Can I use the Organizer alone to plan next year?

Ruth: For this year, just figure what resources you are using for your child and put that in.  Your other goals will come together as you go.  

I find it easier to put on paper what subject is on what day and then just schedule my resources that way. =)  For example, if you are doing Mod.1 , just schedule the guide for daily and you are done, as long as you get the resources needed.  (Although as my kids are getting older, I usually add the books from each subject like Oxford, Boy of the Pyramids and the Pharaohs..so my history list looks more complete than a guide on our records.  I DO NOT assign a paticular day for those, I just put Saturday on it, pull it up the day we read it and mark it finished that day.)  The same things apply to all your regular subjects like math, grammar, science, copywork, etc. Pretty simple.

If you know what literature books you are reading, put those in for the days you want to read.  I just entered mine for the year by putting in the first one on my list, telling the Organizer I wanted to read it everyday.  Then I added Alice in Wonderland and I told the O that I wanted to follow Peter Pan.  I did that with all our literature books and it will automatically do it for me.

The tricky ones for me are the once a month things like composer biography (we listen to the music everyday, but I don’t read the biography everyday) and Shakespeare.  lol

For keeping track of odds-n-end add on things, I go through my guides and jot it down with the lesson it goes with. It will be there when I need it, I don’t have to have extra papers all the time, and I can add to the Organizer the day we use it and mark it finished so it is on the records, but not bugging me all the time on my schedule.

I have the Planning book and love it but I actually get to the weekly and daily part and bog down…so since I generally use the “whole” source I just put it in the O and let it do the daily thing. As I get more experience I find that I can do those principles with less paper all the time. lol  Plus the longer I do this, I see my long range goals becoming more concrete and I start seeing where we are headed in a more realistic way without so many extra papers. Something Ifound helpful was just making a master list of subjects and jot down possible curriculums recommended from the forum, that is next to my Big Picture Plan and I just refer to it as needed.  It cut out so much extra paper – I felt like I used a whole forest myself the first we hs.

I hope that made sense. =)