What categories do you use for logging your curriculum?

[mama25angels]

I've started logging my curriculum into OneNote, but I'm struggling a bit with what categories I want to use. For example, I have a history/geography page with the books for that subject listed but I'm trying to decide if it would be better to keep things separate or together? Another thought, do you keep all of the books for a package together, including literature books?

[Gil]

Math and Non-Math. :D

 

I don't use OneNote or any system for logging curriculum. However, we have a tighter scope/sequence going than what seems like the majority of people on this forum.

Whether you should combine/blend subjects depends on to what extent the topics over lap or how in-depth you study one or the other. We tend to study fewer subjects but we study them intensively.

If we were to study geography and history then they would be separate topics. Yes, by nature of the subject there would be some overlap, but that could easily go in its own category/page.

 

If I were going to go and study those topics deliberately then I'd have to have a separate for HISTORY      History/Geography    GEOGRAPHY.

If we were going to study Geography, we'd do it intensively and use a framework such as the 5 Themes of Geography and the library to just go mad on resources.

The History/Geography are resources that can be nifty or useful for both.

History would have its own page with its own spine and resources being used.

 

[Sammish]

I suppose it would depend on whether you'd be teaching those subjects together or separately? 

 

For instance, in 2nd grade we used Classical House of Learning Literature, so our literature books were pretty much all also history book, so I used the history/literature heading. But this year we're using BYL, so literature and history have separate headings. I separated out the books in a "package," because it made it easier for me to go back and look at later and see what specifically we used for each subject. 

 

(In my homeschool OneNote notebook, I have sections for each subject: Math, Literature, Language Arts (spelling/grammar/writing), History, Science, Art, Art appreciation, Music, Latin, and Comp Sci, plus sections for general organization, educational philosophy, and misc. These are where I put general ideas of things that I might want to use "someday", or that catch my eye, or quotes from this board that I want to save. 

 

But I also have sections for Plans and Records, and in each of those sections I have a page for each grade. It's in these tabs that I record particular books I used or want to use. The headings on those pages are generally the same as for my subject sections, but change a little depending on curriculum.)

 

 

[Loesje22000]

My planning for the government is divided in:

- classical studies

- modern languages

- math and sciences

- social studies

- arts

- other

 

I could use this for onenote too :)

[PeterPan]

When you say "logging" do you mean library organization and knowing what you have?  Or do you mean making your plan for how you'll teach a subject for the year?  I use library software for knowing what I own.  For organizing a topic/plan for a semester, I use a very high tech PILE method.  I put the books in a pile.  :D

 

But seriously, you can make tables, organize them by week or topic and throw them into One Note, sure.  The subject headings would be whatever they are on the dc's work checklist.  And as far as what I pile in, sometimes it's a shelf, sometimes a milk crate, whatever seems to fit.  When we did the VP history, we used the pile method and used post-it notes to flag by week.  Sure I made fancy tables, but the pile method was what made it work.

 

As far as wanting to know what you own, I would go directly to library software and skip any in-between steps that you think are saving time.  Modern software (online or purchased inexpensively) allows you to use a bar code scanner or manually enter ISBNs.  This gives you a picture of the book, title, bibliographic information, and often even subject terms.  My software (Readerware) searches for that info online.  It's just super easy to enter things and find things.  There are also online options that are free.  I just wouldn't fiddle with in-between options.

[My3girls]

For K-7

 

Reading

Language Arts (Composition, Grammar, Spelling, Vocabulary)

Math

Science

Social Studies (History, Geography, Civics, Economics) 

Extra-Curricular (Music, Art, Sports)

 

If they read about a composer or artist, it goes under Social Studies as a biography.

 

8-12

 

English

Math

Science

Social Studies

Foreign Language

Electives

 

[lllll]

nm

Edited February 13, 2016 by - 8 95

[Hunter]

My categories have changed as my worldview and educational beliefs have changed.

 

Sometimes categories have changed, by just how much information needs to be crammed into a grid space on a spreadsheet.

 

Right now my geography, nature study, and science are so intertwined that they absolutely must be listed together.

 

Right now for the arts, I'm only explicitly teaching Shakespeare and drawing, so they are a category, whereas in the past, Shakespeare would have been part of literature.

 

McGuffey's Speller is an integral part of reading instruction, so is listed along with the reader.

 

And Harvey's Grammar and Ray's/Strayer-Upton are together, because I tend to just teach one or the other at a time, Waldorf block style, and it's the rest of the 3R's left over not in the McGuffey column.

 

So this is just an example of moving away from traditional category headings.

 

I'm not going to just list my categories, as I don't think anyone else would ever want to copy them. My point is that they are personal, and don't be afraid to let yourself do your own thing.

 

Category headings affect how you teach. They prioritize things that sometimes you were conditioned to prioritize, and demoting them on a scope and sequence can cause you to spend less time and money on them.