HOW do you organize your homeschool?

[Mandylubug]

I am a do the next thing kind of planner. I don't have a detailed planned schedule out so there is no "accountability" to stay on schedule and I have been slacking lately. Slacking when three of my four kids are behind in their academics just isn't responsible of me...

 

So, I am looking for tips and techniques for organization,planning and accountability. I have used a planning book before but I felt it pointless because I always ended up doing otherwise, or two lessons instead of one, etc..

 

Maybe I need more of a weekly "schedule map" instead of a planner.. hmmm.

[airforcefamily]

I have lists of every lesson or page (depending on the book) that we need to do all year for each child. I use those lists to create weekly lists of what needs to be done. I can't do day by day planning because things never work out that way. As I make the weekly list I highlight items on the big lists. As things are done during the week they are highlighted on the weekly list. By the end of the week all the items need to be highlighted. By the end of the year all the items on the big lists need to be highlighted.

 

Having the big lists also helps me pace work over the course of the year. If I see that halfway through the year that only 1/3 of the items have been highlighted I know to speed up. If two months in half the list is highlighted I know to slow down and/or look for something else to continue that subject.

 

My kids like seeing what they need to do during the week. They learned quickly that by getting work done early in the week they can have time for other things. If they drag their heels there is no time for extra activities, project, or field trips.

[airforcefamily]

Oh, I just use regular notebook paper in a binder for these lists - no special planner books.

[regentrude]

I don't have a schedule or a planner. I select curricula over the summer and know what materials to use throughout the school year. Each child has to do a certain number of school hours each day. They pick what they want to work on and resume the next time where they left off. Math is mandatory daily. I redirect if a subject gets neglected long term.

We work our stipulated time each day and are done with the curriculum when we are done. No planning, no schedule.

[Mandylubug]

ok, so you have each lesson listed.... so if you do two or three lessons in one day, you would just highlight those lessons?

 

What about texts and reading that isn't broken into lessons but just how far you read for that particular day and then discuss?

[hsingscrapper]

For texts where it isn't broken down, I start with the number of chapters and mentally dividede that across roughly 40 weeks as we go year-round. Then I break those sections into even bits across the number of days we are doing that subject.

 

For example: we are using The Patriot's Guide to American History. It is roughly 20 chapters. We will be breaking it up into logical bites that spread each chapter across two weeks.

 

Hope that helps!

[coffeegal]

I have a page for each subject with tables on it. A column for the week 1-36 and a column for each child. I calculated when Christmas vacation will occur (week 16 for us) and how many lessons needed to be done each week to stay on schedule. Then I listed what lessons would be done which week in the columns. I must admit I did a bit of adjustment to ensure that a test would occur week 16 so we wouldn't have a 2 week break in the middle of a chapter. The pages are now printed off and in my binder. I just check off the lessons as they're finished and can tell at a glance if a child is running behind. :001_smile:

 

For regular books, I'd just list how many pages needed to be read each week and check them off as we went. You could make notes of when you want discussions to occur. Read pages 4-20: Discussion p. 9, discussion p. 15, discussion p. 20. I have older kids that I'm schooling, so we meet once or twice a week to discuss a subject. Literature discussion on Friday... be ready!!! :D

[Cassy]

I like the flexibility of just doing the next thing. However, I do spend a lot of the summer working out what I want us to cover over the coming year. For History and Science I then divide the lessons up over the 39 weeks we do school, usually leaving a couple of weeks clear for catching up after life has got in the way.

 

We mostly use RightStart for math and I plan on completing four lessons a week, usually Mon-Thurs, although we will do math on Friday if we haven't covered everything Mon-Thurs. Likewise for WWE. For reading, French, Art we just go with flow. My only absolute, inflexible rule is that we MUST cover reading, writing and math every day (apart from Fri, obviously). Even if it means that we're still doing school at 6 pm in the evening, we will cover the basics.

 

My older two are at school, if I were homeschooling them I think the 'basics' would be a lot more involved and we'd have to be a lot more disciplined.

[Alte Veste Academy]

Different things have suited me at different stages. This year, what is working well for me is my "Daily Work Record" template similar to Heart of Dakota's daily lesson plans, a two page spread with boxes for each subject, in the order in which we typically do them. (For the life of me, I can't figure out how to make my file small enough to upload here.)

 

Page 1 has one box each for:

 

 

• Morning Meeting (with four check-off boxes for our daily chore check)
  
• Spanish
  
• Math
  
• FLoop (loop of fun extras that we would never get to if not on the schedule)
  
• Language/Writing Workshop
  
• History/Geography
  
• Science/Nature.
  

 

Page 2 has one box each for:

 

 

• Art
  
• Lunch & Lit
  
• each kids' individual list of work for math, language, logic, Rosetta Stone, instrument practice, and miscellaneous
  
• Poetry and Memory Work.
  

 

At the beginning of each week, I date the sheets and plug lesson plans into the template for Monday through Friday. This has worked well for me this year, but I think the addition of airfocefamily's and coffeegal's year-long lists will make it an easier process. Starting next year when DS9 is in 5th, I plan to give him his own individual checklist in a similar format for all of his work.

 

I have lists of every lesson or page (depending on the book) that we need to do all year for each child. I use those lists to create weekly lists of what needs to be done. I can't do day by day planning because things never work out that way. As I make the weekly list I highlight items on the big lists. As things are done during the week they are highlighted on the weekly list. By the end of the week all the items need to be highlighted. By the end of the year all the items on the big lists need to be highlighted.

 

Having the big lists also helps me pace work over the course of the year. If I see that halfway through the year that only 1/3 of the items have been highlighted I know to speed up. If two months in half the list is highlighted I know to slow down and/or look for something else to continue that subject.

 

My kids like seeing what they need to do during the week. They learned quickly that by getting work done early in the week they can have time for other things. If they drag their heels there is no time for extra activities, project, or field trips.

 

I love this! I do a one-page line-up like this for WWE, using the instructor text. I don't know why it never occurred to me to do it for every subject. This is genius!

 

I have a page for each subject with tables on it. A column for the week 1-36 and a column for each child. I calculated when Christmas vacation will occur (week 16 for us) and how many lessons needed to be done each week to stay on schedule. Then I listed what lessons would be done which week in the columns. I must admit I did a bit of adjustment to ensure that a test would occur week 16 so we wouldn't have a 2 week break in the middle of a chapter. The pages are now printed off and in my binder. I just check off the lessons as they're finished and can tell at a glance if a child is running behind. :001_smile:

 

For regular books, I'd just list how many pages needed to be read each week and check them off as we went. You could make notes of when you want discussions to occur. Read pages 4-20: Discussion p. 9, discussion p. 15, discussion p. 20. I have older kids that I'm schooling, so we meet once or twice a week to discuss a subject. Literature discussion on Friday... be ready!!! :D

 

Love this too. Combining the two ideas above... I am going to have a busy day today. :D

 

Maybe it's easier with only one child. I planned more when he was little, then realized it wasn't necessary. Later on, I would peruse the texts, mentally divide it into sections for the year, then write it down on the inside cover of a notebook. I think it also depends on if your state requires keeping a record.

 

Yes, it has become progressively more tricky with each kid I have added. It is a balance and planning has become more necessary for me every year. I have to take into account each kids' individual level for skill subjects and ensure that there are appropriate selections for each child for the group/content subjects. When you factor in multiple curricula and the fact that I supplement the supplements :tongue_smilie: and incorporate lots of projects... It can be quite the juggling act. If I had an only child, I doubt I would plan much at all, just keep a stack of books next to a comfy chair.

[GSOchristie]

Because we are doing cc, I use Half a Hundred Acre Wood's planning sheet. One of the things that I love about cc is that I know I have one week to get that memory work memorized, so maybe take your curriculum and divide it into weeks, thinking these are specifically the objectives I need to get done for the week. I only look ahead three weeks to see what I need to check out from the library, if I do more planning than that, I am overwhelmed. I'm probably going to be overwhelmed no matter what when I add my other kids in :glare:.

[Allearia]

This year I have been faithfully using HST online. It is not perfect but is really keeping me on track. When we do two lessons I can mark them for the day we did it and put in the next lesson. If we don't get to it I reschedule and it stays on the list. If there is something I have rescheduled a bunch of times and we just aren't getting to it I reevaluate if we want to do it, possibly leaving it in the lesson plan but deleting it from our assignments. This would generally be an extra type science or project activity. I print out a report of what we finished each week and the kids like to see how hard they worked. It is a bit frustrating if we do a partial lesson as it is a pain to edit it and copy the remaining section to a new assignment but it really makes me aware how much we are getting done, how much we can do in one day, and that we are progressing steadily in the most important subjects.

[NASDAQ]

I only have two kids going right now.

 

I use Google Calender to keep track of longer term goals -- I want to finish this reader by that time, that sort of thing.

 

I have an Excel spreadsheet for day-to-day stuff. I have a column for each major component and I fill in the square for the given day whenever we do it, with what we did. That way I can tell at a glance what isn't getting done.

[ondreeuh]

I planned a lot up-front - for content subjects where I am pulling together resources, I created my own guides using Microsoft One Note. Subjects are divided into weeks, but not assigned to days. For example, in science week 1, do these things (watch certain video, read these pages in the encyclopedia, do this lab). Some of our subjects are just do-the-next-thing (grammar, math, phonics) so I know in my head what we are doing each day.

 

I record what we actually do in a lesson plan book that I keep on the table while we do our lessons. Most of the time, the do-the-next-thing subjects just get entered into the daily boxes as planned, but sometimes something comes up and we skip a day, or we combine two lessons. The content subjects are all over the map - since there isn't a prescribed day for each activities, and sometimes I add/delete things from my plans, each week looks very different.

 

I don't have to keep a record of hours or anything like that, but I really enjoy having a record of what we do. It's kind of rewarding to fill those boxes and it helps me feel productive. I do have to contact a teacher through our homeschool program each month, and I can just easily brief her on what we've been up to.

 

I use one box at the bottom for my preschooler. I only track phonics, since the other things we do are very casual (crafts, games, sticker books, etc.).

[happypamama]

For each subject, I break it down into lessons, which are about a day's work. Then I put each lesson into a spreadsheet, and weekly, I go through and cut and paste the lessons I want to do that week into a different sheet for each day, and I print out the sheets. As we do each lesson, I check it off on the daily sheet, and cross off anything we don't do; that's my record if the school district ever asks for it. (I also put notes like "co-op day" or "went to the library" or "listened to X in the car" or "went hiking in woods" on the daily sheets.) Then if I need to make adjustments, I just write them on the daily sheet. At the start of the next week, I adjust -- maybe we didn't quite get to lesson 32 of math the previous week, so I'll move it to the next week's sheet.

[nandmsmom]

We go on a loop schedule of sorts. I have a large planning book that I put both kids in. On the left, I have the week number, so that I know how many weeks we've completed. Then my kid's initials on each of the days. DS on top, DD on bottom. I list whatever books they are reading for school under their names in the Monday spot.

 

Along the top, each cell is labeled with the subject and under each subject the cell is broken down with DS on top and DD on bottom.

 

Things like history and science are done every other day. It's not a MWF or T TH thing, because we don't always do a full week. This way they both get done.

 

In the front of the book I have a list of all the curriculum for each child used throughout the year. I also have a list of all books they have read during the year.

[Plucky]

I hsed 4 at one time, now I am back to only hsing 2. I make a weekly lesson plan/chart & include chores on it. It is an at-a-glance type of document. I need simple so we can stay on track. We don't always get everything done and so I will move things to the next week, but more than not we can get caught up on Friday which I make a lighter day for just that purpose. It helps because the kids can see what they are expected to do that day and know what to expect as well.