Dazed and Confused

 
I will start my eighth year of homeschooling in a few weeks. At least I hope I’ll be starting by then. This year has been vastly different in planning than all other years.

Typically I start planning the new year in January. Yes, in January. My mother never fully understood why I did this but it was simply to get through the “winter slump.” This is the time when school has become routine and the dreaded “burnout” is hitting. It brings new life in to finishing up the year in order to get to all the fun new stuff planned for the fall.

However, this year? This year I have nothing planned. Zip. Zero. Zilch. In fact, we still have five days left to complete to call our 2009-2010 school year done. But that isn’t unusual at all since we typically do a light schedule year round.

So why am I feeling so dazed and confused?

I could probably come up with a number of reasons but I think the biggest one for me? I have a teenager going in to eighth grade. This is taking learning to another level. Another level that I’m not always sure I can handle.

After all I’m a homeschooling mom. I can’t blame the school system if my children never learn their multiplication facts correctly. I can’t blame the local public school if they never learn how to conjugate verbs. All that blame falls squarely on my shoulders. 

I am currently schooling three boys ages 13, nine, and six. I need to figure out a workable schedule so that I have time to teach my six year old how to read, my nine year old how to do the double digit addition that kept throwing him for a loop last year, and my 13 year old how to succeed in life. No pressure there at all.

Thankfully I also know where to find the tools to help me accomplish all of the above.


Enter The 2010 Schoolhouse Planner. The Planner is going to be a huge help to me this year. It has over 600 pages. The Table of Contents is covered in 14 pages. That’s a huge TOC!

I’m planning on using a lot of the 120 pages of homeschooling forms that it contains. The forms don’t even start until page 321 in the Planner. I’m sure the “Daily Goals” sheet will be helpful. I’m getting to the point where I don’t need to plan out every minute of my day, but I do like to have a general overview. There is even a “Weekly Goals,” “Monthly Goals,” “Semester Goals,” and “Yearly Goals” sheets to help keep me on track.

One of the other things I really like is that there is an eBook version for instant download ($39). It works as a pdf file in Adobe, but the best part? The fields are “typeable.”  That means I can type in the information I need for each of my boys and print it out so it’s all nice and neat. Sometimes nice and neat is all that it takes to get me through my day.

Not only will this help me organize and plan my homeschool year, but there are also 128 pages of household planning forms as well. They cover grocery lists, menu planners, address book, budgeting, garden planning, Christmas card mailing, and the list goes on.


While I could probably make my own forms or find them free on the internet, my time as a wife, mother, teacher, and all the other hats that I wear is limited. It’s nice to know that the TOS Planner covers all I need and more.

So if you don’t see me on the Internet much in the next few weeks, you’ll know why. I’m busily planning out our 2010-2011 homeschool year. I’m sure it will be a success. At least I hope so!



Disclaimer: A copy of The TOS 2010 Schoolhouse Planner was provided to me in order to write this sell sheet. I am participating in a TOS Crew contest. That doesn’t mean I won’t be using The Planner this year because I plan to do exactly what I said in this ad!