We are going into our third year of homeschooling and I feel like I still don’t know what planner method works best for our family. I often wonder if I will ever find something that is perfect or if we will continue to just use whatever is working and tweak things as they stop working. Today I will share with you what I am going to use next year for our planning.
1. Recollections 18 Month Vertical Weekly Layout Planner (from Micheals)
This will specifically be my daily planner to keep track of what I need to do with each child and what we will be doing all together. Each week I plan to take what I have entered into Homeschool Panda and copy it into the paper planner so that I’m able to have it in front of us as we go through our day. I find that this helps me keep on track as I can physically check things off as we go.
The planner is divided into months and then broken up into weeks that are laid out in blocks. I use a block for each child and a block for the things we complete together. There is a section in the back for notes, along with a plastic zipper pocket which I use for all of our homeschool related receipts. At the beginning of each month, there’s a calendar that I use to write all our very important activities. One of the things that I like about this planner is that pages cannot be taken out or added so I don’t end up with a ton of junk that I don’t actually need.
2. The Happy Planner KIDS
My oldest will be in grade three this year and we are really trying to help him with being independent so we got him his very own planner this year. Last year we used a plain paper notebook and every morning I would just write what he needed to complete that day and he would check it off as he completed his tasks. This year I am planning on filling in a week of his to-do tasks at the beginning of every week and he will be responsible to make sure they all get completed. I will write the things that should be completed on the days they should be done but he will have the choice of what order he would like to complete them during the day.
This planner is really amazing because it has special little things just for the students inside. At the beginning of each month, there is a page of activities. Some of the activity pages have tasks that the child can complete with a certain goal in mind, for example, “spread a little happy” is one of the objectives. Another great thing included in this kids planner is the fact that there’s a spot to track your monthly reading goals as well as how much you read each day. I think that this will really help him see how much he is actually reading, it will also help me see if that’s something we need to work on more.
There is one more feature that really stood out to me, on each day there is a little spot for the child to fill in how they are feeling. There are little pictures of a smiling face (happy), a lined face (neutral), and frown face (sad), that the child is able to colour in to show how they are feeling each day. I think that it’s important for children to learn how they are feeling and also learn how to deal with those feelings in a healthy way. As a mother of a child with ADHD and someone who has suffered from mental illness for most of my life I know how important monitoring and dealing with emotions can be, which is why I really appreciate this feature even though it’s such a simple feature.
Hopefully, this gave you an idea of how we will be planning in our homeschool next year and gave you some ideas of how you can plan in your own homeschool.
