Homeschool Organization

I am a very visual, organized person, although you might not notice this about me if you were to see my house in it's "natural" state. Anyway, I like organized piles and I like making lists.

Last year I tried a few different ways to organize my homeschooling plans.

1. I bought the kids workboxes because I loved the idea of everything having a place. Unfortunately, we are not a workbox family. Try as I might, my kids did not always want to do the activities I put in the workboxes and it was a bit too formal for my liking. We still have the workboxes and use them to store crafts and projects that are in progress.

2. I tried using a portable file folder box and each day had its own file. This was too much work for me and wasted too much paper. I also hated that I couldn't see what was in the file folder.

3. I kept a college ruled notebook and wrote out detailed plans for each day. This was my most successful way of organizing. I could easily see what I needed to prepare daily and I had all of my notes right in front of me. The problem was that I sometimes needed to add or adjust my notes and had no where to write. It also bugged me that I couldn't easily plan more than one week at a time because I didn't know how fast the kids would learn the material or if they would even be interested.  I tweak as I go and try to follow the direction my kids take with a subject.

I think I would like to use a binder to organize my plans, but I have no idea how to organize the binder.  Do any of the three people who read this blog have suggestions or links? I am in the process of planning our first week in detail, but I need to have one place where I can write everything down and adjust it as I go.

ETA: I found a few planning pages that might work. Here and here. I still need suggestions on how to organize a binder. I think I'll have a two page spread for my weekly planner, but I also want a space to write down our library books for the week and other notes. I'm going to need to take a trip to Staples. It's a shame I hate school supplies.