How I organize a year's worth of homeschool lesson plans

I wanted to show you how we are planning our next homeschool year.

This is my homeschool file cabinet showing you folders labeled 1-180, folders for each of the months (placed roughly where I think they'll hit) and a few resource folders at the back.

We have co-op days, Girl Scout days, and other appointments and interruptions.  This way, even if we have to skip a day, we just grab the next folder which contains all the instructions and worksheets for the day and keep on going.

We can get some school work done on days with interruptions but anything that we can't get to goes into the catch up day folder and I'll see if we really need to do the work. Every TEN school days, I have a catch up day. I schedule art for catch up day too and we'll work on a project from Home Art Studio or something else.


I totally stole part of this idea from the blog Meet Penny.  The catch up day was my own invention.

I had a couple of illnesses this past year that totally wrecked my schedule and I got tired of erasing and rewriting my planner so I decided this year to schedule the physical stuff and use my planner for what we actually accomplished each day.  I keep a separate box for books and I still have to put holds on books at the library.  I also need to gather materials together for art and science (although I'm thinking of bagging some of that stuff up to and putting it in the folders) each week, but I'm not digging through workbooks and printing stuff last minute.

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A Whole New World

I jumped before I meant to.

Last time I posted, I was talking about how I was going to finish my training, get my certificate, and then start looking for a host agency.  Well the host agency found me.  Sort of.

Like most people of faith, I pray a lot for direction and/or validation.  One morning, I was praying for validation for my chosen career path and a few minutes later, I got it.  One of the host agencies on my short list of agencies announced that they were looking for a few new agents and that anyone interested should send an email for more information. When I saw it, I felt like I HAD to send an email.  Within 24 hours, I was an independent agent for World of Magic Travel.  Just like that, everything changed directions and instead doing all this some time in the next few weeks, it was here now.

Within a few more days, I was completing my Disney travel agent certification and poof, I'm in business.

You can find my business website here: www.navigatingthemagic.com and my Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/navigatingthemagic

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Checking in...

Summer is here and I'm in the middle of a whole lot of stuff.

First, I'm finishing up my travel agent course.  I have three units left before I take my TAP (Travel Agent Proficiency) exam: Cruises and Rails and Cars, Computers and Travel (should be easy), and Computer Reservation Systems.

Second, the kids have ONE day of school left. We're not gonna get it done today because I don't feel well and I had a doc appointment this morning but tomorrow for sure.

Third, the doctor appointment was a follow-up visit.  Back in February, I was having some severe stomach pain.  Turns out the anti-inflammatory meds I take for my neck was irritating my stomach.  The meds, combined with a hiatal hernia, led to some pretty nasty gastritis.  I'm much better, but I'm not well.  I can't eat citrus fruit at all (which are my favorites), salsa is a big no-no, and I have to put a lot of milk in my coffee to offset the acid.

Next, even though I haven't finished my travel agent course, I've already started my business.  I joined World of Magic Travel a few days ago as an independent travel agent and I'm training there for the various vendors and suppliers.

Lastly, we finished up our second year of Girl Scouts last month but there's planning to be done for next year.

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Back to School

Every now and again, I’ve gotten the urge to start a business.  I’ve played around it.  I’ve even written about it, but I haven’t done anything about it.  I think that it’s time for that to change.

So a few months ago, I decided to go back to school to learn how to be a travel agent.  Yeah, I didn’t expect that either.

I need to work.  I need to keep busy. I need direction. If I can do all that and have a good time, then I’ll be doing something significant. 

My plan is to finish my class, get a professional certification, and then find a nice host agency.  In travel, your host agency is kind of like how a hairdresser rents a chair. I’ll get to take advantage of their infrastructure, but I’ll be bringing in business.  How?  I don’t have a clue.  I’m still working on that.

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