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Started My Trial....Questions!

(14 posts) (4 voices)

Started 1 year ago by countrygirlathome
Latest reply from countrygirlathome

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scheduling resources

countrygirlathome
Member

I began my trial and started adding my own resources since I couldn't find them. What I am basically doing is adding in books from a Sonlight Core (finishing up this month), along with other resources that I use (not Sonlight related). Either I'm not doing it right or the way Sonlight "schedules" won't work here. For example: We might read out of The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History pages 278-279 for one day. Then the next day we might not do it at all. Then the following day we might read 282-283 and 324-325. In other words, it jumps around to fit what else we're reading. It seems to me that to schedule it on the online organizer here, it would have to go in order by divisions (which in this case has none except for pages)? And we wouldn't finish this book before we started another. We are reading it while we are reading others.

Here's a better example for a week in history:

Day One: Chapter 32 of The Story of the World: The Middle Ages & pages 278-279 in The Usborne World History

Day Two: Page 282-283 of Usborne World History

Day Three: Chapter 33 of The Story of the World & pages 324-25 of Usborne World History

Day Four: Chapter 34 of The Story of the World & page 302 of Usobrne World History & page 222-224 of The World of Columbus and Sons

Day Five: Pages 294-296; 331-335; 369-377 of Columbus and Sons

Each of the readings above compliment the other and should be read on the same day. Does that make sense? Is there a way to do this in the scheduler without making alot of work for myself?

I need to see them grouped together so I know they should be read on the same day. However, sometimes I might do two days worth of reading aloud. That's what appealed to me about this organizer....that it would update to the next thing without a date (after I marked off what we finished).

I'm a little confused. Sorry. Probably not making sense here. :)

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
suzukimom
Member

The only way I can think of to make sure you know which readings from all the books to do together on the same day, would be to make a Resource called something like "Sonlight History Schedule year xxxx" - make divisions for each day, and then type in the information for each day.

So from your example - division is "Day"

1 - SOTW Ch32: The Middle Ages; UWH pg 278-279

2 - UWH 282-283

3 - SOTW ch 33: [title]; UWH 324-25

4 - WOTH ch 34l UWH 302; WoCaS 222-224

etc

Then, it is up to you if you also want to schedule each book (on all days) with the order of the readings. There was a recent discussion on that idea with the SCM modules. I like to, as then you see on printed reports the actual books and what was read in them - but it is a bit more work to set it up, and to record what was done...

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
countrygirlathome
Member

Thank you! I'm playing around with it to see if I am understanding exactly what you mean. I just input everything the way you said for the rest of the year and want to schedule it to start tomorrow. So if I have it scheduled for tomorrow with the day 1 as we said above beginning on May 1st, it will show up that we are to read together what you have beside the number 1: SOW Chptr 32 & UHW 278-279, right? And where can I get a view of what is scheduled beginning tomorrow?

Also, how do you put into the scheduler if you want a student to read more than one chapter? For example, let's say tomorrow I want my daughter to read Chaptrs 9 -10 of a literature book. I have added that book as a resource and it has 30 chapters. Since I am beginning this trial in the middle of this book, she is ready for these two chapters (9 & 10) tomorrow. How do I input that so that when I print off her schedule, it says to read those two chapters on the first day we begin this schedule online (which is tomorrow)?

Tammy

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
sheraz
Member

To see tomorrow's schedule, go the daily plan page and click on "see tomorrow's plan" - the screen will change the date and you can see exactly what you have on the list.

When scheduling a resource, and you are putting it in the subject, etc, there is a handy little place on there called "Custom Study Method" - click on that and put in your instructions for "Read 2 chapters daily" or whatever it is you want done. Also, the select chapters link will let you unschedule, move chapters around, etc so it will be exactly where you want this resource.

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
suzukimom
Member

Also when viewing the daily plan, you can click under a resource to "show upcoming assignments" - it will show the next 3 assignments as well as the current one.

If you are always reading 2 chapters in a book - then sheraz's method works good. If it varies for the book, at the moment you would need to put it in a note for the resource for that day (so not done ahead...)

Or, when I was doing AO, I made my own resources for the books, with 36 divisions for the week, and then wrote what was read for that week (so some weeks might have more than once chapter, or in some books, some weeks I might say "no reading") It was more work up-front, but then easy to use (with a guide/curriculum that really varied on when you would read from what books) - and I could also tell where we were in the schedule for each subject...

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
countrygirlathome
Member

Yes, the problem is that it will not be 2 chapters a day. So I tried it this way and it seems like it will work, although more work on the front end (which I don't mind so much): Make the divisions be "Day" instead of "Chapter". So for example, to finish up this school year, I figured out how many days were left and looked to see what we would need to read each day. So let's say I have 15 days left. I made the division "Days" and each day had the number of chapters to be read. And if it starts tomorrow, then it will show Day one as the two chapters. Then the next day may have 3 chapters as Day Two. By the time I get to Day 15, it will have covered all my chapters. It seems this will work. How does that sound?

And I can look at the days ahead and bring that up on the computer and print it that way. That way we can see ahead what is coming up the next day and if we want to read another chapter, we can do so, make note of it on our printed schedule, then I can go in and mark what we did that day.

Does that sound like a plan or way too much work? I like that it is all on one page and printed out and we aren't flipping through my big (Sonlight) schedule book but have that scheduled plus all of our other Charlotte Mason activities on there as well.

Thanks,

Tammy

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
my3boys
Member

I think it sounds fine or even if I didn't and it sounds fine to *you* is what's most important. I have found that the more experienced CMO users have great ideas to simplify (which is what we all want, right??), but at the same time it has to make sense to me/you.

I know some that only add the Module (say it's Module 1 for history) and that's it. Well, I'm trying that to simplify, but still feel that nagging feeling of listing the books read also. See, that's just my way (not right or wrong), but I'll admit time consuming and probably unnecessary. But, I love to mark Finished Resource (I love checking/marking things off :) and that includes the books that we read. I could always add that in somewhere else, like in the notes box, but it still seems incomplete, to me.

The more you play with it, ask questions, and then play some more, you'll find what works for you and completely enjoy it.

I love using the CMO and don't really want to have to go back to paper planning. I'm actually just not good at keeping it all in one place....too many binders/notebooks, etc., so even though I may clutter up my CMO schedule unnecessarily, it is all in one place. And, I have been cleaning it up....yeah, me!!

HTH

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
suzukimom
Member

Yes, that way should work fine - it will be more work to setup to begin with - but you will find it VERY simple to use that way...

any yes, my3boys, when I did the SCM, I scheduled the Module AND all the books it used. I want the records to show what we read and really SCM Module 1 (well, the actual title) wouldn't mean anything to other people...

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
countrygirlathome
Member

Ok. Thank you ladies! I'm printing off my first day's worth for tomorrow. It will be exciting to see it in print and then be able to come here tomorrow night and check it off. :)

And I do realize it will be more time consuming in the beginning, but the end result is worth it and like you both said, it will make sense to me and give me a sense of completeness. I will like how it shows exactly what we did.

I'm sure I will be back with more questions, but I sure do appreciate your input!

Tammy

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
my3boys
Member

Oh, Suzukimom....you are so right...it will mean nothing to other people (don't know who would see it, but maybe somebody, LOL), but it does mean something to me. It does take a bit more work to do that, but I just LOVE marking off the book/s that we have read. I think they're may be a diagnosis for that, but I'm just going with what Tammy said, "Completeness." LOL.

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
suzukimom
Member

my3boys - I'm agreeing with you... lol

"Joshua through Malachi & Ancient Greece" probalby wouldn't mean much to someone reviewing our records... but have that, AND then "Growing Up in Ancient Greece", and "Famous Men of Greece" and all the books of the Bible read, and the geography books listed.... now that will mean a little more.....

so we do both too... and yes - I like checking off all the boxes... It just feels like you've (ok, they've) accomplished so much more somehow.

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
sheraz
Member

I do it too. ;)

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
countrygirlathome
Member

So glad to know there are others that think like me. :) Boy, it sure has been fun today putting check marks on that page!

Tammy

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post
countrygirlathome
Member

Okay, I'm loving this so far! :)

Posted 1 year ago # Report Post

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