Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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TracyQ
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Posted: Aug 22 2007 at 8:35am | IP Logged Quote TracyQ

jenny ann wrote:
YESSSS! Tracy Q-you answered my prayers with the lesson planner pages. Thank you!I really think this will work for us! And an excuse to purchase office supplies? priceless!


Well, I'm so glad I could be the hands God used to help you with your planning! And I'm        about your purchasing office supplies comment! I SO agree, and am right there with ya!

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stefoodie
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Posted: Aug 22 2007 at 9:47am | IP Logged Quote stefoodie

yes, there are discs at a great price -- made for scrapbookers but no one says can't be used for planners

here.

it's the punch that's pricey, but i'm thinking right now since i could use it for any size paper, make any size planner, use it for scrapbooking, my homekeeping manual, etc. that it will be worth it in the long run. we're also planning to DIY a lot of our forms.

The hold-that-thought page I think would be perfect for the kids' individual planners! My kids are starting to get excited about planning their own planners too

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TracyQ
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Posted: Aug 22 2007 at 9:52am | IP Logged Quote TracyQ

Yes, Stef! These were the roller discs she used on the scrapbooking show. She was showing how to make one for someone as a gift. I thought it was really neat!

I agree that the punch is pricey, I wonder if there's one available for cheaper now that these discs are becoming more common???? Hmmm..... I do think that they are a neat idea, and the punch would make sense to be able to do many projects with these discs!

Tracy

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Mary G
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Posted: Aug 22 2007 at 8:52pm | IP Logged Quote Mary G

Along the lines of this discussion, has anyone used the Charlotte Mason Planner? At $30, it seems a bit high but if you can use it yearly, it pays for itself pretty quickly ... and it SEEMS like you can adapt to your own use/course, etc. I like the idea it's on the computer so you can track etc.

The problem I have with planners is that I can't set it in stone ... I like to keep things organic so I can change order of discussions or take advantage of a field trip oppty that comes up, etc.

So, any thoughts on the CMPlanner?

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Posted: Aug 22 2007 at 10:21pm | IP Logged Quote stefoodie

I tried downloading the preview, Mary, but got an error message from Adobe saying it didn't have any pages. Went to the author's website as well but I couldn't find a link to a preview download. Help? I'm eager to see the preview, to find out if I still need to make my own or just spend the $30 on theirs.

If the CMP doesn't work out for me, DIYplanner.com has numerous templates (free) -- I think I'll go ahead and give the Circa punch and discs a test drive, making my own forms/calendars, etc. with help from DIYPlanner and OOo (OpenOffice.org) to keep the costs down, and using Google Calendar as my "brain central". (Like you, Mary, I like being able to change things as we go, so the printable and editable Google Calendar is my favorite right now.)

I'll report back with results, or maybe even a blog post or two.

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Posted: Aug 22 2007 at 10:25pm | IP Logged Quote stefoodie

Found the link to the sample pages of the CM Planner! Looks good! Tho' I'm still leaning towards making my own.... some of the fields they have won't be very useful for me and I need some additional ones.... hmmm... still thinking...

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Mary G
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Posted: Aug 22 2007 at 10:27pm | IP Logged Quote Mary G

Stef -- you are great! Thanks for test-driving these things for us. I was able to look at the preview -- and the pages looked great: places to do each students' schedule, mentioning of all CM curricula (incl art and music -- which would be great for me to remember to plan !), and a sheet for weekly notes on how things went. You might try again (going directly to the PDF link -- its 12 pages of samples (well, actually 8 or 9; there are a few "yada yada yada" pages at the beginning )

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Posted: Aug 23 2007 at 11:57pm | IP Logged Quote cornomama4

Hi everyone,

Planners are the hot topic-of-the-month for my homeschool group. Seems like people can't decide whether or not to try and combine the family schedule planner/calendar with the lesson planner or to keep them apart. It's kooky when hubby's work schedule changes every week, and occasionally I will work a random week here and there..I guess that will be a "vacation" week from school!
This is my first year to actually try and schedule school time, plus all the outside stuff, and I found an At-a-glance one (but couldn't find the Academic version..grrr..) with weekly/monthly format plus "quick notes" room along the side of each week. It also has a set-up where you see a little space for each day of the month as you go through the weeks..I'll put Saint Days and birthdays and stuff like that there I guess. On the other side is a column onimously titled "agenda". So I block in school time, activities, work, cleaning times, nights to make dinner, etc. Then for "lesson" plans I bought the CHC Second Grade lessn palns and can use those to check off each thing we need to be doing. I'm not using all their materials, but most subjects are represented similarly so at least I'll see in print what I should be doing! I'm really inspired to make my own eventually, as I find our style, but for now I'll stumble along with this.

Stef, thanks for putting La Mer on your blog...that's a good one that I miss performing very much I think I'll find my CD tomorrow and play it for the kids.
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Posted: Aug 24 2007 at 7:10am | IP Logged Quote Bookswithtea

Well, I bought the FIAR digital planner last night after a good friend told me how beautiful it was. Its nice. Its not that different from the freebie pages that can be had around the net, but it is written esp. for those using a picture book/unit study format on one column and it does have some pretty graphics at the top (photograph style, not scrapbook/clipart style). I think it has enough customizable features to make it work (I'll probably add some stuff to it too), and I'm going to three ring bind it so that I can make changes (ie print new pages) when life gets away from me and all my well laid plans go awry. Every year I try a new planner and every year it never works well for me and I end up just scribbling all over my family calendar (which doesn't work well either, btw). Totally frustrating. There are always too many pages that I don't use and never enough of the pages I do use. So I am hoping a digital version will be the answer for me...

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Posted: Aug 24 2007 at 7:48am | IP Logged Quote dawn2006

I just received the Catholic Woman's Daily Planner and I really like it. There's plenty of room to write and the readings are listed for everyday. The dates included are August '07 to July '08. Here's the link:

http://family-centered.com/store/85/

They are out of the small size so I ended up with 8.5x11 which I didn't think I'd like. I love it!

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Posted: Aug 24 2007 at 9:24am | IP Logged Quote Martha

I've used the Family Centered Press Catholic Woman's Planner for 2 years now and love it. Doing without it this year has been a VERY Hard adjustment. One of the key plus points for it, is I didn't have to carry my planner AND a CAtholic calendar around with me too. BUT I rarely use the lesson plan pages. I scribble notes in the them a lot, then transfer the info to my HST, which prints a more style better suited to me.

I REALLY like the look of that CMP!! That's ONLY 9 of the 60 something pages, and it says you can customize them? Hmmm, it might be well worth it. I need a VERY organized system w/o having to copy info over for every section to see it where I WILL SEE IT, if that makes sense. That's my biggest frustration with HST. There's not ONE section where you can just enter it all and see where ever you need to see it or have ONE report that prints what you want to have on hand.

I'm so tempted to spend money I don't have on that CMP.

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Posted: Aug 24 2007 at 11:40am | IP Logged Quote stefoodie

I think the trick is to find a way to integrate digital/analog planning, all the while keeping it simple. That's what attracts me to DIYing a planner as many have done -- Google Calendar takes care of the digital part -- the automation, the reminders, etc.; I can print it out on a yearly, monthly, weekly, or daily basis as I wish. It's flexible and changeable so let's say I wanted to totally eliminate French from our curriculum because it isn't working, I just delete the entry from the calendar and it never appears again. If I want to add a new art curriculum with 18 lessons, I enter its name on the date I want to start, count 18 weeks later and set those dates as my range, with an "appointment" every day that we plan to do it.

I think this year my goal is to automate everything that can be automated (schedules, reminders, plans, chores, etc) and only put on paper what needs to be on paper -- i.e., scrapbooking, liturgical year coloring pages, etc.

Martha? What's an HST? From your description of what you want Google Calendar seems like it may be a good fit for you.

My only objection to Google.... they already know too much.

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Martha
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Posted: Aug 24 2007 at 1:02pm | IP Logged Quote Martha

HST = HomeSchool Tracker software

www.homeschooltracker.com



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Posted: Aug 26 2007 at 6:46pm | IP Logged Quote Anne

Well I just took the plunge and ordered the family centered planner!!! With all the upgrades! I am sooo excited. I just signed up to teach 5th grade CCD at church and I plan on using the reminders as an easy reference . I hope this will be my spring board to finally stay organized. I think having all of the planners in one book will really help. Thanks Michele for this wonderful tool!


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Posted: Aug 29 2007 at 5:20pm | IP Logged Quote stefoodie

Reporting back on my new "really great planner" -- hope this helps some of you:

digital-analog solution, still keeping it simple

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Posted: Sept 26 2007 at 10:53am | IP Logged Quote homewith3

Can someone send me the PLANNER that Jenny over at Little Acorns posted? I cannot access it for some reason.

Thanks
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Posted: Sept 26 2007 at 3:32pm | IP Logged Quote Mackfam

dawn2006 wrote:
I just received the Catholic Woman's Daily Planner and I really like it. There's plenty of room to write and the readings are listed for everyday. The dates included are August '07 to July '08. Here's the link:

http://family-centered.com/store/85/

They are out of the small size so I ended up with 8.5x11 which I didn't think I'd like. I love it!


Ugh! I've been sick all summer, and was so frustrated when trying to link to the Family Centered Press calendar only to find that it's no longer available. I've ordered calendars/planners from them for a few years now and love them. I hate that I may have missed the boat. Does anyone know if there are plans to print again????

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Posted: Sept 26 2007 at 3:36pm | IP Logged Quote JennGM

Jennifer, I do think Michele is working on the planner that starts January 2008. That's what I ordered last year. I'm eagerly awaiting the announcement, because I need to start planning my 2008 appointments!

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Posted: Sept 26 2007 at 4:18pm | IP Logged Quote KristinaP

The August-July 2008 ones are available now but I don't know when the Jan.ones are coming out . I just got mine today.

http://www.family-centered.com/store/
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Posted: Sept 26 2007 at 6:06pm | IP Logged Quote Martha

bump hoping Michele will see this and answer when it's coming out?
dh can always use more chirstmas ideas for me ya know.

JennGM wrote:
Jennifer, I do think Michele is working on the planner that starts January 2008. That's what I ordered last year. I'm eagerly awaiting the announcement, because I need to start planning my 2008 appointments!


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