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!


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