July is Planning Month

Last year at this time I was not thinking of planning.  Instead, we were all lying around the house recovering from a stomach virus.  (Must be my time of year for the stomach flu.)  Our Fourth of July was a lot better this year, even though it rained all day (we did honestly need the rain; the raspberry bushes were starting to dry out) and we couldn't go to the Old-Fashioned Fourth of July at the Farmer's Museum (again).  But it was very low-key.  I made one of those easy flag cakes with Cool Whip, blueberries, and strawberries.  We watched A Capital Fourth on PBS like we do every year.  We also checked in on the Monk marathon on USA.  Monk is sort of a hero around here, but we never seem to catch the show.  Last year when we were getting over our stomach bug, we watched the Monk marathon, too.

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon dealing with piles of paper -- probably not what you'd expect anyone to worry about on the Fourth, but a satisfying quiet time task nonetheless.  I think the hardest part about going on vacation is coming home.  We're still catching up on laundry and trying to get everything put away.  It's taken me a few days just to remember where I was, mentally, when we left, and to remember that, technically, we have just flipped school years.  The school year in New York state runs July 1 to June 30.  The Missouri school year -- where we began homeschooling -- is the same, so I've always just used those dates to mark the start and end of grades for the kids.  Considering that we have our more and less unschoolish times, it never made sense to me to start the school "year" arbitrarily in September anyway, or that our summers would be time off from learning.  So every year in July I put away the log and the work from the prior year in a labeled bin, haul it down to the basement, and start anew.

This July I have to work a little harder and faster because I'm planning on not doing much of anything come August except getting in a little more schoolish stuff before the baby comes and fine-tuning the household routine.  (If you could only hear me laughing while I type this.)  That means I'll need to finish organizing my Montessori stuff, determine some general goals for the big kids (i.e., Gareth needs to work on language mechanics, Katydid could use more geography than our casual use of maps, and we totally neglected music last year), decide if there's anything I need to order or make (and order or make it), and write and mail our curriculum plan to the school district by the end of the month.   I also need to figure out a better approach to ongoing planning than the one I've been using.

Up till now, mostly what I've done for my school-age kids is to select a few texts in which they can just do "the next thing".  There's no planning involved; they finish one or two pages and go on to the next one.  I have no goals for how many pages should be done a week.  That way if somebody runs into a problem none of us feel bad if we spend some extra time figuring it out, or if the lessons turn out to be really, really easy, we can just skip them.  Then for history, science, literature, etc. I have tended to have a very general idea of where we are headed or what we are studying, usually worked out with the kids' input (for example, "This year we are studying 19th century America after the War of 1812.") but I am also generally sending out feelers to determine if there are any specific areas of interest that might need to be supported.  If there are, I usually head to various booklists, blogs, and catalogs to find books and resources.  Then we study that for a while.

This approach works all right, for what it's worth.  But often the extras fall through the cracks.  I never remember holidays or feast days.  I generally forget that I already have four books with appropriate projects in them.  I don't get around to doing timelines.  I never have the map available when we need it.  Katydid does not learn well from texts, and Gareth is going to require some sort of divine intervention or a homemade spelling program in addition to AVKO if he's ever going to learn to spell.

What I've been chewing over for a  long, long time now is Dawn's file folder system.  I'm thinking that since it sits out where I can see it, I might have a chance of pulling it off.  I've started keeping a small spiral notebook where I jot down lists of "stuff" -- materials I want to check out, to-do lists, ideas having to do with education, notes from books.  I've also made a "Homeschool Planner" where I'm keeping these lists for Montessori activities, a "resources I own" list (not comprehensive as far as books go!), copies of the curriculum I send to the school district as well as our required quarterly reports, a liturgical calendar... and probably other things as I think of them.  I don't want any of this to get too complicated, but I would like to have a better general idea of where we're headed every week.  I certainly won't be doing detailed lesson plans in advance, but knowing what the next presentation will be for my four or eight year old and having a list of books for my 10 year old to choose from would certainly make my life easier.  And I have a feeling that's going to be important in the next few months!!

Comments

[Andrea]

I'm in planning mode here too. What has worked for me is a lazy version of Dawn's File Folders. I put a rough schedule into Homeschool Tracker, then each week I can print out a sheet with montessori presentations for the littles and math, science, language, and history assigments for my oldest. Then I cross off and add in things, but having the weekly outline to start with (even if I cross it all off!) really helps and forces me to spend some time on planning. I put the print-out right in front of my computer so I can't forget it (of course the tricky part is remembering to print it out in the first place but I try to be very habitual about doing it on Saturday morning). Then I go to Dawn's blog and get the trickle down benefits of her organization! Saturday is also shopping day so I can pick up any craft supplies/recipe items I might need. I was amazed this year how easy it was to do projects when I had actually planned them and purchased the supplies! Thanks for getting my planning energies flowing!

[Meredith]

I loved reading about your planning. I feel like I'm knee-deep in Montessori Albums, and I really need to get a plan into action here on paper. I do mine on Excel by the month and then journal into my learning notes blog. I don't have any reporting for the state so it makes my life much easier. Happy summer and hope you're feeling good!! Praying for that sweet litle one! Blessings!