…planning for teenage independence…

If we were in mainstream schooling, Mr12 would be in highschool this year – a whole new world of independence. Even without school in the mix, his calendar is becoming increasingly full…which means mine is also becoming full! Chess club this day, drama class that day, don’t forget radio every week and film every fortnight. I swear I run out of ink in my green planning pen (the one designated as Mr12’s colour) faster than the other three colours combined. And yes, I colour code my diary...

The other thing I am trying to work towards is further independence in his own studies. We do a hybrid style of homeschooling, and for at least part of the day, refer to the Ambleside Online booklist and suggested reading schedule. At the beginning of the year, I sat down and scheduled out everyone’s readings for the first 12 weeks of school, but as we have progressed through our lists, I’ve found less and less ideal to have a nearly teenaged child, who should be in year 7, and is working at a year 9 level, to have to wait on me to let him know the next reading on the list.

Enter, the start of an idea. What if, thought I, I were to create a custom planner for him, that he could note each week’s readings, and then he can pick and chose what gets done when. Really, as long as it gets done, it’s no skin off my nose if it’s done at 10.53am on Monday, or 8.17am on Thursday.

At the start of this week, with school break upon us, it was the perfect chance for me to have some quality play time to get my idea onto the computer, and have everything done and set up ready to start a new block with new ideas.

I designed a double page spread, with his readings on one side, and a weekly calender on the other, including space for his main subject for the week, a small carry forward notes section, and a space for goal setting and project prioritisation.

I then printed them two to a page and double sided, which allowed me to bind them in a piece of kraft cardstock with some twine to create a sweet little A6 diary. I then added a bit of “tizz” to the front (well, as much tizz as a tweenage boy will allow!), with a bit of washi tape, and a tag. If nothing else, it will make it look fancy, and it will also, in theory, give him a space to note the dates the diary references.

I’ve also removed some of the personalised details and homeschool references, to create a generic planner for student use. I’ve just uploaded that one, and you can find it in the shop here.

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Today has been a funny old day. We had an inspection booked for our house, so after running around madly last night and getting it clean, I took the kids out for breakfast to avoid messy making. We took the dog for a walk in a park we don’t normally go to. I managed to twist my ankle as we came home, so I sat and painted and rested it while the kids played a game on the playstation. Our afternoon plans include hunter-gathering for supplies for the aforementioned highschooler to create a short film for his next class. Butterfly needs to buy a birthday gift for a party on the weekend. I finished my latest book over breakfast so I’ll stare at the bookshelves and work out where to tackled my to-be-read pile first. Maybe a spot of crochet. Yep. School holiday mood is definitely in high gear…