Well Planned Day Planner

I also have tried different day planners and different ideas for chore charts. If I could program my own I would have a drag and drop chore chart that has daily, weekly, every other week, monthly, and seasonal. I also would have the kids individual chores by those to drag to.  I also would set it up by a yearly calandar so I could seperate it into 4 seasons for things such as gardening and lawn mowing, canning season ect….  I have the perfect idea I just don’t know how to program it. 

   I also like the options of some of the free planner pages from SCM and some I have found on line. I like some of Donna Young’s pgs, Notebooking pages. com,  4teachers.org, Heart of wisdom.com ,  Worksheets work pgs, The master planner, chart jungle.com,  For paid planner pages I like Mom’s tool Belt she has a special till the end of the year that is 15.95 for life.  I do like alot of her planner pages also.  I also like some of the Maxwell’s book ideas. I don’t care for their layout for the online pages though. I find my computer doesn’t like it and so it didn’t work that well for me.  I just incorporated it into my own idea. 

   I also made my own chore chart that I hang on my fridge. I spent alot of time on it and I am sure there was probably an easier way somewhere but it seems to work the best for my family. 

  What I did was laminated a workbox page grid (four boxes down x 4 boxes across). I did one for each kid in their color. It has the day at the top. Mon-Sun. that can be velcroed on/off.  I also laminated some of the chores that were 1 inch squares that I found on other websites.  I took the rest of the chores that I found we use and printed them out on my computer. I cut them into 1 inch squares and laminated them too.  I put velcro on the back and velcro on the front corner.  This way the kids can see what they have to do. They flip over the chore card when they are done with it. This way they know what they still have to do.

   The school stuff I put in a large Homeschool binder. I used the front cover and side cover from Mom’s Tool Belt.  I really like her colorful pages for my binder. I have a seperate binder for other worksheets that I like but that I am not using at the time.  I find that if I need something, if I look in there,  I can usually come up with something that fits. I have my own ideas of what I want in a planner but haven’t been able to find exactly what I want so I put my own spin on some of the things I have found online.  Most of it is free.  Until I get a better computer and I am able to mess around with some software I will continue to use these ideas.

  Not sure that is what you were looking for but I thought I would share since I also have trouble with the same thing.  Maybe someday I can make my own site…. Tehe he!

Sheraz- I really like your ideas for keeping your table of contents in your subjects tabs. Putting the dates by them was a really good idea. That was pretty clever. I think it would be easier to do that and mark it down then to put it on a seperate peice of paper. Love, Love, Love!

     Love your blog by the way!   🙂

Becca, you can get a free box.com account and upload the forms there. Next come here and post the share link. I’d like to see all of your charts.

Oh, Sister! I’m changing my mind. This phone is not what I want to use to learn about box.com. Looks like a very useful tool though. I’ll learn more about it during the next couple of weeks and see if I can get my charts to all of you soon. I think I’ve talked about doing this before. Maybe I’ll actually accomplish it in 2013.

;0)

Becca<><

Christie,

My only problem is that my charts aren’t a file. They are just copies I make. The original was made by a friend who didn’t save it. Im thinking I’ll take a picture, or find a scanner to create a new one. DH tried his best to explain how “easy” it would be to create something similar to it in excel, but I’ve never seen the point when I just erase and pencil something else in, or make more copies if I’m using the chart for something else. Somehow, I think I retain things better if I write things out instead of typing. 🙂

Either way, I need to learn to broaden my horizons. I’m stuck in the past. ;0)

Thanks for encouraging me and the offer to help. If I can get it onto my computer, I will send it your way first.

Be ca

Ok, so far I’ve not had a chance to even open up my computer to figure out how I might possibly get my charts onto it to transfer to box.com, or to all of you in any way. 

So, I thought I’d just jot some notes about them until I can figure out the technical stuff. 

Pretend you are looking at a binder opened up sideways. I use page protectors to store my charts, so a “two page spread” will have my chores and menus on “top,” above the binder rings, and the kids chore chart for the same week will be “below” those rings. Are they even called rings?  My vocabulary access is limited this afternoon. 

Anyway, the way in which I slip the charts into the page protectors means that 1/2 of one week will be on one side and 1/2 of the next week will be on the other side of an individual protector. But, the two halves of a whole week will be side by side. Make sense?

My charts actually have headings that don’t fit for this use as they were created years ago for keeping track of studies. The grid of boxes are set up 6 rows across by 7 columns down. The headings that were originally placed above these columns are Subject, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. 

On my personal chart, the labels I’ve penciled in under subject are:  health care, breakfast, lunch, dinner, home, garden, and records. 

Obviously, Sunday and Saturday aren’t listed. In the border above the grid, I pencil in Sunday’s info.  Saturday is penciled into the border below the grid. It works for me. ;0)

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner are self explanatory. Health care is where I remind myself to take supplements and which exercise I’m to do. Oh, I’ve recently added “milk cow” in this box. Like she’ll let me forget. ;0)

The home row is used for the chores I want to accomplish around our house. Similar to Fly Lady, I’ve zoned out our home in the hopes that I can manage it well over each month’s time. No, I don’t always follow this, but when I do, our lives run smoothly. 

So, it looks this for the week one page 1 going across  page 1:

Up top Sunday- wash sheets. Make sandwiches for week’s lunches (I don’t always make the sandwiches, but it’s a huge time saver when I do. And, I enlist help.)

Monday- dust/sweep master bed & bath. 

Tuesday- organize master bath drawers, note necessities. 

Wednesday- straighten/purge master closets. 

Thursday- library work day (new on my chore list)

Friday- master bed & bath windows & lights

Saturday- R&R

Week 2 my page focusses on kitchen & utility rooms. 

Week 3 focusses on living & dining rooms

Week 4 focusses on outdoor chores that can be handled monthly (weeding various flower beds and any tree needs)

The garden row reads across m-f:

Weed/ water & canning/ weed & canning/ water & canning/ weed. Canning doesn’t happen daily every week, and sometimes not at all. But, I have it there as a reminder of how to handle it in season. 

Records reads across m-f:

Invoice/ knit/ bills & filing/ grocery list & menu check/ park & groceries 

Week 1, page 2 for the kids’ chores looks like this (ages 19, 17, 12, 6, and 20)

(m-f listed with very few changes other weeks other than swapping off yard chores and some library work.  sat r&r, sun remove sheets and make beds back up again.)

W- bedroom windows, front door, closet drawers/ blow porch, patio, sidewalks, outside trash/ dust-wash kitchen table & chairs/ mow/ mop entry, hall, & bathroom, bedroom lights, sweep library

G-bedroom windows, closet, drawers/ master bathtub/ pantry straightening/ wash Mom’s truck 1st thursday/ vac & dust truck, bedroom lights

N- clean under bed, closet, drawers/ toilets/ vac fireplace & couch, dust living room & entry/ outside trash & sticks/ clean door knobs&switchplates

Z- fill dog food container/ sweep utility & steps/ check dog food for grocery list, gather library books/DVDs that go to other libraries (if any)/ help straighten library/ water outdoor potted plants

H- living room & bedroom windows, closet/ microwave, kids’ tub/ kitchen cabinet fronts if needed/ weed eat/ dust bedroom & living room, bedroom lights

Probably TMI, but hope that’s a glimpse without looking at the charts. If/when I have more time to take my computer into town, I’ll see if I can get the charts or something similar onto box.com. 

Blessings,

Becca<><