When it comes to planning for the school year, I have tried just about everything. There are so many different options, I was bound to find one that works for my family. I have spent hours printing, writing lesson plans, printing, entering lesson plans on the computer, printing, researching products, did I mention printing? While each system, product and printable planner has great features and may be the best choice for another family, they did not work for my family.
After years of looking and trying out new products, last year I decided to pick up a school planner from the local office supply store and it has been a perfect fit for my family! Here is how it works for me…
The planner has a three year reference calendar in the front to help with long-term planning. It is dated from July to June, perfect for our school year which begins in late July and ends in June. Each month has tabs and a monthly calendar at the beginning. This is where I pencil in our events, field trips, sports practice, classes, lesson
s, etc.
After the monthly calendar is a two page per week calendar. It is dated and lined, but there are no times listed (you can purchase one with times). This is where I pencil in lesson plans, one month at a time. Each day is broken into 13 sections, I have a different child/subject on each one. I use a highlighter to separate each of the boys. If you click on the image to the right, you can view a larger image and see the details.
Notice I said “pencil in”…I am what most like to call a “free spirit”, so I like to be able to change things up a bit as we go. This planner is flexible enough for me and keeps me in line with our planning at the same time! And the best part…I get a planner for the entire year for about 20 bucks, even less if you have a coupon!
~By Heidi, Heidi’s Miscellany
I love how you kept on trying until you found what worked for you and your family. Thank you for sharing the details! (Sometimes my favorite planner is a plain ol’ spiral notebook 🙂
I love a spiral notebook for brainstorming yearly plans (a wise woman 😉 suggested this to me).
Isn’t it great when you finally find a system that works! When my daughter was much younger I needed a planner because we were involved in so much more and I made daily lesson plans. Now that she is older, we are not in co-op anymore, we don’t do all the lapbooks and hands-on things like we did, and we don’t attend filed trips and such anymore. I no longer make lesson plans because the resource we use, Time4Learning, make the lesson plans for me. I LOVE that! I don’t even worry about hitting all the back-to-school supply sales anymore since most of her lessons are online, I just don’t need them. As long as we have pencils, paper, Internet, and some common everyday items, we are good to go. I will say I miss the early days when we did so much more that I consider “fun” stuff. She is more focused not that she is in junior high/high school. Time flies!
Joyfully,
Jackie
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It IS nice to find something that works! I am not quite where you are, but having different levels to teach, I found that this planner is flexible enough for all of them!