Making Our Own Planners for Tapestry of Grace Scheduling

For those of you who don't know, we've come back to Tapestry of Grace after taking a year off.  The main reason we left was in this season of child rearing I needed a prescheduled curriculum.  The big problem was that we all missed the depth of learning AND learning together that we had been doing for years prior.
So, I set out to pre-plan the units well ahead of time to insure that this year we'd be successful.  You can  read more about our journey here:
Why We are Returning to Tapestry of Grace
Returning to Tapestry of Grace - How to Make it Work for Our Family
About a month ago I was ecstatic to review The Ultimate Student Planners from Apologia.  These planners are simply gorgeous, but, unfortunately would not work for our homeschool due to the sheer number of books my oldest two (7th and 10th grade) read per week.
So....I had to revert back to a schedule that I found within one of the Tapestry of Grace Yahoo Groups I belong to.  But this year, for maximum flexibility I left the subjects blank.  This way, each of my 'homemade planners' could be easily tailored to each child no matter what a given week threw at us.

Tapestry of Grace Planner

The top section of this planner is used for history and literature reading, plus any map work that needs to be done.  I love the layout because it allows the student to write in what they have read for a given day.  Plus it's easy to see what they have left to do.  I also like the "weekend" slots because sometimes life happens and school is carried past the traditional 5 days.
The bottom section is for all other subjects and activities.
The biggest blessing this year is that I am training my oldest two (7th and 10th grades) to set their own schedule.  Oh, they still have deadlines!  But Mom isn't constantly peering over their shoulders.  
How it works: At the beginning of each week, I give my two oldest children that week's section of our Tapestry of Grace Classic curriculum.  They write down the books that need to be read in their *homemade* planner and then consult their unit guides.  These contain maps, handouts and specific reading objectives and are tailored to the level of the program they are working.  (Lower Grammar, Upper Grammar, Dialectic or Rhetoric) Then, getting the work completed by Friday afternoon's discussion meeting is up to them.

Color coded planner (per child) AND Unit Guides

Having a combind makes using Tapestry of Grace easier! (Though it's perfectly acceptable to use a 3-ring binder .)

Tune in Friday when I share how the first few weeks of this new Tapestry of Grace season has been going in our Homeschool Circus!
This post written and property of Homeschool Circus and can be found at: www.upatdawnreadytowork.com.