Planbook alterations

I do just about everything on my computer. Everything except my homeschool planbooks. I want to be able to take them with me, give them to the kids, erase, regroup, and visually “see” the week or year in a way that just can’t be done on the computer. I have given lots of thought to designing a planbook on the computer and printing out pages, but again, I want the whole year in front of me and some courses just can’t be filled in completely in late summer. I’ve thought about printing pages as I go, but I know myself and that might never happen! There are also the economics of it to consider. I get my Whaley planbooks from Rainbow Resource for about $7 a piece. Once you start factoring in costs of paper, ink, and binding, you are well past the $7 deal.

So, once again, I ordered my planbooks. The one thing I really dislike is having to write in all the course titles on each weekly spread. With three planbooks to do that starts to get old fast.

This year, finally, I came up with a solution. Using my vintage paper cutter, I sliced off all but the first strip where you write the courses in. This is a quarter inch strip on the left side of each spread. Then, using the computer and Quarkxpress, I typed in each students’ classes and formatted it to fit in the course area on the first page of each planbook. This is the one strip that I didn’t slice off. I printed one for each student on a different bright-colored paper. I cut this to fit and glued it on. I added a strip of tape to keep it sturdy, and I was done.

Now the first strip extends beyond the remaining pages like a tab and is viewable from every spread in the planbook. Took a fraction of the time all the writing in does, and it is bolder and more pleasant to look at.

The other thing I really like about these planbooks is the heavy gauge frosted plastic front and back covers. Holds up incredibly well throughout the entire school year.

My kids draw or print out a picture which we glue to the page with the eagle, then they have a personalized and easily recognized planbook.