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How do YOU use the CM Organizer
- This topic has 10 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 2 months ago by
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I am super excited about the changes announced today for the CM Organizer. I am completely new to using this resource, so I am wondering…
** How do you use this resource to benefit your family?
** How far ahead do you schedule/enter resources into the organizer? (An entire school year, one book at a time, etc…)
** Is it more of a record of what you have done or do you use it as a planner to schedule your school year?
I am planning to use the printed lesson plans from SimplyCM this school year too so I am wondering if this will be too much “repeat” for me to enter it all in the organizer. I cannot wait to hear your thoughts from those of you ladies that have been using this for a while. Thanks!!
This is my secong year using the organizer. Last year I was completely unorganized and added things as I went along. I had no real plan and changed things a lot. This year I have a plan and have added most of my years resources. For some subjects I just have the first term put in, mainly those subjects that may change each term like artist, composer, etc.
I use it in a couple of ways. It is my schedule for most subjects. I am using the SCM history module which is all laid out, but I keep track of what my kids have completed each day for all subjects in the organizer. I print their daily schedule and hand it to them so they can mark each item complete or worked on and return it to me to enter into the organizer. I also print the family schedule for myself. I also love having a bibliography to print out showing all we have accomplished. It feels good to see it all in one place.
I guess I use it as a planner as well as a record. It really does help keep me organized.
Crystal – Thanks again for the input. I am just a little hesitant to spend the extra time + money entering everything when I know pen + paper work just as well.
I read this article a few days ago from HSLDA.
It discusses the important points about keeping good records. If for any reason, records are needed to prove your home education courses, ect, well kept records implies a legitimate education that you are providing at home.
https://nche.hslda.org/courtreport/V25N2/V25N201.asp
I realize professional looking reports can’t hurt although it takes extra time. The CM Organizer seems like an easy tool to use given the large number of books that are read in a CM education. The cost is so affordable too.
I am a pen and paper girl myself but for homeschool records, I think the SCM Organizer is a great start. I need the structure and big picture to keep me focused on where we are going throughout the year. Think of it like a map. You can look forward to the destination and look back at all the territory you have covered. BUT, let it SERVE you. Adjust it to make it work FOR YOU and not be weighed down by deadlines…they are just that… DEAD.
Is it good for the ones who just ‘do the next thing’? My students aren’t very independent yet so does that matter? I was thinking I would use it as they entered upper elementary.
I am going to use it for Pre K. It’s more for me to stay organized and use it to help me stay the course for what I hope to achieve this year.
Mrsmcadell – I think it is up to you whether you use it when they are young or not. I recorded dates in pencil in all their books as they finished the lesson when they were little and that seemed fine. Last year when my kids were 2nd, 5th and 7th I tried the organizer and loved it. I was just entering the next thing as I went along. At the end of the year it was nice to have an impressive record of our studies. I wanted something a little more formal as my oldest is getting close to high school. I live in an state that doesnt require much by way of record keeping, so I think if I only had lower elementary srudents I would not invest in a formal organizer. In our house school is less formal in those years anyway. It is a tool for mom, so it is totally up to you how you use it, or if you use it at all.
I absolutely love the SCM Organizer. I use it to help plan my next year’s set of living books with the bookfinder. I also use the bookfinder to help me see if a book I’m looking for is in a nearby library. The Scheduler portion allows me to store all my resources even after I am finished using for the year so that another kid can use it the next year or 2 years later and I don’t have to re-enter all the information. I can use someone else’s schedule of a resource if I do not wish to enter all the information myself. If I am particularly proud of the way I scheduled a resource I can share it with others too and satisfy that need to give back to my community. LOL I have a looping schedule that can get very complicated and this organizer has made it so simple for me to figure out what I need to do that day. (I have family work days and Individual work days based on my husband’s shift work schedule…. when he works, we do family and when he is off, kids do individual work independently.) Now, on the family work I have another looping schedule that rotates through 5 days, but because I never know if day 3 will be a monday or sunday or friday etc. I have to make every resource available everyday and that shows all my resources everyday, but with the custom labels I can dictate which resource is scheduled for which day and then I just go through and close all resources ot needed that day. So Brilliant and perfect for me. That would be enough to sell me on it right there, but there is more! If I miss a day or chose to take a day off, I have to do nothing to my schedule and that is a blessing. I tried another scheduler for homeschoolers and if you missed a day then you had to go in and shift the dates of every lesson there after and it was awful!!! So I would then always just be a day behind and always knowing that I got us off scheduler and I try to double up to get rid of the being behind feeling. No such feeling here….. no judgemental schedule leering at me on a daily basis and whispering how I am behind. This one greets me like a old friend who is happy to see me! LOL If I want to omit something, it is one click. I can make notes, record grades. Then for the end of the year, I can print out a report that shows in detail with notes, grades, and everything they accomplished. It is a miracle I tell ya and hasn’t failed me yet!! Only thing that would make it perfect would be to be able to upload a picture into the notes. It would be great to snap a photo of the finished project or art masterpiece or even that perfect handwritten piece of copywork that you have waited 5 years to get and have it forever stored with the report. Now, being in Texas, I have never needed the reports because well Texas is just awesome, but if we move or if God forbid CPS is ever sent to my house, well then I have them. The piece de resistance is the customer service which is so off the charts compared to today’s standards. I mean they have real people who actually help you within a very quick response time and they truly care about your problem and want to help you.
So, now that you know full out how I feel about the organizer…. I use it to schedule my full year. I leisurely enter my resources in while I watch TV with the family in the late evenings. I won’t lie, it is an investment of time to enter everything in and I’m usually done within a few evenings, but then for the rest of the year…….I do nothing for scheduling, but pull it up daily and click what we complete and that is so worth the few days. It takes me longer to decide on what to use, decide how I’m going to use it, decide where to buy it from to get it the cheapest I can, and to make more room and organize it in my library than it does to enter it in the organizer.
I hope this helps you and for what it is worth, I am a type A person who loves pencil and paper notes, graphs, etc. I also do color coded spreadsheets for everything. So this organizer fufills the scheduler in me, but leaves enough freedom that I can change things and it doesn’t require hours to update the organizer, but usually just a few clicks and we are good. LOVE LOVE LOVE this organizer in case I didn’t make it clear before. LOL
Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. God Bless.
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