keptwoman Posted March 6, 2009 Share Posted March 6, 2009 (edited) I have tried and tried to make HST work for me. I love it, I think it should work but I just can't. I'm a vacillator, I vaccilate between electronic and paper media for recording. And I think the reason I vacillate is that I'm yet to find a system that works well and doesn't take too much time to keep up. Right now I have to enter the following weeks work on a sunday, print out a to-do list for the children (frequently the printer is out of ink so then they have to write it into their diaries) then they fill in the lists, I take them back and enter everything into HST. Then I do marking and scribble the results on bits of paper and enter THAT into HST. Sigh! It's just too high maintenance. I've come up with my next plan and there are two things I would love to hear from other people: 1/ please critique my latest wonder idea. On average they last about 6 months so if I can make this last longer by incorporating your ideas then that would be wonderful!! Or if you have another idea that would work better, I'm very very open to changing my plan. Things to note are that I don't need to record attendance or hours specifically and I don't need a transcript for J as University entrance is a little different here. These records are for me to keep track of what we are doing, and as proof of work done should the powers that be ever ask for it. 2/ I'd love to hear how you make paper recording work. So the latest idea: Each child will have a printed and bound planning book. It will cover 10 weeks of school (we work in approximate blocks of 10 with a weeks break in between and a weeks break in the middle) It would be used as the childrens to-do list and also the final record of what they do. It will include the following.... * A weekly log partially prefilled, based on the Donna Young ones. The children or I will need to add the exact page/lesson done each day for each subject * Recording pages for maths, grammar, science, french, latin and vocab marks (depending on the child and subjects which get marked) * Reading Record * Extra curricular and Excursion records * A term plan (10 weeks) overview * A notes/ideas page * A history page for recording subjects and work acheived (we sort of plan as we go so I can't pre-type this) * Science lesson details (all preplanned) At the end of each term the marks section would be completed and then the book filed and a new one started. Edited March 6, 2009 by keptwoman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keptwoman Posted March 7, 2009 Author Share Posted March 7, 2009 Bump. Anyone? I guess the main point is that rather than retaining the plan/schedule book for myself I'm splitting it up and giving it to the kids to put their notes in. Anyone done that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tutor Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I am actually thinking of implemeting something similar here. Our kids have one notebook per subject (per the recs in WTM). This year, I pre-copied/ removed all worksheets they needed and placed them in the subject notebooks. Whenever we get to the point of needing a worksheet, they just pull out thier notebook, and it is already there waiting to be filled out. This coming year, I am going to pre-plan as much of their lessons as I can (like you, we tend to be more fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants with a subject like history, for example) and place the lesson plans in their notebooks. All the science lessons will be in the front of the science notebook, lit plans in the lit section of the English notebook, etc. The plans will also have room to make additions or changes as necessary, but the basic skeleton will be there for each child to access when necessary. I will keep the master plans on HST just in case I need to reprint them or make major changes that would require my replacing what is already in their notebooks. I think this will be a big help to my older, more independent students and to my dh who is planning on having more direct involvement in our homeschooling next year. My problem is that I am a great planner, but not a great implementer, so I am hoping that I can really get behind this and make it work for us rather than seeing it as a burden to be servant to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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