Planning.....

Well, I have organized everything and have our curriculum planned on what we will do...

Dah Daaah Dah Daaah

The fun part is putting it together. Writing out the plan... Usually I don't have to do this with much thought because I used Homeschool Tracker , which is a great program. I used it for 4 years. However, the reason I have to really think about my planner is because due to technically difficulties I can't use it. I don't know what happened but I can't use it.

Ugh, a homeschool moms worst nightmare to find out the planner you are used to and really like, will not work!

Then I think....

With God all things are possible.... REALLY!

So here I am starting over with my planning.
With anything you want to accomplish in life you must have a plan whether it is a long term or short term goal. You must have a plan!
It could be anything a job you want, getting ready for college, wanting to buy a house, starting a family, getting out of debt, or like me planning your school year.

You should determine your goal:

• What is the first thing to do?
• What do you need to do?
• Set the goal and think of how to accomplish the goal.

My goal is scheduling the school year for the children. No worries, we can do it....

In the previous post I had organized my thoughts and materials. So make sure you are organized to accomplish it by thoughts and materials.

Here are the steps to organizing your school year:

• print out a yearly calender
• determine what days or weeks you will teach
• find a planner to write or input everything on

1. When scheduling your year you need to think of when you are teaching and when you are taking off . Look at a calender such as this one school year calendar or this school calendar . I love Donna Young's website, it has EVERYTHING!
2. Determine when you are going to start and print out the year. Figure out what month you will take off, we always take off  from the last week of November to December and two weeks in spring. I will leave a week open each month as well to have make up days. Also consider if you are going to be schooling in the morning, day, or evening. Everyone is different and sometimes you have to accept the fact of flexibility is essential. If we need to take off a day during the week, then we will make it up on that Sat.
3. Find a "planner" that will help you. There are so many to chose! The planners that you can print out and write on like, for example at Donna Young's website I mentioned above. Here are other websites with them The Homeschool Mom, Chart Jungle ,  Just Mommies , Homeschool Resource , and Homeschool About .Find one that fits you and your family or you can make one yourself on a word doc. There are a few that are on line that are free such as the Homeschool Tracker Basic Edition or Homeschool Inc, and Homeschool Skedtrack .

So once you have planned it on paper and figured out what type of planner to use then you are able to fill in the assignments. I have an expandle folder that I put everything in by the month. I pull out the assignments weekly and keep in my schedule book.



For Aleq's therapy schedule, I keep it in my schedule book for quick reference on what we need to do.
Another reason I like to have extra days is for those days that do not go well with him.
Having a challenging child and homeschooling you need to prepare for those days where things do not go as planned. It helps keep the sanity knowing ther are a couple of extra days for them to catch up.

Sitting down with the children and telling them what is going on each week is extremely important. Get them a calendar for their room or have one in a central location so they can see what is going on. If there are park days, any extra curricular activities , or when you are going to the library.

I have mentioned it before about accoutable kids . We love it, it has cut down on me telling my 11 year old everything she needs to do. It helps her plan as well, what does she want to accomplish if she wants something special. It holds her accountable.
This is a wonderful program for children with special needs even if you need to do it together. The program teaches them responsibility. Aleq will have his off days and it is okay. However, he still knows if he wants to do something he needs to work for it. I can't say enough about it.

The point is to get your children involved in planning. Let them see what is planned.


Have fun....Live, Love, Laugh as much as you can.