Tardis Girl Posted August 19, 2013 Share Posted August 19, 2013 I am desperate for help and have spent hours looking for how to get better organized to no avail. We used Scholaric last year which is great, but not for us. I get too distracted online ("oh, I'll just check this while the computer is here" and then I wander down a rabbit trail and we all suffer for it), or end up having to bump so many days or subjects here or there. It became more trouble than it was worth. I've usually been quite organized but have really dropped the ball with my younger crew. And our resources are so eclectic -- oh my! I'm getting overwhelmed just trying to describe what I'm looking for! :ohmy: So maybe if someone has some great examples on Pinterest, or someone's blog, or paste in a picture here on this thread?? My kiddos WANT to be able to see everything for the day/week (so do I!). I am just really struggling with reconciling what I want as an ideal with what is actually realistic. - I haven't been happy with online record-keeping options, so I'm thinking paper-based (created on my computer or whatever it takes) - a grid or chart is always visually appealing - or a list, I guess - see either a listing of each subject and what the "next thing" is (so like if you read history 3 days a week then you just do the "next thing" on the list on a history day) - OR see all the assignments for a given day... but maybe this is a personal challenge because then if we miss a subject one day we are now off the pretty schedule or chart - checklists are good. We all like to check off things. HELP!! I used to be so good at all this. People used to ask to see my neat and tidy examples... and we actually used them! But apparently I am not that person anymore... or at least not for the past few years... and we are all suffering from my lack of planned organization! Oh, and I've read some threads about One Note which looks like a dream but we don't have it and our PCs are very old (running Office 2003) and we do most everything on Chromebooks anyway. So that's not going to happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angelmama1209 Posted August 19, 2013 Share Posted August 19, 2013 not sure if this is at all what you're looking for, but may be helpful for daily.. http://www.onlypassionatecuriosity.com/homeschool-scheduling-101-keeping-kids-on-track-free-printable-schedule-system/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threedogfarm Posted August 19, 2013 Share Posted August 19, 2013 Check out: http://donnayoung.org/forms/index.htm All the forms on her website are free though you might want to consider purchasing a disk if you have slow internet. I use her checklist form along with a modified version of her two-page weekly planner--one page holds five days of the week and the other page is notes for all the subjects (I use it to write what I need, things I need to look up, etc). This way I can see one week at a glance. I fill this out as the week progresses. I used to think that I needed planning software but I really like a paper version. I use a poly folder that has pockets on both sides and a three hole punched area for papers in the middle (I think these are called report folders). I put unfilled planner pages on the right, filled in planner pages on the L with the most recent week on top and our "check off list" for the number of days we school in the middle three-holed section. To plan for the year I used her subject planner with one subject per page. I don't micro plan but figure out what I need to accomplish for the year. For example most are just one page: WWE 3--I know that I had 36 weeks of lessons with 4 lessons per week. That meant I had to do 144 lessons. That meant I would need to do a lesson each day. So that subject page was just a few lines. But it gives me an overall picture of how I need to accomplish what I set out to do that year. Also my checklist pages are divided into quarters--two quarters on the front page and two quarters on the back page. This allows me to see at a glance whether we are on track for finishing on time b/c I wrote the estimated dates for completion of each quarter (taking into account holidays, vacations, etc.). I used this system for the first time last year and we actually were done what I wanted to accomplish EARLY because I was able to keep track of things so well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nova mama Posted August 19, 2013 Share Posted August 19, 2013 I use Donna Young also, specifically the weekly Excel planner: http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/exweekly.htm. The website says the files work with Excel 2003 and older. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JR the hs dad Posted August 20, 2013 Share Posted August 20, 2013 Here's a link to a discussion from last summer on the same topic. Several people posted pictures of what they use. I posted in that discussion as well and would be willing to share my materials. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/410469-anyone-willling-to-share-their-self-made-planners/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tardis Girl Posted August 21, 2013 Author Share Posted August 21, 2013 Thank you for all the replies and links! You guys have given me some nice, focused leads and explanations -- just what I need. Although I'm really wishing I was doing all this a month ago.... Trying to patient with myself after just moving again a few weeks ago.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heidi Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 I attached our weekly schedule. I'm not sure if that is what you're looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeking Squirrels Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 This is the one I made up for us this year. It's K, so not a lot of detail, but can easily be expanded. I filled in the ones that are just 'do the next thing', and I will add the lesson or page numbers after we complete them for record keeping. For the supplements, I have a list of all the things I use in each subject so I can quickly refer to it the night before and set something out (we use workboxes) and not forget anything. I will also add what we did after the fact so I can see quickly what we've used recently or not. Or I can fill it out at the beginning of the week if I'd like to streamline it during the week. The content areas I fill out completely before the start of each week. I have a different planner (just a cheap target teacher planner) where I am planning five weeks at a time of each of the content areas. So each week I just have to copy over the general idea of that week of plans to my weekly planner. The areas at the bottom are supposed to be boxed in but it didn't copy well from excel.  KSchedule.doc  KSchedule.doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monica_in_Switzerland Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 This is what I have devised for the year: It is relatively flexible because there are just check boxes for "do the next thing" subjects, and history and science are sort of vague, and then I have separate, detailed spreadsheets for them. (Here is my history spreadsheet for SOTW2) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftyerin Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 I DIY a planner. Some pages I make myself, several I printed from this site this year. I'm sure I'll tweak it as we go along. http://tinasdynamichomeschoolplus.com/about-dynamic-2-moms-free-lapbooks/7-step-curriculum-planner/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k8c Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 I created a Sonlight-esque Excel spreadsheet that I have available on my blog here, in about the 3rd paragraph. FWIW, I had the same issue with the computer being up and open and moved to a completely handwritten planner this year. We shall see if it works better! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted August 22, 2013 Share Posted August 22, 2013 I hear ya! I needed a schedule page that would allow me to see everything my kids needed to do for the week on one page, and ended up creating my own (not hard at all, I used MS Word and added some color). Here's my Teacher Binder, which includes a link to my schedule page. One thing I really like is that it gives me the flexibility to either PLAN (write down ahead of time what we'll do in any given subject that day) or JOURNAL (write down what we did after the fact), or a combination of the two. Some other organization posts I've done: Organization: Priorities and Passions Creating a Workable Routine Implementing a New Routine A Typical Day Workboxes HTH some! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aloha2U Posted August 24, 2013 Share Posted August 24, 2013 Well, now I mainly use OLLY during the school year, but I still utilize my spreadsheets to roughly plan out the year before inputting the data. COS K4-G12 G4 Year-at-a-Glance G4 Weeks-at-a-Glance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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