why use student planners?

[athomeontheprairie]

please help me think through this! I've read enough posts on here to see the value in giving a student planner and teaching them to be responsible for their own work. coming from a public school background, I saw how they were implemented in classrooms. but I can't seem to wrap my head around how it would work in a school setting.

in the past I've made a spreadsheet (SL style) that list the weeks assignments for each subject. didn't my list and my daughters. I know what needs to be taught, and she knows what she needs to learn and complete. in our current life a student planner has no place.

when did you start implementation of a student planner, and HOW? and maybe why. what were your reasons? and then do you keep the teacher planner completely separate? do you then check both schedules?

Tia

[Desert Strawberry]

I just spoke with my 11 and 8 yos.

 

We don't use student planners. Just a notebook, similar to what you describe. They agreed that student planners at this point are unnecessary for us. We do mostly group work. They only do math and reading on their own and they can remember that just fine.

 

When they are older and doing more independent work, we will revisit student planners. For high school level, when they have to do their own research and organize lengthier projects, they will need their own space to do so. 

 

I do think that if one were using a more preplanned curriculum, with a daily schedule and daily assignments, and multiple pieces, a student planner might be more necessary. We have never done that.

 

 

[Tidbits of Learning]

when did you start implementation of a student planner, and HOW? and maybe why. what were your reasons?

We started using planners pretty much the same year we came home.  I have 4 kiddos and it helped my older kids who were 4th and 3rd at the time to be independent.  It also helped me to know when they were truly done for the day and to make sure we kept moving forward with their lessons through the year.  It also gave me a record at the end of the year of what they had done daily (just in case) instead of keeping each and every assignment.

 

and then do you keep the teacher planner completely separate? do you then check both schedules?

 

Now, I have 2 middle schoolers and 1 high schooler and 1 elementary kiddo.  I do not use a planner with my 2nd grader.  My middle school kids will have planners that they will fill in themselves from my planner at the beginning of the week when we go over the week's expectations. I help with certain subjects daily with my newest middle schooler.  He will be shifting towards a more independent mindset and getting more and more prepared for high school responsibilities.  My 2 older girls (1 high school/1 last year of middle school) are all independent.  We will do a quick check-in daily but unless Algebra or German are giving them heck then I am not actively teaching them with the curriculum choices we have made.  Again the agenda book is a quick and easy way for me to assess that they have completed their assignments and they can then go do whatever they want.  At the end of the week, we make sure that all the goals and expectations have been met from the beginning of the week.

 

 

 

 

[mysticmomma]

A lot of my 4th graders work is independent. I have started giving her a checklist at the beginning of each week. All work is due Friday. She likes being able to sit down and do a whole week of science (Evan Moore Daily) at one time. The only thing I really do with her is math, because she tends to rush through and give up instead of ask for help. As a family we are doing Adventures in America, so that is on her planner, but she's not responsible if it doesn't get done. The only thing she can't do ahead is reading. She has to read for at least 20 mins a day. Reading for an hour 1 day doesn't allow her to check off 3 days.

[SilverMoon]

My elementary DC don't have a need for one. I keep all of their plans in one lesson plan book, rarely planned more than a week in advance. (Individual subject plans were made over the summer, so they just need compiled into the main planner.) They and I share the planbook, and it generally stays open on the table. When they finish an assignment they'll draw a line through it on the schedule.

 

My high schoolers have much more to keep track of, and it's not as simple as "just do what's next" anymore. They each have their own lesson plan book rather than student planners. They know how to map out a week at a time, and we have discussions about how each subject is going all the time. I check them throughout the day, make notes in them if the teen isn't handy, change assignments as needed, and such. The kids record lessons, assignments, where their lecture ended, and such.

[Clear Creek]

My teacher planner is Homeschool Tracker on my computer. I don't input lesson numbers until they are completed; it just has the subjects that we normally do each day. I also don't put things like literature or piano practice into HST, just textbook work. My older two fill out their planner each week with lesson/page numbers, so they have a specific plan for each day. It also helps them see where outside plans (fieldtrips, etc.) might affect their school work and adjust accordingly. It is also helpful when they have an assignment with multiple steps that needs to be completed over several days; they can write down which step they are doing each day. Their planners are far more in-depth than what I put into HST.

[Mandy in TN]

For many little peanuts who work elbow to elbow with mom, a student planner is totally unnecessary. ;)

 

When I had older children who worked independently in their rooms away from me, they needed varying levels of support to keep us moving forward. Sometimes a daily checklist for accountability was good. Usually, I created a weekly spreadsheet. I didn't create a two separate spreadsheets. The child and I used the same one.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[coffeegal]

My older 4 children each have their own planner. I really don't need a planner for myself, which maybe why I keep running into problems trying to find one that works for me. ;)

 

The year is planned out by the week. On Friday, I hand out the week's paper, post assignments in the kitchen, and help my 11yo plan his week. The older children plan their own, although I'll often take a look to ensure nothing has been 'forgotten'.

 

When I sit down with a child, I simply refer to their planner. Assignments are due and discussions are done on Friday. Fridays tend to be a bit crazy. :001_smile:

 

The system works very well for older children. My youngest 2 do not, and will not, have a planner for several years. :D

[Murphy101]

If you don't need it, don't use it. *shrug*

 

The point of a planner is to:

 

A. Make sure the student knows what assignments are expected of them

B. When those assignments are expected to be done

C. Help them learn how to plan out their workload

 

And possibly for the parent teacher:

D. Be a quick reference to know where the student should be in their progress

E. To keep track of grades

 

If you don't need that or don't need it yet, then don't bother with it.

 

And there's all kinds of planners. Some are just a checklist, some are more like lesson plans and syllabi.

[brehon]

Are your kids' ages in your sig accurate? Assuming they are (or are close) then you may very well decide that you don't need a student planner. However, we've found that teaching the student to be increasingly responsible for his schedule teaches him to know what he ends to finish and, for larger projects, papers, etc, teaches him *how* to break up a large assignment into smaller chunks so it is done well, not crammed, and turned in on time.

 

My older kids also mark their outside engagements in the planner: karate, CAP, swimming, friends' b-day parties, etc. This is part of teaching them to manage their schedules, a skill which will serve them well in high school and especially university and beyond. After all, momma won't be there to do this for them when they're adults. And managing a schedule with deadlines, meetings, due dates, etc is a learned skill; one that isn't simply picked up at 18 or whenever.

 

All our school age kids get a copy of their weekly work starting when they begin "formal" work. We start teaching them to use student planners around 4th grade or so. We still have a main family calendar hung in the kitchen.

[ForeverFamily]

I am going to attempt to have my Dd8 start using a planner for 3rd next year.   My reasoning for trying this is I think she will benefit from having a list that she can visually see how much work she needs to get done and be able to cross it off when she is done.  I plan to sit down with her and have her "help" me plan her week, but at this point that will mostly be me telling her what she needs to complete each day and having her (or me) write it in.  Over the years I hope to transition more of the week planning to her.  As others have mentioned I want to give her the opportunity of learning time managment and planning.  I am hoping she will have this skill mostly down before starting highschool. 

 

In the summer I make a long year schedule for each of the content subjects.  For the Skill subjects I just make a checklist, as these subjects are more likely to go at an unpredictable pace.  Then weekly I write out our actual plan in my planner (may differ greatly from my original yearly plan).  I plan to continue doing this but just with one student planner added to the mix.  This may not work, but I think with my Dd8's personality it will make life easier for both of us if she has a checklist.

[Reefgazer]

We use planners like this:  For most subjects, DD and I sit down and review the lesson and then she writes her independent work (this would be called "homework" in regular school) in the planner, with its due date.  She can do it at any time, as long as it's done by the date we set for it.  For some subjects that we only do once a week, this means she has a week to learn to manage her time for that class.

[kirstenhill]

I use a student planner book more like a daily checklist for DD.  We started this in 3rd grade, after spending the last couple months of 2nd grade writing a daily checklist on scraps of paper. 

 

DD really likes independent work, and likes to know exactly what is happening each day for our "together work".   I open the planner each morning and write down both independent items (for example: Week 5, day 3 of handwriting, Read 20 minutes from history book basket, Practice 15 minutes on Spelling City for this week's word list) and together items:  New math lesson, read science book, read a chapter of Fred. 

 

She checks each item off as she does them, and I am able to see at a glance how she is making progress on the day's work.   We can also look back and see what  we've accomplished for the week or what we did the week before when the new week begins.

[Vida Winter]

I use Scholaric for lesson plans and print a daily checklist for each student. They have planners but use them as a calendar and to-do list. They need to have a way to keep track of important dates, exams, deadlines, club meetings, appointments, holidays, etc. but they probably won't re-copy assignments since they have their checklists.

[hollyhock]

I'm going to be giving my two oldest boys planners starting this fall. My biggest reason is kind of lame: with four students and lots of subjects to get through, I just don't have room in my own planner to write everything anymore! So, along with encouraging some independence and keeping track of their own stuff, I can write all their assignments in their own planner, and that frees up mine for my younger two and our group subjects. :)

[DesertBlossom]

I used a $5 student planner that I bought on Amazon for my 2nd grade DS this last year.  It worked out well because we would write down all the things he needed to get done each day and then he could check them off. It was good for him to be able to see how much work was left. 

 

This coming year I plan on doing the same thing with DD and DS. I am going to make my own planner pages for them and including reading logs and some other things I want. 

[kwg]

Subbing to read -

[Momof3littles]

We're going to introduce it in fifth grade, with a gradual increase in how much it is used over the next few years.  By say 7th/8th, I'd like to have him work on laying out a plan for one or two larger projects per semester.  By high school, there will be more and more of that.  So middle years for us will be dipping our toes into the student planner, with an expectation it will be used more and more each year.

[EKS]

It is important that kids get experience planning their own work *before* they find themselves in a b&m classroom.  Ask me how I know...

 

It is so easy to plan everything as a homeschooling parent.  You have to intentionally *not* plan in order to allow your student to learn how to plan for him/herself.

[fourisenough]

We use ours primarily to record work as it is completed. In this way, it serves as a great record of what we've accomplished.

 

Most of our curriculum is "do the next thing" and lends itself to a no planning style. The only other planning we do is a rough weekly checklist (in my head, for the most part).

[kwg]

For those that use planners- any recs on which ones?  I like the idea of ds keeping track of which days to go to sports, bday parties etc and also knowing what is due when.  

[mommaklee]

I just ran across a new student agenda by Franklin Covey that teaches children the 7 Habits of highly effective people, but on a kid level.  It has the obvious places to record daily assignments, however it has a completely unique structure that encourages discussion between parent, teacher, and child about all of life, not just homework or such and such assignment.  It helps kids learn to set goals, have positive relationships, and has a weekly evaluation.  Now of course many of us do these things naturally in day to day life.  The planner makes it visual and gives an ongoing record.  It also has a place for "vocab words" that homeschoolers could repurpose to be whatever they want...like character qualities, or polite words, or good habits or routines you want them do develop, etc.  It is worth looking into. 

 

This website lets you look inside the planner, but is a bulk order website for school systems:

http://premier.us/tools-planning/products-students/planners/product-line/foundations

 

 

Here is the Elementary school planner on the Franklin Covey website for individual sale:

http://franklinplanner.fcorgp.com/store/buy/All-Planners-and-Refills/Elementary-School-Weekly-Agenda---Aug-2014/prod2500002/?skuId=64011

 

[kwg]

I like those linked! 

[Another Lynn]

I just ran across a new student agenda by Franklin Covey that teaches children the 7 Habits of highly effective people, but on a kid level.  It has the obvious places to record daily assignments, however it has a completely unique structure that encourages discussion between parent, teacher, and child about all of life, not just homework or such and such assignment.  It helps kids learn to set goals, have positive relationships, and has a weekly evaluation.  Now of course many of us do these things naturally in day to day life.  The planner makes it visual and gives an ongoing record.  It also has a place for "vocab words" that homeschoolers could repurpose to be whatever they want...like character qualities, or polite words, or good habits or routines you want them do develop, etc.  It is worth looking into. 

 

This website lets you look inside the planner, but is a bulk order website for school systems:

http://premier.us/tools-planning/products-students/planners/product-line/foundations

 

 

Here is the Elementary school planner on the Franklin Covey website for individual sale:

http://franklinplanner.fcorgp.com/store/buy/All-Planners-and-Refills/Elementary-School-Weekly-Agenda---Aug-2014/prod2500002/?skuId=64011

 

 

I like those linked! 

 

Yeah, those look pretty neat - but I was thinking you could make your own with character traits you want to work on with your kids..... or big ideas you want to explore each month..... or interesting questions you want to investigate each month.  Cool idea!