Questions for those who have given your student a weekly assignment sheet

[Sunshine State Sue]

If you have given your student a weekly assignment sheet, how has it worked out? Was it successful or unsuccessful? At what age/grade did you start? Any tips you would like to share? Any pitfalls to avoid?

 

I am excited because I just realized that my soon-to-be 7th grader might actually be capable of doing this. In the past, we have collaborated at the beginning of the week to determine which subjects would get done during which days of the week. I think he is ready to schedule his week as he sees fit.

 

I see that I will have to direct a few things. For example, it's easiest (for me) if we go over the new grammar and math lesson on Monday. Then, he's free to work on his own the rest of the week.

 

On the other hand, I could see him procrastinating and not getting it done by Friday afternoon. So, I have to be very clear about the consequences.

 

So, if anyone has any btdt advice, I'd be happy to receive it.

 

Thanks!

[Linda...inOwasso]

Hi Sue,

 

I should preface by saying I *think* I got the idea for a weekly checklist from OhElizabeth. I steal many of her valuable suggestions. :) I also have a two-tier basket. When my girls have completed their assignments, they play the work in the top basket. Once I've graded it, I move it to the bottom basket. They are responsible for checking the bottom basket (late afternoon) and reviewing their work, making any corrections and then they place their work in a plastic tub for me to file later.

 

My 4 yr. old's checklist is more for my benefit and I keep it in my notebook. I look at it each morning and then place her independent work on her clipboard. Math and reading is on my checklist, but not on her clipboard because these are subjects we always do together.

 

My older dd 7 keeps her own checklist. Each Sunday evening, I fill in her checklist with the page or lesson #'s for each subject. Some subjects we only do twice a week, so I'll put a slash through the other 3 days of that subject. Anyway, she knows she's not finished with her school work until the list is completed. I absolutely LOVE it! It's made my life so much easier and hers too! She's not constantly asking me "What are we going to do next?"

 

FWIW, ours is laid out in a weekly format. Monday through Friday across the top of the spreadsheet. At the end of the week, I just hole punch the checklist and then I have a record of attendance, what we've accomplished, etc... It's such a simple idea and extremely helpful!

[2cents]

I've been doing this for years...pretty much from day one. All the children have a weekly chart with the assignments for each day. It is the best thing for keeping us on track and sane. The children all know that they must have the assignments done daily. There is no waiting till the end of the week. When they finish their daily assignments, they are free to play. The 'play' or free time is a great incentive to encourage timeliness. I don't have assigned times for each topic. We work on together stuff first and then they do their own work on their own. There are times when life happens and occasionally things need to be moved to the next day but as you get better at scheduling, you learn what to anticipate and how to distribute the load best for your family. Hope this helps!:001_smile:

[Another Lynn]

I have done this from the beginning. Subjects down the side and days of the week across the top. He knows what he can do on his own and what we have to do together. He likes to check each thing off as he/we get it done and it lets him see how much more work he has to do before school is finished for the day.

 

It's also what keeps me organized too! :D

[katilac]

I think we went from a daily list to weekly in the 3rd grade (for my oldest; the youngest switched at the same time).

 

Assignments are broken up in daily increments. I only give my kids the option of working ahead - - that is, they can complete extra assignments on Wednesday and Thursday in order to have an easier day on Friday, but they can't purposely skip assignments with the plan of doubling up later in the week.

 

At our house, finishing assignments earlier in the week doesn't mean you skip them on Friday; it just means you get to pick a free choice activity in that subject. I'm quite lenient with what's acceptable: computer activities are probably their favorite pick in any subject, in math they might play around with manipulatives, in English they might write a fun bit about something we've read, or do a craft related to it. They're very happy with that deal.

[LindaOz]

We have a checklist with the oldest four dc weekly assignments on it and we all work from that precious piece of paper all week :001_smile: It keeps us on track, they know what to do next, and I refer to it regularly so I know what everyone's up to. At the top, I list what things we do together each day, then each child's individual assignments come underneath.

 

I haven't included my 5yo on the list yet, mostly because I just haven't got around to it, but I will soon as it is so helpful to have everything written down in the one place.

[Bambam]

I have done with successfully with my oldest for 3rd and 4th grade.

 

I do a schedule layout similar to Sonlights - books grouped by subject along the left hand side, days of the week along the top.

 

I list page numbers to be read or exercise numbers to be done. Anything that is to be done together I highlight. Any writing assignments are included also.

 

Extra activities (art class, field trips, etc) are in a special row at the bottom. If the extra activity will take most of the day, I put **HOLD** in the columns that would normal require work. This is mostly for me so I won't forget something in the next week's schedule - but it has the added advantage of letting her see what she doesn't have to do that day and makes her feel like she is getting a holiday.

 

For copywork, I list the source but detail the assignment on another sheet.

 

For poetry, she reads one poem per day, so I just have a checkbox (webdings font I believe).

 

So far this has worked well for us. I imagine that as she gets older, this schedule will just list what has to be done this week and allow her to schedule her own work on whatever days she thinks best. I would like her to learn time management as well.

 

 

If she does not complete her school before the neighbor kids are ready to play, she can't play. End of discussion. She has learned to start her work as soon as she has eaten breakfast so this will not happen again.

[Brindee]

So, you're wanting him to schedule his times and classes to however works best for him? That's a good thing for learning responsibility and stick-to-itiveness!

 

I have a schedule I made. It's a general idea of what we need to get done. I'm not good at describing things, but I made sure it has little boxes by each assignment, because ALL my kids have enjoyed checking off those boxes! Well, ds now 14, likes scribbling it all out when it's done--more like conquering it than simply checking the box! :D

 

Anyway, it's helped keep them on track more and me too!

 

Also, they have to do each class for the day, or they can't do other things. No playing with friends, computer time, etc., until everything is checked, graded and marked off! It's helped my ds14 especially to keep on track!

[Sunshine State Sue]

I created an Excel spreadsheet with daily lesson assignments. I'm about 1/2 way through the subjects for first semester. Whew! I can either use this and explain that some of the work doesn't have to be completed on the particular day, or I can use it to create a weekly assignment sheet for him to manage himself.

 

You've given me lots of great ideas, and I appreciate it! :thumbup:

[Academy of Jedi Arts]

I make out a weekly sheet that lists the days of the week at the top, and the subjects along the side. It has boxes to check off for completed assignments. Each week, I make a copy for myself, and one for dd.

 

If she finishes all her grammar in one day, she won't have to work on that for the rest of the week- unless she wants to. If she chooses to do more, she just writes it in on the sheet.

 

If she chooses to put off an assignment, I try to be lenient- BUT the assignment has to be started (meaning done about halfway at least) AND all the work has to be completed Friday or we won't do art and whatever she has planned for her "independent study". Plus, showing irresponsibility with schoolwork means things like TV are likely to be taken away. There are certain things I will not allow to be skipped, like reviewing our Latin and anything else I feel needs daily review. There are also instances when I allow more time to be spent on assignments- if she chooses to improve on an assignment or go deeper, or if she finds a concept difficult.

 

She often assigns herself homework. She'll do everything but spelling and do that in bed at night or read 2 chapters of a 3 chapter reading assignment and save another one for later.

 

On my copy, I keep grades, notes, whatever. I write the 'week of' at the bottom and file them away in a binder. Then I pull them out when the dh asks me what I do all day.:)

[Peela]

I have found neither of my kids is mature enough to schedule their whole week. They just do the fun stuff and hope I will let them off the rest! If I notice!

So as a compromise, they have a weekly checklist, broken down into days- they are welcome to do things from other days though. My daughter ended up with "homework" one day this week (from spending too long on her art during the day...an issue here!), and although she resented having to do homework when she homeschools, and its unusual for that to happen here, she actually got right into it in the evening and ended up doing work for the next day as well....which gave her more time the next day to do art! It worked well.

So, you asked how it went for us ....no, not good if given a list of things to do in the week. But, very well if given a checklist broken down into days, and given some flexibility with it.

[ChemMommy]

I have successfully had kindergarteners follow an assignment grid and check off assignments! I've successfully had a 4th and 6th grader plan their own school plans.

 

Here's what I've done over the last 9 years:

 

• Open up all the books each day to figure out what to do:

Pros--no planning involved

 

cons--easy to put off schooling when nothing is planned out for you and it's 8am and the baby is crying and the laundry needs to be done!

 

• Hand-writing down assignments (in pencil) for the week in a regular teacher's planner:

pros--I can erase and make changes easily as delays pop up during the week; the planner book was bound, so I wasn't chasing a valuable piece of paper around the house all week; kids checked off assignments right in the planner book so at the end of the year, I had a record of what was done all in one place

 

cons--the space for writing assignments is limited to the "square" provided by the publisher and not all assignments neatly fit in to one square; handwriting in assignments from SL and other curricula got to be a pain when we went from 2 kids to 4 kids in school; took at least an hour per week, if not more, to write everything down.

 

 

• Letting them plan it all (this was instituted when I was really sick for several months)--I'd give them an SL book and tell them to finish is in a week or so. I'd tell them to do 3 pages per day in a workbook, etc.

pros--easy, easy, easy on mom! Not a bad solution for tough times in life; even my K child could manage this

 

cons--FAR less got done in general since I wasn't there to add the little stuff that we normally do; needed to follow up on each subject with each child to verify what was done and at the end, there was little in the way of formal records for this time period, just a list of completed books.

 

 

 

• Homeschool Tracker--I bought the plus version and am happy that I did

pros--really easy to reschedule when "life" happens in our home. Because I enter an entire year of material in the planning stages, I have a terrific overview of what our year will be like and can more easily spot good TV shows that will fit in with school; once I got through the learning curve, this is the fastest way I've ever planned a school week--often I can get assignments for 4 kids out in under 30 minutes!! LOVE THAT! Even my youngest can read the grids and check off her work; we are accomplishing far more this year with HST.

 

 

cons--BIG time commitment during the summer to get the whole thing up and organized; I now have "precious sheets of paper" to keep track of all week (I solved this by taping them to the wall on Monday morning each week!); my oldest (14 ds) things returning to an assignment grid is a bit babyish, however, he gets a lot more done each week, so I'm happy. Next year, I'll probably give him more input with how to plan his week, especially with materials that don't have a lesson plan to follow (Fallacy Detective, IEW, etc)

 

 

HTH!

[new2homeschoolmom]

I have decided to do this for my dd up coming school year. This way when I am busy with dd(1) learning to get into everuthing and dnew baby due in Sept '08, she can go to the list and do the subjects she doesn't need me to do with her. I hope this will also get rid of the "Am I done yet."

 

I have deciced to use a weekly format with days across the top and subjects down the side. I will fill in what needs to be done for the day and she will choose when to do it. Our rule is everything needs to be done daily before her dad gets home at 4:30 and before she is allowed to do any art activities or play time.

 

Kris in Oregon

dd (10) MUS Gamma finish last 6 chapters then MUS Delta, EG4 w/ DG, R&S Spelling??, Geography (USA), R&S Dev. a Better Reader and Exploring w/ God, R&S Health for the Glory of God, STOW 3 w/ Classical Reading and Writing Copybook, Draw-Write-Now

 

dss (7) here for the summer

 

dd (1) learning to walk and talk, hopefully some ASL

 

dbaby (due 9/08) kicking up a storm

[Osaubi]

I use a schedule printed off of my Homeschool Tracker Plus. I print off an extended one for me with the notes I put in, and a simple assignment sheet for my ds 6. My ds used to get upset b/c he thought school was taking for ever to do. Giving him a sheet to mark his assignments off solved that problem. He knows how much he has left to get done. I have found it also helps me stay on task. My ds will remind me when we didn't get all of our school done b/c he can see it wasn't checked off. :001_smile:

[lwilliams1922]

I have found neither of my kids is mature enough to schedule their whole week. They just do the fun stuff and hope I will let them off the rest! If I notice!

So as a compromise, they have a weekly checklist, broken down into days- they are welcome to do things from other days though.

 

 

SAME HERE

my 12 yr old says she done, but what she really means is, she's done with all the stuff she likes.

[PeterPan]

Sue, this came up while I was talking with my assessor last week, and she had some interesting comments for me. See I've been doing the daily checklist thing for a while now based on Heather in VA's prompting (hurray, good move!). Well going into 4th, and this is part of what I think maybe you're saying, you have some things that are more general or long-term projects, things where you want him to learn to manage his time rather than YOU driving it all. And yet my concern was that I not jump from totally mom-driven to totally kid-run (and hence flopping) too fast. She observed that this is a horribly important skill to develop, their ability to begin to manage their time on their own, but that we should divide it up into stages for them initially and have accountability checks. So rather than just saying "get it done by the end of the week OR ELSE," you could have accountability/tracking checks throughout the week with general guidelines (I expect to see at least half your assignment list done, blah blah). And since my dd is only going into 4th, not 7th like your ds, she thought that doing this with a limited number of subjects was a good thing. The main thing I was asking her about in this case was a monthly book project, which is where she gave me the suggestion of developing stages and having periodic checks. For our fall writing, I have a number of assignments in mind that are more of a weekly total, rather than caring which she does on a particular day. I want to go look at that HST some more, but if I continue the basic checklist made in Word that I've been doing, then what I'll probably do is simply put all the assignments of that type onto the checklist at the beginning of the week and let them drop off on her daily printout as they get done. I don't know about your ds, but my dd actually gets kicks out of going into Word and editing the list, taking off things she's already done, adding anything specific to the day (piano lesson, etc.), and printing it out. So that might be something he could literally do for himself. Just another way of thinking through things.

 

Good luck with your new changes! I'm guessing as long as you are gradual and have periodic accountability checks, you're going to be fine. It's definitely a worthwhile skill to fight for! :)