mamamindy Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Oh planning, I have avoided you. And I am very fond of planning actually. I just did a bit much of it our first year, it was a HUGE waste of time, and I have been afraid ever since. Afraid that I'm setting myself up for disappointment, expecting too much, curriculum failure, etc. However, I have recently jumped back into a pretty structured day, and I am feeling much better about that - limits for all of us, that is. That gave me some peace...and maybe more planning for our school year will give me some peace there. I feel like a lot of our "fun" subjects have fallen short because of my lack of planning. How do you with lots of small children plan for life, school? And when do you find the time to plan? My time comes in teeny weeny chunks and it's frustrating! It's not realistic for me to take a weekend away from the children, or anything like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arcara Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 It is tough to find time! I have 7 ages 5m to 13 yrs. Right now I'm able to squeeze in an hour of planning most afternoons. I have sewing project I'm working on after the little ones' bedtimes. I'm looking forward to finishing it and using that time, too. I know that the more planning I get done, the smoother our days will go, but I have to accept that I won't have time to do everything I'd like. It's just the way it goes :) How do I do it? I'm working through the easy subjects now - the ones that have a list of lessons or pages that just need to be divided into roughly 36 weeks. I can knock those out quickly and I get a feeling of accomplishment. But, history is looming in the background with all those additional books and projects and writing that I'd like to work in. For those I'll divide up our spine over the 36 weeks and see what we have time for. I find it a lot of fun to plan. I just ash I had more time for it. I'm typing very thing up into charts in Open Office documents. I plan to print them along with some other things (calendars, places for note, etc) and get it bound into a planner for me for the year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desertflower Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 One doesn't have the time. So you pray for more patience and time and the Good Lord will give you another baby. Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 I do big picture planning in the summer. I set aside a week and use all my downtime (the 2 hrs of afternoon quiet time & 2 hrs in the evening after they go to bed) to make plans. For the 8 & 6-yr olds, I'll be making a single master Excel spreadsheet that coordinates literature, history, and science read-alouds along with timeline activities and science projects. All their other subjects are open & go, do-the-next-thing. For my 10-yr-old, I'll be making several spreadsheets to break down her lang.arts, French, literature, history, and science assignments into manageable chunks. I also make up new hanging files for the coming school year during this time. During the school year, I do planning for 1 hr every other Friday. I file all their finished work into their hanging files. Then I have a weekly planning template (just a spreadsheet on Excel) where I plan out the next two weeks (referring to the master spreadsheets). For years I did a single weekly plan that I used to track all the kids, but now I make up a separate checklist for the 10-yr-old where she can see everything she has to do each day that week and can check it off herself. I only plan every other week; I have tried planning every week in the past, but it felt like too much. I have also tried planning more than 2 weeks in advance and that never worked, because doctor's appointments and friends and life came up and messed up our plans. Two weeks seems to be perfect for us. As far as babies & toddlers, I think it helps so much to plan your day around them from the beginning as you make up your schedule. I always start with the baby's schedule and plan around it. It has also helped me to plan more time for each chunk of instruction than I think we will actually need. That gives me a little leeway to attend to whatever comes up (crying baby, potty-training accident, unexpected knock on the door, etc) throughout the day without feeling like I'm perpetually "behind". When things go extra smooth, then we are done a little bit "early" and that feels great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 One doesn't have the time. So you pray for more patience and time and the Good Lord will give you another baby. Lol Hahahaha! Yes. So true. I've spent the larger part of the past six years either pregnant or nursing a small baby, which I know is not a lot compared to some of you. I started planning for next year, with an early July start, in February. Because I only have bits and scraps here and there. I have found that over-planning, like being way too detailed, has helped me get more done. Like, if I aim for really, really super high, and I only get really high, we're still doing well. I don't do very well with flying by the seat of my pants in a lot of areas; I will devolve into "fill in the workbook" sorts of stuff, which is okay, but I want a little more than that. We're supposed to start next week, and I'm not done yet. I have two more main subjects to plan -- family literature with Narnia and earth science -- plus one smaller subject: music. But I have enough to get me through a couple of weeks, and we won't be doing a lot of work (only a couple of days a week) until August, so I have more time. The main work is done; I could start math, etc. tomorrow, and my binders, files, and preschool packs are all ready. Plus, the schoolroom, desks, drawers, pencil boxes, etc. are all ready, or very close (need to restock gluesticks and pens and such when Staples has their sales). Planning weekly has not really worked for me; I need to do a full-year plan ahead of time, and then I just move things around as needed. So each Sunday, I can pull out that week's stuff, request library books for the following week, etc., but it's just reading from the lists; the thinking has already been done. My tips for schooling with littles: -This year, instead of separate tables, I put all the tables into one big table in the middle of the room so we can all sit together. I'm sure the older ones will take assignments elsewhere, but I can answer a math question or help with writing while guiding my Ker in his printing or whatever. I have a table for DD, a table for DS1, and a table for DS2 and DS3 to share, where I can put art projects or whatever. I also have a small desk in a little alcove where I can put out puzzles or other toddler stuff. -I made the schoolroom the baby/toddler safe room. No LEGO in it, books are up on tables/desks (other than board books), and it's gated. So the littles can't roam around, and anyone who can get out of the gate is old enough to play safely in another room if they choose. The baby loves crawling around on the floor and playing at our feet with his toys, and one of the littles is usually being loved on my somebody. -I've gotten a TON of mileage out of the many free preschool activity packs available online; they take only a few minutes to prepare but are great for 3-5 yos who want to do school too. -I spend some time reading with my littles. This year, I am challenging myself to do that first thing in the day, and then they will be happy to play with their activities, or go to the other room to play with toys/trains while I work with the older kids. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Also, I don't know about other moms, but my babies don't have a schedule. They're a little predictable, but it varies, depending on when they wake up, if they're teething, if we were in the car the day before, etc. Little babies nurse or sleep in a carrier with me, or they are held by someone. (Who doesn't like to read with a baby on their chest?) My almost 3yo hasn't napped in a year, not on a regular basis, so we are used to doing stuff with toddlers around. If the littles really make something too difficult, I either wait until the evening when DH is home, and we can divide and conquer, or I very occasionally put on a movie for the littles. They also like storylineonline.net, which is at least stories being read to them, so it's, IMO, a step up from movies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Also, I tried doing the extras -- art, music, picture study, geography, Shakespeare -- one thing a day every day, and it really just didn't work. So this year, I am setting aside one day when we do just those subjects, not math, history, etc. It's the day we also have the kids' martial arts class during the day, but with discipline, we can get the extras done in the time before we have to leave. I did get my big kids doing a lot of their work independently; I took the time to mark History Odyssey, for instance, so they know what I expect in a day's work. It's helpful that at least I know they can attempt their history, for instance, even if I miss reading aloud to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Also, I tried doing the extras -- art, music, picture study, geography, Shakespeare -- one thing a day every day, and it really just didn't work. So this year, I am setting aside one day when we do just those subjects, not math, history, etc. It's the day we also have the kids' martial arts class during the day, but with discipline, we can get the extras done in the time before we have to leave. I did get my big kids doing a lot of their work independently; I took the time to mark History Odyssey, for instance, so they know what I expect in a day's work. It's helpful that at least I know they can attempt their history, for instance, even if I miss reading aloud to them. This is what we do too. The rotation always looked so good on paper, but it just never got done after math, writing, science, etc. Now we have one day where we just do the extras. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lots of little ducklings Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Oh planning, I have avoided you. And I am very fond of planning actually. I just did a bit much of it our first year, it was a HUGE waste of time, and I have been afraid ever since. Afraid that I'm setting myself up for disappointment, expecting too much, curriculum failure, etc. However, I have recently jumped back into a pretty structured day, and I am feeling much better about that - limits for all of us, that is. That gave me some peace...and maybe more planning for our school year will give me some peace there. I feel like a lot of our "fun" subjects have fallen short because of my lack of planning. How do you with lots of small children plan for life, school? And when do you find the time to plan? My time comes in teeny weeny chunks and it's frustrating! It's not realistic for me to take a weekend away from the children, or anything like that. So glad you posted this! I've been mulling over this issue for a while too. I have five dc (nb to age 6), so time is limited and I'm usually exhausted during the time I do have. No advice to give on when to plan. But I know I don't want to overplan like I did last year. I'm great at planning, but implementation (with sicknesses, pregnancies, special needs, etc) is another story. I want a plan that is flexible. Motivational, but guilt-free. Attainable. Easy to implement and low maintenance. I like a "do the next thing" approach in theory, but in reality I need a little more structure. So I think (maybe???) I'll try setting up, say, 40 weekly files for the year to hold worksheets and other paperwork for each child for that week. (I've ripped the bindings off of workbooks already). Non-paper schoolwork (like readings from SOTW) will also be thrown in, each assignment on its own index card. Anything not finished in a given week can be dumped into the following week (or completed on Saturday.) And I'll purposely include periodic lightweight "catch-up" weeks. The weeks won't be tied to specific dates; that way I can take vacation weeks as needed. I might break each week down into daily folders (we already use daily folders this year), but I will only do that at the start of the week so I can take into account the upcoming schedule for that week (dr appts, etc). Other than that, I'll just keep a journal of work completed, rather than a pre-planned written daily schedule for the whole semester/year. I plan to use Jolanthe's planner at homeschoolcreations.net ($20 downloadable) for that. (Sorry no link-- I'm mobile right now). The journal is mostly to motivate me and give me a sense of accomplishment; my state doesn't require records like that. Fingers crossed, and HTH you generate ideas too. Hoping this works better than last year's approach! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco_Clark Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 I plan at night after everyone's asleep or in the morning before they wake up. usually with an infant on my chest. With kids 6,5,2, a 1 yr old on weekdays, and a rotation of fosters, that's the only option. Or I take the kids to a park and sit at a picnic table with planner and ipad. Do that at your own risk, though, I got told off for not being "present" in my children's life once! I was so shocked I didn't even use a good comeback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prairiewindmomma Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 I read here while I'm sitting next to a child who's doing school. I pin stuff on pinterest (ideas) while I am nursing. I work in the evenings after most kids are in bed. If I get desperate, I hire a sitter and lock myself in my office. It is worth it to pre-plan--better time spent up front than wasted during the year. As far as making the fun stuff happens goes--fun Fridays! I plan a half day on Fridays so we can do fun stuff all afternoon. Give yourself a set time to do the fun stuff and protect that time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForeverFamily Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 :grouphug: Trying to do the same thing. I feel like I am doomed to spend the entire summer planning as everything takes twice as long as it should. I find myself going in circles because I am constantly interrupted. I am the same way as well, I love planning. But when trying to do it a few minutes here and there it just becomes extremely frustrating. The most helpful thing I have done for myself this year has been making a list of all the things I need to plan/do before the new year starts. So when I get even a few minutes to work on it I can look at the list and pick one thing to work on. That way I am not trying to figure out what needs to be done every time. I am also less likely to try and work on multiple things at once and not finish any of them. Best of Luck on your planning! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamamindy Posted June 26, 2014 Author Share Posted June 26, 2014 Thanks so much for all these suggestions (and commiserations) for me!! I plan at night after everyone's asleep or in the morning before they wake up. usually with an infant on my chest.With kids 6,5,2, a 1 yr old on weekdays, and a rotation of fosters, that's the only option. Or I take the kids to a park and sit at a picnic table with planner and ipad. Do that at your own risk, though, I got told off for not being "present" in my children's life once! I was so shocked I didn't even use a good comeback. I can't believe someone would judge you like that! Sorry that happened to you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaderbee Posted June 26, 2014 Share Posted June 26, 2014 Oh planning, I have avoided you. And I am very fond of planning actually. I just did a bit much of it our first year, it was a HUGE waste of time, and I have been afraid ever since. Afraid that I'm setting myself up for disappointment, expecting too much, curriculum failure, etc. However, I have recently jumped back into a pretty structured day, and I am feeling much better about that - limits for all of us, that is. That gave me some peace...and maybe more planning for our school year will give me some peace there. I feel like a lot of our "fun" subjects have fallen short because of my lack of planning. How do you with lots of small children plan for life, school? And when do you find the time to plan? My time comes in teeny weeny chunks and it's frustrating! It's not realistic for me to take a weekend away from the children, or anything like that. Our kids are the same age except I don't have a 4yr old and will have a 10 year too in the Fall. I also love planning. I'm trying to change that to preparing...being prepared...not just scheduling. Anyhow, as for when I plan, we have mandatory quiet time everyday and I'm not a good housekeeper. So while the kids read or nap I research, plan, read or nap (when I should be scrubbing floors). Last year we did the fun messy stuff while my youngest two napped and I lost some of that mandatory quiet time. This year I scheduled it so that while two kids are doing school the third school aged child will play with the toddler and preschooler. I plan on having special books for them to read and special activities. I'll change the books/activities out weekly. We're going to practice later on this summer to be "ready" when school starts in September. I have no plan b. :) Let's hope it works. BTW I found a lot of humor in Cindy Rollins' remark that she has no solution for toddlers. She's a mom of 8 and still hasn't figured that out. If she hasn't then I'm guessing God just wants us on our knees daily during that stage more than He wants math to be completed without my one year old climbing on the table or my 2 year old doing flips off the couch. ;) best of luck! Liz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamamindy Posted June 26, 2014 Author Share Posted June 26, 2014 Our kids are the same age except I don't have a 4yr old and will have a 10 year too in the Fall. I also love planning. I'm trying to change that to preparing...being prepared...not just scheduling. Anyhow, as for when I plan, we have mandatory quiet time everyday and I'm not a good housekeeper. So while the kids read or nap I research, plan, read or nap (when I should be scrubbing floors). Last year we did the fun messy stuff while my youngest two napped and I lost some of that mandatory quiet time. This year I scheduled it so that while two kids are doing school the third school aged child will play with the toddler and preschooler. I plan on having special books for them to read and special activities. I'll change the books/activities out weekly. We're going to practice later on this summer to be "ready" when school starts in September. I have no plan b. :) Let's hope it works. BTW I found a lot of humor in Cindy Rollins' remark that she has no solution for toddlers. She's a mom of 8 and still hasn't figured that out. If she hasn't then I'm guessing God just wants us on our knees daily during that stage more than He wants math to be completed without my one year old climbing on the table or my 2 year old doing flips off the couch. ;) best of luck! Liz I appreciate your suggestions, Liz, and just knowing that we're in the same boat. ;) I do think my children could compete if doing flips off couch were an olympic sport. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threeturn Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 I like to break my planning down into steps and do it in small chunks at a time. I typically do most of it in June, but am running behind with it this year. I try to do most of it at night while the kids are sleeping, but every once and a while I will ask DH for a marathon Saturday session. I have my own set of planning pages that I use (you can too if you would like). Most of our curriculum is "do the next thing," but I am creating a loop schedule this year for content area subjects. At first I was going to rip everything up and create binders for our loop subjects with the papers already in the order I wanted to do them, but instead I have decided to do a detailed loop lesson plan in a computer document and then use it during loop time each day to see where we are going next. I am going to store the printed materials in a folder for each subject or leave them in the original books. When my schedule calls for it, I will pull the needed paper from the folder or the book from each kid's shelf. For skill area subjects I keep papers and books in their own file folder and then each night load the clipboards for the next day. I like that better than tearing everything out and assigning it a week in the summer. Once those weeks get off I would be breaking out in hives. Keeping the pages together and deciding each night where we are progressing the following day in a particular subject is better on my nerves. It takes me less than 10 minutes to pull what I need. As for toddlers, I am so glad to be out of those years ;-) I found that paying extra attention to the littles first, saving the hard stuff for nap time, and planning to accomplish less during those times (not trying to stuff my three hours with three hours worth of work) really helped during those times. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlsdMama Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 I've simplified. Frankly I mix and match my curriculum now with things that need to be planned and books or workbooks that are simply do the next thing. I love looking at beautiful Excel spreadsheets... Life with littles usually mess up those beautiful spreadsheets, lol, but I've found, over the years, having go to curriculum that I can pick up every day without planning and still get school done in the crazy times. Oh, now I still like to plan, but I generally will only do a few weeks at a time. I don't do it on the weekends. We do a school-free day and let them play or head to a park and I make all my plans on notebook paper first, then type them up at night or on the weekends. It doesn't take terribly long to plan a few weeks, sic to eight at the most. I also find more accountability looking over what we have gotten done and what we haven't, call it self evaluation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eileen Aroon Posted June 28, 2014 Share Posted June 28, 2014 Loving this thread. I will have a new baby in September so this is timely. No more flying by the seat of my pants! One thing I have loved is having my older kids read to my younger kids on a daily basis. That keeps at least two kids occupied for something like 20 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbcooker Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Someone once told me if I couldn't prepare the lessons in 5 minutes or less, then the curriculum was too complicated. I use all "do the next day" curriculum. I do plan some, during 30 min every morning when everyone is to read books to themselves alone. I also do bigger picture planning at night or on Saturday afternoons during naptime. I do a lot of big picture planning every Aug and every Feb, whenever I have free time during those months. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinivanMom Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 Someone once told me if I couldn't prepare the lessons in 5 minutes or less, then the curriculum was too complicated. I use all "do the next day" curriculum. I do plan some, during 30 min every morning when everyone is to read books to themselves alone. I also do bigger picture planning at night or on Saturday afternoons during naptime. I do a lot of big picture planning every Aug and every Feb, whenever I have free time during those months. There have definitely been seasons in my life when I needed to use open & go curriculum out of necessity, but I don't think this is a good long-term policy. I know you probably meant it tongue-in-cheek, but I think it's important to remember that this is our children's education. I should be able to devote more than 5 min to preparing lessons for my children. We all have harder seasons in our life, so maybe I won't be able to devote more than 5 min when I just gave birth or have a colicky baby or need to plan a funeral or handle an estate. Overall, though, my child's education is important; it's worth my time and preparation. That doesn't mean that labor-intensive curriculums are always superior, but I would never want to choose something just because it requires less effort for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoseInABook Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 We try to do a big picture and then plan one week at a time according to that big picture. It seems to be working pretty well for us and that way I don't over plan then get thrown off course by a new foster baby or some other big life event. I set aside 1.5 hours each Sunday evening to print off whatever needs to be copied/printed and write what needs to be done in the planner. I can't fly by the seat of my pants without ending up stressed and yelling at the kids in the morning. :bag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamamindy Posted June 30, 2014 Author Share Posted June 30, 2014 I appreciate all the advice so much!!! I have realized that FIRST I need to make some choices about our resources and THEN try to plan. I want it all to mesh well. Thanks for the wisdom! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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