Little Guy – tags along with sister or plays quietly with pre-selected toys/activities (ha) or may get to watch a scholastic or nest dvd sometimes. I may make a list for me to refer to so I always have something to pull from.
I also made subject planners for each of the older two, which I love. It’s like the CMO, but on paper, which I needed.
Thanks! We’ve been doing a block schedule this year, and I was working on tweaking it last night, now I’m glad I didn’t finish! Can’t wait to see the kindergarten one (I’ll have one of those next year). I love your charts, you have such a nice way of putting things down on paper that is logical, organized and still simple.
If I get it finished! We’ve been flying by the seat of our pants with lots of illness, major surgery for dog, replacing our septic system and drain field and entire backyard, hubby and dd11 leave Monday for two weeks in europe. Crazy!
IF you get a chance, could you explain how you made the subject planners? I use the CMO also but would LOVE to get some additional organizational ideas. I have a 6th grader and a Kindergardener this year also, along with a 4 and 3 year old and I just can’t seem to get it together yet this year-20 days in! I am desperately attempting to work out a better schedule today, and so appreciate your sharing.
I hope to have everything updated tomorrow evening, but for now, here is my 3rd grader’s Bible planner. It’s broken into 6 mini terms and essentially it is everything we plan to do.
We have Mad Science class on Mondays. Typically, we go to the park for nature study/journal afterwards. Those two lessons are done the same day, usually. However, no worries if not done.
I have not printed terms 5 & 6 yet, but will move our nature journal, science shelf, etc. over since we won’t have Mad Science anymore.
A very simple way to do a subject planner is to have a list of books per subject and date when finished.
History
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
…
Another way is to photocopy the Table of Contents of each book and date each chapter. I’m too Type A and need neat and organized charts. So far, we’re really loving this. My ds8 is still realizing that he has to flip pages, but his block schedule helps him to know what to do each day.
In the future, I won’t include family read alouds for history, etc. I will have a list and we’ll simply check them off as we go. It just doesn’t make sense to list out by chapter as life doesn’t allow us to do them consistently every week. So, we’ll have 6 term planners for each subject with a follow-up list of family books for that subject (if applicable) and for any extra work the child has completed (extra books, websites, movies, etc.) I’m learning not to make the plans too detailed.
Ditto what Katrina said! I am so inspired by your organization- I will be taking some notes as I go through this week and can’t wait to work out some details on paper this weekend. It’s like the glue I’m missing, I’m sure! Have you ever thought of doing consulting work?! You would be simply FABULOUS! (Think of the book $$ !!) lol
Seriously though-I am already feeling more organized and believing for our best week yet. Thank you sooo much!
Thank you Katrina and Leah. I’m glad you find the charts helpful. I made them in iWork pages.
Jennifer, in the past I divided into 3 terms of 12 weeks each. I couldn’t fit 12 weeks on a chart like this, so I decided on 6 week terms. We actually who’ll 3 on, 1 off most of the year so this is a good way to stay on track. Yes, you could use the form to write in after the fact, too.