Planning our year

 I decided to write a post about how I'm organizing my planning for our first year of homeschool.  I'm sure as time goes on, I'll tweak this a bunch, but this is what I'm using to start.

I've made a binder that holds several forms and planning sheets.  It will be my "bible" for everything important in one place.  In it I have an attendance sheet for each boy.  I found these at Homeschool Launch.  Next is a section with monthly calendar sheets.  This is where I can write extracurricular activities such as piano lessons, soccer, etc.  Following the calendar sheets are weekly planning lists.  I have a separate lesson plan book that my cousin gave me for free that I am using to write our day to day plans.  These planning sheets will serve as a to-do list for things I need to copy, prepare, and gather for each homeschool week.  I tend to write to-do lists on little scraps of paper, anything I can find, and leave them all over the place.  So I know I will benefit from having these sheets in the binder where I can always find them!!  The monthly calendar sheets and weekly planning lists are both from Mama-Jenn. 

Next, I have a Books I've Read sheet for each boy, also found at Homeschool Launch.  (Note:  You'll have to scroll down quite a bit; it's under the "Organization" heading.) This will be a nice place to keep track of what they read independently throughout the year.

Then I have a section with sight words lists for my first grader.  I have both the kindergarten and first grade lists from our local school district.  Next up are some spreadsheets I made to keep track of the Right Start math lessons for each boy.  When we complete a lesson, I'll check it off and add the date we finished with any additional notes.

At the end of the binder I have a list of "independent choices" for each of my sons.  I think this will be useful for me to refer to either when planning for the week or to pull out during the week as needed to remind me what I can give one to do while I help the other one.  I am planning to write a separate post listing some of the choices on this list.  Many of the ideas are ones I've found on Pinterest this summer.

In the front pocket of the binder I have a menu-planning list to help keep me on-track with planning healthy meals each week.  I'll probably share about that in a future post too.

I'd love to hear from the rest of you about how you organize everything.  Leave me a comment if you have a great planning resource.