with our day planner! lol.
I am no different than many of you. I can lay forth wonderful plans and somehow they get derailed or we fall a bit behind. This week between Christmas and New Years I am usually looking at where we are on our plan and then assessing where I would still like to go. It never fails that *something* has come up that makes me have to move things around - this year it was several *somethings* but because I had a good overall plan in place then the assessment is really just a redistribution of work here and there. It sorta makes me think about having a dinner party and two people who didn't RSVP just showed up... you were still planning the party so it is just a matter of changing who sits where and how the food gets split up, once that is done then the party can go on.
For a long time I used our day planner to plan out our year in addition to my big folded sheet that I always talk about - then with the growth of our business, I started putting more of our plans on the computer - that was ok but I started feeling boxed in a bit - there is something about the act of writing it down, taking the time to connect with it all - so this last week I pulled up the ebook version of our planner (the only version we offer these days) and I evaluated which things I loved from it and which ones I wanted to change. I found that there really wasn't much I would change - just things I will add when we work on the new edition.
I thought I would share with you a bit my planning process from this week, in hopes that it would help you with your assessment. Remember also to tune into our radio show the 4th since we'll be talking about mid year goals.
1. I sat down with my big chart that I made at the beginning of the school year. I looked over what we had done and also looked at what I might be able to cut given that we are about 4 weeks behind schedule. There wasn't much I was willing to cut but after talking to Erik about our summer plans, we found ways to integrate some of the things we want to keep into our summer schedule.
2. I grabbed my trusty friends... Post-it Notes... I know.. paper... but I buy recycled ones and I recycle them so I feel like I am at least being responsible. Between me and God, lol.
3. I made a Post-it for each child, wrote their name at the top and the lesson blocks we still needed to complete. Simple.
4. I got out a plain piece of lined paper (ok, not plain... Hello Kitty) and I outlined each child, then the month and the lesson block we were going to get through for the month. January through May. Used my Post-it notes to make sure I covered all the bases. Laying it out made the whole task seem far easier - lighter - doable.
5. I printed out only the pages from our planner that I knew I would use and that I needed. For me it was the undated month and the two undated weekly pages. I have found that with all the children I am planning for I needed a full lined sheet per child each week so I just slipped some pretty Hello Kitty lined paper behind each of the weekly pages for the planning. I dated everything, hole punched it and put it in a binder. I have a thing for Post-it Durable Filing Tabs - once you discover them, they will be your friend for life... you will hide them with your chocolate stash, lol. I use them a ton for marking lectures, school planning and business planning. They rock. I know... I am anal. I am always on the look out in the clearance section at the office supply store for anything that I can use for planning. The back of the binder also has a folder for each child. I use this for planning ahead - say I find a pretty painting on someone's blog or a chalk board drawing... piece of handwork, etc. I want to use it but it isn't right for this block - maybe it is two months away, I will print it, put it in that folder and then when I sit to do my monthly/weekly planning I will pull it out. If it is a painting or something that requires my practice, then I try to start practicing it a week or two before I plan to teach it - this gives me PLENTY of time to feel confident. I do this practice one or two mornings per week before the kids get up or on Sunday afternoon or anytime I can carve out. The point is I make the time. Remember that YOU govern your time... no one else. You might let someone else govern your time, but that isn't the same. I also use this (Download Festivalplannerpage) I made and slip it right into the week where it belongs so that I have it all right there.
6. Once I have the binder set up, then I can dig into my list for each child. I generally keep like subjects together - my three will all be working on a six week block of math - this takes into account festivals, our mid winter vacation, etc.
Now that I have in place all the blocks, repositioned from where they were, I can easily go back to my curriculum to do my weekly planning. I can grab my math book, look at which lessons we will do each day and write down the page numbers in my planner. If I need story resources, then I can easily look at what I have in my home verses what I may need to grab from the library.
My notes, for example on my planning page (written out on pretty Hello Kitty paper!) might look a bit like this, it is based on the monthly guide in our grade 3 book, pg 93, remember we are about 4 weeks behind - this is the depth I would go into about two weeks in advance so there are NO surprises! No books or recipes to find, it is all there:
Ellie - March 1st -4th: 1st - **Form drawing (I would then clip the form drawing to the back of this page or make sure it is in her folder at the back of the binder with a sticky on it for the date) **our guide pg. 58 for story - I will have read the story in my planning phase and started to think about a drawing/painting/activity we could do that would coordinate with the first day of the story. For this story, "The Buffalo and the Field Mouse" we might paint buffalo (since I remembered seeing a buffalo painting in my Flickr file) or we might sculpt mice from beeswax - or time permitting we'll do a painting one day and the sculpting the next.
I go through this much planning for EACH day for EACH child. This is how planning sets you free. All I have to do now is go over the next day's lesson quickly the night before, read over the story, go to bed. In the morning I will get up and meditate, work our business, then head to the school area of our home to prepare the chalk boards for the day. These days, my 3rd grader gets the regular board since her lessons demand it. My older boys don't get a much board work unless we are drawing a map together or working on geometry, etc.
I regularly get asked where we fit in handwork and baking, etc. First, you will have to tailor each rhythm to fit YOU... we live a really busy life with the ages of our children, their activities and our business too, so we fit in handwork and baking where we can, at least once a week for baking and several afternoons or lazy evenings for handwork. When you make it a priority then you find a way to make time.
The next question usually is... Where do I get the planning time? I expect it. Erik gives it freely because he knows how smooth our lives run when we have planned. He knows that I am calmer, the kids know what direction to take and he feels strength when there is peace and love at home. His work in the planning is making sure kids are occupied so I can get it done. This week has been sorta easy since the big boys are still on the mend from the flu... but that leaves us with the VERY smurfy Ellie and Sam... they have taken several trips to the store, to the library, to Grandma's to visit her kitties (she's out of town) - whatever it takes so I get the time.
In the end, there is NO substitute for planning... there is no such thing as a curriculum that won't require you to do some leg work... if you aren't planning this far in depth then you are missing SO MUCH of the wonder in this method. It is there... hidden in the creases of pages, in the lectures you thought you couldn't understand but BOOM magically now you get it... it is there. Seek it. Meditate on it.
