Can I choose the date?

Most of the books I have chosen to use are already in the system, so I just pick them and select what section we are doing from the book if we aren’t doing it cover to cover, so to speak.  I have tried to do a paper organizer that says we are doing chapter 1 Monday, chap 2 Tuesday, etc. and plan a bunch of things like that at a time.  HAHAHA!  I hated it because if I missed a day (due to unplanned things, like bookworm mentioned) then I would get frustrated beyond belief trying to redo all my scheduling – and sometimes my kids just didn’t go as fast at understanding as I thought they would.  Again, having to re-write my schedule.  After a few times of this, I would find myself not even doing the planning anymore because I was spending so much time on it.  Then I was sort of drifting into a bad “let’s just skim this and call it school today” sort of attitude.  In the meantime, my state wants records of hours taught in all major subjects.  Do you know how hard it is to keep accurate, quick records when your written plan has to adjust every week for something?  Arghh.. =) 

So, since the CM way is not to keep grades per se, and the organizer’s features are set up so that I can put in my resources and tweak as needed whenever I want, without an eraser (heehee) and still keep track that “yes, we worked on lesson 15 in history today and it was so neat that we didn’t finish it, so we need to do it tomorrow” – and still keep me progressing in my chosen resources, it has proven its cost effectiveness in our home just in hours freed up timewise.  Plus, it actually keeps my records for me by tracking what each student has done and is scheduled to do in the immediate future.  I have the SCM Planning Your CM Education, so my goals and plans are already in place, just not so much on the day to day plan on paper, so I can remind myself at anytime that we are progressing and that we are okay.

I think that as you dive into this full time in the fall, this organizer might make more sense.  Right now, I see your concern and it is valid.  If you are a paper person and visual, then you want to see it in front of you so that you KNOW you are prepared!  (I am like that too!)  But see, the difference here is that I only have a general schedule on paper (so basic that it only tells me which topics I want to teach each day) and then I refer to that pretty much only when I am inputting my resources.  I am doing 106 Days of Science.  I decided that it would work best for us to do M, Th, and F.  So I put it in the scheduler that way.  I am planning on doing the whole book so it will adjust the lessons to what I say is accomplished that day.  It is still scheduled, it is getting done, but I don’t feel the need to write it out because I know that it is already in there.

The other cool thing about the organizer is that I could conceivably put in my kids daily jobs as life skills and combine a school/chore list into one if I wanted to.  I have done that to some extent with the handicraft/lifeskills I am doing with my girls this year.  It helps me to keep them moving in the skills (besides dishes and cleaning) I think that they should know how to do.

You have the first steps already figured out.  Put them in and schedule them how you have planned.  Then relax, and as you are doing school in September, you will know if you need to tweak it.  It does allow you to tweak everyday if you need to before or after you put in your daily work.  You will not get behind the first few weeks as you are doing this.  We all do it every time, veterans or newbies.  =)  Even PS teachers do this at the beginning of school.  =)  There is really no way to realistically plan lesson plans for an entire year and not have to have some ability to tweak, no matter the type of organizing that you have to do. 

I don’t know if anyone will be able to show the advantages of the organizer to you before you really dig into your year, though.  I had to try several paper types before I caught the “vision” and simplicity of the organizer.  I felt similiar to you in seeing it all mapped out.  =)

@Ladyofthehouse, We will definitely do something like that “week at a glance” at some point.

What did you mean by having the curriculum guide template in the Organizer? Did you mean just for reference or to have all of the books for a section of the guide loaded into your schedule for you?

By the way, for those who are not aware, we have a public Wish List of CM Organizer features. Ideas are always welcome and discussions like we’re having here help shape what goes on that list.

Doug,

About the curriculum guide I just meant as a blank template for me to fill in while I’m in the planning stage. As in a template with all of the subjects down the left and grades (or I’d actually put my kids names) along the top. That way I could fill it in and be sure that I was covering all of the different subjects for each grade and then with that master plan in the organizer I could add my own resources or pull from the book-finder like I do now.

I’m already doing this system only I move between paper (my handwritten personalized version of the curriculum guide) and the organizer. So I guess my suggestion was just to help us streamline the planing to organizing/scheduling fazes.

Thanks for all of your work, I’ve been RAVING about the organizer to my husband all week :o)