Homeschool Planner 2012-2013

Moving right along doing paperwork and starting to settle down into our new homeschool year. It always involves the making of a new plan book. You can read all about my conversion from fun forms and fancy planning here. This is the third year I'm using the plain spiral format and I adore it more every year.

It all starts with a set of papers you want to collectively make up the plan book- typically I make them myself. There is one exception to that.

The cover is designed, printed on cardstock, embellishments are added and I laminated it before putting the holes in it.

I picked some of my favorite quotes and added them to the inside cover- nothing fancy. You'll also see here a modified version of our Weekly Routine. I'll share more details on this soon.

I found this simple calendar at a glance at Donna Young's site. I found this to be the most useful calendar format in my plan book. I'm not a fan of the little blocks to fill in...

This year I added the kids' Individualized Home Instruction Plans (IHIP) to the front of the planner. I color coded them fancily- see?

Each school aged child in the state of NY is required to have one of these and I thought it would be great to have them in my planner this year rather than have to refer to them on my laptop.

Now when I write out their quarterly reports, I can have everything in one place.

After each IHIP is the set of math goals from Math on the Level. I took last year's and modified them to reflect a new focus. I color code them to match the concept chart given to us by MOTL. Only the younger three have them, but they are in there right after the IHIP for each student.

The IHIPs tell the plan for each student for the current school year- we also inform the administrator on this document what type of year end assessment we will do to satisfy the requirement.

This is just an updated list of all the math resources we have on hand- games, manipulatives, books, etc.

Of course, the main attraction is the loose leaf paper- specifically I love the Staples brand 8.5x11 college ruled paper. Slick stuff and heavenly to write on.

One of the best investments I've ever made in our homeschool supplies is the ProClick Binder. I use it frequently to make customized spirals notebooks that can be clicked open if necessary. How can you go wrong there? I even use it to bind up my students' work at the end of a school year. It's much easier to store these flat books than a three ring binder. You can put holes in printed papers or just lined paper. There is no limit to what you can do with a ProClick!

I love using just a plain notebook page to plan and record for our homeschool. I know not everyone appreciates the power of the college ruled paper to unleash the boldness of your learning experiences. But the spiral never lets me down! The part that took the longest was preparing the instruction plans, math goals, and tweaking our Weekly Routine. I like to have the goals and IHIPs in the front of the planner to keep me on track- to consult as we have to make adjustments, etc. Using the format of a blank lined page is very inspiring- and extremely freeing!

When I'm tempted by other planners, I remember that I hate blank squares and that I will not make planning my idol! 

Planning is not the thing; Doing is the thing!