This has always been an exciting and uncomfortable time of year for me, planner-wise. I am coming to the end of one school year’s planner and starting a new one. It is exciting to start something new and fresh. However, change is uncomfortable, especially when it involves shelving the records from the past year.
In a perfect world, I would switch all my written planning, scheduling, and record keeping to Google Calendar. I already use Google Classroom, so it would make sense. An electronic version of my planner would be portable, accessible form anywhere on multiple devices, make it easy to share info with family, and look up previous events with ease. However, I am a creature of well-established habit of writing things down on paper. I like it all out where I can see it on the table in front of me, even if that means having to pull previous planner books from the book shelf to find the past event info that I am looking for.
This is my current planner. I mean, it is so cute with its colorful cover and souvenir stickers. This is actually the same binder from Dollar Tree that I used last year. I just pulled the pages out, put them in a boring binder on the bookshelf, and filled this one with fresh pages. I just love the colorful pocket dividers and elastic band (it is a flexible binder, so i punched two holes in the back cover and used that to thread the elastic through). But, being a Dollar Tree binder going on daily use for two years, I was just waiting for “explosion day” when the rings would give way and pop open, spilling all the year’s planning and progress out onto the ground. Time for a new binder for a new year.
This is the binder that I selected from Target for this year. It is a lovely peach with houseplants and gold accents. I am a little worried about the fact that it is cardboard and not plastic. Will it hold up to my abuse?
The inside is also lovely, and it has a front pocket (sorry for the blurry photo). Again, being a cardstock pocket, how long with it last? I made sure that my new dividers were colorful and also had pockets, just in case.
It is also helpful to add a folder in the back, for additional loose paper storage. This is something I picked up years ago during an after-school-started clearance for 25 cents. I love a bargain.
The dividers are labeled with my label maker and probably only make sense to me. The monthly calendars and weekly planning pages will go behind “Calendar”. I like to use these stick-on page tabs from Post-it brand to label the months. You will probably note that I have only gotten as far as the summer months in my printing of calendars and planning pages, however I will eventually fill up the pages through next June.
“Students” is where I will track attendance (the days we “do” school, field trips, holidays, etc.) and grades. I also like to use those page tabs here to separate the attendance/gradebook pages for each student.
“Plans” is not daily lesson plans (those are written each day on weekly planning pages in “Calendar”), but yearly curriculum plans and plans outside of school, such as vacations, Christmas shopping, etc. “Groups” is our 4-H group and any other extra-curricular groups my girls are involved with (clubs, theater, co-op, etc.). Finally, the “Notes” section is just a catch-all of anything that did not fit in the previous categories, such as writing down my short, medium, and long term goals, things to take care of around the house, TPT and blog ideas, etc.
That is pretty much it for how I am setting up my planner binder for this year: cute binder, colorful pocket dividers, a label maker, Post-it page tabs, and printed planning pages. You can find printable planner pages here in my TPT store to help you get started building your own planner for the school year, or just plan the summer with these pages here. Happy planning!
North Star Homeschool Resources 