do you or have you had your child(ren) use an assignment book?

[ProudGrandma]

I am thinking of getting an assignment book for my 9th grade daughter to use in the fall.

 

My intent, I think, is I would write down what I want her to accomplish each week and it would be up to her to see to it that it gets done...even if that means working on the weekend or in the evening.  Her class load is more than it has before and I want to teach her how to be responsible for her work load.  

 

I don't know if this is the way to do it or not...but it's all I have right now.  (unless someone here gives me a different idea)

 

If you were to recommend one, which one would you recommend??

 

Have you used them with all ages of kids...just older...just younger???

 

thanks.

[linders]

No advice on what kind, but advice on your approach. I would make her responsible for writing down the assignments. This could mean at the beginning of the week you sit down together, you tell her what you want accomplished, and she writes it in whatever fashion will help her remember the details and your expectations. She should ask questions to clarify where appropriate (e.g., "How long do you expect the essay to be?") During the week you might find occasion to add an assignment or clarify one already given. Again, she should pull out the book and write it down.

 

By her writing it down, she takes ownership of understanding what needs to be done. There will be less chance of her saying (maybe legitimately), that she didn't notice or didn't understand.

 

My two cents worth.

[8filltheheart]

I write out daily planners for all of my kids in grades 3 up.  Their days are not done until everything in their planners is completed.

[ProudGrandma]

I write out daily planners for all of my kids in grades 3 up. Their days are not done until everything in their planners is completed.

Do you fill them out weekly? Which planner do you use?

[TeaCookiesBears]

Not sure if this may work for you but here is what I have come to do after trial and error. In the past I have tried different planners bought or printer and none have ever fit my needs except a good old fashion composition book. Each week I write out what assignments are due and on what day for that week then we discuss for clarity.

 

I use to have oldest dd use my assignment book however, I quickly found out that she was not taking ownership as mentioned above nor could I find it when I needed it to log her assignments into HST+ because she alway had it. So, I bought her and her younger sister some cheap but nice planners from Amazon to write out their own assignments and it has been working for me so far except for the occasional missed assignment because dd forgot to thoroughly check her planner.

 

My oldest dd is 16 and the youngest is 9 with the youngest being a work in progress as I have her write out what subjects she is to do for that day.

[My3girls]

We do daily lists, right now, in 7th. We use just a spiral notebook. I want to move to weekly lists next year. It will be up to her to create her daily schedule from that. End goal is have her using a class syllabus before I graduate her. I had never seen a syllabus when I got to college, and that was a problem. Professors don't give daily assignments!

[G5052]

Mine have been using an assignment book since 4th grade.  Initially I filled it in, then they took over and I checked it, and now they do their own in high school.

 

This started when I was dealing with horrific eldercare issues because I wanted them to keep working if I was tied up on the phone off and on all day.

 

Now I am working full-time, mostly from home.  It is an absolute must for us.

 

On Fridays I set up an appointment with them to spot check their work and discuss the goals and issues for the following week.

 

We like the Rod and Staff Weekly Lesson Planner.  I had to convince my older one to go to something more compact for college though!

[8filltheheart]

We are Catholic, so I like these http://www.pflaum.com/preview3/planner13/intermediate.pdf(I use the elementary planners all the way through high school b/c the set up is better for writing out daily plans.

 

I write ~6 wks worth of plans at a time broken down into daily assignments.  

[arliemaria]

What age/grade do you recommend using a student planner?  I went to PS and remember I had one that the school provided starting in the fifth grade.

[Ecclecticmum]

I use a Personal Planner http://www.personal-planner.com/US/for my eldest. It lists all her daily tasks, and she does them. Before that I used a Well Planned Day Student Planner, before that a simple spiral notebook.

 

I use it right now for her independant stuff, but I was thinking of adding mum-stuff to their, so she knows what to expect. The PP one also allows customisation, so I could have special events in there, daily weather charts, places for her to scribble notes etc.

[Coco_Clark]

My kids have daily checklists I write out on lined paper and put on clipboards on the wall. I don't plan ahead, I base it on what we accomplished that morning during our one-on-one time, what they need extra practice on, and what the rest of our day looks like schedule-wise. It's just 2-5 items (math facts practice, reading assignments, copy work, piano practice, ect) but it teaches them time-management in an age-appropriate way. They can't use screens until checklists are accomplished. At 5 o clock everyone that hasn't finished yet does so at the counter while I make dinner.

 

When they are ready, I'll switch it to a weekly checklist and check over it with them at the end of the week. I don't know when that will be, though. When I no longer know they will put it all off until Friday afternoon :p

[AMJ]

I have been using a weekly/monthly planner to record what I, as teacher, have been doing with the kids, then distilling the homework assignments into a yellow sticky note on that day's entry.  The sticky is for the kids to reference so they don't have to pick the assignments out of the rest of my notations.

 

My kids, however, have taken it upon themselves to keep their own daily checklists of homework on their small marker boards, and often get those written while I'm writing the sticky.  When I went shopping for my next planner (I use academic year planners, so it's almost time to change to a new one) they showed an interest, so I let them each pick out a planner in which to keep track of their assignments.  I'm going to start seeing if I can get them to take the initiative on tracking at least some of their more important classes, since they eventually need that skill, anyway.

 

Of course, I couldn't decide whether to use a standard daily/monthly planner again or transition to a teacher's planner (has full monthly grids, but the weekly pages only cover M-F), so I bought one of each so I could compare.  The teacher one is a little better organized for class subjects and has a little more room per day for notes, but I don't know if I'll have enough spaces for both girls' classes.  I'll play with it and see.

[Arcadia]

My kids has outside classes. Their planner is a week on two pages and I write their outside classes and homework as well as the daily assignments I give them in there. That way they can see a week at a glance and plan accordingly.

They tick the checkbox when they are done, draw an arrow in the checkbox for in progress, cross the checkbox if they didn't manage to start on it (like massive traffic jam and we reached home late from music class).

 

My kids are used to weekly assignment sheets since 2nd grade as K12 VA auto generates one.

[Mommy22alyns]

I was doing daily lists for the girls this year in 4th and 6th, but I bought them both Well-Planned Day planners for next year so I could make a weekly list.

[Heathermomster]

DS used this one for 9th grade.  DS took biology, Elegant Essay, and a logic class outside the home. Other subjects were open and go.  We sat down on Monday mornings and reviewed all assignments and expectations.  We then discussed how to spread out his work to get assignments completed to meet deadlines. The afternoons were set aside for subjects I taught like math, literature, and whatever helps DS specifically requested.  

[Suzanne in ABQ]

I plan out everything in a spreadsheet for each dc, and I revise and print out my plan four weeks at a time.  When dd was in in 7th grade (and also in 8th), I got her a basic day book, and gave her her monthly copy of my plan spreadsheet.  She was responsible for getting everything done by the end of each week.  She had no trouble, and seemed to enjoy writing things down as she completed them.  She tracked her time as well, making it easy for me to log her time spent on high school subjects.

 

Subsequently, she went to high school (and is now in college), and learned that few (if any) teachers/professors give a paper syllabus anymore.  All assignments are posted online, on a website like Canvas.  Her first year of high school, she had five different websites she had to check for assignments every day.  That was a difficult thing for her to learn to do, but she eventually figured out a way to keep herself on track.  She had a planner book, but rarely used it.  Paper planners of any sort seem to be a thing of the past in college and modern high school.  She says she now checks each class for assignments, and does them on the spot.  She doesn't use any planner.  

 

Ds is in a public charter high school.  His assignments are posted online as well.  He uses no paper planner.

 

I'm not sure how you would emulate the modern electronic system at home.  I would definitely automate your system as much as possible, using a spread sheet to give her at least a week's worth of assignments at a time.  I wouldn't write down assignments every day.  If you use a computerized tracking program, perhaps you could set her up with her own page to log her progress daily.  You could also have her assignments in the computer to get her used to checking for updates daily.  The lack of constant face-to-face communication between my dd and her teachers has been one of the hardest things for her to adjust to, after being homeschooled.  Creating some sort of academic separation between you and her might be beneficial, to get her used to keeping track of her own responsibilities.  

[Rebel Yell]

:confused1: I'm wondering how the kids know what to do if they *don't* have some sort of a planner?

 

Anyway, I tried dozens of pre-made planner books, and had dismal failures trying to do spreadsheets/online ones. I finally made my own plan sheets, 1 page = 1 week, and print enough copies for the year. I can have outside classes/activities already "written" in, I have alarger space for Language Arts, and a smaller one for math or history, where the only entry for the day is the lesson number. Plus I could make Friday's column different because it was co-op day.

[EndOfOrdinary]

Instead of jumping into the whole week, you might want to try doing two days worth. Start small and increase slowly. Create deliberate success and then with bits make it more and more demanding. That worked better for my Ds than when I had him try to do it all at once. As an adult, looking at the week is helpful, but he needed smaller amounts at first to really get his executive functioning going.

[momto2Cs]

Simple spiral notebooks. Really. I was inspired by this post over at Amongst Lovely Things.

[wintermom]

No.  We have a list of all the required subjects of the day on a white board. THe dc check off their subjects (including music practice) as they complete the tasks. 

 

For classes I don't teach (i.e., Latin with a tutor, science coop) the dc keep track of their own assignments.

 

I'm thinking that something a little more specific for my older dcs might be helpful to keep them working toward concrete goals. I haven't got any further than thinking about it, though. 

[ProudGrandma]

thank you all for these ideas.  I know for sure i am having my 9th use one of these books.  Up until this point, we have been able to keep everything straight by using the folder system...I put all of their worksheets into a folder (in sets of 10 days) and each day they went to their new folder to get their work.  Worked very well until my daughter started doing more and more work out of non-consumable books...or in books that I wanted to keep intact.  So that is why I am looking into a different system for her.    So thanks again.

[SnMomof7]

I have tried planners of various kinds. What is working well for us is a post it note check off list on bright paper with a bright pen. ONE day of work at a time.

[HS Mom in NC]

I use the 36 week hanging file folder system to accomplish the same thing. I plan and prep the entire year before we start on day 1. I hate planning in the evening and weekends. My teens had a deadline of 3:00pm on Friday to turn in all their work. If they wanted to go to a midnight premier on late Thursday night they had to turn it on on Thursday before they left.

 

I did the file folder system for my younger for myself through this year, but in the fall she'll be 10 and I'll let her start managing it herself for independent work and be available to work with her as needed.

[MeAndTheBoys]

I use the 36 week hanging file folder system to accomplish the same thing. I plan and prep the entire year before we start on day 1. I hate planning in the evening and weekends. My teens had a deadline of 3:00pm on Friday to turn in all their work. If they wanted to go to a midnight premier on late Thursday night they had to turn it on on Thursday before they left.

 

I did the file folder system for my younger for myself through this year, but in the fall she'll be 10 and I'll let her start managing it herself for independent work and be available to work with her as needed.

 

What is this?

 

b

[MeAndTheBoys]

I've been trying to get more organized--this year, I used a simple method that worked well--I bought a set of small legal pads at Dollar Tree.  Every Friday afternoon, after we finished our work (or anytime before MOnday, if I had to do it Sunday), I would spend about 5 minutes and list out the lessons each of my older two boys needed to do for the next week.

 

In the summer, I make a master list by week of which lessons we will do each week, allowing for vacation and holidays.  Helps to get that all mapped out up front.  I re-evaluate it every few months and adjust the remainder of the year.

 

So one sheet might look like:

 

(Boy #1 name)

5/18/15

1. Algebra Less 100 __ 101 __ Test 16 __ 102 __

2. CLE LA 610 6__ 7__ 8__ 9__

3. Bible 505 3 __ 4 __ 5__ 6 __

4. Science-- 3.4 __ 3.5 __ Chap Summ __

5. MFW Week 25

(any other things to do during the week)

 

I make boxes to check instead of blanks.  It's not terribly neat or snazzy but it has worked wonders--and unless there is a catastrophe during the week that makes ME feel like i need to adjust, they are responsible to complete any undone things on Saturday for "homework".

 

Next year, my older boys will be 6th and 7th grade--I have ordered simple student planners and am going to have THEM write out their assignments on Friday.   Not sure what else I will have them track, but this will be a start.  I do want them to put our activities on their calendar too, so they get a better sense of time.

 

Here are the ones I ordered:

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00U2XXWDC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Q4YOZNO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

b

[HS Mom in NC]

What is this?

 

b

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/517577-planning-full-year-with-filing-system/?hl=%2Bplanning+%2Byear+%2Bwith+%2Bfiling+%2Bsystem&do=findComment&comment=5731699

[MeAndTheBoys]

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/517577-planning-full-year-with-filing-system/?hl=%2Bplanning+%2Byear+%2Bwith+%2Bfiling+%2Bsystem&do=findComment&comment=5731699

 

thx!

[ProudGrandma]

I actually do a form of this...but I feared setting up for a whole year...and then getting behind would really bother me...so I just set up 10 days at a time...so it's 10 days of school...not 2 Monday thru Friday weeks....which allows for days off...or sick days, field trip days, spontaneous no school days, whatever.   It also allowed for a child to not understand a math concept (for example) and need to do extra work before moving on...that way I only had to rearrange no more than 10 folders (most of the time less than that)...if I did 36 weeks of folders and that happened, my OCD would kick in and I would find myself adjusting all of those math pages to line up correctly. kwim?? :) 

 

this system has worked wonderfully for 4 years....

 

but now that my oldest is moving out of the "worksheet" phase of school and into more non-consumable books, I need to find a new method for her.

[HS Mom in NC]

For those planning by week, if being behind your planned dates (as in I was planning to do week #19 the week before Christmas Break but then we got the flu and did nothing but puke and watch Netflix)  is upsetting and something you can't ignore, I suggest not listing dates in your planning and instead just listing the week number on your file folders/planning notebooks/spreadsheets.  That way when you're a week behind because everyone had the latest round of flu, you can do week #19 the first week of school in January and end your school year a week later or take 1 week for Spring Break instead of 2 or whatever. Some people plan a couple of floating weeks ahead of time and have a range of dates for ending the school year.  For example, they may plan to end between the 3rd week of May and the second week of June and then see what surprises unfold as the year moves along.

 

Another thing that can help relieve the pressure is prioritizing within each week's plan.  You can either have in mind or written down what assignments are essential and what are extra for each week in each subject.  That way you've already made peace with the fact that sometimes you'll have to step away from your ideals and you already know what to skip without having to figure it out at a time when life is hitting you harder than usual. (And it will.  Expect that to happen.)  It's like a little gift you give yourself when you still need to keep schooling, but you can't do everything you'd like to.

[Reefgazer]

We begin using a planner for assignments in 4th grade. So my 10 year old now knows how to use one, and DD has been using one for 4 years now. Teaches invaluable time management skills. I would start her on one; ninth grade is not early for that. We just buy a basic one at Office Max, but the truth is, any homemade notebook system will work as well. I do feel it is important for the student to choose one so that the style works for them, and to write the assignments down themselves.

[sagira]

I've bought planners for 2-3 years now, but they never get used. Ds11 doesn't put anything in it and really doesn't need to. I have all the plans in front of me.

 

Most of the time I tell him what he needs to do next, other times he already knows (routine) and sometimes I write what he needs to do on the whiteboard.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SparklyUnicorn]

I make my kid write down the assignments.  We started off with a regular notebook.  He prefers to type it out on his computer so he does that now.  I want him to get into the habit of writing down assignments and paying attention to deadlines.

 

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

To add this is just the 13 year old.  The 9 year old does not do this yet.

 

 

[birchbark]

My rising 9th-grader has been using this one for the last three years. I make a list of goals for him every six weeks and he uses those to fill out the planner each week, pacing himself as he desires. It works beautifully. This planner also has weekly blanks for a booklist as well as for recording hours. And the all-important checkbox! I can check up on his progress with just a glance.

 

This year I will be using the Student Logbook with my rising 3rd-grader for the first time. I like the look of this one for younger students because you do not need to write out repetitive assignments every day or week.

[Holly]

We're going to use them this coming year.  In the past I've written them on a whiteboard (or just told them what needed to be done), so this will be our first year for actual planners.  I think it will be nice to have their individual assignments all listed out at the beginning of each week.  Rainbow Resource has a good assortment of inexpensive student planners.

[Catherine]

My eighth grader has ADD so we have been using a planner for at least 3 years now.  This year I've been working on transitioning him to writing, checking, and maintaining his planner list independently.  He isn't quite totally there yet, but he's made significant progress.  Since he is transitioning to school in the fall, I want him to carry this skill with him.  

 

With an ADD child, there is so very much re-covering ground that you think you've already fully covered.  And with him, I find I need to make so many things explicit that, to me, seem to be obvious.  Things like-writing down the actual assignment, not just the subject.  Checking it and updating throughout the day.  Completing tasks fully, not jumping from one to another when he encounters a snag.  It is a continual process of checking in with him, discussing, reviewing, reinforcing the list, etc.  He is not independent yet with it, but I plan to continue the process of refining the use of this tool after school starts in the fall.    

[Kuovonne]

I have made daily checklists in Word for my DD 11 and DD9 for several years. I print up 3-5 weeks of assignments at a time with one page per week. I customize the assignments for each day/week, because each week has slightly different outside activities. DD9 still uses her paper planner, but about a month ago DD11 asked me to put her planner on her iPad because she kept loosing her planner. I took advantage of the situation to switch her to the MyHomework app.

 

I prefer using the MyHomework app to a paper planner. It is easier to make adjustments to the assignments. She no longer looses her planner, because she doesn't loose her iPad. It also syncs to my iPad and iPhone, so I can see as she checks things off. I can also annotate her assigments with more information than I could with the paper planner.

 

I still manually enter all of her assignments, but I am gradually shifting some of that responsibility to her. For example, she had an online class that posted assignments weekly. Her first assignment of the week is to read through the posted assignments and scheduling them in the app ;-). Another time she mentioned that a different way of wording an assignment would work better for her, so I had her change the wording in the app.

 

We've been using the MyHomework app for only about a month, but so far I'd say it's been a huge success. I still have to constantly tell her to check the app, but I had to do that back when she had a paper planner anyway.

[...................]

I use a really giant one from

Carson Dellosa that I love. I write it in weekly becusde of sickness and when life gets in the way etc. now for a high schooler they should be (with your help) writing in many of their own plans. They should know the end goal of all their textbooks and be taught how to get through it, and to write their own assignments and their own reminders for studying and flashcrds etc. this is why at least one outside the house or online class per year is invaluable also because that way they will also learn to keep hard deadlines and transcribe from a syllabus to their planner. In the subjects that you facilitate/teach you can give test dates ahead of time, so she can learn to study in advance and get it all into her planner.

 

However other than her outside the house subject, I wouldn't make plans more than two weeks in advance because of sickness life etc. you can, but it would take an extreme Type A mom to stick to plans written months before in the midst of unexpected life events. :)

[...................]

Oh another option is to make the entire semester plans in summer but leave every 7th week blank as well as know. Holidays such as Christmas, vacation, thanksgiving and natonal holidays....so the blank week become catch up days in case you get sick. :) or vacations or work-ahead. I had one fiend that did this and I think it's pretty awesome.

[Cottonwood]

my 2 have just a regular chunky type planner from walmart or target that is sectioned by month then by week.  On Sundays I put down a week's worth of work in the correct week and stick it in their binders (binder holds any and all school books/work/extra paper/supplies).  That planner is to be found by me or them in that binder at all times or there shall be a stiff penalty  :laugh:.  The can do the work in any order they want, really.  Unless there's a certain test or some odd thing in there.  They can look ahead to Friday and see where I expect them to be at that time and do all LA in one day, if they want, or all social studies, or do it just as i write it.  They mark off what they do, write questions or notes for me in it, I makes notes on things I observe or changes I want to me per child in their planner, or..whatever.  The planner is king here.  It's alllll in there.  But it's not mine, it's theirs and they are to stay organized with it at all times.  Best of all, it just works to get it all done.  

 

On Friday, whatever isn't marked off, they must do.  It's really low tech, simple, cheap, handy, correctly sized and makes them maintain some accountability.  Next year, DD will be in 10th and she will write her own.  I would have done it this year, but it didn't occur to me till late in the year.

[MotherGoose]

Last year I did homemade ones for my 3rd grader. This year I'm trying Scholaric, which I like so far, so I won't have to write down the assignments every week/day. That's time consuming for me and not something I enjoy. I like that in Scholaric, you can bump ahead individual course work (so if you get behind in math, but not writing, just bump ahead the math). You can print the assignments, and that's what I plan to try this year. So far I'm loving Scholaric, but I'm still in the planning stage.

[aprilleigh]

I want to start doing something like this with DS - right now I work with a list for myself, and I just lay out the books we'll need for the day. Unless we have time constraints (an appointment to be at, lunch time coming up, etc.) I generally let him pick which subject we do next. He's ready to work more independently, but the list format I use for myself isn't enough information (and not enough room to add it) for him to use on his own, so I'll be checking out the various solutions suggested here.