The "Days" sheet will be a frequently visited sheet in the planner. You will do 3 important tasks at the "Days" sheet.
Days is THE SCHOOL CALENDAR To set the date for the first day of school, go to DATA and enter the date.
Go back to DAYS. Days will be a frequent place to go when using this planner.
Optional: Print a calendar from donnayoung.org and mark the school days if you need the visual reference of a typical table of dates.
We are at the Days tab. 
Mark all of the dates in which you plan to have school with an X. There is a drop down list in every cell. You can choose the X from the drop down list or type an X. It can be either uppercase or lowercase.
At the top of the column, there will be a number. The number counts how many dates you have marked and the count is helpful if you have to conduct school a certain number of days. This number is the total of X'ed cells in the entire column-your official school days. The number is not your children's attendance.
Notice the background color is yellow in some cells. Yellow marks the weekends for you. The color serves as reference markers on the calendar- you can easily "see" where the weekends are.
What if a school day is called off later?
Remove the X. It is that simple.
To remove the X, select the cell that has the x and press the back key or choose the blank space from the drop-down list.
What if I need to add school days later?
Return to the "Days" sheet and place an x next to the dates. Remember the official school calendar - the dates that are X'ed- are not set in stone, you can come back later to add or remove dates from the official school calendar.
The colors—red and green Y's, gray and white cells—are there so you can more easily check marking errors.
Below is a screen-shot of the school calendar and the attendance area. The attendance area is on the right under each child's name. Each child's attendance will be marked and counted. The Y means that the child had school that day. If you need make a short comment for the record, you can type in the far right column. Just a note - the comments in that column are not sent to any of the reports or any other worksheet.
More below ...
Every cell has a drop-down that contains a Y and a blank space. Either the child did school or the child didn't. If the child attended, then choose or type a "Y" in the cell under the child's name in line with the date.
The number of Y's are counted under each child's name. The total is their official school day attendance whether each child attended an official school day or not. Both green Y's and red Y's are counted.
Term Beginning Dates & Term Ending Dates that are Not Official School Dates : There is one minor issue with term attendance counts - If a term begins or ends on a non-school day and if attendance is marked for that non-school day, it will not be counted. This only applies to the start and end dates of the terms that are selected in the "S" sheets. Attended non-school days between the term start date and term end date are counted.
Green Y = attended on official school day [Official school day is what I am calling the days that you chose by marking the date with an X.]
Red Y = Attended on a day that is not official [ The red Y still counts toward the student's total. ]
The colored Y's is just another feature that I added for your convenience. At a glance, you can see if your child attended on a day that is not marked as a school day. This is a reference color. It helps you double-check for mistakes. Don't worry if a Y is red and the child really did his school work-- All Y's are counted - unless the date is a term beginning date or a term ending date.
From the drop-down list that is in the cell, choose the blank or select the cell and press backspace.
The gray rows are days that are not marked as an official school day.
The white rows are official school days.
White Rows- The purpose of color-coding the rows is for your convenience. At a glance you can see if attendance was marked for the official school days. Ideally, all of the white rows will have a Y in them. But we know that sometimes a child is out on a school day and it is okay to leave the the white cell blank if the child was "not present".
Gray Rows- Gray rows are the flip side of the white rows -- you can see at a glance which days are not school days. There will be times when a child does work on a day that is not officially marked as a school day. You will place a Y to record attendance for that child. The Y will be red, but that is okay. Red Y's are counted.
Only 1 set of numbers 1-5 should ever be in the column. When setting dates for a planner, be certain to remove last week's dates.
This same numbering system is used for placing lesson plans into the planners.
The Planner receive dates from the "Days" sheet. You will set them. The date setting uses numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. This is what the numbers mean:
The Date at Number ---
1 will go into the first slot of the planner dates. If you do not place a "1" by a date, the first slot will be empty on the planners.
2 will go into the second slot of the planner dates. If you do not place a "2" by a date, the second slot will be empty on the planners.
3 will go into the third slot of the planner dates. If you do not place a "3" by a date, the third slot will be empty on the planners.
4 will go into the fourth slot of the planner dates. If you do not place a "4" by a date, the fourth slot will be empty on the planners.
5 will go into the fifth slot of the planner dates. If you do not place a "5" by a date, the fifth slot will be empty on the planners.
Mixed up Dates: I don't know why anyone would want to do this, but the numbers can be placed out of order. Remember, the formula robotically picks up the number and places the date without wondering if you've lost your marbles.
No Dates: If you want a planner that is devoid of dates, place no numbers in the first column at the "Days" sheet.
Skipping Dates:
Yes, you can have blank date slots in the planner by not setting a date with 1-5.
Important to Know- Be Certain to remove the numbers from last week's planner when setting new planner dates.
The pictures below illustrate how the dates looks in some of the planners. The dates chosen are 8/23, 8/24, 8/25, 8/26, 8/27.
There is a horizontal version of this planner; it is a classic block style.
This planner displays the start and end dates only. More specifically, this planner displays number 1 and number 5. If number 1 or 5 are omitted, it will display no dates for the #1 and #5 slots.
In this planner, choose which number to use from a drop-down list.
Donna Young
May 4, 2011
About the Ads at donnayoung.org
The V-Planner is a spreadsheet file in xls format. To use the file, you must have a program on your computer [like MS Excel] that is compatible with XLS files. The V Planner is a homeschool planner and the file is currently only available on Donna Young's Site-CD, YoungMinds as of the 2011 version .
