My Custom Planner

I don't know about you, but the planner thing makes me nutso year after year.  I have bought pre-made planners and planners you can download and "customize" by printing out the pages you want.  I made my own "Mom's Brain" with a three ring binder and it worked for awhile - that is until I started stuffing everything in there and it was about to burst.  I still use the Mom's Brain binder to store information that doesn't need to be in the planner I want to carry around with me.

I customized my planner by using a little of Office Depot, a little of the free planners on the Internet and a few of my own forms.  First of all, I bought a Pro-Click and it is FABULOUS!!!!  In addition to my planner I can make "notebooks" or "workbooks"  for the kids or anything else I want tidily together! Pro-Click is a binding system, but the best part is the spiral binding easily opens and closes so you can add or remove pages with ease AND you can reuse the spines!  WHAT!?!?  Yes!!  I purchased the Pro-Click, 45 page capacity spines (pack of 25) and 85 page capacity spines (pack of 25) along with the Pro-Click machine for about $80.  WORTH IT!  That means I can make 50 workbooks or planners etc - I can't imagine having that many at once, but the fact that I can reuse spines means I likely won't ever use them all up.

To make my cover, I used a free cover from New Beginnings homeschool helper website - run by the Dynamic 2 Mom's blog.  I used a cover and back cover from that site, as well as the Calendar Year At a Glance and the Long Range Planning form.

The Dividers are serving as front and back cover and of course, dividers.  They are a flexible semi hard plastic divider from Avery - # 11231


These are my lesson plan pages.  I made it myself with Microsoft Publisher - how I make most of my forms- and I tweak it whenever it suits me.  I don't put days of the week - I plan out 180 lessons and when we are done we are done. I have a tab with these pages for each of the boys.

I learned about Frixion Pens from Sam over at Sam's Noggin, and they are WONDERFUL! I love lesson planning with pen - that is erasable.  It erases from friction, not an actual eraser.  These are most definitely not like the erasable pens of the 80's.  No more pencil smudge in my planner and no more eraser crumbs.

Year Calendar At a Glance

This is the year long calendar I purchased at Office Depot.  It came on a spiral, but I took it off, cut off the holes and re-holed it with my Pro-Click to insert in my planner!  I had to have it because it was pink.

On the long range planner I am writing things I want to do throughout the school year, but always seem to be a day late for- like Pi Day or holiday unit studies.

Long Range Planner from the New Beginnings Website

This is the Daily "To Do" form I made for myself.  It has a checklist on the left of all the things I want to make sure I get done each day - like checking my blood sugar or taking my blood pressure meds.  I get busy and sometimes forget!  Also, I have a space for chores, errands and a food log.  At the bottom is a note section for anything misc I think of that I want to write down or remember.

This is a curriculum resources planner from New Beginnings website (I think!).  I put it in my planner, but I haven't used it yet.  We'll see.

This is the curriculum planning sheet I have been using for years and it came from www.donnayoung.org - I will probably stick with what is familiar.

I have tabs for menu planning/recipes/grocery list, banking/bills info and passwords, and college info. 

That's all.  I wanted something easy to carry around - unlike the cumbersome binder - that I could easily work on when I am in a waiting room or at the ball field. I can stick it in my purse (yes, I carry a big purse) and off I go!

Maybe this gives you some ideas - have fun making your planner!