The Planner

I set to work. I was determined to create my own planner for this upcoming year of lessons. I revisited my past plans, read through our old planners to see how and what types of things I needed room for. (And which parts of the planners sat empty.) I created a simple layout and set out to find the book to keep it in.
I had originally planned to buy preprinted pages of some sort for my DayRunner. That quickly showed to be a dud of an idea. None of those pages would work for me. Even if I did make them work, was it worth $30 for the refill pack?

I soon settled on the idea of some sort of nice notebook. Endless pages of lined paper for my ranting! Yes! One problem. Most of the notebooks had, at most, 100 or 150 pages. That's not nearly enough when you factor in-
KY state homeschooling laws prescribe 180 days of instruction
I will be planning and recording lessons for 3 children
I like to write notes about the boys and their progress (It's what made revisiting all those old planners so sweet and special.)

What I finally found was a hard cover "Record" book. This is made by WilsonJones and has 500 pages. (S300-5R Record Ruled-35 lines, 500 pages in case you're interested in ordering.)

So, last night with my template in hand, I partially created my plan book for this year. It lays out as follows:

Inside front cover-Calendar

1st page-

Wisdom cannot finally be tested in schools,
Wisdom cannot be pass'd from one having it
to another not having it,
Wisdom is of the soul,
is not susceptible of proof,
is its own proof.
- Walt Whitman

Wisdom Home Academy
(School address)
School point of contact- (My name and cell number)

Dates used-
(Names and ages of all students)

Pages 2 through 5-Proposed reading lists (These will be checked off the list, with date and name of student(s), as completed.

Pages 6 through 9-Outline our goals for our family and each child

Pages 10 through 13-
Books and resources list, this does not include reading books (including price)

Then, the actual weekly planner pages begin. They are laid out as follows:
The Schedule (This is a loose schedule for our daily activities as well as a weekly list of any special events or appointments.)
Home Management (This page includes a list of any tasks needed for running the home that week.)
Two page spread of The Plan (This will outline our ever evolving plan/lessons for the day.)
Two page spread for notes. (This will be used to record any observations, exciting moments, frustrating moments, and those moments that make you so happy you homeschool.)

Of course the weekly planner pages make up the bulk of this record book. At the end of this record book:
Attendance record sheets
KY state homeschoooling laws
Public school liaison contact information
The back cover will sport a library card holder to hold one card for our currently owed library books