Weekly planning sheets

Now that I've got a yearly planning page that works for me, it was a natural progression that I needed to make a weekly one as well. I wanted simple. Seriously simple. One sheet. Nuts and bolts.

I came up with this one. It's my weekly macro list. This is the one that hangs on the wall so that everyone knows what to expect. I colored it up with pencils to make it easier to read and prettier to look at.



After I did this, I needed a micro list-- one for my eyes only. It has a little more space so I can write what I intend to do. It's still simplified enough to fit on one page, but it gives me enough room to put just enough information that I know what's going on at a glance. I can really feel the week out this way.




Here are the master sheets. If you click on the images below, they should open up large enough for you to save and print out. (They fit fine on my European paper size... hopefully they will translate well enough onto standard letter size, too.)

Homeschool Planning

I'm still trying to slog through my Rome pictures... but meanwhile, I'm feeling the pressure to start getting things ready. It's August, after all. Local kids are back to school here NEXT WEEK. I can't deny any longer that a new year is upon me.

This year I've decided to try a different way to plan things out. That big sheet of divided paper that lots of people use just doesn't work for me, so this year I made my own template on normal-sized paper. It gives me the entire year at a glance. Plus I like to list my goals for each child-- emotional, physical, whatever I need to remember to focus on.

We still have a few things to finish up from last year. For Sunburst, that's Greece. Usually Greece has to be carried over to Grade 6 anyway, so I'm not worried at all. Actually I'm excited-- as of this morning we're planning a field trip to Athens this fall. Yay!!

It's still a work in progress, and I've probably left something out... but here's what I've got lined up for Sunburst this coming year:




And Moonshine... she's just not emotionally ready for the Old Testament stories yet, so we'll continue with stories from second grade-- there are way more than you can cover in second grade. We'll bridge the gap with Farming and LOTS of Math blocks, and then we'll hit the Old Testament in the early spring when Moonshine turns nine. With her birth date falling where it does we're always bridging the gap between years, waiting for the emotional/physical markers-- always-- before we jump in with both feet. It works for us.

Here's the plan for Moonshine:



Anyway, here's a blank of the template I made to use this year. It's not fancy or anything, but I thought I'd throw it out there if anyone was interested. Maybe it will work for you, too. When you click on the image it should open up into a larger format that you can save and print from.



Now I'm onto the micro planning of the first blocks... fun!!

How is your planning going? Is anyone else getting excited to start a new year??

Making it purty

Moving into a new place always entails some re-thinking of the homeschooling space. In the apartment we used kitchen drawers as a place for the kids to house their drawings and random creations. The new kitchen has a ton of drawers, but none of them were just right. To stave off arguments they have to be all the same size, and for sanity's sake, not so big that the kids can't find the one tiny slip of paper they can't live without. --Sanity will not be underrated!

So we headed on down to IKEA and picked out a small shelf of drawers that fit the bill, while also being easy on the pocketbook and small enough to squeeze into our tight space.



What can I say... the drawers are plastic and sort of ghastly. I managed to look at them for a whole day before I attacked them with a little bit of Waldorf voodoo. I love saying that-- Waldorf voodoo. It's a term that should be coined, don't you think? Anyway, I think the voodoo quite worked as it's much easier on the eyes, and actually quite nice. A little watercolor paper goes a long way.



The little pictures you can almost see are my kids-- Kitty Bill can't read yet, so I like to personalize the space with pictures he can read.




For the sweet Celtic calligraphy signs I have to extend a warm thanks to our dear friends in Wales. They sent us a writing sample and some pens, and as you can see we're always finding new ways of putting them to good use!