I'm done!

[Jess4879]

Planning, that is! :)  No one in real life seems to appreciate my excitement over this, so I had to post here with people who "get it."  LOL 

 

After hours and hours of work, I have finished all my lesson plans for every subject we are tackling this fall.  This year I let my Type A take over.  I have separate subject planners, daily checklists for the kids, and a weekly master planner that pulls it all together.  It all looks so neat and tidy.  Can't wait to have it bound. :) 

 

Now just hoping I don't open it on week one and chuck the whole thing. It could happen...lol

[LauraBeth475]

Awesome work!

 

Any chance we can see pictures?

[Joshin]

Yay! I'm almost ready to celebrate with you :) Just need to set up a grading spreadsheet and print the KISS grammar book for DS11.

[justme824]

Jealous! I am just starting. I am hoping to be more organized this year.

[BlessedMom]

Congrats!! That's really exciting!!

Wish I could say the same.

[Guest]

I think I'm with you, but I still need to tweak a few more things and let things settle in my mind a bit.

 

I've even got flow charts and a plan B in case everything falls apart when plans meet reality.

[momacacia]

I'm encouraged to hear this.

 

Still many craft supplies to get for pre-ker, Latin planning is in Homeschool Planet up to Thanksgiving and math and grammar will be pretty easy to plug in. But, I still have to reduce TOG to one page per week plan for the 2 girls. I'm procrastinating.:\

[PeterPan]

For the op, sounds like you've done really well!  That kind of structure, with an overall plan for the year and then weekly checklists was what worked well for my dd.  It's definitely not overkill.   :)

 

This year dd is doing mostly DE (dual enrollment) online and ds is sort of on his own adventure.  I don't really have any formal plans for him, come to think of it.  We just have things that we go ok, he's ready to do this, let's do this and keep going, do the next page kinda thing.  And I think we're going to have some pile approach with him. I've thought about having some formal plans, but I think for him a *routine* with more rabbit trails and self-directed interests will be better.  So it's sorta a different kind of route for us.  It's actually harder to have a routine and tell yourself every day suck up, make a choice, get something done, than it is to have it on the list with the list just telling you, lol.  But lists are good!  I like lists.   :)

 

Maybe I should compromise and make some kind of overall, loose plan that would give me *some* structure or sense of where we're sorta going but with enough looseness and flexibility that we can follow his rabbit trails.  That way I'm not crazy AND he's happy.  :)

Edited August 7, 2016 by OhElizabeth

[Jess4879]

Awesome work!

 

Any chance we can see pictures?

 

Absolutely!  I just don't know how to upload pics on the forums.  help! 

[Jess4879]

I'm encouraged to hear this.

 

Still many craft supplies to get for pre-ker, Latin planning is in Homeschool Planet up to Thanksgiving and math and grammar will be pretty easy to plug in. But, I still have to reduce TOG to one page per week plan for the 2 girls. I'm procrastinating.:\

 

I still have to gather science & history supplies.  Last year I took everything and put it in labeled baggies for each lesson and I want to do that again this year.  The prep work sucks, but it helped ensure we were getting the activities and experiments done.  Before that I typically didn't have something or another on hand and then we'd just skip the "fun stuff" and there's no fun in that. :(

[PeterPan]

For pics they have to be teeny tiny to upload to the forum.  Easier to load them on flickr or something and share the link.  :)

[Jess4879]

For the op, sounds like you've done really well!  That kind of structure, with an overall plan for the year and then weekly checklists was what worked well for my dd.  It's definitely not overkill.   :)

 

This year dd is doing mostly DE (dual enrollment) online and ds is sort of on his own adventure.  I don't really have any formal plans for him, come to think of it.  We just have things that we go ok, he's ready to do this, let's do this and keep going, do the next page kinda thing.  And I think we're going to have some pile approach with him. I've thought about having some formal plans, but I think for him a *routine* with more rabbit trails and self-directed interests will be better.  So it's sorta a different kind of route for us.  It's actually harder to have a routine and tell yourself every day suck up, make a choice, get something done, than it is to have it on the list with the list just telling you, lol.  But lists are good!  I like lists.   :)

 

Maybe I should compromise and make some kind of overall, loose plan that would give me *some* structure or sense of where we're sorta going but with enough looseness and flexibility that we can follow his rabbit trails.  That way I'm not crazy AND he's happy.   :)

 

My older two are a lot like me.  They thrive on schedules.   They like do a lot independently, so the checklists are great for them.  I have to reign it in with my youngest.  LOL  His plan sounds closer to what you are doing with yours.  In his planners, I basically have a blurb about things we hope to accomplish.  He's still learning to read, so until that takes off, our main focus is reading and math.  In his schedule I have basically put a slot for math and LA and anything he does with us, but I haven't entered an actual lesson number.  He moves at a different pace, so I just try to meet him where he's at.  :)

[PeterPan]

Yes, ds has ASD and 3 SLDs in his mix, besides being gifted, so he's a very contradictory mix to teach!  You have pace and what he's ready for, what he's engaged with, where his body is and his compliance is, etc.  Just makes it more challenging.  His ABA tutor writes his schedule out on a whiteboard, and I just got a BIGGER whiteboard, lol.  I'm kinda excited about that.  He spends more time doing breaks and cooperative play than traditional "school" work, but those things are important too!  And I'm hoping to weave in some new goals like puzzles, word searches, read alouds, things that are a bit hard for him.  

 

Actual academic content for him is a nothing.  He can listen to TC company or History Channel lectures and memorize them.  Life for him is more challenging. I'm hoping now that things are going a bit better we'll be able to do more chaining and actually get to some fun things.  (history crafts, etc.)  I like the baggie idea for that!  That's always the downfall is finding the fun idea and not having it ready to go!

[Jess4879]

Awesome work!

 

Any chance we can see pictures?

 

Hopefully this works.  My formatting went a  bit wonky when I transferred the files into Google and I haven't been able to get my checklists to transfer, but hopefully this will give you an idea.  I can email them, if they are any good to anyone else.  :)

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8OhK8WasEr6WXp1US1DOGV1ek0

[PeterPan]

Your pages are beautiful!  I like your use of the shades of color and the check marks between the columns.  :)

[Jess4879]

Your pages are beautiful!  I like your use of the shades of color and the check marks between the columns.   :)

 

Thank you! :) 

[Dinsfamily]

They look great! I've found that my Type A tendencies are really helpful juggling more than 2 kids! I just finished my lesson plans and our first week checklist. You are braver than I am to plan a whole year. Except for Ds12's math, I only plan a quarter at a time. I get frustrated when we get ahead or behind and my plans are too far off. I can handle 9 weeks with my sanity in tact.

 

I do a checklist for each dc and tape it to their clipboard so they can see what needs to be done and how they are progressing. I don't print lesson plans (part of that sanity issue) but keep them handy on my iPad. I'll print each week's checklist on Friday once I am confident of their previous week's progress.

 

I think I need to steal your week at a glance idea. I love the simplicity of it.

[HS Mom in NC]

Yay!  I love it when my planning is done and everything is prepped and ready to go too! I love not having to do it on weeknights and weekends!

[EKT]

Good for you--Congrats!! I'm still working on it, but I'm almost there! 

[Love My Life x4]

Congrats!!  That is awesome and always SUCH a great feeling!

[Soror]

It looks so pretty, well done! There is just something so satisfying about having it all laid out there, of course the putting it all out there is easier than the doing it all!

 

I've just been doing 6 wks at a time with mine, just pretty much finished the next 6 wks, we take a break next week. For my oldest daughter(4th) it is fairly straightfoward and I can plan most of it out in Scholaric pretty easy, although she decided to switch to Mystery Science so those have to be inputed individually. My son 6/7 is a bit more complicated w/ different readings from several different books for each day so I had to do his in a word document. 

 

I've never done quite this detailed, well I did try when my son was like in 1st grade but it didn't work out too well then! Last year I started making him a checklist however and he has thrived with it so now that dd4th can read I've made her one too. It really helps them take ownership of their work and helps keep me on track to make sure we get done what we need to get done. 

 

I also have a 1st grader but I don't have detailed plans for her, she just do 2 things which are both just do the next thing but when they are young pacing is hard to guess. So far she is going faster than I had planned but with kids I know that can change.