The last two years I made a planner using Publisher and had it printed at Staples. It was a lot of work and expensive to print. This year I wanted to keep things simple and decided to use a spiral bound notebook instead. This notebook has been the best planner out of all the years I've homeschooled!I printed our weekly schedule in color and taped it inside the cover of my notebook. Then I use color coordinating ink pens and colored pencils to match the printed schedule. It's colorful and yet simple at the same time.
I don't use a planner to schedule out what needs to be done, I use it to keep up with what we've completed. In the morning, I check what is scheduled for the day and transfer that to our current date. I write the date and then in green ink (our together subjects) I go down the page adding the subjects, skipping every two lines. First skipped line is my son's and his is written in blue, the second is my daughter's and she is in pink. To draw the eye more (or maybe just to please it) I "highlight" the words with the same colored pencil. As we move through our day I add what we've done and if needed, I have room in the margins to write notes.
Just in case you were wondering, we love our new schedule! The time slots are all designated the same. A together subject, followed by a round robin of my son requiring assistance and my daughter working independently, till after the next together subject where that switches up. Then my son works independently while I help my daughter. It's basically the same all week long with just a few variations in some of our subjects. The kids like knowing what's next.
Our attendance record is hole punched and in a three ring binder along with "printed" lesson plan schedules. We call it the "Mom Binder" and it is divided by subject; Records, Bible, Language Arts, Math, History, Geography, Science and Nature Study. Since my planner is three hole punched I could clip it into my binder but I haven't found it necessary yet.
So there you have it, an easy peasy and inexpensive way to keep up with your days!
