I thought I'd share my homeschool binder today. I finally got it the way I want it, and it works well, especially if I need to go out during the day and we are bringing school with us.

This is what it looks like, nothing special. It is just a regular 3 ring binder.

The first thing I have in it is our weekly schedule. It is just a guide - nothing set in stone. It keeps me on track until I have the routine down pat, and then if someone calls or something happens and I lose track of where we are:

 This form (and others I use) can be found at http://highland.hitcho.com.au/teacherforms.htm.  My daily schedule looks like this:

5:00 up, get DH coffee and breakfast, wake him up

5:30 - DH leaves, shower

6:00 - plan day

7:00 get ready, daily chores

8:00 start school with dd10

8:30 start school with dd8.

Morning - Math, spelling and history

11:30 lunch break

12:30 afternoon - literature, science or art (m-w), thursday - out, Friday - music

5:30 Make dinner

6:30 dinner/cleanup

8:00 dd8 showers, cleanup, and bedtime story

9:00 kids in bed

10 - 11 bedtime

Notice I have dd8's showers, but not dd10's. I can assure you that she does shower, but she is expected to remember to do that on her own. :) We also have things on the schedule like Homeroom period (every monday at 9:00 am for dd10) or Parade of Picture Books (every Friday during lunch).

Next up - Weekly Household Chore Schedule. Mine is very simple and easy:

Basically, Thursdays are errand/car cleaning day, Saturdays are weekly and monthly chores, and Sundays are for coupons, menus, and shopping lists. Daily Chores are: Cleaning the bathroom, making beds, sweeping the floor, preparing meals/cleanup, laundry, and Quick pick ups in each room. Some people like to do a little each day, but for now school is taking up a lot of the day and it's just easier this way. If we plan to do something on the weekend, then I will just switch things around.

Next, I have our Monthly Calendar.

I keep our calendar on paper and electronically (using Microsoft Outlook and my blackberry). This way I can look at the month at a glance easily (paper), and have reminders chime (electronically) so I don't forget anything or have to be always looking at the clock. Our calendar gets pretty full, so I definitely need to stay organized.

Next, is the weekly lesson planner. The Online school we use provides our lessons and gives a daily and weekly snapshot, but I like to have each subject written down and what we are doing each day in that subject. That way if the OLS goes down, we still know what we need to do, and I can easily take it with us if we go somewhere:

Right now I am only doing one day at a time, but if I had a big block of time (like instead of doing this post, lol!) I would plan the whole week. An example of what I have is Math: Review Yesterday's test, Skills update, Math minute, start next lesson. It has a place on the left for notes and I write in there if there was something that was particularly challenging. Today I wrote "Review counting by 25s" for dd8.

I have a separate plan for each child.

 Next section includes Important Information. Book it info, passwords, etc. No pictures :)

Then I have a tab for each subject for each child. I have Math 5, then Math 3, Spelling 5, Spelling 3, etc. Behind each tab I keep the teacher guide pages for that day or that unit.  The pages don't come perforated in the teacher guides, but I will just cut them out. It makes it much easier to move around without having to lug out each teacher guide each time we change subjects.

Then in the back of my binder I have a section for prayer requests (for particular behavior or academic problems my children are having specifically), Bible verses, and ideas or thoughts I want to remember.

I plan to add my weekly menu but I don't have it in there yet. I will be using www.menus4moms.com and adjusting a bit for our family.