Homeschool Notebook---if you have one....

[Tera]

can you share how you organized it? THANKS!!!!!

[Suzannah]

Do you mean a notebook for school record-keeping or for lesson-planning? I might one day combine the two...maybe...but for now I have two notebooks.

 

Our records include copies of the letter of intent and curriculum descriptions I send in, the letters from the county saying we're good to hs for another year, test scores and (as of this year) lists of field trips and extra curricular activities using forms from donnayoung.com. I think that's it.

 

My other notebook has various blank forms that I use frequently for lesson plans, science experiments, important people in history, blank story paper (lines at bottom, space for drawing at top), notebook paper, handwriting paper and math drill sheets. It also has lesson plans, daily schedule, notes to myself, items for memorization (poems, scriptures, lists, etc.) and my son's very first narration from The Bee Tree, when he was 5 years old. :)

 

HTH

[Alana in Canada]

Fortunately, other than something our governement calls "an education plan" to be filed with the Ministry of Education every year for each child, I do not, by law, have to file any paper whatsoever with any authority.

 

So, I have a "lesson plan" binder--and I just reorganized it!

 

Section 1:

-Plan for week (days across the top, subjects down the side. One for subjects done together, one for each child. I make this up every week.

-Weekend Prep list (everything I have to do on the weekend to get ready)

-Daily schedule (ie: how much time and the ideal order of study each day)

-Lesson plan for CW:Aesop

 

Section 2:

-Spreadsheet of all subjects and material to be covered for the year broken down by week.

-Spreadsheet: Readings for each week of SoTW.

-Timeline figures we need until Christmas printed out and in page protectors (I'm not usually this organized!)

-Forms for Historical Person Reports.

-Forms for Book Reports

 

Section3

-Dictation and Copywork selections, typed out for the current week.

-Copywork pages for the week (We use Startwrite)

-Our Poems (They go into their Poetry Books when memorized. Until then, I hang on to them!)

 

Section 4:

List of fiction and/or historical fiction books to check out at library for assigned reading.

 

Section 5:

Notes for Art History (I'm trying to pull our own thing together)

 

Section 6:

Forms for planning Aesop

 

Section 7:

Math drill sheets for the kids to do that week.

 

Section 8:

Spelling materials, "phonogram bingo cards" and materials for diagnostics and so on (from SWR)

 

Section 9: Paper. I'm always looking for it! As well, we use narrow dashed paper from Donna Young so when I print it out, I put it here.

 

I put all kinds of things in the pockets of my binder, too.

 

hth!

 

PS: it took about 2 week when we started school up again this fall to figure out what I needed in here. Give yourself some time...but I strongly advise you NOT to keep anything you won't refer to or use in the next week in your binder. It gets too overwhelming!

[Tera]

all our input. Your binder sounds awesome! I am still trying to find the right forms to use. I become too much of a perfectionist!

[materursa]

Section 6:

Forms for planning Aesop

 

Not meaning to take over a thread, but what sort of forms do you use to plan Aesop?

 

 

I have 2 notebooks. One is for lesson plans, the other for printed resources. I keep my lesson plans and checklists (forms from donnayoung.org), attendance sheet, copy of my state law, a sheet with the things you should do if some official comes to your house, school calendar (donnayoung.org), field trip ideas, notes for me, course of study sheet for each child (donnayoung.org). I keep most of these sheets in page protectors as they would rip out before I started doing that. You can write on the page protectors with Sharpies and take it off with rubbing alcohol. This way I can do things like check off my plans while still in page protectors. (A friend told me about this and it's been very helpful.)

 

The other notebook is a resource binder. I tend to forget about or lose files I just save on my computer so I've printed out many of them (it's a work in progress!) and put them into page protectors in this notebook. I have coloring pages, notebooking pages, timeline figures, maps and other such pages. That way I can just flip through and see what I have and make copies from there. I only printed out what we might need for the first quarter or so (though I do have the whole year's worth of timeline figures.)

 

HTH,

Amanda

[Jane]

Hi Tera,

 

I have my homeschool notebook sitting beside me. Here's the ordering of mine:

 

1) Pencil case that holds pens, pencils, a highlighter, paper clips, rubber bands, scissors, sticky notepad, etc.

 

2) Our master schedule, color coded. This is followed by our alternative day schedules. All of these are in page protectors.

 

3) Ready Reference Sheets and Maps. These are those heavy, laminated things that you can pick up at homeschooling and book stores.

 

4) Our family calendar, divided by months.

 

5) Tabbed and color coded sections for each subject. Within these subjects I have typed out schedules for the subjects, book lists, and general notes I take during school lessons.

 

HTH!

[Jenny in Florida]

Section 1: Print-outs of our lesson plans for the first semester.

 

Section 2: Sheets for recording grades.

 

Section 3: Syllabi/pace charts for the online classes my son is taking.

 

Section 4: Lesson plans from past weeks. (I keep these because I sometimes make notes on them during the week that I end up wanting to refer to later.)

 

This binder has two pockets on the inside front cover and two on the back. Into the one of the pockets on the inside front cover I put the print-outs or copies of my son's worksheets for the current week. For example, he's doing the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker, and we decided it was too much of a pain to write his answers in the book (glossy paper, making it difficult to write in pencil or to erase and correct cleanly). So, I copy out the pages for him. The other inside front pocket holds an envelope with the teeny copies of all of the covers of the books he's reading this year, which he is putting on his timeline.

 

My son knows to look there for these items if I'm not handy to ask when he needs them.

 

The pockets on the inside back cover hold print-outs of all of the history-related worksheets I selected for this year and of all the models we'll use for Classical Writing.

 

Separately, I have a calendar/log book in which I write down what we actually accomplish each day. (Florida requires that we keep such records in a bound--not looseleaf--book.)

[Melissa B]

Separately, I have a calendar/log book in which I write down what we actually accomplish each day. (Florida requires that we keep such records in a bound--not looseleaf--book.)

 

 

I have never heard this! I do not keep mine in a bound book. Where did you read this? Thanks!!!

[Tera]

Hi Amanda

Do you find a free online source for your timeline figures?

THANKS

[Jenny in Florida]

I have never heard this! I do not keep mine in a bound book. Where did you read this? Thanks!!!

 

I don't remember where I read it. It's possible that it's not a "rule," but merely something I was urged to do because it provides evidence that the log was kept "contemporaneously with the instruction." In other words, it discourages the impression that one might have created or altered the log after the fact.

 

Sorry. It's one of those things that I don't really stop to think about anymore.

[Melissa B]

I don't remember where I read it. It's possible that it's not a "rule," but merely something I was urged to do because it provides evidence that the log was kept "contemporaneously with the instruction." In other words, it discourages the impression that one might have created or altered the log after the fact.

 

Sorry. It's one of those things that I don't really stop to think about anymore.

 

 

Thanks Jenny! I have a good relationship with our county homeschool liaison and know what I would need to provide if necessary, but we are hoping to move in a few months and will be in a new county. Maybe I had better get a bound book - as I will be coming in in the middle of a school year and have never really heard anything about how homeschoolers are treated in that particular county. I am sure each county has a different interpretation of "contemporaneously with instruction." :rolleyes:

[materursa]

Hi Amanda

Do you find a free online source for your timeline figures?

THANKS

 

Hi Tera,

My main source of timeline figures are the ones from homeschool in the woods. They aren't free, but we like the pictures a lot and they come with a little informational blurb at the bottom. You can also print them out in notebook or wall size with or without text and there are also resizable versions of them all too.

 

That being said, there are things we want to include on our timelines that aren't in there. When that happens, I look elsewhere. Here are the freebies I've found:

 

You can download a big bunch of them here (the History Scribe people.)

Public Domain portraits here.

Look under the history, government & famous people sections here.

Then, for those times that none of the above will do, I downloaded files to print out to color your own man, woman, or fill in for an event. I can't seem to find where I downloaded them, but, in the info on the pages it says I can distribute them, so I can email them if you want.

 

HTH,

Amanda

[dcjlkplus3]

I have notebooks all over the place, so/but I keep most of my records on the computer. I have my weekly lesson plan for all three kids that I do on excel - it has two columns one for the specifics (lesson #s, pages, titles, etc) and one left blank for any of my notes. Anything we all do together (me reading out loud, CBS) is at the top and then they are listed by age. Right now one week printed out is three pages long. I will keep these for all year and then put them in an envelope or folder (I just don't like throwing things like that away just yet) and start a new one each year. I have a different folder that I put book report forms, or other things that have caught my interest enough to print out, but that I haven't decided when (or if) we will use.

[Tera]

Hi Tera,

My main source of timeline figures are the ones from homeschool in the woods. They aren't free, but we like the pictures a lot and they come with a little informational blurb at the bottom. You can also print them out in notebook or wall size with or without text and there are also resizable versions of them all too.

 

That being said, there are things we want to include on our timelines that aren't in there. When that happens, I look elsewhere. Here are the freebies I've found:

 

You can download a big bunch of them here (the History Scribe people.)

Public Domain portraits here.

Look under the history, government & famous people sections here.

Then, for those times that none of the above will do, I downloaded files to print out to color your own man, woman, or fill in for an event. I can't seem to find where I downloaded them, but, in the info on the pages it says I can distribute them, so I can email them if you want.

 

HTH,

Amanda

 

 

Thanks so much Amanda!

[Alana in Canada]

Not meaning to take over a thread, but what sort of forms do you use to plan Aesop?

 

 

 

Appendix E in the back of the Core manual are planning forms. I use the "weekly" one. hth.

[georgiagirl]

Do you have some good websites where we can find some good printables for our notebooks? I would appreciate some!!!:lol: