Home Work Planner: A Reader Request

Hi everyone, I hope that this finds you all well and happy.  Last month I started a new feature, Reader Request.  Where you, my lovely readers, could write in and let me know what kind of printable you wanted. Once a month, or more often if I get enough requests, I'll make a printable that one of you has asked for, and share it here on the blog.  Last month, I made up a Room by Room cleaning  checklist.  It's been a huge hit.  This month, I've got something a little different up my sleeve.

This month's request came to me from a friend's niece   She started high school this year, and is feeling a little overwhelmed with some of the larger school projects being assigned for homework.  Because she is involved in a number of after school activities she is really trying to plan out her study time so she's able to stay on top of school work, as well as continue to meet her other commitments.  Currently, she uses her school issued planner to try to keep track of everything, but that means flipping back and forth between the weeks, and for her it just wasn't working.  She told me she was looking for something that would allow her to keep track of the important info for each assignment, as well as a place to break it down into smaller chunks.  This teen is pretty big on goal setting, one of the MUST haves for her, was a space to allow her to set her own deadlines for each step.  How could I possibly say no?

After much back and forth, and a little tweaking here and there, this is what we came up with!

Home Work Planner

I kept it pretty simple.  There's space for what class, what teacher, date assigned, date due, and how many marks it's worth.  Having the assigned date was really important to my friend's niece.  It allows her to see, at a glance, how long she has to complete it, as well as being able to see how long has already passed.  There's a box for keeping track of criteria, this is for any notes on teacher expectations.  The idea is that this sheet will hold all the important info and can be kept at home.  And the last section is a simple checklist area for breaking a project down into smaller, more manageable chunks.  This section will enable a student to schedule these tasks so that large projects are not so overwhelming.  

I realize this isn't a printable everyone will find a use for, but if you know a student who could use a little planning help, pass it along!  And I hope you'll come back tomorrow for this week's planner printables.  (yep, plural!)  

And I'm still taking requests for more printables, the more the merrier!  If you've been looking for just the right thing, or heck, maybe you don't want to spend hours scouring the web looking for the right thing, just drop me a line and I'll see what I can do!  

Can you believe there are only five more days til Christmas?  Do you ever feel like Christmas starts off taking forever to get here and then all of a sudden, BAM! it's so close you wonder where the time went?  Are you all ready for the holiday?

Taming Morning Chaos and a Free Printable

Happy Tuesday!  I hope that my fellow Canadian had a safe, fantastic, family filled holiday weekend.  A belated Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

I can't believe it is October already, where has the year gone?  This is one of my favourite months of the year.  It is FINALLY starting to feel like autumn here in the Fraser Valley.  Leaves are changing, the mornings are often cool with a little bit of crispness to the air and foggy.  We've been lucky with the weather, it's been gorgeous, but I'm ready to ditch the tees in favour of sweaters and layers and all that other autumn goodness.  The rush of back to school is over, the school year routines are starting to feel normal again, Thanksgiving, Halloween, our anniversary.... so much wonderfulness to October. 

Speaking of school year routines and normal, this year has presented a few challenges all ready.  Especially mornings.  I'm not a morning person.  I want to be.  I want to be that person who's up with the sun, enjoying a quiet cup of tea or coffee as I welcome in a new day.  I'm too much of a night owl though.  Since I don't have that extra hour or two to get a jump on the day,  I'm really working at trying to make our mornings flow smoothly, and not feel so frantic.  After much pondering and surfing around the wonderful blog communities and the internet in general, I've come to the conclusion that our mornings would be much better, if I was managing our my time better throughout the day.  

I have a Family calendar set up in the kitchen.  It worked so well in our old kitchen that I wanted to carry that into our new home.  It's current home is on the file box where I keep "action" files (for lack of a better term)  It's the drop zone for all paper work.  (I'll share my system for that in another post)

Family Calendar

It's been working quite well, as it is, but it's need a little help.  (or I need a little more help)  I wanted something that could keep track of everyone's activities, where I could have a visual for the meals for the week, and I needed something located near here to keep track of general To Do's and also items we're running low on.  Nothing worse than forgetting the milk is running low and not remembering until the next morning when the boys are wanting it for their cereal.  And I decided I wanted to have all this on the fridge.  I used to keep a similar system on the fridge at our old place, and it worked well.  I'm in and out of the fridge all day, having important info, reminders, and the like in a place where you will look at it often is a great way to stay on top of everything.  I just didn't want to have a bunch of stuff on the fridge.  It gets cluttered enough as is.  The solution?  

You guessed it!  A printable that combines a little of everything!

Weekly Family Planner

Here's how I'm using it:  Each member of the family gets their own row.  That way I can see at a glance what's happening that week and for who.  Our teen can keep track of any homework deadlines for the week, so that we can make sure he meets them. (He doesn't usually need us to remind though)  And I'm pretty sure I don't really need to explain the rest.  

I still have to get the colour printer set up, (it's been sitting for a few months, and I think it's almost out of ink too, which means it's going to need a cleaning before I start printing with it... and ink come to think of it!)  so for right now, I used our black and white laser one and stuck it in page protector.  Once I get the colour printer up and running, I'm going to print it onto photo paper, and either laminate it, or put it in a lightweight frame for on the fridge.

Hopefully this will help me not forget things so much. I can see what's happening tomorrow as I'm putting away the leftovers, and prepare for the morning the night before.  No more rushing to get breakfast ready, lunches made, make sure library books are in backpacks for library day.... I'm looking forward to more smoothly run mornings!  

And, as always, click the link under the picture to snag a copy for yourself!  If you have the time, hop on back over here and let me know what you think of it.  

Anyone else feel like mornings are more hectic than they should be?  How do you stay on track when things are busy?  Any tips or tricks for smooth running mornings that you want to share?


I'm linking up at:

More Back to School, and a Free Printable

I feel as though there is so much to do and so little time, and there really aren't enough hours in a day.  My life also seems to be full of cliches lately too!  It really is getting hectic.  I had all sorts of things on my to do list that I haven't gotten to yet.  Things I wanted done before the boys start school, that may just have to wait until after, because tomorrow we begin the move.  There is so much to share about this; challenges that we're facing that I didn't exactly forsee when we started this journey, memories that will last a life time, insights into how to make the best of the situations life throws you into.... so much and more it seems.

For now though, it's getting rather late, and tomorrow is the first of some very long days to come.  I'm not sure when I'll have a chance to get back on and blog.  Everything hinges on how long it takes us to get a little settled into our new home.  On top of packing, loading, traveling, unloading, unpacking, and settling in, there is still the matter of getting the boys all ready for school.  I'm trying to be very mindful about events outside the move.  I don't want it to take away from mile stones and special days.  Liam is starting school for the very first time!  How exciting is that?!?!  Our teen is entering his last year of middle school, equally exciting in my mind!  And his birthday is at the beginning of September.  I want these special moments to shine in their own light, not be overshadowed by moving and getting set up.

To help me stay on track, and make sure I don't forget anything, even the simplest thing like, First Day of School pictures, I created a check list.  This way I can stay on top of everything without having to worry about it.  As I was writing it up, I got to thinking about how nice it will be to have the list already done up for future years.  While I'm sure every summer won't be quite as hectic as this one, it's nice to have a list of what you need to do in the month or so leading up to the start of the new school year.  AND that got me thinking that perhaps, some of you might like a copy of your own.  So, I took my handwritten list and turned it into a printable to share with all of you.  (I took pity on your eyesight, and typed it up, no having to try to decipher my handwriting)  Here she is, in all her simplicity!

Mom's Back to School Checklist

Just a simple checklist, with some pretty generic to-do's on it.  Things that would translate year after year.  As with all my other printables here on the blog, just click the link in the caption to download.  If you have any problems downloading the file, please send me an email, the address is on the right side bar.  I will gladly send you a copy.  

I hope you find this helpful in the next few weeks.  For now I'm signing off, but I will be back as soon as I can.  I'm super excited to share some pictures of our new home.  It's been a long 4 months, and I can hardly believe that the end is FINALLY in sight!  I hope you all enjoy the rest of your summer!

Do you find it easier to plan for things with a checklist?  Do you have any special back to school preparations or traditions?  I'd love to hear about them!

Planning for Back to School and a Free Printable

It's one of my most favorite shopping times of the year.  BACK to SCHOOL!  Not because I'm eager for the kiddos to head on back for another year of school, but because everywhere you look there are deals and more deals on school and office supplies.  I think I love those more than I love craft supplies, and I seriously love craft supplies.  I couldn't tell you why, I just do!

So, once I start seeing the school supplies show up in stores, I start planning for the year ahead.  Not just for the kids (oh my, I have two in school this year .. sniff, sniff...where does the time go?) but for the home as well.  If I were a small business owner, this is when I would totally stock up on things I need.  Aside from the obvious paper, pens and other office/school items, there are ton of organization solutions that come on sale around this time too.  Magnetic locker organizers can easily be used on the fridge or magnetic board.  Small two drawer file cabinets usually get marked down quite a bit for college students, it's a great time to snap up one or two.  Don't need a file drawer?  How about using them in a teen or tween's room for a bedside table?  The possibilities are endless.

And, because they are endless, it is oh so easy to get swept away (especially if you have an irrational love of all things office and school supply related) so this year, I decided to plan things out on paper first, and take stock of what we already have.  With two to buy for, a move in the works, among other things, I need to be really careful with where the dollars are going.  So I created this little baby to help me keep track:

Back to School Planner

It's the first part of what I'm calling my "Back to School Planner"  Here's how it works (at least how I use it) The first part is for the supplies I'm pretty sure will be on my list.  Crayons, markers, pencils, scissors, glue, and notebooks for Liam; lined paper, graph paper, plain paper, pencils, pens, highlighters, etc... for our Teen.  The first column is for listing out what I know we already have.  This way I'm not buying more than we need.  I try to pick up a few extra items from their lists, just in case they need more, but I try not to buy too much extra.  The next column is where I list the things I know we're going to have buy this year.  And the last column is things we need for the home.  They could include notebooks, paper, markers and crayons ... whatever I think/know we need.

Then comes the clothing section.  Who doesn't love new school clothes?  I could easily get carried away here, but the truth is, summer clothes will still be used for the first few weeks of school, which means I can pick up new school clothes a little at time.  I like to note the size and how many of an item I need, that way, I'm not tempted to spend too much on one of an item when I still need to pick up x amount more. 

The last section is for those miscellaneous items that sometimes need to be picked up and sometimes don't.  I don't want to have to do up a new one every year, so I just put them all down.  (No, my boys do not go to private school, but I added that just cause) This year, we need two of everything on that list.  But next year we will probably only need a few things.  

And there you have it!  Just a simple little list planner, to help me get more prepared for the coming school year and to keep me on track.  As always click the link below the pic to snag a copy of your own!  

What do you do to get ready for the school year?  Do you love school/office supplies too?  Any item that makes your personal "must get one" list?

Home Management Binder: Kids Section

As I mentioned back in April, (here) I'm revamping my Home Management Binder.  Because I was so sick of thinking about house stuff, I started with my Family Fun section.  In that section I have our Activities Directory, Day Trip Planner, Movie Night Check List, and Library/Book List.  I'm sure I'll add more things to it, but for now, that's a good start.

I've decided to move onto the Kid's section next.  I already have a section for the kid's in my current HMB, but it's need some changes and some updates.  To figure out what needs to be in this section, I thought about all the information I need to have for each of our boys.  Currently, they each have their own subsection, and I'm thinking that keeping it this way will work best.  Our Teen's section currently holds all of his school stuff, the student handbook, a list of his classes and teachers, important school dates, and things like that.  Liam's is full with kindergarten prep stuff.   A few weeks ago I shared the School Info sheets with you (you can find them here) so I have that taken care of.   Next was just figuring what other information needed to be in these areas.

This is the breakdown:

• School Info Sheets
• Important School Date Lists
• Friends Phone and Address Lists
• Online Accounts List
• School Handbooks and other information sheets

And once we move and get settled, I'll probably add stuff for their activities, like swimming lessons and so on.  But this is a good start.   I created a few printables to help keep all information together and easy to find.

First up, Important School Dates.  Now, up until last year, I just use to keep the first school notice in place of this list.  But last year, our Teen's school didn't send home a list of all the non-school days like previous schools did.  Instead, I had to go through his agenda, month by month, and copy them all down.  So, I created this list to help keep track of them.  At the beginning of each month, I transfer the info onto our family calendar so that we all know what is going on.

Important School Dates

See, just a basic form to fill in dates.

So, that takes care of keeping track of non-school days, and other important school events.  But what do kids do when they're not in school?  Well, sometimes, they hang out with friends.  To keep track of their friends, their phone numbers, their addresses, their parents names (I'm sooooo horrible with names)  I decided to create a directory page, where we could keep all that info.  This is what I came up with:

Friends Directory

Some you might note, that there are two spots for cell numbers.  This is because we have a Teen, and many of his friends have their own cell phones.  Even when our Teen gets his own, I still want this information.  And yes, there is a section for the parents names as well, because I always find myself forgetting names, and I feel awful about that.  There's a also space for the birthday info, and the ever important "Things to Note"  This where I make note of any food allergies their friends have so I can be sure to avoid serving those foods for snacks.  I also keep note of anything I've noticed their friends didn't like.  Our Teen has a friend who doesn't like cake, so for birthdays, I make sure to include a second option with the cake, or we do things like build your own sundaes.

And last but most certainly not least.  An online tracker.  We have pretty strict rules regarding internet use:  We need to know what site our children are using, their user names for those site, AND passwords.  As our Teen is getting older, we'll have to change and adapt, but until this point, that's what we've required.  We don't access any of his accounts, it's just for precaution, and for those "just in case" moments.

On the same sheet I also included a spot to write down our internet or online rules.  This eliminates those "You never told me that" arguments.  They don't happen often, but when they do, I can just refer the kids (only our Teen at this point) to the book, and they can see the rules they have to obey while online.

Online Activity Tracker

And that concludes the Kid's section, for the moment.  I'm sure that there is something I will think of later on, but that's the beauty of binders, it's so easy to add items and take items away as your needs change.  

What about you?  Is there certain info you like to keep on hand for your kids?  Do you have rules and guidelines for how they use online time?  Is there something I should have thought have of but missed?

I hope that all of you are having a wonderful evening, and I hope to see you tomorrow.   For now I'm off to make Liam some tea and oatmeal.  The strange things that wacky kid of mine asks for for a bed time snack. :-)