You know, I have struggled with making and using lesson plans for the LONGEST time!  We've been homeschooling for 4 years now, and just up until this past January I basically floundered through school.  Yes, I've tried different ways of keeping plans, but nothing really worked.  Well, I was really getting frustrated last December.  Something had to change!  Daniel totally hated school, I felt directionless... So, I set up a parent/teacher meeting with the principal  (Hee hee!) and we discussed ideas.  What we came up with was a page with subjects listed down the side, days listed across the top, and then squares to fill in with assignments.  The back of the page was left blank so that I could make notes about the week, things that worked, things that didn't, and what we needed to continue working on.  Sounds simple, but I am still in total amazement at how well it works!  Daniel LOVES it because if I'm busy for the moment, he can take out his assignment book and pick something to work on.  I think part of his love for it is the fact that he can tell when he's done!  I just list page numbers of workbooks, or write a brief description of projects or what have you.  For reading time I just wrote in "30 min." and he can read whatever for 30 minutes (sometimes goes more than that too!)  When something is done and I've checked it, I put a checkmark in that box the assignment was written in.  If something got skipped on one day, I circle it so I remember, and then adjust accordingly.  At the top, where the day and date is written in, I also leave room to note anything extra we'll be doing that day in terms of errands, field trips, or what have you (library is listed there as is grocery shopping day)  With Alycia now doing school daily, I wasn't sure how to go about it, but decided finally to get her a separate folder to keep her schedule in (their schedule folder is the same color as their big notebooks) and she too, can look at it and figure out some of what to do (math is easiest as I just list a page number).

So that's what we do!!  I just really needed schedule AND flexibility and this REALLY works for us!