So who's a planner and who's not?

[joannqn]

I plan out the year using a large filing crate and binder method. I'm adjusting it slightly next year based on how it went this year, my first year using it.

 

The filing crate has hanging files for each month. Inside each month is a folder for each week of that month. If a week is in two months, I put it in the month in which that the week begins. Each child gets a different color folder. Then I pull apart any student workbooks they have and file the work by week. If I want them to do a lesson of spelling per week, I start with lesson one and put it in the first week of the year, lesson 2 in the second, etc. With some things, I figure out how many pages I want them to do each week in order to finish by the end of the year and put that many pages in each week. If the work is a text, or anything else that isn't individual pages, I could write down what I want done on a piece of paper and file that. Texts get put in the back half of the filing crate. (For a larger family, you'll probably need more filing crates. The work for two children fit easily into one large 18" long crate.)

 

Then each child has a three ring binder with plastic pocket dividers. There's a divider for each subject. Each divider has a pocket on each side, so you could have each hold two subjects or have one side be the "to do" side and the other side be the "done" side. Each weekend, I pull the coming week's folders and put the papers in their corresponding pocket.

 

This method makes life easy for us. We can take our work with us by simply grabbing the binder and a pencil. If we need a text to go with it, we'd grab that, too, although we usually just take the work that doesn't need additional texts. My kids know what is expected and can work out of their binders without supervision. They know that everything in their binder must be done by Friday or they'll spend Saturday finishing it without breaks.

 

Completed work can be pulled out, graded, and filed wherever you keep finished work. I have a set of binders for the current year's work as I keep everything for the current year. At the end of the year, I pull just a sample to put in a large binder that holds all years and toss the rest.

 

This is the first year that we've haven't fallen behind so I plan to stick with this. The only flaw I've found is that my son likes to work ahead in math which makes me have to look ahead to find which week I pulled math out of last. Next year, I'll be putting all of his math into one folder in the front and pulling each lesson out as he needs it.

[Nan in Mass]

Or your child decides to walk to Washington DC with Buddhist monks. Or your father decides that September would be a good month to go sailing. Or someone needs their wisdom teeth removed. Or the ice is good. Or the science museum has a special exhibit that relates to something you just happen to be studying now. Or there is an excellent article in Smithsonian on Shakespeare right when you are reading Hamlet. Or someone gives you a baby bird. Or someone decides to go walk across France and needs to learn some French in a hurry. Or...

[Geo]

Or your child decides to walk to Washington DC with Buddhist monks. Or your father decides that September would be a good month to go sailing. Or someone needs their wisdom teeth removed. Or the ice is good. Or the science museum has a special exhibit that relates to something you just happen to be studying now. Or there is an excellent article in Smithsonian on Shakespeare right when you are reading Hamlet. Or someone gives you a baby bird. Or someone decides to go walk across France and needs to learn some French in a hurry. Or...

 

snicker, snicker :thumbup:

 

Geo, who shouldn't even show her avatar on this thread

[tadoussac]

I find we do better if I spend more time thinking about our daily rhythm instead of following a list of pages to be done. Our current daily schedule is more or less like this:

 

 

• 7:30 Wake kids. I may need to wake them again at 7:40 or 7:50
  
• 8:15-9:00 or so: Read alouds, including historical fiction, novels we just like, living math, living science. Kids often eat, curl up under blankets, knit or play quietly with toys as I read.
  
• 9:00-10:00 Chores. Since I started a daily one hour of time dedicated to taking care of the animals, cleaning bedrooms, tidying and getting dinner started our lives have been going much more smoothly.
  
• 10:00-1:00 Schoolwork plus lunches.
  
  • dd12 (dyslexic): 1 h reading, three pie pieces from Aleks math plus multiplication drills, piano or violin
    
  • ds10 (severe learning disabilities): 1.5 h intensive reading instruction with me, plus independent online educational games of his choice.
    
  • dd7: Dreambox online math, 2 pages of Singapore math, 2 pages Easy Grammar, 1 page geography, 1 page theory, 1 page of Just Write
    

   

   

  [*]1:00-3:00 Schoolwork

   

  • dd12: piano or violin, Sequential Spelling x2 with me, Latin with me, writing.
    
  • ds10: 2h work with Learning Assistant on math
    
  • dd7: violin, and with me: All About Spelling, Sequential Spelling, WWE, Latin, FLL, Geography
    

   

   

  [*]3:00-whenever: Group activities including Karate, cross country skiing, gymnastics, biathlon, woodwork, cubs, and choir.

   

 

Our schedule is flexible. Some days, my dd12 babysits or has music lessons during the day. On Thursdays, my ds10 has OT and my dd7 joins in. In the end, I don't worry if the kids don't get through all their work for a particular day because I know we have enough scheduled time to make sure that we will touch on the subject the next day. We rarely make up for missed days.

 

Just another approach....

 

Leslie-Jean

Edited March 26, 2009 by tadoussac
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[Christine]

I think I would have to say:

 

I'm a planner.

 

But, in reality, I'm a box checker. And I suffer from a disability. . .

 

For, if there is no box to check, then (OBVIOUSLY!) there is nothing to be done.

:tongue_smilie:

 

Which would explain how some people's "just do the next thing" approach doesn't work for me. :glare: (Because there's no box.)

 

Thus, a planner I am!

 

Oh, but I don't plan by time; tried that and flunked miserably. It was a very sad couple of hours. . .

[Melinda]

I am *totally* a planner.

 

This year (our first), I made a master plan of which curricula/level to use for each subject. I also set up goals of where I wanted my 5yo to be when we "let out" in June. I did not make specific goals for the 4yo since she is not officially in K until this coming school year.

 

About once a month, I sit down and assess what we have done, what we need to accomplish, and how everything is going in general.

 

Once a week (Sunday afternoons) I sit and plan our week, including making a list of what I need to pick up from the store for school a week from now. I also assign certain lessons/activities to each day.

 

I keep *everything* they have done and when they progress to the next grade in June, I will weed out their projects and worksheets and assemble their portfolios for this year. Their portfolios are 2-3 samples of their best work in each subject, to show progression.

 

One other thing I am doing is writing up a semester report on each kid (September, January, and June) stating what/how they are doing with each subject -- curriculum used, how it's working for that child, etc. I also have a part of the report that highlights their interests, what they are excelling at, and what they need some work in, as well as how I am working to remedy any issue. Finally, I give reading level assessments each semester and putting all of the results in each report.

 

I do these reports for a couple reasons. If anybody ever questions what we are doing or if we move to a state that is harder to HS in, I am covered. Also, it helps me see more fully (and look back easily) who my child is, and what I need to do as their teacher, as well as how they are progressing in each area.

[dymphna57]

Except homeschooling!

Seriously, I fail at keeping a checkbook register. I do everything last minute and must drive family and friends crazy.

Homeschooling gets more complicated as they grow and there will be some point you need to either plan or keep great records. I find it easier to keep records if I have planned first.

I like HST+ as my brain doesn't run in straight lines.

Planning keeps us all honest.

[KristineinKS]

I, too, love, love, love to plan more than I like to actually implement the plans. However, I must have a plan in place or we'd never get anything done. I have an always-changing spreadsheet with our yearly plan - everything roughly scheduled out by day, but since we often get off track or distracted by something new, this isn't always reliable. Every weekend I try to spend several hours planning out the following week & writing everything in my lesson planner. Then I also spend at least an hour each morning before school and make any necessary adjustments. On the occasional weekend that I get lazy - or busy - and don't go back through our plans, school suffers!

[Jenny in Florida]

. . . that's what works for my kids.

 

They both thrive on having defined goals to meet and boxes to check. Plus, I know myself well enough to know that if I didn't plan, nothing would get done.

 

Also, we just don't tend to use curriculum that is a "do the next thing" approach. For a variety of reasons--our family's worldview, my kids' intelligence and learning styles, my own inability to refrain from tweaking--I end up building a lot of our curriuclum myself.

 

So, plan I must.

[Jenny in Florida]

Or your child decides to walk to Washington DC with Buddhist monks. Or your father decides that September would be a good month to go sailing. Or someone needs their wisdom teeth removed. Or the ice is good. Or the science museum has a special exhibit that relates to something you just happen to be studying now. Or there is an excellent article in Smithsonian on Shakespeare right when you are reading Hamlet. Or someone gives you a baby bird. Or someone decides to go walk across France and needs to learn some French in a hurry. Or...

 

Oh, we deal with that stuff, too. This is why, for the last couple of years, I've built flexible time into our plan. So, I plan a four-day schoolweek, which means we have one day a week to do that museum exhibit or read the article about Shakespeare (although that would probably happen at the breakfast table, just because). And I plan a short year to coordinate with my daughter's college calendar, and we use that time off to do road trips and any other fun, semi-educational stuff that appeals.

 

And, yes, every now and then something comes along that just blows my plan out of the water. Last year, for example, when my son had the opportunity to spend three weeks living and working with professional theatre and opera people and then to spend a week in NY rehearsing and performing. Well, we dropped a theme unit I had planned and put things on hold and made it work.

 

But, on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis, it works better for us to have a plan, even if we have to tweak it along the way.