Planning Tips

I've done a couple of posts on how I do my school planning. While I don't want to beat a dead horse (or, you know, a live one either), I know it's the time of year that people are thinking of planning and want to pick up some tips. I also know that, despite my imaginings to the contrary, y'all don't really scour the archives of my blog, lapping up every bit of information I've ever shared...but don't confirm that, because I like to think that at least a couple of you do. ;-)


Yesterday, I talked about how I like to get away for a mom's retreat to do some general planning for the year. Today, I wanted to share some tips on doing more detailed, daily school planning.


Be sure to see my Planning for School post for the most detailed information on how I plan. I typically spend a couple of hours, one or two Saturdays a month, writing out my detailed lesson plans. Following are some general tips that help me make the most of my planning time.


1. Have a basic outline of where you're headed for the year. This is where the time I've spent on my mom's retreat comes into play. Once I've had my retreat time, I know, for example, I know that I want to finish up Story of the World, Vol. 2 by Christmas, so that we can start Vol. 3 after the first of the year. I know that I want Josh to finish workbook 2 of Horizons Math 3 by Christmas, that Megan is ahead of where I'd like her to be in math, so she's got some wiggle room and that I want Brianna to finish Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra this school year.


With that basic outline in my head, it's easier to do the more detailed planning and see, at a glance, if we're on target for the year. For instance, because Horizons has 160 lessons in each grade level, plus a test every ten days, I'm going to have to make some adjustments for Josh to be where I want him to be by Christmas. If Brianna isn't halfway through Pre-Algebra at our midway point, we'll have to adjust (either she'll have to double up on assignments or catch up over the summer or I'll have to adjust my expectations).


2. Don't plan too far in advance. I like to try to plan for two or three weeks at a time -- much more than that and plans always seem to go awry. That stresses me and makes me feel like I don't have the flexibility to be spontaneous, which brings me to tip #3...


3. Make plans on the computer so that you can copy and paste and move things around when things don't go as planned. At the very least, write your lesson plans in pencil. Something about having them written in unforgiving ink can be really stressful. I still really like the Donna Young lesson plans. This year, I'll probably do a combination of them and The Old Schoolhouse Planner, all kept neatly organized in my Mom Binder (a.k.a. my life-line).


4. Have a long-term plan in mind. Even though I don't like to do detailed planning too far out, it's not a bad idea to jot down long-term plans (more than the current year), just so you have an idea of where you're going (this would be something else I'd do during my retreat time). A couple of years ago, I wrote out a long-term plan just to see if and how I could mesh Story of the World and Truthquest in a way that would keep everyone in the loop and at an appropriate "grade level" for doing the four-year history cycle through high school. I'm still thinking, at this point, that we'll probably stick with that general outline, though I'm not married, till death do us part, to the plan.


Also, keep in mind, Brianna was probably starting 6th grade when I looked at some long-term planning ideas. I'm not suggesting that you sit down and write out plans for K-12. However, let's say you're planning on using Story of the World following a classical, four-year history cycle. Your long-term planning might be as simple as knowing that you'd like your first grader to finish up the cycle at the end of 4th grade.


5. Figure out where you want to be, by when, then divide to figure out what you'll need to do each day to get there. For example, if I want Brianna to finish a ten chapter book in two weeks, I'll assign her a chapter a day. If she's got three weeks to finish it, I won't assign any reading on Wednesdays, since we typically have outside activities then, and I'll usually leave Fridays open as catch-up days, in case she gets behind.


6. Gather and organize your supplies. As I do my planning, I make lists of supplies we'll need for the next 2-3 weeks, pages I'll need to make copies of (if I'm not going to copy them right then) and library books we'll need. I look the books up on the online catalog and jot down the title, author and Dewey decimal number of each book so that they're easy to locate when I make my library run. I'll also print out web pages or add URLs to my planning pages. I store everything in my binder, so that I can just pick up and go during the week.


Those are just some general planning tips that help me. What about you? How do you plan? Please share your tried-and-true planning tips!


Visit FiveJ's for more Thirsty Thursday.

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Works For Me Wednesday: Mom's Retreat

It's nearly time for my annual mom's retreat -- a day of peace and quiet set aside for the purpose of planning. I try to take myself, a legal pad, a pen -- and, this year, my laptop -- away from the kids and the distractions at home and head to a local coffee shop at least once a year, before we start our new school year, for a day of planning our school year.


I have a nice lunch while considering the direction I want our school to take for the upcoming year. This is a great time for taking a look at our routine -- our wake and sleep times, the most logical and effective general framework for our days, and our outside activities. It's also a good time to begin looking at a basic curriculum outline -- what we'll be working on, how long we'll likely be spending on each subject area each day, what I want to finish when and even brainstorming any obvious hands-on projects (for example, I knew really early on that we'd be doing the paper mache Earth last year).


I find the the coffee shop is a great place to do this. It gets me away from the phone, the laundry, and my family other distractions, and it helps me to focus on the task at hand rather than getting side-tracked by all the other things I could be doing. It also gives me a sense of purpose for what I'm doing, so I tend to get more accomplished in less time than I would at home.


It doesn't hurt that this particular place has really good sweet tea.


I think every mom should have at least one mom retreat a year and one each quarter would probably be even more effective. Time away to plan definitely works for me. Come back tomorrow for more detailed tips on the actual planning process.

Visit Kristin at We Are THAT Family for more Works for Me Wednesday tips.

photo by cafemama

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Post Topic Ideas?

I've got a few things on my calendar that I'll be posting about in upcoming weeks and I know that once we resume school, I'll have plenty of ideas and musings that I'll want to share, as well as products to review and goodies to give away. However, I wonder if there are any specific topics that you're curious about -- questions you have, reviews you'd like to see, interview topics you'd be interested in?


If you've got some ideas, I'd love to hear them!

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Family of T-Shirts Winner

We have a winner for the family of homeschool t-shirts, graciously sponsored by Homeschool Boutique. Congratulations to:

Kim

Kim, you have three days to contact me to claim your prize. Congratulations!! I look forward to hearing from you!

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My Ten Must-Have's From the Back-to-School Aisle

I was in Walmart today and I noticed that they've already started stocking the back-to-school aisle. I love this time of year! It's like Christmas for a homeschool mom. I usually do all of my back-to-school shopping the same week of our local curriculum fair in late July so that I'm all stocked up and ready to go.


Here are the ten things with which I fill my shopping cart on the back-to-school aisle.


1. Loose leaf paper. When you buy paper at $0.10 or $0.25 a pack, it's hard to get too upset when the kids waste create masterpieces with it.


2. Spiral notebooks. These are usually about $0.10 each and are perfect for drawing, journaling, or creating personal dictionaries. I read an interesting idea this weekend for leaving the first few pages blank for a table of contents and writing or even taping interesting things onto the other pages to create a personalized notebook.


3. 3-prong pocket folders. We use these for our science, history, and writing notebooks. I've also used them to create personalized "help" book for the kids by adding pages from workbooks about concepts that proved difficult to remember (example: a sheet from a math workbook, defining various geometrical terms, or the list of pronouns from Easy Grammar).


You could also use them to make one of the ABC books that the kids and I grew so fond of last year. If you haven't made an ABC book yet, be sure to put it on your list of projects for the upcoming school year. They're so easily adaptable for multiple ages and topics.


4. Index cards. We always go through a ton of index cards because they are so incredibly versatile. If you need some ideas on how to use them, be sure to read my ten favorite uses for index cards.


5. Crayons. The first few years we homeschooled, I foolishly only bought two packs of crayons per child -- one for the beginning of the year and one to replenish around Christmas. Now, I buy...well, a lot of crayons. I use some of them to put in our boxes for Operation Christmas Child, but we just seem to go through a lot of crayons.


We have a big, plastic shoebox where I dump the crayons being replaced. This becomes the box that the kids carry all over the house, to color wherever they may happen to be. I like the kids to keep their school supply boxes in our dining room where we do school, so that we don't waste time looking for it when we're ready to start school. I also like to keep a separate box for art/nature study since things always seem to wind up missing from even the school supply boxes.


6. Glue. We always stock up on stick glue and school glue for various projects, to avoid running out right in the middle when we tried to make our relief paintings a few weeks ago.


7. Erasers. Please tell me that it's not just my house where erasers are the first things to go on pencils. I buy the erasers that go on top of pencils, as well as the big, flat pink ones.


8. Markers and colored pencils. I have always splurged on markers to get the more expensive washable markers, but I get the $0.88, 12-count colored pencils. Not anymore. My step-mom got the kids 24-count markers last year and they loved the extra colors. All three of them asked me to please get the 24-count from now on. They were so creative with their drawings that I'm happy to oblige.


9. Dry erase markers. I love the fat, chisel-tipped markers. They are mine and the kids know that they touch them only if they want to risk my wrath. ;-)


10. Pencils. These aren't usually on sale (but I stock up anyway!) because I am a pencil snob. I buy only Ticonderoga pencils. Their slogan is: the world's best pencil and they are. They sharpen evenly and write great. I've had friends who thought I was crazy until they tried Ticonderogas. I have no idea what makes them so special, but they're well-worth the extra money.


What school supplies do you love to stock up on while the sales are hot?


And, with that, I'll leave you with one of my all-time favorite commercials, the Staples back-to-school commercial. Even though I don't actually send my kids back to school, I still laugh every time I see this one:

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