The Planners are here! The Planners are here!

These are simply the BEST planners ever! 

Yes, yes, I know that if you are "enrolled" with a school you probably get a planner with your curriculum, BUT for those of us who put together curriculum THIS is the planner to get!  It comes from a company called Creative Communications for the Parish www.creativecommunications.com  and they carry both Protestant and Catholic versions.  Every year the planners focus on different things~I can tell you about the Catholic version that I use, but they have samples of the Protestant ones on the website.  This year they will focus on the Fruits and Gifts of the Holy Spirit!!!

These planners have a good set up:

*There is always a Word of the Week taken from scripture verse (provided-the Catholic version uses a scripture from the next Sunday's Gospel reading).

*Then, dealing with that Word of the Week, there are specific activities for each day:

Monday is always Dictionary (you define the Word of the Week), Tuesday is always Journal (there are journal questions about the Word of the Week), Wednesday is always Prayer (a prayer is provided using the Word of the Week-but I also encourage my son to come up with his own prayers as well), Thursday is always Question (questions for discussion about the Word of the Week), Friday is always Action (an action is suggested using the Word of the Week).

*There are the usual boxes for writing down lesson plans, a handy area for listing spelling words, there is  a place to list a Goal or Value to be focused on that week, places for comments, prayer lists and reminders.

*The Catholic version is lectionary based, following the liturgical year.  The special feast days are noted and the teacher planners come with thoughts and discussion starters for the following Sunday readings, background information for the Question of the Week, a short biography of a saint for each week, ideas for research, writing and other projects, and this year the Catholic version also will focus on the 33 men and women named Doctors of the Church.

*They also come with tons of resource pages: maps, periodic table, reading helps, how to write a research report, how to make outlines, parts of speech, punctuation, tricky words, math symbols, multiplication tables, temperature conversion, metric conversions, reproducibles and more!

They are also inexpensive, colorful, easy to use and not bulky (the teacher one is smaller than a typical 5 subject spiral).  They sell planners for teachers, students-prek-1, elementary, jr. high/high school!

I know I sound like a desperate salesperson, but I've really enjoyed using this planner-it has made the "teaching/planning" part of my role as educator very easy and enjoyable.  The company is VERY parent friendly!  They will sell you planners for just one person or an entire school.  Because I purchase a teacher planner every year, they now send me a student planner free!!!

One of the MAIN reasons our family homeschools is to incorporate our faith into our day, every day, in as many areas as we can.  This planner really makes that fun and easy.  Even people who don't homeschool would find ways to used and incorporate this planner in their homes. 

Just thought I'd share! The Planners are Here!!!