Planning and Panicking

Five weeks from today will mark the official first day of school for RA and first day of homeschool for TS1 and TS2!


In the next five weeks, we have VBS for 5 days and a family vacation for 5 days.  We also have plans for at least one day each weekend between now and then.  When I realized this yesterday, I had a panic attack and texted the details of it to my friend Andrea (who recently declared her love for texting to the world wide web).  She reminded me I will never be "ready" to homeschool and I felt better- I think.  


Then I tried to get ahead anyway by printing out the maps and evaluations that are part of our history program but my printer would not cooperate.  


Then I called my friend Deirdre to obsess about whether or not I needed to buy a planner for homeschool.  I've had my eye on this reasonably priced option but really don't want to spend the money unless I know I will use it.  I decided not to- yet.  So I googled, homeschool planning pages and I found these two resources that I really like:  Donna Young and That Resource Site.  I am going to use a combination of printables from each to make my own planner and assignment sheets for the boys.  


My planner will consist of the following sheets:

• An Attendance Form for each of our dear test subjects
• A Curriculum Key which will simply list the abbreviations I will use in the planner for the various curricula.
• A Weekly Planner Form for each week listing my plan for each of our dear test subjects 
• An Event Calendar where I can document special events and field trips
• A copy of our state mandated year plans and quarterly reports

Each morning the boys will get one of these adorable assignment sheets to fill out and work through.  I am not sure how to get them filled in- do the boys copy their assignments from my weekly planner?  do we meet each morning and fill them out together?  do I e-mail them their daily assignments to print?  I guess we will try each method to see what works.

Each of our dear test subjects will also have a Reading Log folder in which they will keep a running log of their reading for the year.

I have this three drawer in/out/file box that I am thinking of repurposing to handle the paper flow.  I thought each boy could have a drawer where they retrieve their assignment sheet, reading log folder  and any other loose worksheets they need for the day.  The third dwawer would be for me.  They boys would return their completed assignment sheets, loose worksheets and reading log folder here each afternoon for my review.

So, tell me, dear readers, am I missing anything?  What has worked for you in terms of planners?  Do you even use one?  How do you handle daily assignments for the kids?