Beginning the Planning Process

        
Now that I have my scattered thoughts down on paper, I can begin to really organize for the coming year. I'm actually a bit late getting started on the planning process this year.  My mind had been full of  many things that we were dealing with, (like college hunting for Night Owl!) and planning for the future had to take a back seat for a bit.  But, my enthusiasm for planning a new year, and the knowledge that planning is essential if I want to have a peaceful, successful year to come, has kept me from keeping it on the back burner for too long. 

I wont be linking back to any old planning posts, although there are many!  My methods for planning have basically stayed the same, but each year I read about or come up with new ways to do things.  For me, this keeps things fresh.  I have an enthusiam for trying new things.  I've often heard people say "If it isn't broken, why fix it?", but I'm always ready to tweak things or change things completely just for variety. 

So, how am I planning for the 2012-2013 school year?  There are several things to take into consideration and I will hit on each of them in seperate posts to keep this one from getting too long.  Here are the steps I will be taking:

1. First, get all the random thoughts swirling around in my head down on paper.  I already did this, and I'll call this first step "Brain Declutter".  Once this notebook is full, it wont be forgotten!  I plan to re-read my notes regularly as I plan so that I don't forget to incorporate a new idea or a new resource.
2. Set Goals.  I will do this for each child individually and for our family as a whole.  This can be divided into five sections-
1. Academic Goals
2. Behavior Goals
3. Spiritual Goals
4. Social Goals
5. Physical Goals
3. School Calendar - This is simply deciding when our school year will begin and end, and any breaks that we will need to take throughout the year.
4. Choose Resources - This is the fun part!  Here I carefully decide on the resources we will use to help us meet the above goals.
5. Create shopping lists.  My lists cover the items I need to gather (already on my shelves) or purchase and from where I will purchase them.
6. Carefully consider how and when each resource will be used.  This includes setting some loose goals regarding where the children will be in each resource per term.
7. Devise a method to keep everyone informed of what they are to do each day, in each subject.
8. Create a daily schedule and work out the logistics.

I thought my list was complete but I just happened to jump over see what was going on at Wildflowers and Marbles and I found this beautiful idea!  Jen is awesome when it comes to pretty organizing ideas!  So adding a number 9 -

    9. Organize it all into some pretty notebooks!

I thought I would come back to this and add links to the planning posts that follow.  They are not all complete, but here are the next, completed posts:
Step 2: Setting Goals
Step 3: The Calendar
Step 4: Choosing Resources
Step 5: Hunting and Gathering
Step 6: Carefully Considering the Resources
Step 7: Assigning Assignments
Step 8: Scheduling the Day