My Life Planner

I don't know about you, but I have a busy life. I homeschool my 3 children with an 11 month old daughter crawling around, I work part-time as a Children's Librarian, I blog, I have chicks, chickens, and rabbits to care for, groceries to buy, a house to keep clean, meals to prepare, and it feels like the list goes on and on. Don't get me wrong! I asked for this life. And I absolutely LOVE it! However, I, like so many others, need a little help in the organizing/planning department. I'm thinking about purchasing the Well Planned Day Planner. Until I do, though, I made my own. I thought I would share it with you, along with a few links, so that you can make one, too.

This is how I made My Life Planner.

My Life Planner

I started with a 3-ring binder that my son no longer needed. For the front and back covers, I bought 2 scrapbook pages (shown in picture) from Hobby Lobby. We absolutely LOVE that store! I typed, printed, and glued the My Life Planner label onto the scrapbook paper. I then cut the paper to the size I needed and slid them in. I used sheet protectors and plastic tab dividers that were left over from previous school purchases. Isn't it great to reuse left over materials?

I found this great Quarterly Academic Planner at www.livingwellspendingless.com. I will continue to use these pages for Jay in the Elementary grades.

Quarterly Academic Planner Pages

A few years ago, I found a Lesson Planner at Walmart in the $1 bins. I bought 5 of them! For My Life Planner, I tore them out, punched holes in them with a 3-hole punch, and placed them between the Quarterly Academic Planner pages.

An example of how I use these pages is:

March - 

theme: Dr. Seuss and St. Patrick's Day

projects: Little Keeper's At Home Daniel Pin, Cleaning Pin, Dishwashing Pin, and Love Bible Verses Pin

books to read: Dr. Seuss Books and Bible

field trips: museum.

I use the plastic tab dividers for the finance portion of my planner. There are 6 dividers with pockets on the front and back. Each pocket holds one month's bills. This way I can keep all the bills for the year in one organized place so that I can compare easily.

I put a yearly calendar in one sleeve protector and a list of Jay's Little Keepers at Home projects in another. In the back of the binder, I added notebook paper for blog ideas and anything else that I want to keep track of. I will eventually make my own printable planner pages for the animal portion of my life, but right now I just use the notebook paper. Same thing goes for my menu planner and grocery list.

For my two older children, I write out a week's worth of lessons in their individual notebooks. This system has worked well for the past two years. It helps them to be more independent.

There are so many options to customize your own planner. You could make one strictly for homeschool, household duties, menu planning, finances, etc. I wanted one that would help me organize and plan both my home and school.

Here are just a few links to printable planner pages that you might find useful:

Free Printable Homeschool Planner Pages from Homeschooling on a Dime
10 Free Printable Organizers from Beneath My Heart
Printable Homeschool & Household Planner Pages from The Home School Mom

To see more printable planner pages, check out my Pinterest board Planners!