Let's talk planning out the year and scheduling

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  • Regan
    Participant

    Okay, I really looking for a flexible way to plan and schedule this next years school year!  I really like a do the next thing approach, but I still need to have a written plan at the beginning of the year, mainly so I can see at a glance what is coming and what needs to be done to prepare!  Does that make sense?  This past year, I did a printed planner that I put together.  It was not dated, nor did it have days of the week.  I just labeled each day, day 1, day 2, day 3 and so on.   Every week or so I would plan a few weeks ahead and would write in my “plan”.  As we all know, sometimes you stay on something more than one day or life happens and you finish something the next day!  I am considering the SCM Organizer, but regardless, I still like the idea of having a written out plan in front of me!  I am super flexible, but during the year, I just find it harder to find time to sit down and plan.  So, I would like to plan it all out this Summer for the whole year.  With that said, what do you ladies do to put a schedule together and also to plan out your days?  I will have 3 in school this year with my oldest in 3rd grade!  So, I am still doing most everything with very little independent work.  There are some things I will be skipping and some things I will be adding in.  I need to plan and put it all together and lay it all out!  Then check things off as I go!  I know I can print off all the Table of Contents and check them off as we go, but that doesn’t help me to look at a document and see everything that is coming in the next few weeks!  Does such a thing exist?  It’s almost like I need a spreadsheet/grid type set up.  We start school in mid-July and I am just trying to think of what I can put together that will eliminate planning during the school year!  Anyone have something like this that is working well for them?

    HollyS
    Participant

    My plan this year is to type up our entire year, in planner format.  However, I’m only going to print 6 weeks at a time.  That way I can make changes as we go.  If a curriculum isn’t working or we need to schedule it at a different pace, I can easily change it on the computer, without having to re-print an entire year’s worth of changes!  I plan on gathering materials & resources, as well as printing/copying pages needed, for those 6 weeks at this time.  Library books will have to be checked out 1-2 weeks ahead of time.

    The SCM Organizer is another popular option. I know there are several moms on these boards who use it.  We’ll actually be using Memoria Press’s interactive planner, but it’s not really set up for Charlotte Mason subjects, so I don’t think it would be a good choice for you.

    HSMAMA
    Participant

    Have you tried OneNote? I recently started using this to plan and it’s been amazing. So easy to enter info, link PDF’s on file, etc. I think there is even a way to link it to give you alerts when you need to order/prep something, but I am not sure how to do this yet.

    I am typically more of a pen to paper type person, but OneNote has been very cool.

    Regan
    Participant

    HollyS… I like your idea in breaking planning into 6 week periods.  I might even break them into months so I just print one at the beginning of each month!  But I could plan for the whole year!   I really do need to input some things into the SCM Organizer and try it out.  Is the SCM Organizer printable?

    HSMAMA… Tell me about one OneNote.  Is it like a spreadsheet?  Is it online?

    HSMAMA
    Participant

    OneNote is a Microsoft program. (https://www.onenote.com/) I have never used the app, I just use it offline on my laptop. There are so many ways to use OneNote. I am just learning, but I have calendars, plans, checklists, etc in mine. Lots of people use it to send assignments to their kids too. If you google OneNote homeschool you will get a wealth of different ways to use it. 🙂

    Amanda
    Participant

    What I’ve done is make a grid in Excel for each subject and filled it with the lessons I want to complete each term. Before each term I’ll review all the lessons we’ve got coming up in each subject, and make notes on the grid if there’s something I’ll need to prepare for or borrow from the library. It’s fairly simple, but it lets me get a birds eye view of what the entire year looks like. Also, I anticipate bumps in the road and try to schedule some “catch-up” days at the end of each term. Then on Sunday afternoons I copy and paste from each subject’s grid onto a master grid/list that I print out to work from that week.

    This master list has family subjects as well as individual subjects for each child – it lists absolutely everything I want to get done that week, and I just check off each lesson once it’s done. As long as everything gets checked off by the end of the day on Friday, I don’t care if Monday’s science lesson was completed on Monday or if we didn’t get to it until Thursday – I don’t move it around on the list, I just leave it on whatever day I originally had it listed and check it off once it’s complete. If by chance we don’t get some things done, I add them onto the list for next week.

    The best part of doing it this way is that once we get to Friday afternoon, I’ll compare the master list that’s still on the computer to my printed master list (on which I’ve checked off what we actually accomplished.) I add any notes or extra things we did to the computerized list, and then I save it and that’s our official record for the week!

     

    Regan
    Participant

    Amanda, that sounds great!  I’m trying to picture what you are describing.  Is there any way to share it?

     

    Amanda
    Participant

    Not sure if this will work, but I’ll give it a try! Here is my master list for week 3 from the last school year. I would fill this out on Sunday evenings and print it to work from the following week. For subjects where we just “do the next thing” for 10-15 minutes, like math, copywork, Latin, and reading, I don’t plan ahead of time what we’ll do – I would just leave it blank, pencil in what was accomplished each day, and then type it onto this list on Friday, to save for record keeping.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/88ibo0jdbwxfyal/Example.xlsx?dl=0

    Here is what I’m going to use for this school year,  now that I’ve got my 4 year old tagging along. I will just print this double-sided and work from it. The blank area at the bottom of the Family Subjects page will be where I will record any notes for the week (such as extracurricular activities or field trips.) When my 4-year-old is older (and once I add my youngest into the mix) I’ll have a page for family subjects and then a separate page for each student’s individual studies, so my master list for the week will be two pages front and back.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/55dry667rvrdtng/Example2.xlsx?dl=0

    Finally, this is what I would do for each term in each subject. Since we only do science 2x/week, I’ve got it separated into blocks of 2 lessons. I’ll just copy the text from two boxes and paste it onto my master list.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/s1x3idq8t2kqbid/Example3.xlsx?dl=0

    I hope this gives you a good idea of what I’m talking about! Feel free to use my example to create a list tailored to your needs!

    Regan
    Participant

    Amanda…. oh my goodness, THIS!!!  This is what I need!  Glory!  So, does it take you long to enter everything in?  It seems so time consuming, but this is exactly what I need!  You mentioned you do it every Sunday evening so you aren’t doing it all at one time!  Now my wheels are turning!  Thanks so much!

    Amanda
    Participant

    It doesn’t take me long, because I fill out the individual subject plans (e.g. Science T1, Science T2, Science T3) over the summer. When I do those it might take an hour per subject, maybe a bit less? I basically fill them out using the table of contents in the book we’re using, making sure we get to all of the chapters/lessons. I guess it’s kind of the same as printing out the table of contents and crossing things off as we do them, but this way I can get a bird’s eye view and see how much needs to happen each term.

    If I get all the subject plans completed over the summer, then on Sundays during the school year all I have to do is copy from the subject plans and paste to the weekly plan, and that takes all of 2 minutes. Then I just quickly flip through the books/lessons we’ll work on that week to familiarize myself with the content, and I’m ready for Monday morning!

    beccawalker2000
    Participant

    I’m struggling with planning. Always have. I’m going to study this feed! Thanks, ladies!

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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