Hey I was thinking maybe some of the newbies would like the same help I need in getting things organized again..... How much time do you spend preparing for each week, month or whatever you do, and when do you do it? Do you really spend time on Sundays as I read about people doing? I am asking because I have been so blessed with just going by my scheduled time increments and seeing how much we get done, but I want to be more organised this year so I have already set up English for my 6th grader for the year! I am waiting for his Horizon Math to come and his History, then I want to be able to do an at a glance for him since DD will be SOS and MUSing this year and she will follow her SOS schedule ( also already set up! WEEE!) I am excited for being organized this year! Did I forget to ask WHEN? WHEN do you work on the next weeks set up? To be sure you have everythign and all that? Do you do it monthly? What about for Chemistry stuff? I will need tobe sure I have the stuff ready for her experiments, should I check what I need weekly and memo myself?
I usually sit down each Sunday and plan what I will do each day that week, then I go to the copy store and make copies of whatever needs copying, and then I print off what ever needs printing. It usually takes me about an hour to plan and copy, and then about an hour to make copies (including travel time). Also I should add that On Wednesdays I look over my materials to see if I have anything coming up soon that I might need to purchase supplies for...then I purchase them on Wednesday.
I try to prepare for the week in advance. I can't plan a whole year in advance like some homeschoolers do. I like planning one week in advance in case I can't get the library books I need. I use the weekends to plan out our lessons. If there is something we did not get to cover in time from the previous week, I add it to the new week. I print out worksheets for phonics and handwriting on Sunday evenings or Monday mornings. (I always make sure to have an extra ink cartridge each month).
I've been spending the last couple of weeks slowly planning and addig forms to my binder. I think I now have a foundation and all I'll have to do is sit down for a half an hour or an hour on Sunday night and do up a detailed schedule for the week that I cna post up somewhere and print out all the wroksheets and such that I'll need.
I am excited we got a brother all in one, it looks fantastic once I learn how to use it I will b printing up my notebooking stuff for ds10 and get that ready in a binder, as well as the other things I have been waiting on!
This is definately an area I need to work on. I am not very organized at all. When we decide what he want to do our units on I look up stuff on the internet and look to see what books the library has. But daily printouts and stuff tend to be printed the morning I need them. I would like to plan for the week ahead of time, I can't imagine myself doing much more than that, at least while my kids are little. Sunday is family time most weekends so I don't think that would work for me, but I need to find a time somewhere.
Well going along with our relaxed approach we don't plan! I do look through books for things to do, mostly math and prep games and things like that.. but I do it when I'm in the mood to do that and have the time.
I am a bit obsessive in this department. I plan my entire year (overview) and then I go back and plan each month. After I do that I do the necessary daily planning for 1-3 months ahead of time (print outs, material lists, videos to watch). I allow for enough flexibility just in case someone gets sick or we decided to take a day off every once in a while. I am a list maker and super organized. No sure it is a curse or a blessing.
I plan a week ahead so if I need any books or anything I can go get them on Sunday and have everything ready for Monday morning.
well I will do mine like usual probably.. only I am way over that already haha! cause I have SOs set up and MUS just came and I am eyebaling it figuring out how to get it somewhat scheduled in.. I am excited about all that! I just picked up the teacher maual for the horizon math too so I am figuring that out as well! I plan to be super organized this year and have dd's home school go out with a bang! She will be attending either ds17s school next year or another one she likes the sound of. Since Ds will be in college then, jr college, we will have a little more for her... than we did for him... I am starting to plan for next year already with dsgoing into 6th grade, he will be in 7th then, but What I started this for is to see when you prepare extra stuff you do for the week.. Like I will have my printed up and one computer schedule for the basics, and then want to do my weekly and often daily lessons as well.... I want it to run if I have to run out of town for anything ministry wise and no one say, OOPS I didn't knowwwwwww.. kwim? so once you have your monthly and yearly and all done when do you work on tightening it up?
I try and do as much preplanning as I can over the summer. I have all the courses planned out for anywhere from 25-39 weeks depending on the subject (based on a 4 day week). I keep that in a binder. Last year I would spend an hour while sd was in her co-op class and mark off what we finished and write a plan in my calendar for each day of the following week. This year I have it in homework tracker too so I will copy in the calendar what I need to go over and then print off sd's assignments. I still plan on doing it during co-op or on Sunday night when dh goes over to a friends to do his science fiction role playing game. I know it sounds like what I do is a lot but once it is initially planned out it is really easy to follow for the rest of the year. I am not sure how I will handle it the following year when I am planning for dd too (probably be using Sonlight with her). I plan on starting in July/August too next year so that means June will be crazy once the new curriculum comes in.
I try to write in any videos or even field trips that I want to do. This way as I am planning I can see what I have to get, especially the videos. It sometimes takes a week to get the videos in the library if they are not at our local branch.
I like that idea, thanks! We are also participating in a co op that is getting its schedule set up still too.. so waiting on that for some stuff... we are joining the California History one for fun and I volunteered to do the art side of it, projects and such..... but thats one day a month or so so that should not mess us up too much.
We just joined a local museum that is a living history type museum. It is based on a 19th century village. I am going to have to see what they have going on when we cover the 19th cent. this year. I have to make sure I go an put that in my plan or I will never rember to schedule it.
oh cool!< Thats something I am finding hard, I have to look up the HomeSchool days at local places and add those to my schedule this way I wont forget them as I did last year!
My first year, the curriculum was fully organized for me. It was great at first, but made us all stressed when trying to follow it. Last year, we were completely unorganized. We just set a time and did what we could in that time period. It worked, but it also left me stressed. I wasn't sure everything was getting covered. This year, I am working ahead of time to have each week generally organized. I have a free day at the end of the week in hopes that we can get most, if not all, of it done
I've kinda surprised myself with homeschooling. Generally, in life, I'm a big planner. But with homeschooling I'm much more relaxed. I rough plan about 6 months out. I take each subject and see how it's divided into sections/units/etc. I figure how many sections we should be able to do realistically in 6 months. I have a DayTimer divided by months, so I jot down at the first of each month how much I want to get done in a month, and how that breaks down into the weeks that month. So, when it's all said and done, I have a rough idea of how much of each subject I'd like to have done each week... then I just fly by the seat of my pants with it LOL Some days I don't feel like teaching a certain subject so we skip it that day. Another day it might be that Josh is really feeling into math and it's all we do for our school time that entire day. This way, if we take a day off because SIL wants to take Josh for the day to hang out with his cousin, or whatever, I don't feel guilty for skipping school that day... as long as we catch up our weekly goals at some point during the week it's all good. Since we're schooling year-round, I've not yet felt the need to try and fit a typical school year's worth of work into a specific time frame. That might change as we get into the higher grades if I find he's behind in some areas. But for now, it's working well for us.
