Homeschool Planner: I made my own

Huge confession here:

 

I have quite the obsession with planners. 

 

I love the possibilities a new planner posesses.  Ah.  I love the crispness.  All of the neat places and slots to fill in. 

 

Last school year I used an amazing Christian Mom planner that Nick's cousin had given me for a Mother's Day gift.  I love her.  Her name is Jodee and somehow she always knows how to make people's day.  I shouldn't say "somehow" because I know how...it's a God thing, totally. 

 

Anyway, I loved it but I was also using a lesson planner and between the two I felt like I was always flipping between the one and the other.  Carrying them around with nothing else felt like I was going to class.  Not to Panera to schedule over chai. 

 

So this year I made my own. 

 

Shocking, I know.  I gotta tell you, it was WAY more frustrating than I thought it would  be.  Figuring out which goes on the front of the page and what will be on the back when  you turn the page was just about enough to put me in a straitjacket.  Fo' real. 

 

Here's a little tour of my planner...come inside:

 

 Here's the front cover!  LOVE it!  I want to eventually put a picture of the kids below the letters, I just haven't found "the one" yet.  I will though.  The front has a clear sleeve on it, so it will just slide in there nicely.  I had it bound at Staples.  Cheap!!!  I couldn't believe it.  I think it cost me $3.00. 

 Here's a close-up of my cover.  Proverbs 31 is my mantra in life.  I want to show the kids how to be a mom and wife for Christ.  I read it often.  Very, very often.

 I went through figuring out how to print off labels for my tags and I am SOOOO glad I did.  Now I have cute font on there!

 LOVE these planner pages I found at Artsy, Fartsy Mama!  She even has different color schemes to use!  

 Up until now I have always printed off my chore charts on a weekly basis.  I use Motivated Mom's lists and I HIGHLY recommend them!  I am such a chart and checker girl.  I get joy from the satisfaction of checking off my to-do's and feeling like I am actually getting stuff done.  So I printed off my sheets so I no longer have to remember to print them off!

 I slipped this sheet of tabs onto one of the tabbed dividers.  Now I can slip them on to something I need to remember...so handy!

 A few months ago I sprained ankle and after weeks of not being able to find EXACTLY what I wanted for my lesson plans, I made it myself.  I was couch-ridden and used the old ruler and pencil method to hack out what I wanted.  Sometime I'll try to enhance it so you can see what all I included.  Above is my first week of school...look at how planned it is. 

 And then we skip to week 5...nary a lesson has been planned.  Eek.  I know it seems lame-o but I can't plan too far ahead lest Emma gets behind and then I am in hot water with the planning ahead. 

 This section makes me the most excited...eek!  It's all together in all of it's glory.  The days of planning on the back of a starbucks napkin are over. 

 Here's what I like to see the most...being organized, I have been recording what I have been buying and need to send, wrap, etc.  I like being able to write "done" next to what I have already accomplished this early in the year. 

 I know it's dumb but I like to make goofy names for my sheets and lists.  That way when I am on the phone, stressed out and trying to find where the dumb post office lost all of my gifts, I can smile when I am writing on my "odd-ball" Christmas list. 

It's the little things.  Am I wrong? 

I like planning for this event...gotta be prepared, right?  Do you have an Ugly Sweater Party too?

 

I absolutely could not have done this without this website.  She explained how to arrange your pages and had oodles and oodles of templates to use.  Love this lady and I don't even know her! 

Do you make your own planner too?  Do you have any other ideas? I'd love to hear them!