Homeschool planning with real life

The pace seems to have picked up here again.  Lots happening with our school work, appointments, visits, extra music exam preparations ... Hopefully we'll settle again by the end of the month.

I hope this isn't too boring a post, as I know I'm always trying to reinvent how I manage my schedule and planners.  Now that we're using Sonlight, most of the hard work is done for me (yay!).  That still hasn't stopped me from wanting everything in one place.

I had a go at making my own A5 diary, but I'm letting that fall by the wayside.  Even though it was a handy purse-size and I could put all the info. in it I needed, I was basically reinventing the wheel.  Also, it was very time consuming to get it all done the way I wanted it.

So ... ta da ... I'm trying this!

Yep, the good old binder.  I can add what I need and file what I don't.  I bought a 3-ring binder so all the Sonlight pages will fit in quite easily.


With monthly tabs, plastic sleeves for notices/bills/special documents, and then printing off the pages I want to use as I need them, it's working really well! 

Behind each monthly tab is a double page spread to view the month's activities.  Where I can, I type in special events or appointments before printing this off.  I will also be noting the moon cycles as I plan better, to be mindful of the seasons and planning our gardening accordingly also.

Then, week by week, I'm printing a double page to plan out our weekly events.  I'm kind of summarising what's already on the Sonlight planning pages, but that's so we can tick or write whatever we want on it and keep the original pages clean.

The left is for Maestro's work, with room to write in notes.  I'm also trying very hard to implement FlyLady's zoning routine again, so I'm logging in at the beginning of the week to view her "Sneak Peek for the Week!" and jotting the notes down.
Noted appointments and visits also have a box underneath.

 Close up of left page.  Click to enlarge.

On the right, Mariposa's timetable is set out, again with room for notes and my weekly menu/shopping list.

Close up of right page.  Click to enlarge.

The Sonlight planning pages can then be added weekly, so everything's where I need it, but without the bulk.

As I've already mentioned, I want to add gardening planning notes into this too, but at the moment playing with this is enough.  I'll keep notes on jobs done under chores for now (eg: pruning roses is a 'must do' job next week!)