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- Migi’s Curriculum and Book List, 2008-2009
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- Plan for High School, Paco 2010-2011
- Books We Love: Science
- The HHS Mandate and The Catholic Response, A Compilation
From the monthly archives: August 2007
Okay, we got all the components today and made up our planners. Hooray!!
I’m putting a list here of everything that we purchased and where, and then I’ll go into the details, etc.
- Levenger Punch — the most expensive item in the bunch, but if we get several years’ use out of it, should be worth it.
- an Ambi folio — As you can see, this isn’t part of the Circa line. That’s because the folio is meant to hold pads instead of Circa notebooks. However, I sooo wanted a red jacket and couldn’t see myself parting with $70-95+ just for one. Grab this now because I have a feeling they’re discontinuing it. I almost bought either the celery or the grapemist Circa folio because those were on sale. I’m so glad now I waited several days before purchasing because I stumbled upon the Ambi on the site.
- Circa refills — I just got a couple of packs (on sale) of the ones I knew I would put to good use
- the Circa pagefinder
- Rollabind Discs from Marco Paper. These guys are professionals! I called in my order Monday and the discs came today. They don’t have an online ordering system in place yet, but service IS fast. I’m so pleased.
That’s it! I was planning to get the nice eco-friendly discs from Myndology but they don’t sell them separately. Jason, the owner, did offer to throw in some if/when I place an order, but obviously I can’t ask him to give me a bunch for all our needs. So this one will have to wait — what we may end up doing is ordering Myndology books for the boys and Yena while Aisa and I DIY our own — and then using the punch and Rollabind discs to bind the littles’ stuff at the end of the year. We’ll also use the discs for making their scrapbooks, etc.
So here’s what I have now:
Those are the different-sized discs available from Rollabind/Marco Paper. I use the smallest one for my “notebook” that fits into my folio. I made my planner page (the one with the blue background on the right) using Open Office’s Draw program (it’s free!).
Since the Ambi folio is meant to hold pads instead of notebooks, I made a poly folder thingie the size of the cut for the pad, and attached it with masking tape to the last piece of paper (scrap) on my notebook. The poly folder then goes in there like a pad would, but it helps keep my Circa notebook in place. I love my Ambi but I do have one little quibble — it does not have a pen loop! Why that is, I have no idea. I’ll have to develop a mini-hack for that one.
The agenda printout on the left is from Google calendar. I needed to tweak a few things to make Google calendar work for me. As mentioned in an earlier post, I’m trying to get the liturgical year calendar so that it prints out along with my stuff. I added several pre-made calendars into my Google calendar, but I’m still trying to find the right solution for our needs. I just started my own liturgical year calendar which you can view here: 
It’s got only a bit of information right now — I plan to update it every couple of weeks or so. Let me know if you’d like to work on it with me:) — it’s shareable to Google account users. The spreadsheet I mentioned in the other post is also shareable — will post that at the end of the month.
To print from Google calendar to any size paper — go to the day’s date, click on “Agenda” then “Print”. This will open up a new window. Adjust your settings; I check off “descriptions” and nothing else. Press “Print” — this will bring up the printing dialogue — click on Properties and adjust your paper settings there. Mine is set for 5.5″ width and 8.25″ length. Google calendar will tell you if your schedule will print on one or more pages, so you can adjust your font (Google only has normal, small, smaller, big, bigger — normal usually works for me unless I’ve got a lot of items then I choose small).
Here’s my planner page in pdf format. Here’s what it looks like up-close:
Since I’ve already got appointments and fixed-time items like lesson plans and field trips on the Google calendar, I opted to place only my essentials on my planner page. Any journal-type writing will be on a separate Circa/DIY page to be inserted onto the right spot when needed. I also have (see first photo) a list of prayer requests on an index card that I can move from day to day so I don’t have to rewrite, I also don’t lose the list, and I’m also able to track answer to prayers (yeah!).
The hearts on the bottom right of my planner page represent each family member — they picked their colors — as a reminder to me to give each one some personal time that day.
The water tracker and fruit/veggie tracker is for me to check off — I’m really bad with this sometimes so I need the visual reminder.
What I love about my Circa system so far: the ability to mix-and-match any size paper. Since the hole-punch isn’t like Franklin’s, I can have small (Compact), medium (Classic) and large (Monarch) pages in one compilation without having to worry about proprietary hole spacing, etc.
What I don’t like about it: cutting the paper, which I’m doing right now with the ol’ scissors! The DIY folks have this trimmer
.
So there you have it. Hope that helps!!
ETA: There are links and credits I need to include here, but Dad needs to de-stress so we’re going out — I’ll edit later.
A month or so ago, I started on a Saints spreadsheet project. It started out with wanting to document/automate the saint books we have around the house, as a way to make liturgical planning easier. It’s also part of my resolution not to waste the resources we have by forgetting to use them on the appropriate dates.
Basically the spreadsheet is arranged by date and includes a list of books about the saint of the day, or the feast day, or the season, etc. Like Jenn, an ideal resource for me would include everything including ideas for crafts, pictures of the saint, books for adults as well as little ones, etc.
I got tremendous help from Anne’s document, Martha’s, Sonya Romen’s, Cay’s Catholic Mosaic and my own resources here at home and some that I found at the library. The spreadsheet is well on its way and you can download the unfinished product here. I *am* looking for volunteers to help out in case you’re interested — please leave a comment or email me at stefoodie AT gmail DOT com.
Since I’m the type of person that can get bogged down with details, and get so involved in a project to the inclusion of everything else, I decided that the 31st would be a great deadline for this project — it needs to be marked FINISHED. I’m also the type of person who tends to complicate things — but I’m thinking once I get over the hump with this, it will make things SIMPLE and EASY for me and the kids… Heh… until the next project of course.
However, today, I’ve been hit with some new thoughts. (I should say, as usual.) Since I’ve been using Google Calendar to schedule our lessons (note to self: write a post on that one of these days), it would be of great help to have the liturgical year and each day’s corresponding activities incorporated into the calendar so I don’t have to go checking back and forth on different sites. BTW, my favorites are Catholic Culture, Women for Faith and Family, Domestic Church, CatholicMom.com, and a couple of others which I forget now.
The best way to do this, or at least the easiest I’ve found anyway, is to import iCal data into Google calendar. I did find some Roman Catholic liturgical calendars all ready for sharing and importing at iCalshare.com — just search for Catholic or religious or liturgical and you’ll find several. I tried it out and it works perfectly, as can be seen in the following screenshot.
The next step now is to convert the spreadsheet data I already have into iCal format, so it can be imported into Google calendar. I can then always have it in front of me, either in my planner as printed out pages from Google, or on this blog. One of my goals always has been that my kids can come to my blog and actually do some of their lessons here, and that’s why I’ve made art slideshows, have music playing, etc. It just hasn’t happened yet the way I want it to happen.
I’ve run into several snags. Tried the ods-to-csv-to-iCal route — didn’t work. Found RomCal, a software that some people have used to generate the iCal calendars they share at iCalshare — downloaded it, but so far can’t get it to work. Trying to find a way now to export to xhtml, but I think I need to understand what xslt is first. There’s also a WordPress plugin that may work, but not for this exact purpose, so that lies somewhere on the horizon. One day. Found this hCalendar creator, but don’t understand it enough to use it yet. There *is* software that converts from iCal to html, xls, etc., so here I am thinking SURELY there’s something out there that will do the reverse!
I *know* there’s a solution out there, I just haven’t found it yet!
Ha. Decluttering is so much fun. I actually sold enough books on Amazon to have enough cash to click on “Checkout” at Levenger. I got some refill paper on sale, THE desk punch (to make all of our own DIY forms and tabs and covers — yay!!!) — and I got the red Ambi folio which was on sale *and* the Circa jacket, also on sale — I’m hoping the Ambi folio will actually work with the Circa notebook. If not I’m keeping the Circa jacket and sending back the Ambi. I got a pagefinder too:)
Yena and I went paper-”window”-shopping last night on the ‘net and found lots of fun scrapbook-type papers, which would be great to use for forms. Tonight I found tabs through links the forums at DIY. Aisa’s planning to make her own. I’m just waiting to hear now from Myndology on whether their bio/bare discs can be purchased separately.
I put stuff up on sale again today — about 8 books from our Math shelf, plus our box of wooden Cuisenaire Rods. Aisa’s old stuff from Angelicum went *just like that*. And I even sold our copy of The Well-Trained Mind. Heh. I think this is the third time I’ve bought and sold one. Time to stop.
This new adventure started over the weekend, as I searched for fountain pens for me and the kids (leaning towards Lamy Safari right now and/or Pelikano Jr.) — and a new notebook/planner/journal/not sure exactly what…. my current Moleskine is almost gone. I went back to Franklin last year after two years of Palm. The Palm was too small, too cold, too mechanical…. the Franklin too bulky, not flexible enough. I just tore out pages from 12 notebooks I’ve used off and on over the years and stuck all of them in a 3-ring binder… so when I was browsing at Levenger, Circa jumped out at me, yelling “Here I am!!!”
A bunch of Levenger Circa items are in my shopping cart right now, and as always I’m taking time to do some research first before plunking down all that money.
A video of how it works — wmv file from Levenger
Forum discussion on Circa and other systems
There’s this whole other world of GTD folks (should I be surprised I’m not the only one obsessed about these things?). I was mostly perusing their talks on combining analog/digital organizational systems, etc. which is what I’ve been trying to do for quite some time — no real success yet. It’s funny when I come across something from the periphery, it’s like the Venn diagrams of my world intersecting.
The other day I was at the Fountain Pen Network forum looking for what brand to buy for the kids. I don’t know why it surprised me to find that a large group of people can be collectively passionate about pens. Paco’s a pen lover so now I’m understanding him a bit more. I never was obsessed although I did go through a phase in college where I spent hours deciding on the perfect tech pen. It must have been Vienne’s influence — she used a tech pen to take her notes and I was impressed with the fineness of the point and how clean her notes always looked; hence my disappointment when I found “my engineer” and he doesn’t use tech pens in his daily life. Hee. Anyway, going back to planners and such…
What I don’t like about Moleskines: it’s so limiting. No calendars, no planning pages, no blanks, just lines, lines, lines….They don’t even make their Storyboard notebook in large size. What I want is one of those sketch-and-write books, but not the kiddie ones.
What I don’t like about Franklin Covey: the guilt associated with not using every page of their refills. Of course, I could just go with a customized FC, get their planning tabs and calendars and go with a bunch of blanks…. however, I’ve always gone with the Classic size, and a Monarch would be too large for me and therefore too bulky to carry everywhere I go, and I’ve tried the compact but it was too small…. I suppose a customized Monarch can work too, but that would mean another binder. I thought I’d love forever my Classic purse that can be a clutch or a shoulder bag and holds everything, but it kills my shoulder when I’m out shopping. Which is why I think the Circa is a much better system — large, small, medium, everything can fit together in the end.
Thinking that the DIY-Circa route would be the one to take here…. maybe with some Rollabind things thrown in there…
The possibilities! My to do lists, in small, my notes and project plans, in the bigger sizes, I can have everything together — the saints project, the sewing project, the room-by-room project, all in one place, and then separated out later into their own folders and rings…. small scrapbooks/lapbooks/research reports, curriculum and lesson plans, even recipes, etc….
Levenger/Rollabind comments/comparisons/ideas
Make Your Own from DIY Planner – the folks over there are definitely *my* kind of people!
This review/overview says everything!
Very thorough review here, with suggestions on DIYing, etc.
the Myndology version — hmmmm…. maybe for Aisa, or Yena… or wait…. eco-friendly wood discs! would look mighty fine with leather…
And here’s the perfect how-to for little ol’ me! Setting Up a Circa System, D*I*Y Planner Style (can actually ignore all the other links and focus on this one — it answers all my questions)
Levenger Outlet on eBay, which currently doesn’t have any of the things I need
DIYPlanner Group’s Circa photos
Peeked at CIAK. Nah.
Okay, so besides Levenger Circa, Rollabind, Myndology, there’s also ADOC.
And yet I haven’t stopped looking at Exaclair’s brands — most of which are available through The Daily Planner
I’m putting this decision off until tonight, or maybe even tomorrow. Gotta mull some more.
Thank you for all of your prayers!!
DH seems to be almost completely healed, he just saw the dr. again today, the wound has closed up quite a bit more, and dr. has instructed him to cancel all 3 appointments with the surgeons tomorrow. We are ecstatic and jumping for joy.
DH is suffering from bursitis on his left knee though, so we’d appreciate some prayers if you’re so inclined, but that’s PEANUTS compared to facing another surgery!!!!
Praise be to God Almighty and thank you, Mama Mary!!!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!
There is no better time to learn this lesson than while seated as a passenger in the back of the van, while your 16-yo student driver is behind the steering wheel and Dad is coaching.
What I need is some duct tape to keep my mouth shut. Go ahead and give me a brace as well, to keep my foot from stepping on my very own invisible brakes.
Three Hail Marys and meditating on the Most Holy Name really helps though, if there are any of you who have been in this position.
Just placed orders tonight with Value Seeds and Gourmet Seed International — there are a bunch of 99 cent/packet seeds!!! I’ll try some summer-sowing next week, despite the drought — but I’ll save half the seeds for winter sowing. I’ve also placed my garlic order for some hardnecks to grow this fall. Hurry — they run out quickly!
I’ve also worked a bit on updating the Mary Garden spreadsheet, which is now a Google spreadsheet you can view here. If you’re interested in co-editing it with me, just lmk. Still tinkering with it — may offer it as xls and pdf when it’s completed.
This week we have been listening to Children’s Corner — a favorite is Golliwogg’s Cakewalk.
Besides what Classics for Kids offers, some other interesting things I came across when I was looking for more information about this piece:
Golliwog’s Cakewalk by Charles T. Downey
Sheetmusic can be downloaded here
Dear readers,
I am asking all of you for some prayers for Bong. I will not go into many details here; basically he had surgery in October 2006 that got infected. It was fixed, and we thought it was okay, but it never completely healed. In March he got shingles which he recovered from quite rapidly, thanks to all the prayers. In July they re-did the surgery to fix it up, and we all thought it was over this time, but it’s not. There’s still a teeny-tiny wound that hasn’t closed up. It will need fixing again.
While you’re at it, could you say some work prayers for him as well? It’s always stressful over there and this could be some vicious circle that’s happening — stress causes illness, illness causes more stress, more stress, more illness, etc., etc. I also would like to request prayers for his boss’ and co-workers’ understanding and support.
We are at peace, we know God has a plan. We’re still asking for prayers though:) I’ll update when I have more news.
Thanks and God bless,
stef:)
dad had the van a/c fixed, mowed the lawn and went with me to HD to get the shelf fittings cut.
the kids washed dad’s car today.
migi made harry potter spectacles out of lego parts
paco’s still working on his spreadsheet.
yena listened to jim weiss’ sherlock holmes and was telling me all about the bad guy
aisa baked and had one of the girls come over for a one-on-one.
i continued reorganizing the study, and found an old old diary of mine in the basement…. from 1985.
I’ve been working on our homeschooling pages here. Some of the things you’ll find: my kids’ current curriculum and booklists, our music and art plans, free Latin flashcards, a list of Pinoy homeschooler sites, how-to book suggestions, etc.
Find of the Day! – pdf file from Layton Music
There are other things there that may be of interest, like Note Name Cards, Rhythm Cards, etc.
I’ve never been a flashcard person, since Aisa when we first started homeschooling didn’t like them and I stopped buying/making them after a while. Now that flashcards are such a rarity here, the kids seem to take to them better. It comes and goes….
The day was spent making paper airplanes, and listening to Beethoven’s Wig albums. Paco started his report on computers and asked if he could use it as “copywork”. Of course I said yes!
is here. Haaaah!!! I finally finished it. Not that it won’t change… but when a plan’s in place… the chances of something happening is increased a hundredfold.
