Frustrated Perfectionist

I think I've tried a little of every lesson planning method. Some home educators use a typical teacher's planner in organizing their studies. I could tell right away that wasn't going to work for me as I don't have 20+ kids all at the same age/level. I tried a detailed plan for each day of what exactly we were going to do in each subject. The problem was, life happened and I was always frustrated that I didn't get to neatly cross everything off. Then it messed up the next day because I had to move part of Monday's lessons to Tuesday and so forth. . .and it messed up the whole week!! (Not to mention I get excited in the planning stage and cram way too many great projects and wonderful books into a small space of time).

Then I tried general lists of things I wanted to accomplish in each subject for each week, and that worked better. But I still got frustrated because we would get all our goals accomplished in three or four subjects, but a couple subjects would have assignments that needed carried over to the next week. . .which once again messed up the following week (or weeks!). (You're seeing the pattern here, right? I want my paper with lesson plans on it to look all nice and neat. I wasted a lot of time RECOPYING lesson plans because they got 'messed up' and it just drove me crazy.)

This year, however, I have FINALLY hit on what works best for our family. I LOVE index cards (although you can see I typed my plans on the computer, printed them on cardstock, and cut them into cards)!!

• Each color represents a different subject.
• Each card represents a week of lesson plans for that subject (labeled "week one" or "lesson four"--not labeled with dates).

All my lesson plans for the semester fit nicely into this little pink index card box (not on random sheets of paper scattered over the house, not in a huge three-ring binder that contains my whole LIFE and brain, not crowded on a huge wall calendar that also contains all our commitments, birthdays, etc.).
Every Sunday evening I hang a card for each subject on our homeschool cabinet using that delightful sticky tack. As assignments are completed, we just check them off on the card. If life happens and we don't get to Spanish all week, we just leave that card up the next week and move on in the other subjects. No recopying lesson plans, no circling and drawing an arrow to the next day or week, no reorganizing Spanish lessons for the entire month. Just leave the card up and do it next week.It's wonderful! The kids love it because they like to know what is expected of them at the beginning of each week. I love it because I go ahead and work really hard before a semester begins, but then everything is all planned out for me for the semester and I don't have to keep making changes to my plan (which frustrates me greatly--another character flaw, I know).
If a card is not completed, but is partially checked off, I usually leave it up but hang the next card up as well and we usually work hard to complete both cards so we can take them down the next week (and not get too far behind the overall plan). This system also works great for my preschoolers as I have planned things to do with them, but it's not on a rigid schedule so I feel no guilt in letting them just be kids on the weeks they would rather play than "do school" or on the weeks when we do extra running with activities or have illness.
And that's it! It's not terribly complicated, it doesn't cost a lot of money, and it provides a plan with flexibility. Structure, a skeleton, a vision--with room for chasing rabbits, living life, and pursuing individual interests. It's not copyrighted--go ahead, try it! You'll like it! :)