I once attended a conference session on homeschool organization run by a very nice lady who kept a very organized homeschool for her three daughters. Before each school year starts, she plans the year in detail down to the assignment and the day, and they apparently stick to that plans until the school year is finished. This conference session helped me not at all. That is just not how we homeschool.
I have general goals for the year for each boy. I want them to be in a certain place in All About Spelling by the end of the school year, for instance. There are certain things I'd like them to get through. Mostly, I just want them progressing in their basic subjects at their own pace. It is my belief that I could never predict accurately what that pace might be and do an entire year's worth of planning, down to each daily assignment. They would be working instead at a pace that I had in mind for them.
Our plans are constantly in flux. They change depending on the weather, what activities are available, if a friend needs help, illness, mood, the children's interests, my interests, and the random things that pop up in life. For instance, I had planned to be outdoors most of Monday, but we had torrential rains. So, we did much more school work than I had originally planned.
For me, a weekly plan is a general idea of what we will probably do that week. I don't plan specific assignments. I just write the book title down, and the kids do an assignment in it. Bee generally goes in order with his books. Bug is younger and so tends to skip around a lot more. For his math books, I generally let him pick a page, and for handwriting he picks from printouts that I've put in a folder. The boys have to do a chore each morning, but they can pick from several things (take out trash or recycling, empty dishwasher, vacuum a room, tidy the entry hall).
So, my planning system for the year, based on what has worked and not worked for me in the past, is to make a form with just about everything I might ask them to do in a day, jot down any activities or field trips we have, and circle the things I think we will have time to do. In the morning, while I have my coffee, I use the planner as a guideline and give each boy a sticky note. When they have everything crossed off, they can have their screen time privileges. (Right now, we also have a prize bag in place, and they get a little treat when they finish school.) I try to make sure that everything on the list is manageable for them--it's important that they not be overwhelmed. It's important that they be able to get everything crossed off and that we all feel productive.
Here is my weekly page:
Obviously, the categories on it wouldn't really make sense to anyone but us. There is enough room for me to jot down notes. As I go through and circle what we will be doing that day, I can also print things or gather supplies for any craft or project I have planned. I normally leave things pretty open though. I may have planned a "Spanish Time" for us, but exactly what we do with that time will depend on what we all feel like doing at that particular time. For instance, today Bug had a particular book that he wanted me to read to him (in Spanish) for Spanish time.
It's pretty easy to make a table like this in any word processing program. I didn't print off too many sheets at once, because I know I'll constantly be tweaking it, adding things and deleting things, maybe putting a little color in, etc.
So that's what works for us!
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