I’m on a quest to have the best homeschool year ever! And I hope to help you as well. If you missed Part 1 and 2, head on over and give them a read. So, here we go, the last leg of this preparation journey!
I actually love to plan. I love all the pretty planners. Therefore, I’ve used a lot of them over the years. Paper, electronic, free, and purchased, you name it, I’ve used it. I’ve planned a few days ahead; I’ve planned months ahead; I’ve planned the whole year ahead. And yes, I’ve even flown by the seat of my pants.
You see, planning is not my nemesis. Lists, which is basic planning, I love those too. I even have lists of lists.
My beast is implementation of the plan. I’m not talking about something popping up that interrupts the plan, just plain ole not doing it. Doing is important. Doing is the homeschooling. Sigh, must do the doing.
For many years I have simplified my planning process. My secret method for getting more of the the actual homeschooling done has been a plain old spiral notebook. Yep, just a run of the mill Wal-Mart/dollar store notebook.
I did not discover this amazing weapon. Head on over to Blog She Wrote, this is the post that changed our homeschool journey.
That first year of freedom using my spiral notebook, I realized I do not like those little boxes that are in traditional homeschool planners. Sometimes, I need to get detailed with my plan and there is never enough room. Or, even worse, I did not have enough to fill in all the boxes. Rare, but it did happen. Empty boxes. Oh, that bugged me to death.
Now, I could write as little or as much as my heart desired. Oh mama! Not only did this take care of all those things that bugged me about planners, but something magical happened. I did the doing part. Whoo hoo
Anything that did not get done was carried over into the next day, week or month. However it fit best. Sometimes I’d rewrite it on the appropriate page and sometimes I’d just stick me a little note to go back.
Then, I decided I’d like a year at glance calendar and some other pages and forms at the beginning of my notebook. That’s when ProClick entered my life and I was able to make my own notebooks. Planning Nirvana.
During our move and starting Classical Conversations, I fell off the planning wagon. I did that flying by the seat thing. CC provided a level of structure and plan. I just didn’t lay out all the extras like I enjoy doing.
This year I purchased a planner from Plum Paper (this is not a sponsored post). They are amazingly customizable. You can choose from several layouts and the add-ons are amazing. Since I’ve started blogging, on a quest of health this year, and helping with our family business, I’ve fealt the need for more structure. So far, I love my planner. And I still use my spiral notebook for my homeschool planning. Plum Paper also has homeschool planners.
Now, we’re feeling all ready to begin our homeschool year. Will the plan go as planned? Not always. Will there be frustrations and setbacks? You betcha! Here’s our secret weapon, PRAYER. Remember, even during the not so magical, cozy homeschool moments, we are teaching. We’re teaching our kiddos important life lessons on how we handle the hard things. These are some of the most important lessons we can impart.
How do you plan? Are you just a willy nilly, free spirit or are you meticulous? Let me know your favorite planning tools in the comments. Thanks for visiting. Please subscribe so you never miss a post.
Happy Homeschooling!
Heather