How detailed are your plans?

[springmama]

When you are planning yoru school year, how detailed are you plans? Do you just pick your curriculum and work through each subject chronologically until you finish the lessons and then move on to the next grade level, without regard for a calendar or set lesson plan?

 

Or, do you sit with a calendar and plan every detail so that you know exactly which day you are doing each day throughout the year?

 

If your plans are very detailed, can you tell me your planning process? Do you use any special forms? Does it take hours?

[Karen sn]

We go with the flow - if I was on a timed schedule, I would be ruined.

We work through our books at our own pace. Speeding up and slowing down to suit our needs.

 

Most of our greatest scientific discoveries have just happened and then we research from there.

I could never plan that! I especially love summer and studying the world around us.

 

I have a general outline of what I would like to cover throughout the year, but I don't stress over it.

Some things we are "behind" in. Some things we have learned that were not in my outline.

 

Here is a site if you haven't been before.

She has all kinds of good advice and forms:

http://docsdomain.net/blog/?page_id=637

[Jenny in Florida]

http://tweakedacademy.blogspot.com/2008/09/cheating.html

 

This is a post from earlier this year that includes a sample of my weekly lesson plans. I sit down over the summer and create one of these for each week of our academic year.

 

It's not easy to tell, because all that is listed on this sheet are the titles of the books and the pages from each. However, what I've done is go through the spines for history and science and assign the readings from all the other books that align with the subject matter of the pages he'll be reading from the spine that week.

 

I start planning each year with a spiral notebook full of lined paper, a pen and the stack of books I'm using for each subject. I usually tackly history first, since it's the guide/inspiration for a lot of everything else. I add up all the pages of all the readings I'm planning for the year and come up with a rough plan for how to allocate them. For example, the plan for next year is to use a textbook as our history spine, supplemented with readings from various sources. The supplemental readings include two whole books. So, I'm going to interweave the shorter supplemental readings with the text, where appropriate. However, the two full-length books I'm just going to have him read one after the other in small chunks alongside the other readings. Once I decided that, I divided the total number of spine+short readings by the number of weeks in our academic year, then figured out the specific pages numbers of each that he will read in each week. That's as far as I've gotten as yet. The next step will be to figure out how many and which pages of the other two books he'll read each week.

 

Then, I'll move on to another subject and start all over.

 

How long does it take? Eh, it varies. And I'm sure I make it take longer because I truly enjoy the process. I'd say, if I could really concentrate and carve out big chunks of time and had all the materials on hand at once, I could probably knock out the year in under a week.

 

Of course, I have only one student these days. What I used to do when I had two was to plan for the older one first, then just kind of "mirror" a lot of that information for the younger one. It took a little longer, but not anywhere close to double the time.

 

So, as I said, I write plans for each week. What we're doing now is that my son and I chat together on Monday morning and fill in a table with his plan for what he will do each day. (There's a sample of one of those in that same post I linked above.) Since we're trying not to generate more waste paper, I then e-mail him a copy of the document. We each keep our copies open on our own computers, and he turns the text of each item red as he completes it. That way, it's easy for both of us to see how much he's done and how much is still on his plate. He likes having some control over his schedule, and I like that he's taking some responsibility for doing his work.

[King Alfred Academy]

We go with the flow - if I was on a timed schedule, I would be ruined.

We work through our books at our own pace. Speeding up and slowing down to suit our needs.

 

Most of our greatest scientific discoveries have just happened and then we research from there.

I could never plan that! I especially love summer and studying the world around us.

 

I have a general outline of what I would like to cover throughout the year, but I don't stress over it.

Some things we are "behind" in. Some things we have learned that were not in my outline.

 

Here is a site if you haven't been before.

She has all kinds of good advice and forms:

http://docsdomain.net/blog/?page_id=637

 

This is me too...but it has taken me awhile to get here and I still struggle with wanting to cross things off on my list just for the sake of crossing them off and not because we learned anything.

 

As far as how I plan...I am also finally at a place where I am comfortable with my curricula choices so I have a general idea of what we are going to be doing. I figure out how many days a week we are going to do each subject and then I draft up a rough plan. If I don't have anything to follow, things won't get done...I do know that about myself! ;) But...if something doesn't get done...cuz life happens or we decide to look into Knights further...then we just adjust the following week. It has been helping me to keep in mind, where history is concerned, that we will get to each time period two more times before I release them into the wild! I try...emphasis on "try"...to not get cuaght up in "Oh, my son is in second grade so he should be level C in Right Start"...don't bother searching for threads to blackmail me because I know they are out there and I have said that!...but I am tyring not too. :tongue_smilie: We go at our own pace. Which is hard because we are signed up with a charter school and they are all about "testing"...UGH! Alright...enough rambling...I'm otta here:auto:. (Can you tell I haven't had much adult interraction today?)

[Karen in CO]

When I have planned to the last detail, I sit down with what I want to cover and the computer. For each subject, I break up the main text into weeks and then into days. I plug in pages, supplements and activities, writing prompts, discussion questions, experiments, supply lists, additional books, and so forth. For each subject it takes several hours spread over several weeks. Sometimes, I ditch the whole plan once I type it up.

 

I have also tried to follow no plan and just meander through all our subjects. This works best in K or for short periods of time. Otherwise, it drives me batty. I'm a compulsive list maker.

 

Where we are now, we seem to work with some structure, but not so much that it prevents us from stopping to explore something in more depth.

 

The problem I have with very detailed plans is that they don't allow for you to spend and extra year in Rome or take a side trip through animals of the Galapagos when you are supposed to be studying earth science.

[TheCoffeeChick]

I know I only have little ones, so my experience is not that of a seasoned homeschooler, but I plan in stages.

 

First, I plan the whole year with what curriculum I want to use.

 

Second, Once I get everything together and have quickly looked through it all, I figure out how many days a week I will use each item. Like, Math is 4 days a week; Science is 2 days a week; History is 2 days a week; Phonics is 5 days a week ... Then I divide each item into how many weeks I want our school year to be. For a 40 week school year, I would need 160 math lessons, 80 science, 80 history... So, I know that my current math curriculum only has 130 lessons, so I either need to stretch it out a little or be done early, or go on with the next grade level before our "official" school year is over. But, I get a basic weekly plan laid out this way.

 

That is about as detailed as I get before starting the school year. Because, lets face it, life happens and if you write out all your plans, you will fall behind ;).

 

Then I get down to the details about 2-3 weeks before the week I am planning for. So right now, I have been planning out what books I need and which lessons to do for the fist couple of weeks of February. Math is easy, just the next lessons in our Saxon book. Reading/Phonics is easy too, I just assign the next pages. Although we sometimes are a couple pages off, either forward or behind, but no big deal. I plan which books I need for TOG and science from the library (and place them on hold or request an ILL), find matching activties to go along with the lessons online. We do one history project a week, and 1-2 science experiements a week. I also print any maps, color pages, activities needed for the week and put into a binder.

 

The weekend before the planned out week, I go through which books I was able to get from the library and divide them up for the week. Then I match up the maps, color pages, and activities that go well with each book and mark on them with a sticky note which day I will need them. I put ALL materials I will need into a white basket on our school book case, so that everything is together for the week.

 

That is as planned as I get, but you know, even planning for only the week ahead is never perfect. Something comes up and we adjust, but life goes on. :D As far as getting things done in a timely manner, I figure as long as we just keep moving forward, we will eventually get to where we are going. Besides, my ds is only 5, I think we will have plenty of time to learn the things we don't get to this year. :tongue_smilie:

[swellmomma]

My planning process takes weeks. My plans are very detailed, including page numbers, chapters, cooresponding websites I have bookmarked, fieldtrips to book, etc. I do not have set days for each thing, more like Day 1 do xyz in each subject, then day 2 etc, that way if we take a break we just pick up where we left off. Before i get to the point of set page numbers etc, I figure out how many lessons are in the book, and how many days per week I am going to do that subject. THen I figure out how much has to be done each of those days for complete what needs to be done at the end of the week. From there I start pinpointing actual page numbers, questions to do etc. The reason I do this is I tend to either completely forget where we left off just the day before, OR I get so into it I make it too long to keep the kids interests, this way I know exactly which pages to cover with them, without overwhelming them.

 

I tend to fully plan the year, and then in January tweak the second semester plans to reflect where we are, any changes in curric etc. I also start planning the next year at this time, spending 20-30 minutes a day on it over the course of several months, as each new book is ordered which helps keep me from having curric overload trying to plan.

[Tami]

I plan out my year into three 12-week terms. I don't include skill subjects such as math or language arts in planning, as we do fine with a "do the next thing" approach with those. I never know when we will need to pause and reinforce, or speed ahead in math/language, so detailed plans are useless to me in those skill subjects.

 

I just finished planning 7th grade. Not sure it will help you, but you can take a peek at it here at Google Docs.

[elegantlion]

I plan out my year into three 12-week terms. I don't include skill subjects such as math or language arts in planning, as we do fine with a "do the next thing" approach with those. I never know when we will need to pause and reinforce, or speed ahead in math/language, so detailed plans are useless to me in those skill subjects.

 

I just finished planning 7th grade. Not sure it will help you, but you can take a peek at it here at Google Docs.

 

Tami, love your forms! Now I've been playing with Google Docs, thanks for posting.

 

For my plans, I generally line out the book for the entire year. This year many of our subjects are numbered with weeks, like LFC. So we just do the next week. I have course study for each subject that is written in weeks. Then I put that info into a daily planner about two weeks at a time, it gives us time to tweak the schedule.

 

I don't stress over it as much as I used to. I have a good idea of where I'm supposed to be. We do 36 weeks of school, however I try to plan most subjects to be 32-34 weeks only. That gives us plenty of room for flexibility.

[Christine]

but I plan in stages.

 

First, I plan the whole year with what curriculum I want to use.

 

Second, ... For a 40 week school year... So, I know that my current math curriculum only has 130 lessons. . . or go on with the next grade level before our "official" school year is over.

 

My planning process takes weeks. My plans are very detailed, including page numbers, chapters. . .

 

I'm somewhere in "here".

 

I try to lay the whole year out, but I don't put dates on anything. I do put days (day 1, day 2, day 155), but if the need arises I will split a "day", and don't have issues with that.

 

We generally do a 40 week school year. We have no set times off (meaning, no 3 weeks on - 1 week off), except birthdays and Holidays. We take the time as we see fit. And, being military that works out rather nicely.

 

When I schedule, I do it by book / subject rather than by the year, then I plop all the subject schedules into a master year schedule.

 

Examples of my planning are found on my blog. Well, examples of my master schedule is on there. My actual subject schedules are on there as well -- though I have not updated those pages this year and have oodles more to add.

[mamaof2andtwins]

Mostly my plans just flow because of using a curriculum with lessons. It is easy to just start at 1 and continue on until the end. For other suject without such an easy format, I break mine down into quarters and then into weeks.

 

I like that google docs also. Very cool. :coolgleamA:

Jenni

[Laura Corin]

I check each book for number of chapters/exercises then divide by 39. As we go through the year I try to average about this per week. That's it.

 

Laura

[Closeacademy]

When I get my curriculum in, I write up plans to see how long it will last. Most of the time I just use notebook paper, write the dates across the top and the subjects down the side. Then I write what pages we should be doing that day.

 

But things change and every 2 weeks we do a new lapbook study so at that time, I rewrite the 2 weeks that we are on and make sure that our schedule lines up with where we really are at that point in time.

 

Hope this helps.:001_smile:

[Jenny in Florida]

We go with the flow - if I was on a timed schedule, I would be ruined.

We work through our books at our own pace. Speeding up and slowing down to suit our needs.

 

Most of our greatest scientific discoveries have just happened and then we research from there.

 

This is me too...but it has taken me awhile to get here and I still struggle with wanting to cross things off on my list just for the sake of crossing them off and not because we learned anything.

 

I check each book for number of chapters/exercises then divide by 39. As we go through the year I try to average about this per week. That's it.

 

My take on this, by the way, is that every family has to find what works for them. I think I, by nature, would probably be a lot less organized. I'm a lifelong autodidact, and I would be perfectly content to let nature take its course much more than we do in regards to education. In fact, when my daughter was young, I used to do a lot less planning. It was a lot more like what Laura described: Take each resource, divide it by the number of weeks, and try to keep up. And some semesters, I'd even lose track of that.

 

However, my kids are happier when they have more structure. There was one year, in fact, when I'd gotten pretty relaxed, that my daughter came to me and told me she was very unhappy with school. We sat down and talked about it and figured out that the only subjects she liked were the ones she was doing online. In everything else (the stuff she was doing with/for me) she missed the goals and outside verification. So, I had to plan more structure and make up assignments for the rest of the year. And then she was happy again.

 

For my son, specific goals are essential. Otherwise, we end up spending half our days arguing about whether he's done enough (or, sometimes, anything). Ask me how I know this . . .

 

On the other hand, I feel perfectly free to adjust and drop things when necessary if something really wonderful that I didn't anticipate comes up after I do the planning. We made lots of adjustments last year, for example, when my son "lost" all that time to the extra Nutcracker shows and the opera and NY trip.

 

Anyway, I sometimes envy those of you who can fly by the seat of your pants. I truly think this would be my natural inclination, but it just doesn't work around here.

 

So, to the original poster, I'd advise you to figure out what works for you and not worry a whole lot about "what everyone else does."

Edited January 25, 2009 by Jenny in Florida

[fivetails]

Not very detailed here - we do the next thing when we finish with the first thing, follow a lot of rabbit trails....:)

 

I did try at the beginning of the year - tried breaking up the various books by weeks and everything...that went nowhere fast. I don't "do" that very well - I was sitting there with a calendar and counting chapters and getting very frazzled and frustrated trying to figure out how much we might cover in how many days/weeks/etc. Just as well that I didn't because we ended up doing an unplanned cross country move this year and all those detailed little plans would have been out the windowanyway. :tongue_smilie:

[Beth in Central TX]

Or, do you sit with a calendar and plan every detail so that you know exactly which day you are doing each day throughout the year?

 

If your plans are very detailed, can you tell me your planning process? Do you use any special forms? Does it take hours?

 

I have the whole year planned out for each day before the year starts. I've used Edu-Track, but I've also purchased Homeschool Tracker because I can't get the customer support I need from Edu-Track; the program won't back-up anymore (with all the work I do, I really need that feature to work).

 

I generally take off 6 weeks in the summer, so I do most of my planning then. I can't tell you how many hours because I don't keep track; I just do it until I have a complete grade level schedule for all 3 boys.

 

Our school year has 38 weeks, so I divide the lessons up accordingly. We finish some subjects early, but some do go through the entire 38 weeks.

 

We stay on schedule each week, and I don't have to think about planning during the school year. Each Sunday, I print the reports for the next week, read through the lessons to be prepared for teaching & discussion, and I'm done.

 

HTH!

[Paisley Hedgehog]

nm

[dragons in the flower bed]

I use special forms. It takes hours. I sit with a calendar and plan every detail.

 

Then, on the first day, I just pick up the curriculum (usually not the same one in the plan) and work through the subject chronologically until I finish the lessons.

 

Some of my planners are on my website. They're not professionally done, but they do have spots for everything we'd do in a week.

Edited January 25, 2009 by dragons in the flower bed

[springmama]

Thanks so much to all of you for sharing your experiences and examples for me! Once again, I'll say that this forum has been invaluable to me these past few weeks as we try to get in our groove for our first real year of homeschooling. I imagine by the time it really matters, I'll have it somewhat figured out!

[TxMama]

When you are planning yoru school year, how detailed are you plans? Do you just pick your curriculum and work through each subject chronologically until you finish the lessons and then move on to the next grade level, without regard for a calendar or set lesson plan?

 

Or, do you sit with a calendar and plan every detail so that you know exactly which day you are doing each day throughout the year?

 

If your plans are very detailed, can you tell me your planning process? Do you use any special forms? Does it take hours?

 

I start the year with a list of resources I want to use. I plan a season at a time using Donnayoung.org's quarter planner. I plan to do 9 weeks of school each season of 13 weeks. I only schedule what to do each day not specific page numbers- those I fill in as we go. For example- I plan to do 1 story of SOTW each day we do History and I plan to do History 2xs per week. I don't spend my time working on the planner to fill in those pages....I simply fill in as we go. Not having the specific pages preplanned allows me to stop and review when we need in subjects like math without having to rewrite the whole planner.

 

The process of planning a quarter takes a minimal amount of time. Choosing resources will be easier for next year or two because we have resources that are working well for us that we will just continue. This year I spent quite a bit of time getting the right resources for the 6 yo.

[prairiegirl]

I need plans to keep me on the path but they can't be too detailed or I feel smothered. So I take the middle path. At the beginning of the school year I plan for content subjects like history and science. These are the subjects that we use more than one resource. I use good old paper and pen and I write down page numbers and acitivity numbers for each day that we would be doing these subjects. I do not use dates. I write everything out until we get to the end of the book.

 

Then, during the year, I sit down for an hour on the weekend and write out what we want to do for each day. I never used to do this but not that I am teaching 3 children it helps to keep everything straight for me. I write lesson numbers, acitivity ideas, etc. for each subject, skill and content. It just helps cut back on time if I have everything written down for me and it is in front of me. If we miss a day or a subject then it just gets moved to the next week.

[Parrothead]

For us not very detailed. If it is a book that we are working through I start page one on day one and that is pretty much what my plans say.

 

For science I have something like this:

Wednesday - do reading on Subject X

Thursday - do corresponding experiment on Subject X

 

Thursday morning I look for an experiment among my experiment books for something I'm willing to work on that day. I found that if I have a choice for the day - something easy or something more involved - I'm likely not to skip it on a bad day.

[Ancora_Imparo]

My plan is very detailed. I know exactly what I am doing in each subject every day of the school year. I use Homeschool Tracker and the lesson planning to lay out my year. I take what I want to finish a year and divide it by the number of days/weeks I have planned for school.

[Trivium Academy]

When you are planning yoru school year, how detailed are you plans? Do you just pick your curriculum and work through each subject chronologically until you finish the lessons and then move on to the next grade level, without regard for a calendar or set lesson plan?

 

Not without regard to a calendar but I schedule 9 weeks of work at a time with a broad overview. If we will finish a curricula before the end of the year, I'll have something else to fill the spot. For example, this year we finished Primary Language Lessons, we've started Writing Tales 1 and even if it goes into next year we'll start Intermediate Language Lessons after that.

 

I focus on teaching the skills, not finishing the curricula. Now, for history- since my oldest is in the first cycle, I try to finish a year's curricula within a year by trimming work b/c I want her exposed to it more than I want to dive into each facet. We are skipping Modern History for 4th and focusing on geography and literature but I feel that is what my child needs at this stage.

 

Or, do you sit with a calendar and plan every detail so that you know exactly which day you are doing each day throughout the year?

 

I make an overview of the year. How many weeks will it take to get through the material, how many days a week will we do each subject? That way I can have a handle on what the year will require. I do not plan out each day but aim instead of finishing a week's work within a week- if we want to take Monday off, we can but know we need to have the work done by Friday (sometimes Sat. :) ).

 

 

If your plans are very detailed, can you tell me your planning process? Do you use any special forms? Does it take hours?

 

Detailed planning takes time. The trick is figuring out how much it is helping you. If you don't follow your plan after spending 4 hours planning it out, you may not be utilizing your time wisely. Sometimes planning is another way of procrastinating (ask me how I know!) or feeling more secure about what you're doing but then you don't follow through and want to stay in the planning mode. There's a balance.

 

Everyone has their own balance.

 

Good luck! It took me two years to find my balance but once you have it...it's wonderful! ;)

[Penelope]

So far, for one student, I've planned 9-10 weeks at a time. But then we've still ended up with times where we needed to take a few days off scheduled math to play games and practice facts, or weeks where we did something different for science or art than I planned. And the spelling can go faster or slower than planned.

 

So, halfway through the year, the only things that are written in on the schedule are:

 

-which FLL to do that week (usually on certain days, but not always; I'll write it in Mon.-Tues.-Thurs. but just check it off whenever we do it)

-SOTW chapter for the week with boxes to check for narrations/notebook page/map

-memory work

-general science topic--now we are done with habitats and starting human body, but I will write in what we actually accomplish as we do it.

-WWE -- which week we are on; we always get this done but I don't schedule out the days, I just put a check mark for the days we do)

-lit. for the week--I use the AO yr. 1 schedule for Aesop, fairy tales, Just So stories

 

For math, read alouds, spelling, additional history reading, art, music, science, I just have spaces to write in what we actually do. I do know what I generally want to accomplish, but it is all in my little head and on my bookshelf! I think that will change once I have more than one student to keep track of.

[Tami]

We do 36 weeks of school, however I try to plan most subjects to be 32-34 weeks only. That gives us plenty of room for flexibility.

 

Thanks!

 

And, we do the same - have 36 weeks of school; plan 30-32 with other weeks labeled "Flex Week." This works well for us!

[Aloha2U]

I know I only have little ones, so my experience is not that of a seasoned homeschooler, but I plan in stages.

 

First, I plan the whole year with what curriculum I want to use.

 

Second, Once I get everything together and have quickly looked through it all, I figure out how many days a week I will use each item. Like, Math is 4 days a week; Science is 2 days a week; History is 2 days a week; Phonics is 5 days a week ... Then I divide each item into how many weeks I want our school year to be. For a 40 week school year, I would need 160 math lessons, 80 science, 80 history... So, I know that my current math curriculum only has 130 lessons, so I either need to stretch it out a little or be done early, or go on with the next grade level before our "official" school year is over. But, I get a basic weekly plan laid out this way.

 

That is about as detailed as I get before starting the school year. Because, lets face it, life happens and if you write out all your plans, you will fall behind ;).

 

Then I get down to the details about 2-3 weeks before the week I am planning for. So right now, I have been planning out what books I need and which lessons to do for the fist couple of weeks of February. Math is easy, just the next lessons in our Saxon book. Reading/Phonics is easy too, I just assign the next pages. Although we sometimes are a couple pages off, either forward or behind, but no big deal. I plan which books I need for TOG and science from the library (and place them on hold or request an ILL), find matching activties to go along with the lessons online. We do one history project a week, and 1-2 science experiements a week. I also print any maps, color pages, activities needed for the week and put into a binder.

 

The weekend before the planned out week, I go through which books I was able to get from the library and divide them up for the week. Then I match up the maps, color pages, and activities that go well with each book and mark on them with a sticky note which day I will need them. I put ALL materials I will need into a white basket on our school book case, so that everything is together for the week.

 

That is as planned as I get, but you know, even planning for only the week ahead is never perfect. Something comes up and we adjust, but life goes on. :D As far as getting things done in a timely manner, I figure as long as we just keep moving forward, we will eventually get to where we are going. Besides, my ds is only 5, I think we will have plenty of time to learn the things we don't get to this year. :tongue_smilie:

 

I too am just starting out with a little, but I will say that this has been a great introductory year for us... learning how to plan and all. My planning has been very much like BramFam.

 

First, I created a Course of Study for the year which lists all the materials/curricula I plan to use for each subject.

 

Second, once I get everything together and have quickly looked through it all, I figured out how many days a week I will use each item and divided each item into how many weeks I want our school year to be. I created a Year-at-a-Glance to reflect 36 weeks of lessons + 4 weeks of prospective breaks during the year = 40 weeks. I get a basic weekly plan laid out this way.

 

Then, I get down to the details about 1-2 weeks before the week I am planning for and create my Week-at-a-Glance as a guide.

[Osaubi]

I write a course of study so I can keep track of what we are using and why. I usually review this every 6 months.

 

I imput everything into Homeschool Tracker. Once that is done I usually spend about 20min making an agenda for each child. I also add any field trips or co-ops at that time.

 

I really like HST because it allows me to have a schedule, but change it easily if I need to. I really hated paper schedules b/c I would always have arrows, and it would look messy. Now all I have to do it just move a box, and the reschedule is done.

 

HTH

[SherryTX]

http://tweakedacademy.blogspot.com/2008/09/cheating.html

 

 

 

LOVE THE BLOG - Thanks - I have it bookmarked! =)

[mcconnellboys]

I do plan everything out for the year. I use a plan book and a PENCIL, LOL, so that I can change my mind if I want, later.

 

I divide any curricular materials or workbooks out by the total number of days I'll do each class. I add in any extra things we'll do as we go along through the year.

 

I generally go through the planner one subject at a time until I've got everything planned for the year. For next year, I have my science plans together, but I haven't started history/lit/reading yet.

 

I have spelling and logic scheduled, but not grammar and math.

[Aurelia]

When you are planning yoru school year, how detailed are you plans? Do you just pick your curriculum and work through each subject chronologically until you finish the lessons and then move on to the next grade level, without regard for a calendar or set lesson plan?

 

Or, do you sit with a calendar and plan every detail so that you know exactly which day you are doing each day throughout the year?

 

If your plans are very detailed, can you tell me your planning process? Do you use any special forms? Does it take hours?

 

 

We pick the curriculum and work through to the end. We finish when we finish. I don't like being tied to a calendar, since stuff happens and life gets in the way, and I tend to get upset if my carefully laid plans get messed up. It helps that we school year-round so if, for some reason, we don't finish everything in 40 weeks, we have lots of time to get it done before we start the next school year. :001_smile: