School Planning & Summer Break

I am pretty much done with school planning for next year, but I still find myself drawn to the computer and curriculum books looking for ways to streamline and organize things for next year. Since we will be starting the bulk of our schooling mid-July, I want to make sure everything is as planned as possible. I typically plan things out and then find myself falling apart several weeks into the school year. My problem is that I like to research things to the extreme, but lack the follow through to put my plans and research into action. This year I'm going to try a few new ideas for staying organized.

1)I made a list of supplies for science labs and will purchase everything I need for the first quarter at one time and put it all in a bin. Lack of supplies will no longer be an excuse to get out doing labs. Luckily, physical science does not require things like bananas and lima beans.

2)I've already done through every course and made a syllabus, writing down every book to read, map to fill in, chart to complete, etc. I then entered everything into HST+ so I can quickly transfer it to assignment sheets. I also made sure to give a Points Possible value for all graded assignments so I will know at a glance what needs to be graded.

3)We use Tapestry of Grace for history, geography, and some literature and writing. I went through next year's curriculum and cut and pasted all of the General Information pages, Accountability and Thinking Questions for both history and geography and all the Reading Assignments I'm planning on having the kids read. Everything is gathered together in one Word document, ready to be printed out. In the next few weeks, I'm going to print the information out for each week and put it chronologically in a folder, ready to be pulled out each Monday.

4)I've gone through every book we own and have organized them according to subject. My shelves were already organized by subject, but I cleared out space on another shelf in order to organize specifically for next year. The kids and I should be able to see at a glance where each subject is and whether the required resource is available.

5)I have a used-book sale to attend this weekend where I hope to pick up a good quantity of my history and literature books. After that, I'm going to add a reminder to my Google calendar for each week that I need to reserve books from the library. This past year I was constantly forgetting to reserve books in time.

If you have any additional tips, I would greatly appreciate hearing about them.