Planning help needed-- please!

[annettemarie]

Planning for three kids is making me crazy. I've tried several things, and nothing is working. A traditional lesson plan book doesn't give me enough room. None of the computer programs I've seen work for me, plus I can't really be chained to the computer all day (Plus, it's like a black hole. I get sucked into the internet very easily!). I tried making my own "weekly planner" type document, but it was seven pages long!

I'm not getting planning done.

I'm not able to work in housekeeping-type stuff because there's no good format for doing so.

All my routines seem to be slipping away.

Ideally, I want something where I can plan for a first and third grader as well as have activities on hand for my preschooler. I'd like to also be able to write in some basic routines and housekeeping things.

Does anything exist? I can't even imagine what I am looking for would look like.

[heatherdeg]

What level of detail are you putting in your planning document?

When I taught at the high school level, I had to plan for three different courses (5 actual classes/day). I found a good plan book that had the days of the week across the top and I think it had 10 periods down the side. But I really had to write the major points in the boxes and then refer to the more detailed lesson plans for more information, etc. I kept those in color-coded folders.

Could you do something similar? Maybe even make your own, although the plan book was spiral bound and it was MUCH roomier to have it spread across the two pages--but you could 3-hole punch it and put it in a binder...?

Put the days of the week across the top. Put either your time periods, sections of the day (early morn, late morn, early pm, etc.) or just put the subjects down the side (including housekeeping). Then, put in the major objective for each day and a reference (either to a book/page where you found the activity or to a heading of a sheet/lesson plan you've created). ETA: I used to do the major/high level planning for a few weeks in advance and then each week, I could sit down and do the detail. Then, keep a color-coded file for each in a file rack somewhere. When you need more info/detail, it's right there. You could even attach any printables or materials (in a baggie) to the sheet.

For housekeeping, I did a take on FlyLady's stuff and have a list of what gets done for each day of the week; plus a list of the daily tasks. I've made it so that no one day has so much work that it can't be done in about an hour (except when I'm trying to catch up on laundry--but I don't have cleaning for the weekends and I "make up" then).

So I look at the schedule, then go find the details I need somewhere else. The schedule is small enough to carry around (I used to highlight things I needed to gather or copy or whatever in yellow and then when they were done, I went over it in blue--making it green so I knew it was a "go").

Just thoughts.

[AllisonK]

What about making a home management binder? I love mine.

[annettemarie]

I have one! I must just be missing something critical. I'm having a tough job holding it all together. Either school gets done, but none of the routines are there, or we get the housework and daily-type stuff done, and school suffers, and my four-year-old gets left to his own devices pretty much either way.

[heatherdeg]

It would take some practice, but can you have them all tackle the same TOPIC with different activities? Or with different levels of the same activity (Google differentiated learning)?

I have a home management binder and I really love it--but it can't go anywhere with me really. I'm sure it's just me, but that's me. If I can't grab my activity details the second I need them--I'm seriously off-track. After reading your post, I'm going to make a "pull-it-out-anytime" box of stuff for my 4yo to do.

Can you assign some of the housecleaning to the kids (and make a learning experience out of some of it)? I only have my 4yo son, but I also foster 2 infants. So our first section of the morning is chores and he can make his bed, get out X number of eggs or whatever, take laundry to the back stairs and throw it down (which he loves) and swish the toilet (which he also loves). Seems small, but it's a lot of little things that add up. Maybe they can't complete the task, but they can get it half done and then you finish up.

I'm one of those people who seriously loses all momentum if the routine is broken; but I'm getting better!

[annettemarie]

We do science and SOTW together. Music, art, Christian Ed, we do together. Some math units I do together. We have what we affectionately call The Language Arts Big Fun Hour-- spelling, handwriting, grammar, reading. It's crazy. I just start one on something and then work with the other and I feel like a ping pong ball going back and forth and back and forth.

I've been trying to get them to help out more, but my nine-year-old has some entitlement issues.

[moominmamma]

Is there any chance that you're just trying to do too much? I mean, maybe you can't organize it all into a day because there's just too much to fit. That sounds like an awful lot of school to fit into a day with pretty young kids. Even when my kids have gone through very structured phases, my "homeschooling" time with them rarely went beyond two hours (plus music practicing, plus story time before bed). I've pretty much found that less is more in homeschooling.

Miranda