete a subject, as a record of what we have done.

 

I am considering pre-filling out what i would like to accomplish each day instead, and then checking it off as we go. Question- do those of you who take this approach do this WEEKLY? Monthly? The reason i am considering this isnt because we arent getting things done; we school year round so mostly we are ahead. Rather, i find that our days are too long because i dont have any end point in mind...i cant say "we are done" for the day, ever, and we just keep going until 3 or 4. I dont think it's neccesarily fair to my kids to rewards focus and efficiency with more work. I think a set schedule of what i want to accomplish each day would help me and allow them more free time.

 

Would love to hear from people who plan ahead and how you do it.

ETA: Adding a link to the planning page I am going to use...normally, as I said, this would be filled out post school work, but I'd like to fill it out BEFOREhand this coming year. Going to read the comments now :)

 

 

 

Edited June 18, 2012 by Halcyon

[Oakblossoms]

When I feel like planning:tongue_smilie: I just do a set number of days instead of days of the week. Then if we don't make it through that day, we can just start at the bottom of day 1 and keep on going.

 

It helps to see if you are planning too much as well.

[BugsMama]

I planned each subject out by week one, day one and so on (from tips on this board)- so I have a spreadsheet for english, math, social studies and so on. Then, once a week, I sit down with THOSE plans and fill out my weekly plan. I have the full school year planned out. Each night, I'll be doing our new "workbox" sheets, so i'll put them together for the kids for the next morning, off of my weekly lesson plans.

[coffeegal]

My personal way is to divide the subjects. We have daily subjects that must be done daily, and weekly subjects that are done 2-4 times a week. Obviously daily subjects are done daily, but I plan out on which days of the week I want the weekly subjects done with an eye towards our weekly energy level. Friday tends to be a bad day to have a once a week subject because we're ready to be done for the week, but it's a great day to wrap up the various subjects. Wednesdays need to be lighter because we have our weekly park group in the afternoon.

 

So as an example:

 

Monday: Daily subjects + history & mapwork

Tuesday: Daily subjects + science & experiments

Wednesday: Daily subjects

Thursday: Daily subjects + science & reports

Friday: Daily subjects + discussions for literature, history, etc.

 

I also tried out planning for the quarter, rather than the week or the year. It's worked out very well for us. It's not so far out that I ended up making drastic changes (what happens on the yearly plan), but enough so that I'm not scrambling on Monday mornings after a crazy weekend to get the supplies together for the week. Also I discovered my older kids want their next week's assignments on Friday so they can get a head start over the weekend. Since everything is pulled together, I can handout the papers on Friday instead of forcing everyone to wait until Monday.

 

I do tend to plan math by the week rather than the quarter. I've found it's a more sensitive subject. Sometimes a child will work ahead by doing a lesson + everyday, while another child will need to slow down to work on a new concept.

[Five More Minutes]

I have a word table with our subjects on the left side, and days of the week above. I know how many days i want to do each subject per week (5x a week for Math, 2x a week for Science, etc) Up til now, i fill this in in pencil AFTER we complete a subject, as a record of what we have done.

 

I am considering pre-filling out what i would like to accomplish each day instead, and then checking it off as we go. Question- do those of you who take this approach do this WEEKLY? Monthly?

 

I do this weekly. I have an overall plan for the year, breaking down subjects into how many topics / chapters I imagine we'll do each month. This mostly helps me figure out what I need for resources, and also helps me check my weekly plans to see that our trajectory for each subject is fine.

 

At the beginning of each week I sit down and write in my template (which is very much like yours) the specific page numbers or topics or chapters that we'll plan to do each day and on which days. Then I just check them off as they're done.

 

I do this weekly mostly because I find that if I do this any further ahead than a week, my plans end up meaningless. But I've also found that doing it weekly gives me more confidence in tweaking our plans on the fly, and to deliver lessons that are more logically connected with upcoming lessons.

[Random]

I have a weekly goal of what I consider reasonable. My boys know they have a certain number of lessons that should be accomplished for the week. When those are completed, they can work ahead or be done.

 

Also, I like to plan out our entire year (we take the month of June off) by week. I take the number of lessons (per curriculum) I hope to accomplish for the school year and divide by weeks of school. That helps me to determine the minimum lessons per week we need to do, to finish our stuff by the end of May.

[angelmama1209]

i do this weekly because, more often than not, we DON'T get to everything every day. this way i can just move whatever wasn't done to the next week without having to scratch out a lot. i do have a general plan outlined through next spring (we school year round) just so i can see where we will be based on the pace we're going now and adjust if necessary.

Edited June 18, 2012 by angelmama1209

[edeemarie]

i do this weekly because, more often than not, we DON'T get to everything every day. this way i can just move whatever wasn't done to the next week without having to scratch out a lot. i do have a general plan outlined through next spring (we school year round) just so i can see where we will be based on the pace we're going now and adjust if necessary.

 

This is exactly what we do. Sometimes we get ahead or behind and if I did a schedule for more than a week at a time I would feel like I "had" to finish work because otherwise I would throw the schedule off! I just did a blog post on this very topic here.

[Mrs.Gregg]

I am planning 18 weeks of work for a 21 week Semester. I'm planning by subject and then will plan weekly from our subject plan as we go along. The 3 weeks gives us "wiggle" room.

[5LittleMonkeys]

We are on a 6 week on, 1 week off schedule, so I schedule out the whole year tentatively(so I can make sure we are at natural stopping points for breaks) then more detailed 6 weeks at a time.

 

However, I don't bother with filling out a schedule for subjects that we just do the next lesson each day. I only write schedules for subjects that require me to plan out projects, activities, additional reading, or subjects that don't have clear per day lessons already arranged. (History, science, art and music study, logic, geography. etc.)

[Halcyon]

I planned each subject out by week one, day one and so on (from tips on this board)- so I have a spreadsheet for english, math, social studies and so on. Then, once a week, I sit down with THOSE plans and fill out my weekly plan. I have the full school year planned out. Each night, I'll be doing our new "workbox" sheets, so i'll put them together for the kids for the next morning, off of my weekly lesson plans.

 

 

Okay, so you sorta "double plan"? Like, say, you have your plan for History, Science, etc all separate, and then you shoot them into your weekly calendar every Sunday night? Interesting.

[Halcyon]

I do this weekly. I have an overall plan for the year, breaking down subjects into how many topics / chapters I imagine we'll do each month. This mostly helps me figure out what I need for resources, and also helps me check my weekly plans to see that our trajectory for each subject is fine.

 

At the beginning of each week I sit down and write in my template (which is very much like yours) the specific page numbers or topics or chapters that we'll plan to do each day and on which days. Then I just check them off as they're done.

 

I do this weekly mostly because I find that if I do this any further ahead than a week, my plans end up meaningless. But I've also found that doing it weekly gives me more confidence in tweaking our plans on the fly, and to deliver lessons that are more logically connected with upcoming lessons.

 

 

This sounds most like how I will end up doing it, I think.......Thank you for sharing!

[Halcyon]

The one thing I am a bit worried about "planning ahead" in is Math. Sometimes we hit a harder topic, and he slows down (I am actually thinking about both kids, not just older). Maybe I could just do that one "post completion", writing notes about what he's done, and all the other subjects could be pre-planned. Anyone do this?

[Halcyon]

This is exactly what we do. Sometimes we get ahead or behind and if I did a schedule for more than a week at a time I would feel like I "had" to finish work because otherwise I would throw the schedule off! I just did a blog post on this very topic here.

 

 

So you used a laminated sheet? But isn't this a problem for record-keeping? I keep a bound book of every week's sheet in a binder....hmmmmm.

[mamaraby]

Homeschool Skedtrack and I plan the entire year out in advance. If we don't get to something on a particular day HST takes care of "rescheduling" it as it were. I will adjust things (add, subtract, etc) as we go along, but I'd say we follow what I have planned 80-85% of the time.

[BugsMama]

Yes- I suppose you could call it double planning- I am a "tweaker"- I rearrange and edit and schedule all of my curriculum. With the subject spreadsheets, I don't loose track of the order and grand plans, but since I am plugging them into a weekly to-do, I never fall behind, even when something comes up. I just check off the things we have done (so check off science lesson 2) and if we don't get to 3 for two weeks, no worries.

[Halcyon]

Yes- I suppose you could call it double planning- I am a "tweaker"- I rearrange and edit and schedule all of my curriculum. With the subject spreadsheets, I don't loose track of the order and grand plans, but since I am plugging them into a weekly to-do, I never fall behind, even when something comes up. I just check off the things we have done (so check off science lesson 2) and if we don't get to 3 for two weeks, no worries.

 

 

You don't happen to have sample sheets of your "grand plan" for a subject? :tongue_smilie: It sounds like you do this in Excel? I think I know what you mean, and I think this is what I'm going to do...but just need to figure it out. Do you do this for every subject (a grand plan) or just the "harder to plan" ones like Science and History? Thanks!

 

ETA: just reading your homeschool planning blog post now :)

Edited June 18, 2012 by Halcyon

[Five More Minutes]

The one thing I am a bit worried about "planning ahead" in is Math. Sometimes we hit a harder topic, and he slows down (I am actually thinking about both kids, not just older). Maybe I could just do that one "post completion", writing notes about what he's done, and all the other subjects could be pre-planned. Anyone do this?

Math is the subject where we have the most difference from what I plan to what actually happens. I still schedule in the details at the beginning of the week and check off the parts that get done, writing in any extras that we do. By planning no more than a week ahead, my plans don't usually get too crazily out of sync with reality.

 

But I don't see why you couldn't just write in notes after the fact. Whether you write in ahead or afterwards might depend on your main reason for doing this. I plan a week at a time primarily to help me get my head around what's coming up for learning; using it as a record of our activities for reporting is a secondary concern.

[mom31257]

I begin by planning my entire year at one time. I take each subject and list the number of lessons, units, chapters, etc. We do 36 weeks of school because we have to do 180 days in GA. I then take each subject's number of "things" and divide by 36 to see how many of each needs to be done each week in order to finish. I make semester grids with weeks down the left and subjects across the top. Here is where I list the lesson numbers, page numbers, or chapters to be covered each week. I am a filer, so everything that can be taken apart is and is filed in the appropriate week's filing folder. I make notes of the rest and put it in the folder for each week.

 

Each weekend I take out the next week's folder and plan my week. Each week will vary as to how many things we have out so this allows me to only look at the week and plan it when I know what's coming. I file everything for the week in a portfolio that I wrote about here. The great thing about this has been if there's a week that someone's sick or we have an opportunity to do something I didn't know about, I can quickly scan through the stuff, get rid of anything that is fluff and don't really need to do, and keep the work load to the basics. I tend to overplan, so there's always fluff there we can let go if we need to.

 

Since I've started doing it this way, there's not been one subject that we didn't accomplish all I wanted to.

[Melissa B]

I use Excel to schedule the whole year. I have each child's schedule separated by month and then by week. One 'printed page' has all of one student's assignments for a month. I just leave it on the computer so that I can look at it easily and make changes as needed. But I do print off the monthly schedule for a child if requested.

[Halcyon]

I begin by planning my entire year at one time. I take each subject and list the number of lessons, units, chapters, etc. We do 36 weeks of school because we have to do 180 days in GA. I then take each subject's number of "things" and divide by 36 to see how many of each needs to be done each week in order to finish. I make semester grids with weeks down the left and subjects across the top. Here is where I list the lesson numbers, page numbers, or chapters to be covered each week. I am a filer, so everything that can be taken apart is and is filed in the appropriate week's filing folder. I make notes of the rest and put it in the folder for each week.

 

Each weekend I take out the next week's folder and plan my week. Each week will vary as to how many things we have out so this allows me to only look at the week and plan it when I know what's coming. I file everything for the week in a portfolio that I wrote about here. The great thing about this has been if there's a week that someone's sick or we have an opportunity to do something I didn't know about, I can quickly scan through the stuff, get rid of anything that is fluff and don't really need to do, and keep the work load to the basics. I tend to overplan, so there's always fluff there we can let go if we need to.

 

Since I've started doing it this way, there's not been one subject that we didn't accomplish all I wanted to.

 

Okay, so particularly with regards to the bolded in your comment, you say you have subjects on top and semesters on the left....but that you plan by week. Where do you put in each individual week? Do you mean that the rows are actually weeks, which are "grouped" into semesters? Thanks. This sounds very nice. We school year round (I actually think we school something like 44 weeks a year or something) but I think I'd like to be more "planned" about it--actually set a number of weeks, and not go over it (we have a tendency to do too much around here, and I really don't want my kids to get burned out or not have enough free time, so I need to schedule for that reason. I also like having a record of what we've done, for my own reasons, not for the state).

[Halcyon]

I use Excel to schedule the whole year. I have each child's schedule separated by month and then by week. One 'printed page' has all of one student's assignments for a month. I just leave it on the computer so that I can look at it easily and make changes as needed. But I do print off the monthly schedule for a child if requested.

 

Would you be willing to share this excel file? Pretty please? or maybe just screenshots so I can understand better? I do like the idea of having tabs for each month in excel--i LOVE excel....:)

[Melissa B]

Would you be willing to share this excel file? Pretty please? or maybe just screenshots so I can understand better? I do like the idea of having tabs for each month in excel--i LOVE excel....:)

 

I don't know how to share a file here. I think I would have to save it as something other than an excel document? I love excel too. :D

Edited June 19, 2012 by Melissa B

[Coffeemama]

The weekly checklist my DC use is similar to yours, but slightly more friendly to a visual child in that all boxes will be filled in. The subjects are listed in the left margin (like your planning page) but instead of each subject having 5 boxes, the number of boxes equals the frequency of the subject and instead of just a checkmark, my DC put the initial of the day. So if science has three boxes, at the end of the week, it may have a Mon, Wed, and Th written in the boxes. This allows a diligent student to have a light day on Friday.

 

In addition to this, I loosely plan all non-open and go subjects for the year. We school year round and I don't worry about finishing different subjects at different times?

[Halcyon]

I don't know how to share a file here. I think I would have to save it as something other than an excel document? I love excel too. :D

 

You can upload it to google docs. Or i can pm you with my email if you're comfortable with that. Thank you so much.

[Halcyon]

I plan yearly via Excel. I've got it so that each subject has it's own worksheet and I just go down and list 1 days assignments per row (not keeping track of days or anything). All those subjects then populate my weekly planner in a new worksheet (which has pretty graphics and all), so that if 1 subject gets thrown off, I go to that particular worksheet and 2 clicks later, the weekly planner is readjusted. Kind of like Scholaric, but prettier and without the grading. Then I just print off 1 week at a time since I can't have it on the computer while working off of it.

 

I can't not plan yearly. I like...no, I need to know well in advance that MEP is going to be ending in February, Bible will be ending in Dec, Korean will be ending in Sept and so on. It might be different if everything ended at the same time and I was only buying major books once a year.

 

So you use the Special Paste tool to paste a given row into your "master" pretty sheet? Or do you just put, say, +Sheet4:E57 (don't remember how to input it right now) in your Master sheet and if you update the relevant subject, then it updates the master?

[mom31257]

Okay, so particularly with regards to the bolded in your comment, you say you have subjects on top and semesters on the left....but that you plan by week. Where do you put in each individual week? Do you mean that the rows are actually weeks, which are "grouped" into semesters? Thanks. This sounds very nice. We school year round (I actually think we school something like 44 weeks a year or something) but I think I'd like to be more "planned" about it--actually set a number of weeks, and not go over it (we have a tendency to do too much around here, and I really don't want my kids to get burned out or not have enough free time, so I need to schedule for that reason. I also like having a record of what we've done, for my own reasons, not for the state).

 

Yes, the rows are actually one week each. I put the Monday date of each week in each row in the left column. I make one sheet per semester, putting 18 weeks (rows) on each page, the the subjects are the columns. For my high school dd, I wanted more room in each column, so I use 2 sheets per semester with fewer subjects on each page. Each row is still one week.

 

I hope that makes sense. If you pm me your email address, I could email you my forms from excel.

[Halcyon]

Yes, the rows are actually one week each. I put the Monday date of each week in each row in the left column. I make one sheet per semester, putting 18 weeks (rows) on each page, the the subjects are the columns. For my high school dd, I wanted more room in each column, so I use 2 sheets per semester with fewer subjects on each page. Each row is still one week.

 

I hope that makes sense. If you pm me your email address, I could email you my forms from excel.

 

 

That would be awesome. Just pm-ed you.

 

Signed, deep in planning mode :D

[Embassy]

I plan a year at a time because I have little time in the school year to plan. Listing things in daily or weekly assignment sheets ahead of time has never worked because something took longer than expected or because I overplanned. What works for me is to list all things related to one subject chronologically in the order we plan to do them for the entire school year. If it is a curriculum we just go on to the next thing, but if I am putting together my own thing I list everything out in order and we cross them off as we go.

 

I do use a monthly calender where I list which subjects we do each day. We use a block schedule so we don't do math or language arts everyday.

[Melissa B]

You can upload it to google docs. Or i can pm you with my email if you're comfortable with that. Thank you so much.

 

Sure, just pm me your email address. I've never uploaded anything to google docs, but email I can do. :)

[Aoife]

my DS Has HFA so we have a lot of therapies going on which unfortunately don't have a set day each week so I plan only a week ahead.

 

He has an expandable file that has a section for each day plus a section for charts ect. On the weekend before I fill the sections with the consumable pages I'd like to get through that week. on Sunday I fill his workboxes with Monday's work and from that point on I fill the workboxes each evening with the work from the next section in his folder. I write up notes ect. on my ipad as we actually complete school.

 

I also reverse file. We have a filebox with 36 folders in it where I put our finished work. As work is finished it is dated and placed in that week's folder. Each folder also has 3 library pockets on the front of it where I put index cards that I use to list things such as games played, books read and movies watched. Then every so often I go through my folders and take out the best work for each, hole punch it and then place it into our binder for the year. this will then become our portfolio for review.

 

So yeah that is how I plan :D

[serendipitous journey]

The one thing I am a bit worried about "planning ahead" in is Math. Sometimes we hit a harder topic, and he slows down (I am actually thinking about both kids, not just older). Maybe I could just do that one "post completion", writing notes about what he's done, and all the other subjects could be pre-planned. Anyone do this?

 

Don't know if this will apply to you ... for Button's K and 1st (he's 6) we can't plan math per se. But for Kindergarten I scheduled

1. daily fact review,

2. daily skill math (first telling analog time, then some money) until he had those skills down,

3. daily work in our main curriculum, and

4. once-weekly skill review (once he mastered analog time, and money, and multi-digit addition and subtration, we just did something once a week). This worked pretty well. Each week I updated the skills entries for the upcoming week with details. The curriculum couldn't be planned a whole week at a time.

 

First grade was more chaotic, but it has been pretty much

1. Daily mental math/fact review. This is oral.

2. Daily, or bi-daily :), multiple-digit operation review: he needed this for a while to remember how to add, subtract, and multiply multi-digits; and we've just gotten division down, so now he needs that. It is something like 2-4 problems either daily or every other day. I plan daily but don't fret if we miss one day; two in a row is Not Allowed or he Forgets Things.

3. Daily calculadder, during the school year. Probably should do it this summer...

4. Daily curriculum OR major skill: we paused everything for a bit while we worked through long division.

 

I don't really fret even planning which curriculum we'll be working from (okay, I've given up fretting it!), but do try to do a major curriculum (Singapore, MEP, MathUSee) daily unless we're focusing on a major skill. My only record at the moment is the math notebook we keep with the named & dated sheets in it, which is not optimal for sure...

 

ETA: thank you for this thread. And I'm glad I'm not the only Excel fan!!! though I'm not doing anything sophisticated at all ... the ideas are wonderful ...

Edited June 19, 2012 by serendipitous journey

[BugsMama]

I LOVE the reverse filing idea.... AWESOME.

[Ecclecticmum]

I plan about a year ahead, I plan through the current year for the next year.

 

I use binders. Right now I'm using a sonlight-inspired schedule, but am planning to use HST+ for next year.

 

I double up on some subjects, then filter out ones I don't like (so for this year, I lost write source, Wordly Wise, and ....possibly something else. We weren't much much from wordly wise for the time being that we wouldn't get from normal readings, I decided I like Writing with ease more than Write source. And I never ended up adding RS4K for personal reasons)

 

By going slowly planning for the next year, during the current, I don't have to take time off whilst I plan, thus letting the house fall into shambles LOL.

 

I concentrate on one subject at a time. I already know most of what I'll use next year, so purchased available PDFs for subjects, and downloaded TOCs or Plans for others. Right now I am concentrating on history.

 

I also use pinterest to Pin curriculums and ideas during the year, even for stuff several years away, as I have been known to completely forget about a curriculum I come across.

 

I use "My lists" in my local librarys online website. I have lists 1-36 for every week of the year. Here I put all the library books wanted or needed for that week, I mostly double/triple up on titles, so that when it comes close and I need to get them held/transferred, I can choose one that is on the shelf.

 

So my planner right now is weekly. With all 36 weeks printed at once. Every week gets 3 pages (core, Language Arts & electives) plus a little 2 coloumn notes (so another 1 or 2 pages) page that is ordered by day of the week to show extra notes. I have 6 binders each with 6 weeks worth of worksheets etc in it. I have a weekly binder I put the current stuff into, my teachers binder that has answers and stuff meant for multiple weeks (map cheatsheets, LOTW ABCs, poems, library lists, movie lists etc) and a science binder that contains most of the teacher related stuff.

 

So everything is 2 hole punched for the binder, and any completed work goes to the back of the binder. At the end of the week, I take the binder into the library, and put the worksheets in the appropriate childs binder (Atlas has her binder divided up by subject sections, as well as a section at the front for her planner parts. Chaos has the Prek Planner pages cut from Atlas' planner pages, and his stuff is just put in order of week (without sections), same with Eve's (cept she has no planner pages, I just keep her artwork).

 

Right now, since I already have HST+, I just use it to type in and print out reading logs weekly, and for the journal part (which is just weekly updates with photos of what we did, eventually I will start putting the same updates on my blog).

 

There's probably more to my planning, but I mostly keep it in my head. My brains like a lovely little OCD filing system, so I just give in to its whims when it comes to planning ;)

[Seshet]

I plan the broad strokes years in advance, but detailed planning gets done for the year. I have a notebook for each child. Instead of trying to plan exactly what we'll do each day or week, and then editing it as things change, I just list everything I have planned. For each subject, I list all the materials we'll be using & what lessons/pages/chapters we'll do from each. I also list all the activities, experiments, and projects we have planned. I list all the books, in our personal library, on each topic. For History, I list Historical Fiction books the library carries that I want that child to read for each topic/time covered. Then, I use that same notebook to track everything we do - listing everything done each week, as well as crossing things off the list as they're finished.

 

I tried doing weekly/daily plans, but that just really didn't work for us. We changed what was planned so often. This works for us. We get to see, at a glance, everything planned for each topic/subject, how much we've accomplished, and how much we have left.

[Halcyon]

Yup :)

 

 

Thank you!

[~Anna~]

Lots of great ideas in here! Since I am just getting ready to start, I don't yet have a plan of how I'm going to plan. :D

 

I figured I would just "do the next thing" this year and see how it goes. I do know the order of things I want to do, but just not going to plan out exactly what we'll do each week.

 

Maybe I'll make an excel file....... :lol:

[Halcyon]

Yup :)

 

 

Sorry to keep pestering you. I am trying to envision this. You have your Subject page, let's say, History. You list your entire history year, by week (?) or by day. How does your Master "know" to move down by row? Or do you have a seperate Master for each week? I am going to fool in Excel today and try to figure this out, because it sounds like an approach I would like!

[Amy Jo]

I plan yearly via Excel. I've got it so that each subject has it's own worksheet and I just go down and list 1 days assignments per row (not keeping track of days or anything). All those subjects then populate my weekly planner in a new worksheet (which has pretty graphics and all), so that if 1 subject gets thrown off, I go to that particular worksheet and 2 clicks later, the weekly planner is readjusted. Kind of like Scholaric, but prettier and without the grading. Then I just print off 1 week at a time since I can't have it on the computer while working off of it.

 

I can't not plan yearly. I like...no, I need to know well in advance that MEP is going to be ending in February, Bible will be ending in Dec, Korean will be ending in Sept and so on. It might be different if everything ended at the same time and I was only buying major books once a year.

 

Sorry to keep pestering you. I am trying to envision this. You have your Subject page, let's say, History. You list your entire history year, by week (?) or by day. How does your Master "know" to move down by row? Or do you have a seperate Master for each week? I am going to fool in Excel today and try to figure this out, because it sounds like an approach I would like!

 

Me too - I'd love some more details on this. :lurk5:

[serendipitous journey]

I've been following this thread -- would it be okay, and/or helpful, if I PMd the people who have excel sheets they were willing to share with Halcyon and got them uploaded into Google docs to link on the thread?

 

if it sounds like a nice idea, I could get started this afternoon/PM.

[Halcyon]

I've been following this thread -- would it be okay, and/or helpful, if I PMd the people who have excel sheets they were willing to share with Halcyon and got them uploaded into Google docs to link on the thread?

 

if it sounds like a nice idea, I could get started this afternoon/PM.

 

 

That would be great. Sorta like an "excel resource" file for us WTM-ers! I love to get ideas from you guys, and though inevitably I end up making my own files, I love the inspiration. :)

[Halcyon]

bump for more excel users!

[AndrewsDK]

I plan my year in advance. I put the days/weeks as columns with the subjects down as rows. I space the subjects out so that they will all take about 180 days to finish.

 

Each week, I will print off the appropriate columns and we can use it as a checklist. That way if DS wants to do all of his math on Monday, he can, he just needs to finish everything by Friday.

 

Heavily influenced by Sonlight's IG. :001_smile:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmUsFdXVXIPQdGlaS2diUGllcDVTMTZ3cHFsY3J3QXc

[ForeverFamily]

I have been following this thread with great interest. Thank you to everyone for all of the great ideas. I have HST+ but for some reason I keep going back to Word, Excel, or pen and paper to do all of my planning :lol:. I should probably just give into my natural planning style and use Excel. I couldn't figure out a very good way to use Excel until seeing these great Excel files, thank you! If you don't mind I have a couple of questions about Excel (it has been since highschool since I have done anything very complicated with the program;)).

 

I plan my year in advance. I put the days/weeks as columns with the subjects down as rows. I space the subjects out so that they will all take about 180 days to finish.

 

Each week, I will print off the appropriate columns and we can use it as a checklist. That way if DS wants to do all of his math on Monday, he can, he just needs to finish everything by Friday.

 

Heavily influenced by Sonlight's IG. :001_smile:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmUsFdXVXIPQdGlaS2diUGllcDVTMTZ3cHFsY3J3QXc

 

Your excell file looks great. I love how you made the top (with the dates) scroll seperately from the bottom part with all of the subjects and lesson plans. How did you do that? I love how no matter what subject/students plans you are looking at the school day and date are still visible.

 

Ok here is mine in all it's unfinished glory :) We just started some new books so those haven't all been inputted and some of the hard copies I was working off of (that had them divided into lessons) went missing. But you can get the idea.

 

I thought about having the different subjects in separate columns in the same worksheet, but this way I can add notes or whatever without messing things up.

 

**The way you adjust the lessons: go into a subject and say you want to move everything down starting at row 30. Copy from row 30 all the way down then paste wherever you want it, then delete/change what's needed. For some reason, simply inserting a row doesn't work. Hope that's clear.

 

I love the layout and design of your excel file! I love the idea of seperating each subject onto seperate sheets. Is there an easy way to copy and paste the cells location (e.g. =MEP!A36) into the weekly printouts or do you have to manually enter each one? It has been so long since I have had to do this that I can't remember:tongue_smilie:.

 

Also how did you make it so each weekly chart is its own seperate page in Excel? Did you use something like Insert page break (although when I do that it only shows the pages seperated by a dotted line :confused:)? Thank you for your patience I have a lot of re-learning to do when it comes to Excel, but it is probably worth it!

 

Again thank you all for your great ideas and for sharing your great excel files! I finally feel like I can get my planning done for the year in a way that makes sense to me.

 

ETA: AndrewsDK never mind I figured it out :). For anyone else interested, first you select the row BELOW the ones you want to be frozen then you go to the View tab and click freeze frames and select the option you want.

Edited June 20, 2012 by ForeverFamily

[Halcyon]

I plan my year in advance. I put the days/weeks as columns with the subjects down as rows. I space the subjects out so that they will all take about 180 days to finish.

 

Each week, I will print off the appropriate columns and we can use it as a checklist. That way if DS wants to do all of his math on Monday, he can, he just needs to finish everything by Friday.

 

Heavily influenced by Sonlight's IG. :001_smile:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AmUsFdXVXIPQdGlaS2diUGllcDVTMTZ3cHFsY3J3QXc

 

 

This is fantastic! Now I just have to figure out whihc approach I am going to take....Thank you for sharing this!

[Halcyon]

As far as pasting into the weekly planner, I would start off by pasting "=Phonics!A" into the first Phonics box, then type "1". Then the next box I would type "2" after pasting. It actually goes really quick, especially if you have the 10-key on the side of your keyboard. Oh, you might have to click on the box, then paste into the formula bar up top. I know it sounds awful, but it's not.

 

Showing the sheets by week...in the very bottom, right hand side of the screen, under the scrollbar are three boxes: the middle one displays the sheets as separate pages, the first one just shows the page breaks, the third one is hideous.

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This is awesome! Wow. I think I am going to do something similar, but use columns for each subject so that I can "paste down" when I need to adjust. I will have 200 rows, representing each day of the year (we school at least 200...I actually have to figure out how many days we school!) And then I will put the columns on top. I love the idea of "pulling" from seperate sheets, and I like how you kept those sheets simple and clean, so you can easily add or delete stuff without fuss. There's more I like, but I will stop gushing. :)

[ForeverFamily]

As far as pasting into the weekly planner, I would start off by pasting "=Phonics!A" into the first Phonics box, then type "1". Then the next box I would type "2" after pasting. It actually goes really quick, especially if you have the 10-key on the side of your keyboard. Oh, you might have to click on the box, then paste into the formula bar up top. I know it sounds awful, but it's not.

 

That makes sense! That wouldn't be too hard, thank you, I would have tried entering them all by hand which would have taken FOREVER!:lol: You saved me a lot of work.

 

Showing the sheets by week...in the very bottom, right hand side of the screen, under the scrollbar are three boxes: the middle one displays the sheets as separate pages, the first one just shows the page breaks, the third one is hideous.

 

Found it, thank you! I am relieved that it is a simple click of the mouse.:D

 

Thank you again for sharing your file, it is extremely helpful. I am finaly excited to start planning for next year!

[Halcyon]

That makes sense! That wouldn't be too hard, thank you, I would have tried entering them all by hand which would have taken FOREVER!:lol: You saved me a lot of work.

 

 

 

Found it, thank you! I am relieved that it is a simple click of the mouse.:D

 

Thank you again for sharing your file, it is extremely helpful. I am finaly excited to start planning for next year!

 

 

Me too! I am starting right now--will share my file when I am done, or at least when the bones are set up.

[AndrewsDK]

There is a faster way of getting Page 1, Page 2, Page 3... (or whatever your sequence is) into excel rather than pasting them all and changing the last bit.

 

Type the first two assignments into the first 2 boxes

Page 1

Page 2

 

Then, highlight both boxes. In the bottom right hand corner of the square surrounding your boxes will be a dot. Click on the dot and drag the highlighted square until you have filled in all your boxes. It will create the sequence Page 3, Page 4, etc.

 

Works for dates, days of the week & numbers. (doesn't seem to work in Google docs, but does work in excel.) If it can recognize the pattern, it will continue it.

[Chrysalis Academy]

Oh man, I've been avoiding this thread b/c I am already a planning junkie. It seemed too much like feeding my habit . . . but of course I couldn't resist!:D

 

I think I do a lot like what Lynnita does - I plan for the year in an excel spreadsheet, but then do hand-written weekly schedules, drawn from the spreadsheet. I like the yearly spreadsheet so that I can see where we've been, where we are going, whether we are on track (or when we'll finish something and I need other resources) and also so that I can coordinate across subjects as much as possible. Also so I can look ahead and check out supplemental resources from the library.

 

However, our day-by-day schedule is so different each day and each week, because of my work, other family activities, extracurriculars, or just waking up on the wrong side of the bed that it isn't worthwhile to try and do a daily schedule to the level of detail some of you guys are doing. Each weekend, I write out the following week's schedule on a blank paper, and keep it on a clipboard on the desk. If I'm really ambitious I might do two weeks, but something always changes!

 

I do enter in what we actually did onto my master/planning spreadsheet. This serves as a record (kind of an as-built) and also maybe will be useful for when #2 comes along - assuming I am able to use any of the same materials with her! :lol:

 

I have separate spreadsheets for math, history, science and literature (although the history is cross-referenced with lit, and also includes geography, art, music, science history as well). I don't bother for the rest of LA - we use MCT and WWS, and happily wing it with those programs, just doing whatever is next.

 

I do have a scope & sequence & curriculum spreadsheet for all the way through highschool, though . . . just so's you know I really, really am a mad planner!;)