I was once an organized homeschool mom. When we first started homeschooling, I purchased a complete curriculum that came with a nice daily schedule. As I went through the materials with my first grader, I made nice check marks in every box. It was fabulous.
The next year I used some of the same materials, and I made more pretty check marks in the boxes. For some subjects, I decided to follow a different schedule, and I didn’t have any boxes to check off. We finished the math book, but I didn’t keep any records of it.
Years passed; I added more children and switched to all sorts of different curriculum. I said more than once that I was glad I didn’t live in a state that required good record-keeping.
About a month ago, I stumbled across a record-keeping strategy that works for my not-so-organized brain.
I found that Lauren likes to have a schedule for the day. She calls it her agenda, and she likes to see it written out.
On one of our first days of school, I pulled out a new composition book and wrote down her agenda.
As she went through the day, I added notes to show which specific pages she completed for each subject. After a few days I realized that this composition book is a perfect way to keep records of what she studies every day.
When we start school in the morning, Lauren and I discuss our plans for the day. We determine the best order for the day’s subjects, and I write them in the notebook. (On days with extra appointments, we switch things around or eliminate some subjects.) During the day I make notes to show which specific pages we finished. If we don’t have enough time to do everything, I simply cross off the subjects that we skipped. Since Lauren is still in elementary school, I don’t necessarily keep track of her specific grades on assignments. It would be easy to add grades if there was a need to track them.
I’ve sometimes had nagging doubts that I have done enough schoolwork with Lauren. This year, I’ll be able to see what we’ve done by flipping back through our records.
This year I’m thankful for record-keeping that’s enough for even this not-so-organized homeschool mom.
Great plan! I’m so going to do this with my lesson planner, in which I’m generally rather vague. From now on I’ll just tweak it with a few little notes as the day passes… thanks for the tip!
When I started homeschooling my daughter ten years ago, I did the same thing. I wrote the day, date, the subjects in the order I wanted to do them in a notebook. When we completed a lesson I put a check next to it. I do the same thing now except I ask my daughter what subject she wants to start the day with and what she wants to do next. I used to give her 50 minutes to complete each lesson but as she’s got older she started to day dream a lot. I tried giving her 30 minutes per lesson so she wouldn’t feel like she had a lot of time to waste and it worked. She gets a lot more work done now and we have happier days.
This is similar to what I just started doing to keep track of my 5-year-old’s work. I got a little week-by-week planner and I just keep track of everything school-ish that we’ve done during the day AFTER it gets done. I have a list of things I want to get done each day written on a 3×5 note card but it only goes in the planner once it has actually been done. 🙂
How do I find this recording book for not so organized home school moms?
She said she just uses a composition book.