How much more planning should I do?

I think when my kids were that age, once I knew the types of things I wanted to do, I planned a few things in advance but I also just kept reading through the books.  So for example, I knew that I wanted to read books X, Y, Z but I didn’t plan what days or how many pages to read – we just read.  So my planning book would say that I was going to read those books, but they didn’t have when I was reading them until we got to it.  Does that make sense?  This also left me the flexibility to add or change read alouds as we went.

But, there were other things I did plan to do on specific days, such as an art project, or a nature study, or something like that.

I guess it was more a matter of personal preference:  some things I put down on my weekly planner in advance, and others I put down after as a journaling of what we did.  I know – clear as mud! 

It seems like the easiest thing for you to do might be to get some sort of planner, notebook, or even just a calendar on which you can put all your thoughts in one place.  Then you can use that as your reminder on what to do.

HTH a little.  Not sure if I answered your question accurately or not!

I like to copy the materials list for each curriculum and keep them all in once place (I have a HS binder).  That way I don’t have to get out each guide every week…it’s all together in my binder.  I try to locate or buy a month or so of supplies at a time.   

This year, I have a year long schedule of what we’ll be covering.   It’s a total of 4 pages (one sided).  At a glance, I can see we should be covering the 10 Commandments for Bible, obedience for our habit, lesson 7 for Latin, Creation/Adam & Eve/Jubal & Tubal Cain for history, creation for science, and cleaning the kitchen for handicrafts.  I left math and Spelling Wisdom sections blank so I can fill in the details later.  I only listed subjects I want to finish on time or set specific goals for…I didn’t include things like nature study or picture study.  This schedule is just to help me stay on track…I’m sure the actual lessons and topics will be adjusted during the year.

After our lessons, I like to record what we actually did…what specific chapters we read, projects they worked on, workbook pages they finished, etc.   I’m hoping to pick up an inexpensive planner from Walmart for this, but in the past I’ve created my own pages to fill out (or used printable pages from Donnayoung.org).

As much as I’d love to use the SCM Organizer, I’m too much of a “paper planner”.