Does anyone keep track of what you've DONE, instead of planning what you WILL do?

[AlaskaGrownFamily]

And if so, what do you use? TIA!

[Doodle]

I do. I made a simple grid chart with microsoft word. Days of the week across the top, subjects down the side. After we complete a lesson, I open the document and type it in. I do one per week.

[Nestof3]

I do both. But, I keep notebook paper in a binder divided by sections. When I finish reading a book to the boys, I write it down in the appropriate section -- history, science, art, music, misc.

 

I don't have a need to document everything we do in a day, but I do want a list of books we actually ended up using.

[Tiberia]

I do this.

 

I have a flexible goal for each week, say, 4 lessons of math per week. If we go faster, great. If slower, we'll make it up another week. I track what lessons we've done after we've done them. I use a regular teacher's planner, and have the subject areas listed, but just fill in the days once we've completed the lesson. I also add books after we've read them, and any other activities we do.

 

I've only done K year this way, but it worked for us. It's easier for me if the plan is in my head, and I only write down what we actually completed.

[OleanderRain]

I do. I made a simple grid chart with microsoft word. Days of the week across the top, subjects down the side. After we complete a lesson, I open the document and type it in. I do one per week.

 

This is exactly what I do. It worked well for us last year. I tried filling them out ahead of time, more like a planner, but we didn't keep to the schedule and I ended up chucking it. So now I just write as I go and don't sweat it if I fall behind or move along faster than expected.

[kalanamak]

And if so, what do you use? TIA!

 

I have line of subjects going down the left hand side, with amount per month I want to cover (e.g. grammar 15x20 (fifteen 20 minute lessons), across the top is 1-31, and below is a graph paper-like grid. I make minutes or a hash if I do the amount of time I have over at the left. For some topics, like handwriting, I just make a check. I leave the intersect blank if we don't cover that subject that day. When kiddo was a preschooler and K, I just made checks on a whole list of things that I wanted to expose him to.

 

Currently down my list is grammar, reading, reading to self, WWE, spelling, math, Latin, HW, PE, science, history. For art and music (three hours each per month) I have 6 circles, and I color in half of one if I do 30 minutes of music, say.

[RahRah]

I keep track of what we've accomplished instead of trying to plan what we will do.....I track in date book planner.

 

So far as "planning" what I do is set up a folder for the week with worksheets, activity sheets and a list of what I think we can do in the week - that way I'm not scrambling each day.....if we have something left incomplete, it stays in the folder to complete, if we get ahead, I grab more work to do.

[TraciWA]

:iagree:

I keep track of what we've accomplished instead of trying to plan what we will do.....I track in date book planner.

 

So far as "planning" what I do is set up a folder for the week with worksheets, activity sheets and a list of what I think we can do in the week - that way I'm not scrambling each day.....if we have something left incomplete, it stays in the folder to complete, if we get ahead, I grab more work to do.

[Halcyon]

Me! I used to lay out everything I wanted to accomplish in a given month, but now, I just have a preprinted table with my subjects on the left, and the days of the week on the top. When we do something, I write it in. Simple. I know we need to do math 5x a week, history 3x a week, science 1-2 times a week, etc, so it's easy to see by looking what we need to accomplish.

Works for us, and we finished ahead of schedule this year so I know it works in terms of getting things done. And less stress!!!!

[Renee in NC]

I did last year. I just wrote the date in a notebook and then wrote what we did. I am doing more planning this year because we floundered quite a bit last year and I wanted to get more done this year.

[dm379]

Each kid has a day book planner and I just write a list of everything we do. It's cheap and even the husband can understand it.

[swellmomma]

I am thinking of doing this, this year sort of. We never finish what I have planned. I do have lesson plans so that I can tie things together and have supplies on hand as I need them. But there is no days etc tied to thos plans. Each day I will document what we have actually done that day and not worry about where we are in the lesson plans kwim. That way I am never actually behind, we are simply trucking through. I am hoping it will help with my own anxieties about accomplishing enough and prevent me from piling on too much thinking we are behind or need to do more etc.

[JoyfulMama]

I do both. But, I keep notebook paper in a binder divided by sections. When I finish reading a book to the boys, I write it down in the appropriate section -- history, science, art, music, misc.

 

I don't have a need to document everything we do in a day, but I do want a list of books we actually ended up using.

:iagree:This is me, too. I date and write books, movies, music. Now, on that I also have notations for who participated.

[2cents]

I do. I have notebooks that have all the weekly lesson plans filed for the years we've homeschooled for each child.

[runmiarun]

I have a blank calendar with the month and year at the top from Microsoft Publisher. On Sunday nights, I pull out the books from the milk crates and right out the lessons I want us to do each day in pencil. At the end of the day, I add or scratch out what we did/didn't do. I know we have certain books we have to go through for the year and this helps me stay sorta organized for now. I currently only have 1 in K so I am sure this might change as we add more children in hs in the next few years.

[DesertDweller]

I do both.

 

I make a schedule every week on Excel. I have a template that I made years ago. Each child has there own. I update it each year with the subjects listed on the left, days of the week across the top along with the dates and what day and week of school we're on.

 

I fill it out ahead of time with what we need to get done in each subject. We cross off as we go to show that we've completed everything. Anything we don't get done, I go in and make the changes accordingly. At the end of the week, it then becomes my record of what we've accomplished.

 

Some years I printed a blank page and hand wrote the information in with pencil making changes as we went. Other years, I entered everything on the computer and simply changed it there.

 

At the end of the year, I print the entire years worth out and put it in a notebook.

[JenC3]

 

I have a weekly lesson plan sheet I typed up and attach to my FCS folder. Every Sat or Sun night I write up the weekly plan. I rip out all the sheets we need and mark places in the workbooks and texts. Then each day I pull out and paper clip the daily work together. We have a INBOX for unfinished work and we finish every stack before moving on. The one sheet has a weekly grade column and I enter test grades & check off assignments. I also have a read aloud column where I write down books we read. All the finished work gets clipped together with the one sheet and put back into the file folder so I can easily reference it later.

 

 

[Katiebug_1976]

I do! I use The Well Planned Day Planner (I used it last year and had already bought one for this year before I decided to stop scheduling and try looping). But it is working well so far. As we complete different subjects, I just write them down in the planner. I do loosely schedule history & science just because I have to inter-library loan books, so they have to be somewhat structured. But other than that, I don't plan, I record!

[laughing lioness]

I do every week in my weekly report. I post it on my blog. It's a good way to review what we do, keeps my dh assessed, as well relatives that haven't always been that supportive of our choice to homeschool. I try to change it up each week so that it's interesting and add in pictures of projects and field trips. It's been great positive propoganda :001_smile:

[keptwoman]

I do a half year and end of year report for each child. It details work covered and plans for the future.

Other than that, I'm supposed to fill in a weekly spreadsheet with each childs work, but it's sporadic at best.

[Heidi]

I plan by the week, check off what we did (and take notes). If it didn't get done it goes onto next week's plan.

[Lucy the Valiant]

That's how I've always kept track - I have a list of "monthly goals," and I record daily what we DID that day. I generally try to sort-of kind-of match up the 2. :tongue_smilie:

[KidsHappen]

I use Homelife Academy. They have a high school planning sheet and on-line record keeping so at the beginning of high school we planned what they needed to graduate and then we were able to check off what had been done each year and record it on-line. Then when they were due to graduate Homelife just looked at their records to make sure they make sure they had met all the requirement and then issued their degree and transcripts. Easy peasey.

 

In my personal life - I make to-do lists in Word and then check the items off once they are done. Then I always have a record. I also keep my yearly calendar so that I can refer to them.

[forevergrace]

I purchased my yearly planner at Target, and while it is rather boring (no shinny saying, or cute cartoons) it does the job. I've bought a new one every January for the last several years. The month is shown first, followed by weekly sections. I document everything we do each day. Really easy, and it takes only five-minutes. This year I went all out and made print out for our goals, schedules, etc., and to tell the truth I feel overwhelmed by all the crap I printed out. It has literally sat in my living-room for over a month, along w/a multitude of other school materials. I am really am having a hard time getting into it this year. Anyway, the planner cost about $11.00 and is well worth the price. There is plenty of room to write what you to do each day.

Forevergrace