The module guides have really nice table of contents showing terms and lessons. Also, in the guide are all resources listed and charts for each term. I don’t think it would be necessary to make a special spreadsheet. It is an open and go…do the next lesson…guide. Daily and weekly schedules are where I would rather put my energy, letting each day’s outline be my guide to my goals. I can have the best spreadsheets and still be spinning my wheels without the routines and daily plan. Kind of like “mind your nickles and dimes, and the dollars will take care of themselves”…as you progress daily through your material in snippets of time, you’ll get through your planned material eventually. I have lost too many great days to anxiety, overplanning, and “this is the day I organize my entire life.” I wish you a wonderful rest of the week. You are doing great.
but the modules are only for the history/bible/geography correct?
Yes Janell, I am having problems transferring the spreadsheet material to the daily plan. I would like to have a plan that shows Monday do this, Tues, do this.
Have you made a basic daily time block schedule? That is where I would start. I think it is important to know how much time you really have before you decide the details. Also, the modules have sixty lessons per term which makes it a daily subject…again just doing the next lesson each day. All of the extras like picture study can be added as you see fit. We do those things around meals here because I have my children’s undivided attention at a consistent time each day.
I have a curriculum item that I had been wanting to start but had delayed because I thought I needed to do some planning first. Well, after some months of it collecting dust, I spontaneously flopped it on the table and read the introduction aloud to the children. It was opened and rolling. I have incorporated it into the day and laugh that I thought I had to do some preparations first to get it done. Sometimes it isn’t so much that we won’t know what to do, but that we don’t go with the flow. I believe you could designate school time, stack your materials on a shelf, and get right into the heart of your school just fine…like swimming with the current. Over time you will grow to know what is working and what needs readjustment. Indecision can be a really big problem if you let it. I have Indecision’s cousin, Overthinking, visiting lately.
Agreeing with Janell – I think that I try to overplan on a few things too and always suprise myself when I start them.
You may need to take a day or two away from your planning. It can really help. =) Also, don’t plan every subject right now. Just start with the daily ones. Get those going in a good routine and add in your every other day things. If you do this slowly, within a month all your balls will be in the air without as much pressure and you will be suprised at how much better you feel about it all.
Here’s what I do… I use a checklist and since we do Module 1 five days a week, I have it listed on my checklist ON THE SAME LINE as “Bible/History/Geography”. (Abreviated as Bible/Hist/Geo) I consider them the same subject in our daily schedule. Obviously they aren’t. But this way I don’t have to be concered about which days of the week I do each one. During the portion of our school day that is “Bible/History/Geography” I do the next lesson in the module 1 guide, like everyone else talked about. I have little stress this way, we just do the next lesson and I don’t have to worry about which days we do each of these subjects, as long as we have 5 days of either Bible, History, or Geography following module 1 guide. I haven’t a blog or any other way to share it, so send me a PM and I can email you a pdf of my checklist in all it’s glory (ha!) if you think it will help, otherwise if you’re all set with the table of contents idea, disregard this post.
Sheraz, thank you so much for your blogpost, the pictures were very helpful to me in how you organize your year. I have a younger student, first grade and two little ones, some of the books we will read will be read in one sitting, so there is no table of contents. Would you recommend just typing those single books on one page or photocopying the front cover? I do not have to keep detailed records for my state, this would be just for my organization and reference. I think this will also be helpful for some of the online free books I plan to use. If I can type those out, they will be in my plan, where I would likely just forget about it b/c I can’t put my hands on it. Thank you, again!
Ladies this has been a very helpful post… thanks to all of you who have taken so much time to contribute. I’ve enjoyed reading through all your ideas this morning and gleaning some great ideas for our homeschool.
@AndreaM – I wouldn’t create extra work, paper, and expense by copying each page.
If you need or want to keep them seperate, for single time reads I would have a page in my literature, history, science, or whatever subject it falls into and list them on that subject page.
If you just want to track without worrying about subject, I would list them on one page in literature or readalouds.
Andrea, for our little ones, I just keep a master reading list on my computer. If we read a book together, I put it on there. Now that DD is beginning to read, I plan to keep a separate page in that same file listing books she reads aloud to me (or she reads with me). We’ll read where I read a page, then she reads a page too.
I agree keep it simple. I regret not doing a better job of keeping up with all the books I read to our littles last year, so I am just going to make a list and add as we go. I am not separating by subject for now, but figure I could always go back at the end of the year if I wanted to add subheadings.
This has been an amazing thread. Sahmamma, you ask the right questions 🙂 Don’t worry, the enemy tends to love confusion. Put your faith in Who you know to be true, and trust that He who called you will equip you. These ladies are amazing! You are all so willing to share and explain and it is a huge blessing to many. Thank you so much!
One thing my college age kids showed my 12 yo dd last year was a free little program called iprocrastinate. Its a scheduler where you plug in all your subjects, assignments etc by the week, you can color code them or label them in many ways. Kind of like a little organized for the computer. I think its only for the mac though I might be wrong. My dd loves checking her assignments off in there. I personally don’t like the name, but, if it helps her, I will keep quiet!