Please help me with structure!

[Grantmom]

Up until now, we have been very child-led and eclectic in our approach, but my 7th/8th grader is ready and actually asking for a lot more structure in his schooling. I am excited about this, this is what I have been waiting for and am excited that he wants so much to learn!

 

However, I am really struggling with how to structure things for him, and come up with things he can work on independently. I am fine with spending a few hours each day in one on one time with him, but I also have to do that with my younger child too, and I have to do everything to keep the house going, make food, laundry, and I work part-time. So, I want to make this work. He is actually excited about the changes, says he wants quizzes and homework, but I need to keep him engaged and challenged when there isn't an adult right there with him.

 

Any advice? Recommendations for things he can do independently?

 

I plan to work alongside him for math and LA definitely. I was reading in another thread about some suggestions for logic, and I think he will really like those books, and hopefully he can do some of that independently. But how do you figure out where they can work alone, and how do you know if they are getting and understanding the material if you are not working through it with them?

 

Thanks for any words of wisdom!

[Mom22ns]

You might really benefit from buying some curriculum that will provide the structure and is written to the student. For a 13 yo, you might consider something like Lightning Lit 8. History that is lit based where he can read on his own and you can discuss together like Sonlight can be great. Neither of these curriculums come with quizes or tests though. Most of the things we use that have quizes and tests are teacher driven and require working together. Math is an easy one to add tests in if you don't already do them.

[NittanyJen]

Here is one idea for giving some more structure to science, without eating up all of your time. You could adapt I easily to a different branch of science or a different schedule, and use the books you have on hand; none of what is described here depends strictly upon a specific set of books or number of weeks.

 

Your time input would focus on Monday discussion, Wednesday lab set up, and Friday listening to his presentation; the rest of the work would be his.

 

My take on Fostering Exploration in the Classical Model of Sciences.

 

That is my most recent blog post.

[AK_Mom4]

For a start with organization, how about a planner for your 7th grader?

 

I spend time every Sunday afternoon filling out DD's planner for the coming week. I also take this time to gather all the supplies and books she will need so everything is ready when she needs it. For each day, I write down the "assignment" in each subject - read this chapter, do this lesson, etc. After she finishes each task, she checks it off as done and gives it to me to correct. That's our "organization" :D - sort of a poor man's version of workboxes.....

 

We had some hiccups getting started - I had to specifically put down in the planner to READ the math lesson before starting as she would tend to skip that part. We use lit-based history and LA, so I had to get my act in gear and make sure she had the books she needed when she needed them. Only our math and science has tests/quizzes at this level, though I am sure that will change as we move up to high school.

[PeterPan]

Yeah, the planner is my first question for you, since that's imperative for structure for my dd. I've done it different ways over the years. This year I made lesson plans for each subject (even if they were really vague) so I could see how many weeks I would need if we worked at a given # times per week. Then I have a separate weekly checklist I print out for her. Here, I'll try to attach it as a screen shot. It's a work in progress, but that's where we're at now. It makes everything very clear and concrete. We're still working through which things she does with me and with things can be independent now that she's learning how to do them.

 

Some things I've tweaked how we use them. This week I'm trying something new, giving her outlines of the text readings and asking her to fill them in after she reads. I did them with her (for history and science), but she's catching on.

 

Gotta scat. She has to finish her work.

 

PS. She didn't do all that history. That was 2 weeks' worth. I just put it on because I didn't know how her pace would be.

[Anne in CA]

I also make a planner for my middle school students. I generally start off the year working side by side with them on most subjects to get them back into the swing of school, but transition into a weekly planner after Christmas so that they know that unless the boxes are checked and I have corrected it, their weekend is not their own, lol.

[PeterPan]

Do you make that in a spreadsheet or is it a scheduleprogram?

I have an overal planning what to do in what week, but this would my dd love :)

 

It's just a table I made in the word processor program on my mac (Pages). You just make a table and start filling it in. Macs just happen to make things pretty. I've done checklists for years. I'm very inspired by Abbeyej's btw. Hers are always extra-organized. I'm just trying really hard this year to be very concrete about everything. She's this kind of child who woke up for years asking what we were doing that day, even though it was really the same answer every day (school). Now she looks at me with the checklist in front of her and STILL asks what she has to get done to be free to go do her Friday activity or whatever. I think it's a form of childhood lunacy or something. :lol:

 

Anyways, yes, make a table and just play around with it till you get it like you like it. On Sunday evening I tweak it for the coming week (changing the dates, page numbers, anything that didn't work) and print. For this coming week I think I might rearrange the items to reflect what we're doing together vs. what she does independently. You just play around with it.

 

The other thing that's different about it this year, that you may or may not catch, is that it's a 1/2 sheet of paper. In the past I've done full pages, and they lie loose, get lost, blah blah. I have an ipad and thought about doing a list on the ipad. However really this paper thing with the 1/2 pages is working out really well. You can buy these smaller binders to fit 1/2 sheets. If you like the Better Binders from Staples, well Better Binders come in these bitty binder sizes. So as long as you have a hole-punch, you can pop it right in. That way our list is not getting LOST. :D

 

So I know some people make lists way ahead, but it has never worked for us. This is just a week by week thing, trying to be very realistic about what we're really likely to get done. When she was younger, I put really basic things on there like brushing teeth, feeding animals, etc. too.

[thowell]

Here is one idea for giving some more structure to science, without eating up all of your time. You could adapt I easily to a different branch of science or a different schedule, and use the books you have on hand; none of what is described here depends strictly upon a specific set of books or number of weeks.

 

Your time input would focus on Monday discussion, Wednesday lab set up, and Friday listening to his presentation; the rest of the work would be his.

 

My take on Fostering Exploration in the Classical Model of Sciences.

 

That is my most recent blog post.

 

Can I just say I loved this blog post!!

[Grantmom]

Thanks so much for the responses! A planner is a great idea. Actually, last year in the spring, he took that upon himself and set up his whole schedule in a Google calendar. He had exact times, with 5 minute breaks in between, etc. But the problem was that the day didn't fit into those exact times. I really wanted to, but it wasn't that easy. For example, if I wasn't ready at exactly 9:30 to do math with him because I was in the middle of something with his brother, or if some household thing came up, etc, he would just go off and do something else. Or certain things would take longer some days and less time on other days. So although we both wanted it to be very black and white like that, it just didn't work out well. I like the idea of just checking things off a lot better. He does have an ipad, and I've been wondering about ways I could incorporate and use that more for educational purposes because right now it's not much more than a game/internet browser.

 

It seems more reasonable to just have a list of things that need to get done in a day, and check them off as you go, That's what I would do as an adult anyway, so that makes more sense.

 

I actually have plenty of time to spend with him, it's just that I feel like everything we have him doing involves us working together,but maybe that will change as we move along this new path. Thanks!

[PeterPan]

I used Errands this year to make all my lesson plans. It's an app on the ipad, and it's TERRIFIC. It's a to do app, and it would be great for him to use. Paperless is what I used last year, and it's also good. It's a simpler checklist app. If you search iTunes for checklist or To Do list apps, you'll get tons of options. He can probably find one to suit him. Errands allows you to input all the tasks for a category but not assign due dates. Then you can go back through and assign due date to make them appear in his To Do section. Handy! I just didn't do it with dd because the ipad is MINE. :D

[Grantmom]

Awesome, thank you!!! Great idea!

[Grantmom]

I mean, we got the ipad because it was going to be this great educational tool for him, and we just have not utilized it in that way.

[PeterPan]

Yeah, it's kind of mixed. We don't have wi-fi, so there's a whole category of things (looking up history stuff while we're reading, watching videos of science experiments, etc.) that we don't do that others could. Some things like using it as a graphic organizer or word processor really go better with the physical wireless keyboard, which we happen to have. And the rest, well it's all app-driven. The app store is sort of hard to navigate. It's not as convenient as say amazon. You spend hours filtering through junk and the font is so small (at least on my computer). But there are some worthwhile apps. The to do/checklist apps are worthwhile. There's a free graphing calculator app that would help us immensely if I could figure out how to use the crazy thing. There are apps that are particularly good if you're working on vision or speech problems. I've found the pdf editor programs useful for things (reading pdfs, marking on checklists I make, etc.) But you're right, it's accumulated small uses.

[Hedgehogs4]

I second (or third or fourth) the planner idea. I made my own grid sheet of all the subjects that we do, and I write down the assignments for each day. I also have a white board and together we go over what is on the sheet for that day and write it up on the board. He loves to see it crossed off when he gets it done. It is a very quick process to just go over the goals for the day each morning. I spend a little more time on Monday mornings to make sure he knows exactly what is expected for the week.

 

I work with my younger daughter first, as she needs my help in almost everything. Then after lunch he gets my full-on attention and we work through his math and L.A. He works on independent reading, logic, vocabulary, French and things like that in the a.m.

[Grantmom]

For a start with organization, how about a planner for your 7th grader?

 

I spend time every Sunday afternoon filling out DD's planner for the coming week. I also take this time to gather all the supplies and books she will need so everything is ready when she needs it. For each day, I write down the "assignment" in each subject - read this chapter, do this lesson, etc. After she finishes each task, she checks it off as done and gives it to me to correct. That's our "organization" :D - sort of a poor man's version of workboxes.....

 

We had some hiccups getting started - I had to specifically put down in the planner to READ the math lesson before starting as she would tend to skip that part. We use lit-based history and LA, so I had to get my act in gear and make sure she had the books she needed when she needed them. Only our math and science has tests/quizzes at this level, though I am sure that will change as we move up to high school.

 

 

 

Thanks all for these ideas and motivation. I'm still feeling a bit overwhelmed. Mostly because he says he wants to do things but then other things always seem to take up the time and get in the way. It's like, on one hand, I feel like he needs a set start and end time so that he knows, okay, I need to work on X and Y at this time. But on the other hand, a set time is just too restrictive, and if we miss the time, then he just doesn't ever go back to it. And we already tried the set time thing and it just did not work.

 

I'm just thinking out loud and processing all of this on how to best make this work for him. I still want him to feel he has flexibility in his time when he is working on a project that is inspiring him. I want him to be able to run with that. At the same time, he says he wants to get to a certain place in math for example, and it's just not going to happen unless we sit down and do it.

 

So, for example, with the planner ideas above, would I have a whole page per day planner and write down everything he needs to do each day? Where do you put the things you gather up for the week. I actually thought about doing the workbox idea because I felt like maybe that would be a visual reminder. Although some boxes would just be a note in the box, saying, "read science chpt on the ipad", for example.

 

We need better time management and motivational skills here, I think. This is such a quandary for me, because it has always been so important to me that he have the time and freedom to follow his interests and take all the side trails that come up along the way. But at the same time, now that he is older, I am realizing that we have to be able to make a plan AND carry it out to be able to reach his goals. I know that this kind of time management stuff does not come easily for me either, and I want him to develop those skills that I never did. I feel like in my years growing up, in school and in activities, all of my time was so scheduled out, being told what to do and when, always having a timeline for everything, I never had the opportunity to develop those skills on my own. And I want that for him. I want him to be able to have a goal, make a plan, and work towards that plan.

[Grantmom]

Also, I think part of the issue is that we have different schedules on different days. It's not just like we are home every day from a set time to a set time. I work part-time, and I do have some set times for that, but then I also have times that are not set, and some weeks are busier than others for me with my work. And then there are the kids' activities, of course, which they have some days and others not, and even different from season to season.

 

Gosh, it was so much easier when we all just stayed home all day and I nursed a baby and read to a 4 year old and waited for dad to get home from work and I felt it was a good day if I actually got dinner made by then. I used to think that was so hard! Now we are on the go and our lives are so much more complicated. It's all good stuff, but it does complicate things.

[PeterPan]

Here, I'll attach my dd's checklist for this week. She's the same age as your dc (13). Friends are coming over tomorrow, so she's working hard the rest of the week to get done. I'll tell you how *I* manage the rabbit trail thing, and you sort it out for yourself. I try to keep her CORE to 2 hours a day. That means that if she *sits down and works* she can literally get all her required things done in 2 hours flat. And since I plan on her working 6 hours a day (including rabbit trails, reading, etc.), that means she has 4 hours to do her own thing. Now if she has a bad day or mood and drags stuff out, I can't help that. Well I can, but it's hard. If I know she's mentally defeating herself, I'll point out that she can be done in 2 hours and figure out what we're going to do when she's done. That helps. Calling Daddy helps.

 

There's sort of this lunacy to her brain. Everything is on the checklist (as you see), but she still asks me what she's doing today. :lol: Since she spent the first 8 years asking me whether we were doing school, I figure that's moving up. :D That's to say you actually have to sit down with them and SHOW them how to use the list. Somehow it's not intuitive. This version (modeled on abbeyej's 5th gr checklist btw) is turning out to be pretty good for her. I make it every Sunday night. I think through our week, put everything in, make sure the loads are balanced, and consider it inviolable at that point. There's this tendency with them to want to PUSH, push, push, ugh. If something absolutely doesn't get done the week before, it rolls over. So you'll notice she has more writing (WWS) assignments than she should. She didn't get them done last week. It's my inviolable assignment list thing. It really has to be done. And she's sweatin' bullets because I told her the friends won't come over tomorrow if her work isn't done. There's a lot of catering we can do with our kids, but it's good to draw a few lines in the sand. The world will NOT bend around them, and letting them experience that gently and increasingly, with 1 or 2 things added each year to the unbending list, is a good thing.

 

No checklist, no work in our house. Life just falls apart. It's worth the 3 hours it takes me to make it. You're going to be doing something this coming week, so write it down. I change the list every single week. I don't make it 6 weeks ahead and I don't expect it to be the same every week. Your life is probably stable enough that you *at least* know what you're doing by Sunday of the coming week. So sit down, put that on paper, and give your lives some peace. If you can't figure it *all* out, then just start with a couple things. Work your way into using a scheduling, kwim? Make a simple schedule with 3 things listed for each day. Next week add another, and so on. Make your schedule so SIMPLE the first week that you know you can succeed. Success breeds success. Don't start with some complex monstrosity that you can't accomplish. When you accomplish that week's, make the next week's a little more detailed. Grow into it. You're trying to teach him how to use one, and teaching is ok to do as a process, gradually. :)

Edited October 4, 2012 by OhElizabeth

[NittanyJen]

Also, I think part of the issue is that we have different schedules on different days. It's not just like we are home every day from a set time to a set time. I work part-time, and I do have some set times for that, but then I also have times that are not set, and some weeks are busier than others for me with my work. And then there are the kids' activities, of course, which they have some days and others not, and even different from season to season.

 

Gosh, it was so much easier when we all just stayed home all day and I nursed a baby and read to a 4 year old and waited for dad to get home from work and I felt it was a good day if I actually got dinner made by then. I used to think that was so hard! Now we are on the go and our lives are so much more complicated. It's all good stuff, but it does complicate things.

 

That is why I think of our days as more of a checklist than as a schedule. Even with a planning app like Olly, I do not assign a time of day for each subject. We just get up, eat, and get at it.

 

I note on the list for a given day, "Be ready to leave for doc appointment by 10am. That means breakfast eaten, dressed, teeth brushed, wearing shoes, and books gathered and in the car by 10."

 

Anything else they want to do before 10 is fine by me, but then they know they MUST do those things.

[Grantmom]

Here, I'll attach my dd's checklist for this week. She's the same age as your dc (13). Friends are coming over tomorrow, so she's working hard the rest of the week to get done. I'll tell you how *I* manage the rabbit trail thing, and you sort it out for yourself. I try to keep her CORE to 2 hours a day. That means that if she *sits down and works* she can literally get all her required things done in 2 hours flat. And since I plan on her working 6 hours a day (including rabbit trails, reading, etc.), that means she has 4 hours to do her own thing. Now if she has a bad day or mood and drags stuff out, I can't help that. Well I can, but it's hard. If I know she's mentally defeating herself, I'll point out that she can be done in 2 hours and figure out what we're going to do when she's done. That helps. Calling Daddy helps.

 

There's sort of this lunacy to her brain. Everything is on the checklist (as you see), but she still asks me what she's doing today. :lol: Since she spent the first 8 years asking me whether we were doing school, I figure that's moving up. :D That's to say you actually have to sit down with them and SHOW them how to use the list. Somehow it's not intuitive. This version (modeled on abbeyej's 5th gr checklist btw) is turning out to be pretty good for her. I make it every Sunday night. I think through our week, put everything in, make sure the loads are balanced, and consider it inviolable at that point. There's this tendency with them to want to PUSH, push, push, ugh. If something absolutely doesn't get done the week before, it rolls over. So you'll notice she has more writing (WWS) assignments than she should. She didn't get them done last week. It's my inviolable assignment list thing. It really has to be done. And she's sweatin' bullets because I told her the friends won't come over tomorrow if her work isn't done. There's a lot of catering we can do with our kids, but it's good to draw a few lines in the sand. The world will NOT bend around them, and letting them experience that gently and increasingly, with 1 or 2 things added each year to the unbending list, is a good thing.

 

No checklist, no work in our house. Life just falls apart. It's worth the 3 hours it takes me to make it. You're going to be doing something this coming week, so write it down. I change the list every single week. I don't make it 6 weeks ahead and I don't expect it to be the same every week. Your life is probably stable enough that you *at least* know what you're doing by Sunday of the coming week. So sit down, put that on paper, and give your lives some peace. If you can't figure it *all* out, then just start with a couple things. Work your way into using a scheduling, kwim? Make a simple schedule with 3 things listed for each day. Next week add another, and so on. Make your schedule so SIMPLE the first week that you know you can succeed. Success breeds success. Don't start with some complex monstrosity that you can't accomplish. When you accomplish that week's, make the next week's a little more detailed. Grow into it. You're trying to teach him how to use one, and teaching is ok to do as a process, gradually. :)

 

 

 

 

That is why I think of our days as more of a checklist than as a schedule. Even with a planning app like Olly, I do not assign a time of day for each subject. We just get up, eat, and get at it.

 

I note on the list for a given day, "Be ready to leave for doc appointment by 10am. That means breakfast eaten, dressed, teeth brushed, wearing shoes, and books gathered and in the car by 10."

 

Anything else they want to do before 10 is fine by me, but then they know they MUST do those things.

 

 

Thank you both for those replies, that is super helpful for me. OhElizabeth, is that attachment a print out of what the errands app is? Do you just enter it into that and then print it out? I love that. It's kind of small to read, but in the bottom half of the page, do you have the assignments for each subject, with a box next to them, and then she just checks them off as she does them through the week?

 

And then at the top of the page, is it like each subject that she works on for each day, and then she checks those off too? But is that the part where she might not get to everything in a day, but at least she sees what she has to get done for the week and can double up some days if needed?

 

Do you have scheduled things on there too, like a dr's appt, for example?

 

NittanyJen, do you use Olly then? And do you mean that you actually write out they need to do all of those things? Because I feel like sometimes we have a hard time getting out the door.

[angela in ohio]

At about that age, I put mine on a college-like schedule. We meet for each subject 1-3 times a week, depending on teh subject, and I give independent reading and assignments to be completed before the next meeting. During our time together, we do discussions, I teach material, and we go over graded assignments and upcoming work.

 

We also have vary different days, and this works well. The bonus is that they quickly (with help) learned time management, but I am still checking up frequently because of the scheduled times.

 

This works out for us as a good in between - not just handing them a list to do on their own, but not managing every bit of their work. :001_smile: And when dd went into a DE class at the CC this year, she was used to the format and is thriving.

[PeterPan]

Thank you both for those replies, that is super helpful for me. OhElizabeth, is that attachment a print out of what the errands app is? Do you just enter it into that and then print it out? I love that. It's kind of small to read, but in the bottom half of the page, do you have the assignments for each subject, with a box next to them, and then she just checks them off as she does them through the week?

 

And then at the top of the page, is it like each subject that she works on for each day, and then she checks those off too? But is that the part where she might not get to everything in a day, but at least she sees what she has to get done for the week and can double up some days if needed?

 

Do you have scheduled things on there too, like a dr's appt, for example?

 

NittanyJen, do you use Olly then? And do you mean that you actually write out they need to do all of those things? Because I feel like sometimes we have a hard time getting out the door.

 

I'm sorry it's so small. It's a screen shot. The pdf of the file was too large to attach, so I opened it, took a screen shot of it, and attached that. Yes, I have columns for each day with the things for the day there. Yes, I would tweak those each week and put in doctor, pull out something, rearrange. When kids need structure, that's what it takes. Not every kid needs that, but some do. You're making it idiot proof and totally, totally clear EXACTLY what you expect.

 

So yes, below there I have the breakouts for the pages and whatnot for the subjects where it's not obvious. Vocab was just pages 1-5 for the week, so that I could mark with a 1-5 for each day in the day columns. But something like writing has pages and colors to let them double know they're on the right section. So that is easier to do in the breakout below, which is also what abbeyej did in the schedule she posted. It's easier for *you* to type that way. It's really a pain to go in and type those in each day. Much faster this way, so you can type the whole thing at once.

 

Yes, actually she fills in the squares/check boxes as she completes stuff. It makes it so nice for me to be able to tell we're accomplishing our goals. I don't even think it matters what the goal IS. Make it looser, make it do-able. The point is you had a plan and worked it and they learn how to work within that structure. You can build up to more complexity later.

 

ok, ymmv, but I try to make the day's work reasonable enough (and to have enough pre-thought built in from that Sunday night reality check with my calendar) that she CAN get everything done each day. If it's not getting done, your list was unrealistic or she needs to have a reality check about what it means to get stuff done. In our house that means after dinner you head back to it. I'm trying to be pretty firm. She's 13, not 5. Life is filled with firm boundaries, and I do her no service if I don't accustom her to them. BUT, BUT, BUT it's MY job to make sure the expectations are realistic. And btw, we started off a year or two earlier with simpler firm boundaries (one thing, due by Saturday morning, blah blah).

 

I've found it very, very hard to leave behind my DREAMS about homeschooling and be very CONCRETE. When I pin it down on paper like this, it feels like I'm closing so many doors. It held me back for a long time, because I wanted us to have this freedom to rabbit trail, blah blah. It was MY problem and it wasn't acknowleding HER problem. Her problem is needing structure. My problem is being too ethereal. There's no peace that way. We have peace now. I put together an utterly concrete, utterly do-able plan that (hopefully) makes place for life. We have peace doing this. It's what people meant when they told me structure, and I couldn't figure it out. If you've been told your kid needs structure, it means idiot-proof, clear expectations.

 

I'll say this again. Her core is 2 hours. She has TONS of time to do her own thing if she sits down and works. The clear structure makes that possible.

[NittanyJen]

Do you have scheduled things on there too, like a dr's appt, for example?

 

NittanyJen, do you use Olly then? And do you mean that you actually write out they need to do all of those things? Because I feel like sometimes we have a hard time getting out the door.

 

Object lesson today: normally, yes, I actually do write all that out!

 

We are on vacation this week: no list.

 

I was getting out of bed this morning, and before jumping into the shower, I asked my husband to remind the kids to do everything to get ready so we could leave on time for a doc appointment. The rest of our morning did not go smoothly.

 

Me: DS2, please go put on your shoes right now.

DS2: OK Mommy!

DS1: Mom, we're going to go sit in the car and read until you are ready!

Me: Great! Thanks for getting ready, guys!

(I notice DS2's meds are still in his pill minder. Grab cup of water, pills, go to car, drug child)

Me: Almost ready guys, I will be right back!

(Collect schoolwork, chai, purse, keys, as we just barely have time to go from doc to lunch out grab and go to science museum class)

(Halfway to doc office)

Me, to DS2: You aren't wearing any shoes, are you?

DS2: Oops! Oh and Mom, the cup of water was still on the seat. It spilled, so now it's all over my pants.

 

*sigh*

 

The day actually went DOWN hill from there.... Let's just say we all function much better with lists.

 

(Yes, I use Olly; it is Mac based. They are coming out with an iPad/iPod version, but according to the message boards, they postponed the September release in order to work on a few bug fixes for the main Mac program first. They are very responsive to customer feedback, I find).

[Grantmom]

Okay, so I downloaded the Errands app to the ipad, but I'm not sure how to enter stuff in. It doesn't look like the screen shot you gave, OhElizabeth. I'm trying to figure out how to add stuff in so that we have both weekly goals (i.e. complete 10 math lessons) AND daily checklists (i.e. Monday: 2 math lessons, etc).

 

Can you tell me how to do that? I created a new folder and called it School. Then I can add a task and give it a due date. So for the above example, I added "Math" and under details I wrote "complete 10 math lessons" and gave it a due date of Friday, Oct 12. So now it shows up as being due on Friday. I'm trying to figure out the whole daily vs weekly thing.

 

Help? Thanks all!

[PeterPan]

Oh sorry, I never answered that part of your question! Indeed, I'm using Errands on the ipad, but I'm not using it to make that checklist. I have all my lesson plans for the subjects typed into Errands (so I know how many lessons are left in TT, how many in the BJU grammar, etc. etc.), but then I've been typing the weekly checklists using Pages, which is the apple version of microsoft word. You just make a table. I have Pages for the ipad, but I've never tried making a table in it. I'm not even sure you can. It's pretty streamlined. I fiddled with Numbers (the spreadsheet program), but that was more hassle than I needed for this.

 

Yes, you can, if you want, assign due dates to the lessons you input into Errands and have them all pop up in the daily and upcoming sections of it. I'm not sure really WHY I decided against that. I think it's because in the past I've had problems where if a thing is in a column or section and DOESN'T get done, then you don't realize it when you move on to the next day's list. The table I'm making is more complicated, but it totally prevents that.

 

So yes, my weekly planning time is a little nuts. I did it last night. I sit down with my ipad and her books and I put checks beside the lessons in Errands that got done. Then I look at the lessons left and weeks left, just to make sure we're on track. Then I write down on a post-it note the pages for each subject and haul all those little scraps up to my main computer where I use Pages. Then I tweak the table in Pages, get it like I want, and print.

 

I'm going to try to email you and give you the file. If you have mac, I can send you the Pages file. I *don't know* if you can open a table in Pages on the ipad, never actually tried. If that doesn't work, I can send you the pdf. That way you can at least see it clearly.

 

You certainly don't have to do it the way I am. It's just really trial and error. I'm not even certain why I'm *not* using the checklist feature of the app. We've done it in the past with a different one and it was fine. I just liked the cute little bitty binder size (1/2 page) binders we got this year at Staples, and it seemed a cute way to use them. I make the planner on a half sheet of paper, punch, pop in, and then the rubberized feet on the binder actually make it stand up. So the checklist is ALWAYS THERE, even if I take my ipad to go do something else. It's more *my* ipad than anything. However there would be several ways around that. I may get my dd the ipad mini if it comes out this month. (There are rumors!) Or if you really like the table but don't want paper, import it as a pdf and use a pdf editor to write on it. You should just play around with options till you find one that suits your family best. :)

[PeterPan]

Couple more things. In Errands, I give every subject a separate folder. So BJU grammar has a folder, Killgallon has a folder, Physical Science has a folder, etc. etc. Then in each one I literally sit there and type out every single lesson. Yes, it would be faster with an app that was *meant* for this. I've thought about writing to the developer and suggesting he tweak it and put out a version just for homeschoolers. It doesn't do a couple really helpful things like auto-generating a sequence where all that changes is the lesson # (1-160, whatever). There's some software on regular computers that does that (HST, Olly). If you do wifi, I think HST has an online version. I'm not sure where Olly is at in their process. I thought they were developing an app, but I haven't heard much about it since. I needed to get started, and this was the closest thing I could find.

 

Anyways, I don't necessarily put *as much detail* into the ipad as I would have preferred, because I am sitting there pecking it out on that stupid glass. In fact my shorthand is sort of indecipherable to her, hehe, which might be part of why I'm doing it on the paper, because I have the chance to correct that on the paper version. So *I* use the Errands app but *she* uses the more explicit version on paper.

 

Now about this thing of "complete 10 lessons by Friday". I'll just say straight up that that's a lot to jump into if he has never had that kind of responsibility. What *I* would try to do is parcel the tasks up in the bottom section of the checklist like I'm sending you. You'll see I have checkboxes, and there are typically 5, one for each day of the week for that subject. So it might have a box and say lessons 1,2, box and say lessons 3,4, box and say lessons 5,6, and so on. Then you have 5 boxes, each with the broken up tasks beside them so it's totally obvious *to him* how to break it up. Make it idiot proof. If *he* wants to work ahead, cool beans. If he gets behind, it's glaringly obvious.

 

In other words, don't ask him to make big leaps. Make it idiot-proof, totally clear EXACTLY WHAT YOU EXPECT every single day. It's a really hard process to go through, because sometimes you start putting all that down and realize you had this insane amount on Monday, off Tuesday for co-op, medium list for Wednesday but not stuff that you ever got done, blah blah. Putting each thing down with the little box beside it makes you say yeah, do this this day and I certify that it's a reasonable request. :)

[thundersweet]

I bought 2of these. http://www.facebook.com/MyStudentLogbook?ref=ts&fref=ts

 

I like them because I can create a checklist for each child and use it over and over until I need to change something. It's really a neat idea. It requires a few minutes to set up the "checklist flap." Every week, the kids can just turn the page, place the checklist flap over the new page, and there new schedule is created. I don't have to sit down every week and create a new one....unless something needs to be changed. The kids just check off the day of the week as they complete and move down the list. No more excuses that they didnt know what to do next. She has a YouTube video somewhere showing what I am trying to tell you.

 

Sandy

[woolybear]

OhElizabeth, what is the difference between the two attachments you posted? Are they just different versions of the same thing? I wish I could see them a bit better.:) And do I really see "argue" at the bottom there? :lol: Oh my, ds would be all over that. "I'm still working on my assignment," he'd tell me as he argues for the umteenth time that day.

[PeterPan]

OhElizabeth, what is the difference between the two attachments you posted? Are they just different versions of the same thing? I wish I could see them a bit better.:) And do I really see "argue" at the bottom there? :lol: Oh my, ds would be all over that. "I'm still working on my assignment," he'd tell me as he argues for the umteenth time that day.

 

I tweak it every week. We started one way this year, used that for a number of weeks, and realized we could improve it by laying it out a different way. The way I had it, *I* could see what needed to be done, but she was struggling. Had to tweak it and make it more idiotproof. Their brains fall out around 12-13 btw. She spent quite a bit of time today insisting that subtraction of positive integers is a closed set because 9 is odd. I kid you not. Like this age is CRAZY. She'd look right at the checklist and say "Yeah, but what am I supposed to DO?" So I tweak till she can get it. If I were more socially perceptive, I suppose I'd figure out all that right at the beginning of the year and guess that ahead. I don't, oh well.

 

I've done our checklists a different way every year, just depending on what she seemed to need and what fit what we were doing. When she was younger (7-?), there was a stage where I made daily checklists. Just play with it till you find the layout and amount of guidance that works for you. I think I did those daily lists at that point because she needed a large font (this was pre-VT) and because she was overwhelmed by seeing everything for the week on one list. You really just have to work with the psychology of the kid.

 

And yes, it says argue. It's short for Art of Argument. I was just being witty. :lol: