ARE
“PLANNERS” THE ANSWER TO ORDER vs CHAOS?
Just
a note here about something that pops up regularly amongst home
educators. There seems to be a natural desire for “order”. I
guess it's because the opposite of “order” is “chaos”. A
chaotic life is the fastest way to burnout. And so when a home
educating mum reads encouraging or informative home ed books she will
often gladly and sometimes desperately grab at things headed:
“lesson plan”, “curriculum”, “scope and sequence”, “daily
planner”, “easy-plan system” and on it goes. I KNOW this to be
true because I have done it myself! Usually in the depths of
winter, when everyone is suffering from cabin fever, the washing
basket is overflowing, damp washing adorns all hangable surfaces, the
rain has been relentless for weeks, our house feels a lot smaller
than it did last year, the clutter is taking over even though I was
sure we'd just had a major clean-out, our routine has gone completely
mad, nothing is being accomplished and nobody is able to settle
nicely to a task.
Order
is from God. He didn't create the world in chaos. That wouldn't
have worked! And we need order. But before you send away for an
expensive lesson planner, or a new curriculum in a desperate grasp to
retain some order think REALLY hard about what you are doing now
that isn't working and WHY it isn't working. Talk to someone about
it – often you'll figure out a plan all by yourself! Many people
put down their precious money on SOMEONE ELSE'S IDEA OF WHAT YOUR
CHILDREN SHOULD BE LEARNING – when they could have better spent
that money on a massive Lego set or a scientific microscope!
There
are people who call themselves “Planner Junkies”. If they are
happy, I'm happy for them! If you don't believe me just google
“Homeschooling Planners” or “Household Planners” - people are
making LOTS OF MONEY from this racket! And other people are sitting
at home looking at a great big thick binders with pretty covers, full of pages that
require you to write down every item of clothing in your wardrobe so
you never waste money on doubling up, or losing something in the back
of your drawers. Or a weekly plan for teaching your child each
letter of the alphabet/a specific colour/character trait/ – with a
poem and a song for each one, from now till 8 months ahead. Or a
master shopping list and how many of each item you still have in your
pantry at any given time ...
Ok,
maybe I exaggerated a little. But you go and see for yourself what
people like to plan. If you see a planner you like and you KNOW you
will use it, please get it!
However,
if, like me, you desire order and simplicity, and are attracted by
terms like FRUGAL, EASY and JUST FOR YOU - read on!
This
is pretty much the easiest and cheapest organising system I've used or
seen.
Get
a ring binder, a lined refill and some dividers. Beccause we have a
small house, with very few available surfaces to keep my folder open
on I have used an A5 2-ring binder. To fill it I bought two A5 pads
and neatly punched holes in them. This was a lot cheaper than
buying ready-made A5 paper with holes already punched in it. Then I
bought a pack of coloured cardboard and made my own dividers.
Name
the dividers something like:
WE
LIKE
WE
WANT TO DO
THINGS
WE SAID OR DID
PEOPLE
OTHER
INFORMATION
HEALTH
In
WE LIKE ask your children what they like to do and make lists!
Come back to it again the next week and add to it. Add to it during
the following weeks as something comes up in natural conversation.
Note down what the children like to play with at certain stages, and
also if you notice something you'd like to buy for them, or save up
for that they would enjoy.
Record
visits to friends, outings to various places, shops, library, great
books you've enjoyed, things you have listened to etc. Go back
through this list from time to time to remind yourself what the
children liked doing/seeing/listening to. This can also prompt you
to organise yourself a little better to make visits that will tie in
with interests your children have i.e., visiting local historic
sites, beachcombing, local walking tracks, photographic outings, bus
trips, train trips etc. You might like to stick tickets or photos in
here too.
Another
really great thing to put under this section is a list of all the
meals and favourite snacks and baking your family likes. This list
may change, everyone may go off anzac biscuits one day (I don't think
so!!). You can cross it off if they do, but cross it out neatly
because later everyone may decide they like them again.
It
can be fun looking at lists you made ages ago (not shopping lists
that are designed to be taken out to the supermarket – not left on
the kitchen table – used, then thrown away - unless you are wise enough to make a MASTER SHOPPING LIST which you photocopy - highly recommended!) but REAL lists, like
one I found on the pantry door under some lovely artwork that I'd
stuck over the top: finish deck, plant trees along south boundary …
These were jobs I hoped would be finished by 2006 … most of them
have actually been done now (six years later!) – that gives me a
feeling of progress! If I had made that list in my folder I would
have put it under the following section:
WE
WANT TO DO - yes, make
lists! Things to do around the home – short term and long term;
places you'd like to visit; friends you want to catch up with; notes
taken from books, websites, blogs or ideas/inspriation you gain when
talking to friends. If your children are going through a phase –
say cryogenics - then get them to draw a picture of what they think a
cryogenic laboratory would look like, date it, and put it into this
part of your folder!
If
you hear of a book/website you might like to read, write the title
and author/other details down here.
A
list of Bible references to verses you'd like to memorize can go here
too. Tick or cross off when you have written them onto an index card
and got them into your memorization system.
Just
a note here about getting good ideas from books: I have been
inclined, in the past, to read a book too
quickly. If it looks
good after the first chapter, I'm so excited about getting good
information that I run through it, promising myself that I will come
back and make notes on the very best bits so I don't forget them.
Well, inevitably something else catches my attention when I have
finished the book and I never get back to it to make notes. Learn
from my mistake! Don't do this!! If you're reading something
encouraging or inspirational STOP AND MAKE NOTES – put them in
this “WE WANT TO DO” portion of your notebook. Many times I
have read a book – for example a book of art activities for
children – and I have found ONE good idea that I'd like to try
sometime. Well, this is the place that I will now record this
amazing idea before it gets lost in time and space!
THINGS
WE SAID OR DID should be
available to quickly write down precious things the children say or
do that you know you will forget! The other day I was organising
everyone for a trip into town. I called down the hallway to one of
our older boys “Do you have any library books that need to be
returned?” Our 2 year old, who was already buckled into his
carseat called out from the van “No! I'm too little!” Now I won't forget
that because I've written it here! We actually have quite a large
quantity of “Childlike Quotes” - I haven't written them all down
- we only remember them because the older ones think they are so
funny they repeat them from time to time. Much safer to write them
down I think!
You
might like to quickly note major achievements here also – riding a
bike on 2-wheels, putting own gumboots on, tying shoes by self,
showing great patience and hospitality with a difficult visitor ...
PEOPLE
etc is like an address book, but give each person a decent
amount of room – say quarter or half a page. Write their name,
address, phone number, email, children's names, any birthdays you
know of (and also note down ideas for presents as they come up
naturally during the year - such as “likes beads and wire to make
things with”)
The
“etc” of this part is for any other information you might need to
refer back to such as user names for various websites, a list of
organisations you like to donate money to and their bank account
details …
OTHER
INFORMATION well – my
section here is blank, but it feels comfortable to have a “safety
net” where I can put information that might not fit anywhere else!
HEALTH
My system involves a bit of double-handling, yours doesn't have to –
and of course, you might be the sort of person who loves to put this
on the computer. Once again – I stress that you should do what
works for you and your family!
I
have a page for each person, and then a page for the whole family in
date order showing who was ill and when, and if we needed to take
anything for it. When people have a cold I just write “A cold”
but if it's more serious I write more detail. It's ever so easy to
forget how long ago things happened if you don't write them down. If
I was asked when Daddy cut the top of his thumb off at work I might
guess … 2 or 3 years ago? But looking on Daddy's health page I see
it was 5 years ago!
Setting
up this sort of system can be time consuming; or fun, depending on
what sort of person you are! One of our children loves to read back
through to see what we've been up to! It actually makes more sense
of “time” when a child can see what happened and when during
their lifetime. And that's another page you can insert here
somewhere – perhaps under OTHER INFORMATION: a timeline showing
your life as a family: when the first child was born, when you got
the cat, when the dog died, when you had a big holiday or moved
house, when the next baby came along, when the goat had a kid, when
the first chicks were born ... We once made a similar timeline that
we put on the wall for a while, but a page inside your planner would
be neat and be there longer for the children to read/add to. Yes,
excellent idea – I'm just off to do that right now!
This
simple and easy little system won't work UNLESS YOU USE IT! Have
your folder out where you can see it all the time. Keep a pen or
pencil RIGHT WITH IT all the time.
This
planner might seem too simple for some people. Well – it is simple
but it works! Feel free to make it more complicated/detailed if
that suits you better!
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