Daily Schedule

Hi Shannon!

I had lots of those list type memo pads that have a magnet on the back so you can put on the fridge.  I hope I’ve explained it in a way that you can visualize.  Anyways, over the years, I had collected a variety of styles.  It turns out, they were just right for listing out our school “schedule” for the day, and I could choose one to correspond to the season!

I didn’t want my children just taking their assignments and going off to do them on their own, plus my youngest needed me for all lessons, but I found a written list to be motivating for both my 8 year old and myself.

So a typical day might be listed as such:

1. Morning Meeting

2. Reading Lesson/Literature

3. Writing

4. History/Geography

5. Math

6. Science/nature book

Lunch Break

7. Picture Study, Poetry, Storytime

This allowed my student to see what was in store for the day, but I would give her assignments one at a time.  It also allowed me to switch up the order from day to day, depending on what our needs were.  Writing down the list each day took a minute or two.  I am a list maker anyways, so it helps me just to write it down!  

I keep a separate record of what each assignment is for each of my children.  Many moms use the SCM Organizer online.  I use a print out from http://www.donnayoung.org

I hope that helps!

Same as Jennifer and Sonya here, too.  I have a daily schedule for each day of the week, and when I’m setting up for school in the evenings, I switch it.  Mine are just on a clipboard next to my fireplace, which is where we tend to congregate for lessons.

It depends on how comfortable you fell about “being behind.”  I’d just keep following the schedule and those things that are behind will be finished later than those that are on schedule (or, even ahead of schedule.)  If you become stressed about the subjects that are behind, you might consider “taking off” from those that are ahead/on schedule and completely focus on “catching up.” 

We use summer for 3Rs and catch up with any straggling assignments.  It’s been bothering me that reports carry over into the summer, or even the following year, but I think I’ve realized that we follow more of a “Form” format than a grade level. 

The suggestion to just keep following the schedule is similar to FlyLady if you are familiar with her home keeping “zones.”  The opportunity will come around again tomorrow, or next week as the case may be. 

Does this make sense?

I sort-of do that Michelle.   I have scheduled in the organizer on Friday just a couple of things…. their ‘free reading’ book, math games, and the few basics.   Before printing Friday, I will add in any Readings we have missed for our AO week.

What I don’t have is a good method of keeping track of what we missed with other things….

I do it by clicking on assignments not scheduled for today, then expanding all the ones we missed so they print.

I made an excel spread sheet for each of my children.  Across the top it is labeled in bold with the days of the week.  In the column under each day I have listed each subject that we plan to do that day.  The family subjects are listed first, because we do those first.  The independent or individual subjects are listed next.  As long as it doesn’t involve me, they can do them in whatever order they want.  If they need my help, we try to do those first.  I try to keep the next assignment for indpendent work in their notebook so they just have to pull it out (like the next math worksheet, their handwriting page, etc).  I highlight each day column with a different color so it is easy to glance and see exactly what will be done on each day.  If we need to skip something one day or add something I just let them know what is being changed.  We haven’t done that very often.  I have found that this leaves room for flexibility.  We know what to expect but I’m not constantly writing assignments out or changing them on their schedules.  If something changes for the whole year, then I modify their schedule and reprint it for them.  Oh, I didn’t mention that they keep their schedule in the front of their folder where they can refer to it as needed.