Name: Thrive! NCHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-05-22T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-05-24T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Winston-Salem, NC

Tagged: Paper version of CMO, planning binder, TOC

This topic has 27 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 1 month ago by Doug Smith.

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March 19, 2013 at 6:56 pm
sheraz
Participant
It won’t show up on the days it is NOT scheduled on. If you want them to show up the whole week, you will need to enter all the days like T, W, TH, F and click the save changes button.
To have the others show up the next week, you could have them begin after you finish the others. To do that, you would click on the button “Start After”. It will allow you type there, but you can click on the arrow on the right side of line and it will bring up all the books you’ve scheduled. You can click on the appropriate title and save it. Then when you finish the first set would automatically show up. You can do this as many times as you need to.
I did it with our chosen literature books for the year. As we finish one resource, it will automatically bring up the next one I put in line.
Does this make sense?
March 19, 2013 at 7:43 pm
eawerner
Participant
What sheraz wrote above for the sequence of supplemental books will only work if you have 1 supplemental book per week. If you have, say 5, and your kids can read them in any order during the week. I would recommend going through on Friday evening or Saturday and checking off any or all of the 5 they have read. Then the next set of books won’t pop up until the next week. Also, if you choose to schedule them on Tuesdays only, but they are free reads for the whole week, you can go back on any day and click on “Resources not scheduled” to find that subject and check completed for whatever date you did read the book. Or even just check it off for Tuesday, though you may have read it on Thursday.
When you start using the CMO in earnest, and life starts happening, you will find that you often go back to your “Resources not scheduled” link because days just get shuffled around and assignments get done at times that weren’t scheduled by the clock. It’s ok.
March 19, 2013 at 7:53 pm
suzukimom
Participant
On the Wishlist is to have a “Use With” option that you can setup with specific chapters of another resource – so In theory you could say to schedule a book to start With Chapter 2 of your history spine….. but at the moment it is on the wishlist.
Thinking on it – I would make a set of Fake Resources… What you call them might be Week numbers, or Section Names, or whatever makes sense to you. I’d schedule them to follow one after another – and schedule the books to start after it.
So if week numbers makes sense it might look like this.
Resource – “Week 1” – scheduled Fridays (as a Teacher Resource – makes it easy to remove from reports) – starts “now”
Resource – “Week 2” – Scheduled Fridays – starts after “Week 1”
Resource ‘ “Boy of Pyramids” – Scheduled T-Friday – starts after “Week 1”
Resource – “Week 3” – starts after “Week 2”
Resource – “Cat of Ba……” – starts after “Week 2”
Resource – some other egyptian book – starts after “Week 2”
etc….
Then when you are done the week, you mark it as done, and the next list of books will come up in the plan.

If you wanted to do it by Section Names, it would be similar…. so something like…
Resource – “Introduction” – scheduled Fridays (as a Teacher Resource – makes it easy to remove from reports) – starts “now”
Resource – “Egyptians” – Scheduled Fridays – starts after “Introduction”
Resource ‘ “Boy of Pyramids” – Scheduled T-Friday – starts after “Introduction”
Resource – “More about Egyptians” – starts after “Egyptians”
Resource – “Cat of Ba……” – starts after “Egyptians”
Resource – some other egyptian book – starts after “Egyptians”
Resource – “Introduction to the Greeks” – Starts after “More about Egyptians”
Resource – “Greek Lives and other made up books” – Starts after “More about Egyptians”

I hope that made sense. It is some extra work – sure wish that wishlist feature was done!

etc….
March 19, 2013 at 8:10 pm
Shannon
Participant
Ah, Suzuki Mom, that may just be what I’m looking for! Then it wouldn’t matter what order we read the group of books during the week, only that that section gets completed before we move on to the next chapter. Let me see if I can get that to work.
Do you happen to know how often the Organizer get updated, historically? It is a yearly thing, or closer to quarterly?
Thanks!
shannon
March 19, 2013 at 8:21 pm
sheraz
Participant
In my previous post, I was assuming that you would have the same number of books every week. You most likely won’t, so eawerner is right.
What I really do for history is take my spine or guide and just jot the books I want to read it with it. That guide or spine is listed daily in the Organizer.
Then I put in all my books in the Organizer for Saturday. As I am using the spine or guide daily, I read the corresponding book. When I am marking our progress each day, I simply open the ‘resources not used today’ tab and click on the book and mark what we did.
I don’t waste ink, I don’t forget a resource, but I can add it in when it fits in the order I need it to. It also saves the frustration of trying to make a huge schedule on the Organizer that might need tweaking frequently.

March 19, 2013 at 8:21 pm
suzukimom
Participant
They are pretty good about updating the Organizer, but it isn’t on a specific schedule. It took quite a while for the most recent major update, as it was a MAJOR feature that affected all areas of the Organizer. So besides it taking quite a while to design and Program, it took quite a while to test to make sure that no big bugs were missed. (And I think they did a great job on that.) That feature was the ability to share resources with everyone, which was a fantastic thing to add! I know that BEFORE that one, there were a few smaller updates more often as they added some smaller things that were useful, but not as complicated for them to add.
I do think that they occasionally do smaller “bug-fix” updates that aren’t announced. For instance, not long ago it was noticed that when you finished a resource, a quick error message would flash on the screen…. there was no real error, and everything worked just as you’d expect, except for the error message. Within a day or two of it being reported, it was fixed, and it no longer occurs. SCM has been very quick at fixing any bugs that I’m aware of… and if you don’t happen to know about the bug, you wouldn’t even realize they had updated the organizer.
I’d just also like to say that SCM works hard to make the organizer a very safe, stable product. I used to be a computer programmer with software that bugs would be dangerous (and no matter what, there will always be a few out there….) – so I know how much work it takes to make a product as bug free as possible. THANKS SCM!
March 19, 2013 at 8:29 pm
suzukimom
Participant
Yes, scheduling things for Saturday or Sunday is a trick I use often too, when I’m not quite sure when I’ll need it.

And as I’m using AO this year, I’ve come up with a few different things to do their non-weekly scheduled items… and it is even more fun now that my children want to do their readings on whatever day they want instead of scheduled on a particular day…. These are a couple of circumstances that take a bit more work to do on the Organizer (as it isn’t how it was designed) – but is still worth it for me!
Even though, where I live, we don’t need to keep records (a simple portfolio is recommended in case the child needs to go back to school…) – my dh insisted I track what we did. I tried a few ways and means pre-organizer – and was very inconsistant. (I tried various programs, spreadsheets, etc…. although if put in that place again I do like the TofC methods that have been shown here.) Since using the organizer, I find that I actually mark most of the stuff that we do as done (the kdis do life-type-stuff that haven’t made it in… like I haven’t written in EVERY book they read on their own time, etc…) And my dh loves the reports at the end of the year.
March 19, 2013 at 8:45 pm
Shannon
Participant
I just entered this weeks’ books to follow ‘Chapter 7 COMPLETED’ (teacher resource) and marked the supplemental books to show up seven days a week. That may end up being too messy looking and if so, I’ll try marking them just for Saturday like Sheraz recommended.
I don’t have to keep this list for our state, either, but I would like something to show to my husband (and myself). I’ve tried to find a system that works for me for three years now and nothing lasts longer than a few weeks. And even then it is on paper that I end up deciding isn’t helpful after all and I end recycling it. So I’ve got nothing as far as record keeping so far. 🙂
Thanks for all your thoughts!
shannon
March 19, 2013 at 11:55 pm
LindseyD
Participant
Shannon, I am not quite sure I completely understood your question, but it looks like you’ve gotten some good feedback. If you’re scheduling a resource to be “Use With” you can only schedule one at a time. However, you could schedule the supplemental resources you’re referring to on their own and then just pick which day(s) you want to use them.
I use the SCM history/geo/Bible modules, and I only schedule the Family Handbook. I don’t schedule the recommended resources that go along with it (Boy of the Pyramids, Cleopatra, etc.) that are Family Resources. For children who are reading independently and narrating from recommended books, I do schedule those resources for that specific child. So for example, we are in Module 3 this year. Detectives in Togas is a book that SCM recommends for grades 4-6 as independent reading, but Oxford First Ancient History is recommended as a Family resource. So, I didn’t put Oxford into the Organizer because in my mind, it falls under the Module 3 resource in our Family subjects. But I did schedule Detectives in Togas for my son since it was a book he was reading on his own, and I wanted it to not only remind me to have him read it, but also keep a record of his reading it. Make sense?
We don’t check out many books from the library any more because I prefer to buy our books. But when we did check out books, scheduled a “Library Bundle”. This was actually Sonya’s suggestion. In the notes section, I listed the titles of the books that were in that bundle (usually just leisure reading). Any time those books were read, I clicked on “Worked On”, until the day I took them back to the library, then I clicked “Finished”. Maybe that could help you with some of your supplemental resources as well. They wouldn’t be listed individually, but you would have that reminder (daily or once a week, whenever you scheduled them) and a record that you or the kids read them.
I don’t find paper systems helpful for long-term records either. You end up with stacks and stacks of papers that you’re toting around for years, and if any gets lost or torn or if the house burns down, you’re in a pickle. I hope you’re finding the Organizer more helpful now!
Blessings,
Lindsey
March 20, 2013 at 12:26 pm
Doug Smith
Keymaster
On the Wishlist is to have a “Use With” option that you can setup with specific chapters of another resource – so In theory you could say to schedule a book to start With Chapter 2 of your history spine….. but at the moment it is on the wishlist.
You can sort of make this happen now. You can schedule a resource more than once and you can choose to schedule only some chapters of that resource. Each time you schedule it you can choose different chapters. Then you can do a “use with” and tie it to a particular instance of the resource you’ve scheduled.
I do think that they occasionally do smaller “bug-fix” updates that aren’t announced.
Yes, we contantly do little bug fixes and updates that you never hear about. We’re about ready to roll out some big upgrades that are completely behind the scenes that we were not even going to mention. You shouldn’t see any changes other than the Organizer will probably go faster. And for us, it makes it easier to maintain and quicker to add new things.
so I know how much work it takes to make a product as bug free as possible. THANKS SCM!
Thanks for noticing.
March 20, 2013 at 3:24 pm
suzukimom
Participant

We’re about ready to roll out some big upgrades that are completely behind the scenes that we were not even going to mention.

Ah, but now you’ve mentioned it! 😉
March 21, 2013 at 1:39 pm
Shannon
Participant
Hi Doug,
I tried to enter the chapters and additional books in the method you suggested but it doesn’t work. The separate chapters show up all with the same name in the pull down menu (The Story of the World: Vol 1: Ancient Times: From the First First Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor) so when I need to find the specific one that is for Chapter 7, say, there’s no way to differentiate it from Chapter 8 or 9. Am I doing something differently from what you had described?
Thank you for your help.
Shannon
March 22, 2013 at 1:50 am
Doug Smith
Keymaster
Unfortunately, each time you schedule the same resource it shows up with the same title in the menu. I believe they are in the order that they are scheduled, so you could figure it out that way.
It would be great if we could display more information in that menu to differentiate them. This has us now discussing ways we could make that better. Any input is welcome.