Just to throw a curve ball.... how many of you don't use a planner, or schedule ...

or either? I am just curious mind you, but do I really want to start in on all that planning A G A I N? Sigh..
Of course it could just be the sleepy mom who was up and awake by 330 at the latest.. worried about the fact my ds wants LESS school, and really only requiers less school, he will probably be done in February..
or it could be the fact I have been feeling like I am wasting my life away teaching my kids just so they can have a good education that really means something that will help them become whoever they choose to become once they graduate from my academy......
but, I wanna know.. is the planning of a year , or Month, or quarter, or semester really worth it?
:wink::|

 

For me it is.....I am from the netherlands and there is no homeschooling material here. so I have to get almost everything out of a 100 books. so I invest time NOW to prepare so I do'n have to prepare and search search search the coming WEEEEKS. But e.g. for 'reading and writing' I do have a quite normal curriculum (only for that) and I do not plan that at all. It's fixed, we will see how far we come. But with the rest it IS worth it for US ;-)

 

It is worth it to me for my own sanity. We did a very loose schedule last year. They basically did so many lessons on the computer and so many workbook pages. Everything was covered, but some days I wasn't sure what was going on. I had newborn twins to deal with and was constantlyl exhausted. So my only care was to make sure everything was covered. I am MUCH more awake now and going that route again would drive me nuts. It threatened to do so last year, but I purposely mentally blocked it.

Do I think the above is what everyone should do? Absolutely not. Just what I ahve to do to feel adequate and ready.

 

TM - I am now planning for the week. That's it. I can't THINK beyond that even if I try to. It just doesn't work for me no matter HOW organized I try and be about it.

I LOVE organizational STUFF - but will spend the $$ or download and print and never use the things I get.

I DO have goals for the year however and I do plan on acheiving those goals with the kids and I think they will do a lot better once I get on track with those things.

And I think I need to start drinking more so I can sleep and relax Because like you I think about too much sometimes and it gets overwhelming and I am either up wayyyy too early (even for living on a farm) or up wayyyyyyy too late (for an old person like me )

 

I really don't plan out in advance. I know what we're doing, and when we're done with one page we move on to the next.

When I was in the classroom, I had to do all these well-written-out plans in my plan book, laid out for the principal to see whenever she walked into the classroom, ready for a sub in case of sickness. Guess what!!! My whole week's plans were obsolete by 10:00 on Monday morning! When we first started hs'ing, Carl wanted to know what subjects were going to be taught when. I told him I had a hard time teaching like that in a classroom; there was NO WAY I was teaching like that at home (one of my more submissive moments, lol!) He's since learned to trust me. I sometimes wish I COULD follow a "proper" schedule, though, especially with Rachael starting High School.

 

I am getting inspired.. anyone else out there watn to encourage me?
PLEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASE?
I am thinking again of my wonderful days of looking at what I have to do, knowing its planned out and knowing I already know that I did the stuff I needed to do... See my dd14 is doing SOS, and MUS, thats basically already set up... but ds has English set up, and sorted in a binder by weeks... I think thats way cool!
I have to do MAth ( HOrizons 6) and that I am debating how to do , Should I just leave it as it is, and know its set one lesson a day, or should I break it up to weekly with tabs like I did with English. Ds thought it was so cool how I did the English when he saw it.
I tore the pages otu put in binder by week.
I am thinking of Making a nice check list for him too.. so each week he can check the lessons off.
as he does them, and I can have a check list for "I graded it"
Then I need the Science sorted, I started working on that one... I tabbed the book, not sure if I put it in the binder yet.
Spanish is on SOS< so thats all set up...
What else do I have? I want a reading LOG BOOK, so I need to set that up, weekly monthly goals and reward system... I signed up for the Pizza Hut one too, for that I can add it in as well for the monthly goal reward.
History, I am doing STOW, so I have to figure how much or how little of that I need and record it somehow I guess.. Im still waiting for it to arrive.

 

Oh, last year I tried to put everything in Homeschool Tracker, all nice and neat!!!

I even kept it up for about a month, lol!!!

 

We work like Jackie said (and I'm SOOOO glad I don't have to make those lesson plans for my classroom anymore!!!). I DO write a schedule for a week--an idea for the kids to follow, and so I make sure we're keeping on track. Sometimes we go fater or slower than I plan it. It's very easy to change and that's what I do sometimes. We're fairly laid back, but TRY to make sure they get through their work at a decent rate. I DON'T do long-term schedules, such as that binder you did for English. That may work well for you, but for me and my little clan? Well, it'd sure look pretty! But we'd be different (either ahead or behind) within a few days, then it'd throw off all my hard work!

So I have a general overall view of what needs to be accomplished each year. But then we go as fast or slow as we need to to get through so they learn the best. No, I don't feel I'm wasting my life away AT ALL!

Yeah, Jackie....I keep being tempted by Homeschool Tracker, but I just am sure I won't keep up with it, so I never even start! My little template in Word is all I need, is easy to change, and the kids like it. So, there you have it!

 

yeah I started that, (homeschool trakker, did firs month set up for the basics of what we do for English and MAth... )then came up with the tab idea, I am thinking I can maaayyybeeee get the note book set up to say the basics of what I need for each week, but not have to worry about what else I need.

 

I want it to be easy but satsifyingly simple and organised at the same time?
I want ds11 to be able to say "Oh Look I only have to do ---- this week ! " then decide if he wants to go ahead when he is bored, or done early.. or if he wants a break he can decide if the next days work is easier he could combine them and then ask me.
Thats why the tabs looked good to me...
I just counted lessons for English6, its a lesson a day that made it simple. But I looked at HOrizon Math 6 and thought, gee, Why take them out, English is already hole punched, Math isnt. I could mark it as it is, I have little tiny tab stickes they are so cool! I could do those for every ten days, thats when they have the tests right? So that would work, I just don't like it when th books are all torn and messed up half way through, thats another reason Iw as thinking of doing it that way but WAIT! MAYBE ( I love brainstorming here!) I could tear out the pages each week. Put in my out box with the date on it. Then he can do his box of Math lessons per week and place them in my new "Grade ME" box.
That would work for math, then I just would need to say on the "My Daily , or Weekly Lessons" check your Math box for today's work?

 

I'm sort of like Jackie, too. I tried using a formal planner last year, and quickly became frustrated with it because I felt compelled to follow it, and if we got off one day, I had to move everything forward to compensate so we were still on track with it. I liked being able to see the whole scope of what we were doing, but didn't like the rigidness of the every day planner. So this year, I'm following a more relaxed plan - I'm planning the big picture of each subject, so I know where we're going and how we are getting there, but I'm not planning exactly when we're taking each turn or how fast we're driving. (To use a really goofy metaphor. :lol

For example, for LA we're going to do Rod & Staff English, but every once in a while we're going to take a day "off" to play Mad Libs, or write letters to Grandma, or write stories. I want to have a plan for roughly where in the sequence of R&S we are going to take those breaks, but I'm not going to plan exactly which day of the week and month that is.

We're going to do world geography for social studies, and I need to work on that, too, but our main "spine" hasn't come in yet. It's making me crazy. (Ok, crazier. LOL)

In the meantime, some of the subjects take more preparation than others, so I am working on those now. For example, for Bible, we're going to do unit studies/lapbooks about different character traits. I found lapbook templates on www.homeschoolshare.com, but I need to decide which ones we're going to use, which verses we're actually going to memorize, and write a loose script/plan for each one. I'm still in the midst of that.

 

I don't plan anything!

I do try to do certain subjects on certain days
M~math, grammar, reading, spelling, sign language, science, scout stuff, and music
T~math, grammar, reading, history, geography, art, sign
W~math, grammar, reading, science, sign, phys ed, spelling
T~math, grammar, reading, history, geography, sign, health
F~math, grammar, reading, spelling, science, sign, home ec (cooking)

For math we almost every day go through some flash cards, the rest of math is just games from some great books, we look and see if we have what we need to do a game if not we pick another and make note to gather up what we needed for the game we couldn't play.

grammar we are working through the free workbook from scott foresman

Reading, some days he reads what I want him to, other days he can read what ever he wants, some days I feel like him reading out loud others I don't. We do pick books from bookadventure.org once a week.

science we are working through http://www.eequalsmcq.com/Thank you for downloading Life Science.htm

History we are watching movies and things that pertain to different points in US history, we are loosely following "The Complete Book of US History"

Geography we are slowly going through "The Complete Book of Maps and Geography"

Sign we have a computer program for, and we are moving ahead whenever we feel we want or are ready.

I learned it does me no good to plan things out.. even the best laid plans fail for us. We like to follow the winds, where ever it is that they may lead us.

I know, I didn't inspire you to do your planning, but wanted you to know it is ok to not plan.. I just have picked what I want to get through and when we get it done then I will pick something else.. if it takes us 5 years or 5 months we will be fine.

 

I'm doing a weekly assignment sheet. THEN they each have a planner and can plan what days they want to do stuff (that's if they want to). But all the stuff I list NEEDS to be done by Friday morning at 11am so we can go to park day with other people

 

I don't schedule/plan but I use curriculum that is set out in a way that it is pre~scheduled & I then just twig it as needs be. I'm odd though & get quite strange if I feel boxed in by schedules or curriculum & although it never looks organized it actually is because I have got a plan in my head. I just don't like lists or writing things down. Which doesn't help, does it? Nah! Go with the planning bunnies. I think they have something going; I just can't do it.

 

I basically do a rough outline of my week. I list each subject and write in what activities I've got planned for that day/subject, or what book I'm going to read, or what book the lesson is coming from and the pages to be used. I will also print out all my worksheets and stuff for the week and put it in a folder with the lesson planner. But this is only a guideline..if we get into a discussion that seems interesting then we go with it.

 

I enjoy going through all the books when they come in and planning out the entire year onto a handy little spreadsheet. We end up with many "flex" days built into my schedules so if we slack off one day it's not a big deal. Also towards the end of each quarter my son likes to finish up some subjects all in one day so that he can have a break in between quarters or get done with the year a little early.

I did try not doing my daily schedule for the whole year and just have a general plan for what to cover for the year and it was too hectic for both of us and too tempting to just goof off or put things off. It got so bad I was actually even late on one of my quarterly reports...I go through an umbrella school. I can use my own curriculum, but I do have to submit my reports on time.

So apparently we need the structure of a schedule and since I enjoy doing it, it works out rather well.

PS... I don't put actual dates into my schedule, I just label each day...day 1, day 2, etc to day 180.

 

I do not have anything planned. I tried and struggled with it. I do write down what we do as we do it. I cover certain subjects everyday. Even then, we stray from this as well. As long as we are done by the end of the year, then all is well. I tried to plan out a week. But some subjects Ems liked so much that she wanted to cover more pages than planned. So I let her do this. Last year she finished her reading speed drills in a couple of months so we just added something else in its place.

 

I follow a loosely structured schedule . First of all I do everything on the computer so it is sooo easy to fix. With pencil and paper I felt that I could not plan out enough and I felt obligated to do what the schedule said.

In the fall I sit down and plan out the book in each subject. I go through and make a chart with supplies I will need, worksheets, etc. I also include library books (I research online at the library).

Then I go through my calendar and plan about 3 months, week by week. I do this on the computer so it can easily be changed. I do not put specifically what I want to do on each day, but put down what I want to do that week (max 4 lessons because we only school 4 days).

Finally, DD has an assignment notebook. For 1st grade I wrote down the assignments for the day. For this year I want to write down the assignments for the week that need to be completed by Sunday night. Hopefully this will help move her toward more independent work.

 

I did a little planning but not 3 months of which page to do when. What I did was make a chart of which subjects are done on which days. Then I got a breif overview of how many lessons there are in each book and broke that down into days. For example, say for math we have to do 3 pages per day or whatever amount to finish the book this year. I am in the process of writing that all out and thats going to be our basic plan.

I did have to do "real" planning for science and history because they both need materials to do the projects. I need to know what to get in advance so I have everything I need to teach the classes. I will probably do two weeks in advance for those classes.

 

I tried too not using my daily lesson plan last year for a while it messed up my system.. I am thinking, from this one, your SPREAD SHEET? what does it look like, cause it got me thinking maybe do a monthly, goal like thing .. on a spread sheet calendar type of thing wiht a MONTH only on the page, not days. I could say put in it something like " Should be at lesson so and so , or such and such. Grade Project for science fair, Feild trip to Calistoga this m onth! things like that? Anyone do something like that breif for month stuff?