Do you use a planner and actually PLAN your school year?

[73349]

I plan in detail and far ahead, but in a spreadsheet and by the week, not the day. I print once in a while just as back-up.

 

I hate writing things out by hand, and I don't do winging it (because guess who would forget a subject for a few months? or just generally not know what to do next on any given day).

 

I love color-coding, and I need to be able to do things like switching a vacation week based on grandparent availability. The spreadsheet even adds my school days completed to date for me (just because I want to, not required in my state).

 

[SorrelZG]

No. I have a digital planner for each child to record what gets done each day after it actually gets done (if I remember to use it). 

 

I get through homeschooling by having (a) long term goals for their overall education and (b) short term progress goals for the current school year and © a list of core resources (and a mental list of general, extra resources) that I intend to use (but will change up as needed) to accomplish this progress towards the overall goals and then (d) a weekly and daily routine for spending time with those resources. 

 

I stress and start twitching if it gets more specific than that (re: homeschool and life in general).

 

 

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

Our *life* is fairly scheduled in that DD has gymnastics 3x a week, DS once, co op one morning, girl scouts twice a month, etc...

 

Every morning we hit school as soon as they're awake. We're pretty good at getting math and language done before we have to run out the door. In math we typically do one exercise (half if it's long or two if easy, etc) and we do one language lesson. Those get done every day, barring extraordinary circumstances.

 

Spelling, geography, writing, history and science get worked in whenever we can manage. Last year she did spelling and geography while sitting through brother's gymnastics class. Writing was whenever we felt like it - several times a week, science was mostly through co op with extra at home and history (mom-designed unit studies) happens a lot on the evenings and weekends because my husband likes to be involved in that too. 

 

This year for language, spelling, math, geography and writing, it is just "do the next thing" type of curriculum. I never have to worry about scheduling because as long as we hit language and math every day and the other subjects most days, we get done, and usually early. Science and history I am getting our unit studies ready. Ordering all books and supplies and putting printables in binders, etc. That way whenever we feel like it we can hit it!

 

Scheduling would drive me insane. Things get added to our schedule last minute and we have to adjust. Most likely that schedule would be an ugly mess weeks before school even started from things being added or changing. As long as I set our goals for the year, and we work consistently, we've never had a problem. 

 

 

[Saddlemomma]

During late winter and all summer I plan, research, & gather all the resources that will be used for each class.  Since we use Onenote for school, each class tab under the appropriate year's notebook has a "Resources" page.  That's where I list everything I'm going to use for each class.  I list all the books, embed links for videos, GCP lectures, and documentaries, print all PDFs to separate pages under that heading as well.

 

When school starts, each week I pick, choose and schedule her lessons for the week from those resources and list them on DD's appropriate weekly schedule.  I do this weekly because that way we can change on the fly if something comes up and we don't finish something from the previous week.  This prevents us from disrupting a whole year's schedule and the stress if we get behind.

[lanalouwho]

I keep my lesson plans on trello.com and our schedule in a paper planner. Each week, I look at our schedule and decide how many lessons I think we can get done each day. As we complete lessons, I move them to a different trello board for my records.

 

Sent from my HTCD160LVW using Tapatalk

[NotesFromTheParsonage]

I bullet journal as I go. I make a master plan for each subject, but I don't assign the days in advance. We just do them and mark them off as they are done. So, there is a plan, it just isn't date specific. So we can skip a day or seven and it is fine. We just pick back up with the next things on the list. 

[SereneHome]

I would love to see people's samples of their plans - in excel, word, etc

 

I haven't planned much thus far beyond "we are doing SM 3a and 3B" or SOTW1.  Nothing detailed at all.  I wonder if more things will get done if I have a more detailed plan....

[Ausmumof3]

I choose the main books for the main subjects. I look at how many chapters we need to do each term and then work out how many we have to get through each week but that's about it.

Each week I do a sit down and write that week's work on the kids diaries.

 

This seems to work. If I put the lessons in too far ahead and we miss one for some reason it gets so messy and I can't handle the fact that we aren't on schedule.

[Mom22ns]

When my kids were younger, I planned by the week. As they got older and I gained experience, I planned by the month and then by the semester. It was tremendously helpful to me to have a plan that would get everything accomplished. However, I never planned on paper, I did it on the computer. Cut and paste allowed me to move things easily :). The plans were always flexible. Some things could be left behind. Some subjects (math mostly) moved at whatever pace made sure that everything was completely mastered. Content subjects like history, had no such constraints.

 

The plan was for me. With a plan, I stayed on track. Without one, I am far too ADD to ever stay focused and accomplish anything.

[Petrichor]

I have the curriculum planned out by lesson for the year for the subjects that aren't "open and go." These plans are in the beginning months of my planner, months that we don't need for school (we school jan-dec and the planner is a nov 2016-Dec 2017 planner)

 

I have a regular(not sold for school use specifically) day planner, and number each week. Sometime during the week or on the weekend, I write in each subject's planned work. I cross the work off when it's finished. 

 

This method worked well for this year, and I will probably go with the same system next year. When both of my kids need planners, I can imagine it working to have one planner for each of them, and maybe a third planner for DS to keep track of his independent work.

[JudoMom]

I do plan.

Every summer, I sit down with a calendar and figure out break weeks and outside class schedules, and then I count up how many days each boy will have at home to do lessons at home (this number might be different for every boy, depending on outside commitments).  

Once I have the number of lesson days figured out, I break each subject down into that number of assignments.  I dislike Excel (and all the Excel lovers just made the face my dh makes when I say that ;) ), so I use a table in Word.  I put day numbers down the side, subjects across the top, and fill in each square.  I print these plans as a guide for the year.

 

This year I have a student planner for each boy and I'll sit down with them once a week to fill in assignments.  In previous years I made pre-printed planner sheets, but I want them to take some ownership.

 

Since my plans are by day number and not dated, it's easy to adjust and see where we are for the year.

But if I don't have a plan, things do not get done.  Even when I just had 1 kindergartner, I had to write down what I was supposed to do with him that day or I would get to the end of the day and have done everything else but lessons.  I also work better with paper instead of digital (and all the digital people just made the face my dh makes when I say that ;) ), which is why I print out hardcopy master plans.

 

ETA:  I think I just added a snip of my youngest son's Master Plan for the year

 

ETA2:  I did it! 

Edited August 13, 2017 by JudoMom

[MistyMountain]

So far I do not plan what will be covered but what subjects I cover each day and how long each component gets. I have an idea of how long something might take to get through but some days more might get done and other days less. They might fly through something or drag through something else. I am still new at this so I do not always know how long it will take to cover things so I plan out time frames for subjects.

[goldenecho]

My planning was a mess when we started.  It's still not great, but I do have a few things I do.

 

Reading and Spelling we just progress at his pace with whatever's next on the curriculum.  I never write any of that down though I record when we finish levels.   I add in grammar lessons where I think they fit well.

 

I plan my general goals for the year for math and the topics I want to cover for science and history.  A lot of times I want to coordinate science and history (like we learned about space when we were studying the Greeks and Romans because there's that overlap with the Greek and Roman gods and the names for constellations and planets).  I'll keep a notepad where I list topics I want to cover during certain chapters of the history program we work through, and consult it weekly.  I'll also keep links to websites I plan to use on this notepad.

 

About once a week, if I need to (and sometimes I don't really need to), I review pinterest pages (where I pin ideas I might want to use) on the topics we have upcoming, and write down plans for the next week or two in a planner as necessary.  I have a cheep "teacher" planner for this (from the Target $1 section).   Also, I do a library run every 1-2 weeks and do some planning each time I go for what books we'll be needing soon.  Those and other books are organized in order I think I'll use them in two baskets (one smaller for things I'm doing this week, and a larger one for things I'm using later).  

 

I also have folders.  I've had a folder for every day of the week, but since I rarely use all of them I'm going to change this to just three folders...a "today" and a "soon" and a "daily" folder (daily for things we use every day, like some of the math games we use  daily for a whole week).  Each day I look through the "soon" and move what needs to be done into "today," and also get ready the books and other materials I'll need and stack them in the order I think we'll do them.    I also have folders for each month of the year that I put seasonal things in.  That way, at the begginning of the month I can just peek in the folder and decide what seasonal/holiday stuff to use this month.

 

 

This system sounds really complicated, but it allows me to plan in short stints and remain flexible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 13, 2017 by goldenecho

[coastalfam]

Yes and No, but heavy on the yes. :) I have a time budget spread sheet that shows how much time we will be spending on each subject and when each day, and what special activities and subjects will happen each day and when. This changes by the semester, so I just update the existing one rather than make a new one. That gets laminated in stuffed in my backpack, or I would regularly end up wrong place, wrong time. ;) Then I have my daily planner that also serves as my learning record. It has curriculum listed for each day that it is to be used, with a space to write lesson # or pages used. It has check boxes for the things I need to make sure get done, like practicing instruments. Anything that is "school" that needs to happen on M,T,W,Th, & F are listed in my planner. This planner is also my "no" part of planning. I don't plan out any lessons more than a week in advance, just the general curriculum to be used, and then I record what we do week to week next to the listed curriculum. I do this because some of my kids work much more quickly in some subjects, and on time or slower or out of sequence with others. I also often like to keep our science studies completely spontaneous to current interests in the boys, and would not want that planned our in advance. Sometimes we are reading History, and they are begging for just one more chapter, so I wouldn't want that planned out in advance too far, and while I have a general plan for things like art, sometimes we get interested in a particular genre and go off our curriculum for a while to explore it. But I do know we are using such and such curriculum for history, and so have that listed every Tuesday in our history time block. I made my planner on my computer using a simple spreadsheet, and I customized it to make it look appealing to my eye. I had such trouble finding one that would fit my needs, I decided my time was better spent making one. I made it so it prints double sided, making a two sheet spread for each week, and it helps me to be very organized, yet with plenty of opportunity to be spontaneous and change things around as needed. 

[Runningmom80]

I just started using Trello. I'm planning 12 weeks at a time and then I'll pick lessons for each week as we go. I am going to try to attach screen shots but I'm on my phone and not tech savvy.

 

Each of the white rectangles are "cards," and the lessons we are doing thatvterm are on the "back" (you just click on the card.

Edited August 16, 2017 by Runningmom80

[Runningmom80]

I can attach more when I'm on my lap top if any one is interested.

[Cake and Pi]

I can attach more when I'm on my lap top if any one is interested.

 

Yes, please.

[Cake and Pi]

Well, I planned the crap out of science this year.  

 

For most other subjects I have a loose, flow-chart-like plan for the next several years.  Detailed planning I only do a week or two in advance, and some subjects I've found I can't really plan for at all so they get filled in after the fact as we go.

[Porridge]

I didn't find I needed to plan formally in early elementary. Like 8Fill, around 3rd grade it started to feel like it was actually easier for me to plan than to wing it. I've been through several iterations of planning, and I think I'll go through many more. I'm realizing the two kids are very different, so what works for DD will likely not work for DS. I used to plan week to week, printing out a weekly checklist for my older child every Sunday evening. The week to week planning allowed me to make changes as we went along, but it also felt very difficult to stay on top of things - I felt like I was reinventing the wheel every Sunday night. I gradually moved to more long term planning. This year I have planned the entire year out in advance, with checklists prepped for every day of the "school" year (Three 12 week terms, 4 day weeks). This method has, so far, far exceeded my expectations. I can see the whole week, whole term, or whole year at a glance.  I also work and when I work, the context shifting (work to home,, home to work) can leave me feeling rather discombobulated. With the daily and entire-year schedule, it's easy for me to pick up where we left off without any effort.  It also helps me to reign in my Type A tendencies - when I lose track of the big picture plan, I tend to try to tweak things too much or to add in "one more thing..." which just becomes exhausting for myself and my kids.

 

I'm sure this planning method will evolve as the kids evolve, as I get a better handle on things, as life circumstances change.....

[Runningmom80]

Lace, I can't figure it out on my laptop, my screen shots are all too big and I don't feel like resizing them in photoshop.  I'll throw them on my blog and send you the link. :)

[klmama]

My approach has changed through the years, depending on how independent each child is. I'm down to one at home this year, and I have most of the courses planned out in homeschool tracker for the full year. It helps that I know the schedule for all of dc's activities this year in advance and that I've taught most of the topics before, so I knew where to add in extra days for harder concepts.

[HS Mom in NC]

I'm 3 weeks in and am making my first tweak to the schedule.  This first semester has included Editor in Chief workbook Level 1 as a grammar review and to teach my daughter to edit her own work by first editing these exercises. (She doesn't correction well.)  I now realize that we haven't covered colon or hyphen usage enough for her to remember it and she has some comma rules down but can't remember others.  Since I was going to use the next level next semester, it's easy to move this semester's into next semester and save the next level for next year.  This semester we'll review and practice the grammar concepts covered in Level 1.  Everything else has gone reasonably well so far.

[greenfields]

I'm the type who likes planning.

 

However, I don't currently plan.  I tried planning for kindergarten, but that faded away.  I wing it each day, and, despite this, we seem to stay afloat because we have one child (age 6.5), study early elementary subjects, and generally ignore other topics (history, literary analysis, and writing process).

 

We try to study 30 minutes each day, but we will try to increase that to one hour.  So here's our random learning which is not planned on paper (I only make mental note/plan):

• Writing - word patterns in cursive (son yearned to learn cursive at age 5; at age 4, because I neglected to introduce early phonics, he was memorizing too many car names and words from seeing "whole language," so we worked through a little AlphaPhonics, and we have maintained it with advanced phonics, prefix/suffix, syllables, word origins, etc.)
• Reading - decode New Yorker articles, Constitution, etc.
• Mortensen Math - random (addition, multiplication, algebra, fraction, etc.)
• Chemistry coloring workbook - electrons, ions, etc.
• Anatomy coloring book
• Other - piano, swimming, other sports

We cover one or a few subjects each day, and that's how I wing it, concentrating on math and writing.

 

I need to include more play labs for pH acid/base study, Lego simple machines, etc.  I'm sure that I'll plan as our child gets older.  

 

[Kfamily]

Usually I write out a yearly scope for the year, and then after this I sit down with my child (I have two but one is now in college.) and we discuss the books we want to cover for the year. While I generally choose the main books for the year, I do allow her to pick which books she'd like from a general list (our bookshelves... :) ) for independent reading. I also give her some input into which biographies and nonfiction we read for the year. This way her interests are part of our plans. She is a rising 9th grader, but we've been doing this for many years now. 

 

After I have a good sense of what our main goals for the year are, then I tend to write out a list of lesson plans which typically covers 1-2 weeks. We tackle the list over the course of the 1-2 weeks as it fits with our schedule. Last year we were too overscheduled with outside activities, so we've scaled back a little. 

 

Some subjects lend themselves very well to a do-the next-chapter type schedule and others need more detailed plans. We tend to use a lot of living books for the content areas, so this takes more time and planning.

[mschickie]

I  do a plan for each subject for the year.  Each week I check off what we completed and then make up a weekly sheet based on what is going on for us that week  or if I need to adjust something.  In my plan book I could be on week 5 day 3 in one subject and week 4 day 1 in another.  I try to be very flexible when it comes to planning the week but having the overall plan allows me to see how much I want to get done for the year and keep me on track a bit.

[Targhee]

I can be a non-planner in some aspects, but my children NEED plans. They don't love them by any means, but without them (especially as the kids have gotten older) I get too much pushback when things are challenging. The plan - weekly schedule, year long overview, significant dates for activities/events - is objective and you don't get mad at or become rude to the schedule.

[kolamum]

I plan the year for weeks on vs weeks off {10 weeks on 2 weeks off x4} I note mini breaks & so forth within that parameter. From there I can estimate how much of the curriculum should be done within each term. I do not write the actual lesson plans until the weekend before we do them. That allows for adjusting & moving along.

If I do any long term planning like that it's often done on the computer in Numbers so that I can bump & rearrange IF the need befalls us. Keep in mind though, in our later years {I can count on fingers how much time I have left..} we have been more stero-typical out of the box type homeschoolers. In other words I can click "Buy Whole Set" & have it arrive in one big box unless I want to try & find good deals. This means I know I'm working with a 35-36 week schedule & it's pretty laid out for me. :)

I do use the monthly spread in my planner to note things in advanced, if they change, no biggie as I can note that on the weekly pages. :) I admire that you plan it all out like that so far in advanced!