Schedulers, planners etc

I’ve followed your example and have enjoyed this year more than any other precisely because of the ease of using this type of custom planner. No erasing and no guilt. Everything in one place and very CM style of life. Thank so much for sharing it with others off and on, too.

If you’re unable to afford the CMO, don’t have Internet access to make using it fairly easy, or just like paper planning, you’ll find this to bs a streamlined way to keep track of everything.

Blessings,

Becca<><

We have a schedule for what happens on a daily basis and when. And the essentials are covered in the morning – the ‘readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmatic’. But as far as scheduling the content in History, Science, Literature, etc…no.

For one thing, my kids are prone to picking up books whenever they want to, and I don’t want to squelch that. And I don’t like the feeling that I have to ‘get through’ certain things by Friday, or I have failed somehow.

So we cover the material and then mark it off as completed, and then we move on.

I also finally realized that I couldn’t fit all of the ‘elective’ subjects I wanted to cover in on Fridays, or necessarily spread it out for particular days. I like having the flexibility to fit these things in when we can, but I didn’t want them to slip by…so I created a list of all the non-essential subjects that I want to cover, and I check them off as we go during the week.

For example, if we have the time and inclination to do a nature study on Monday because the weather is cooperating, then we do – and I check it off the list. But the following week it may be on Wednesday or Friday…it gives me the flexibility to fit things in where I want them in the course of the week.

I also vote for the SCMO, but possibly something like SkedTrak or Homeschool Tracker (Plus probably) would work?   Or do you want a paper type planner?  Then the Table of Contents method might be the best for you.

The 2 in k-5 our getting lessons sporadically because my idlers still need nudging to get their work done

One thing that makes me wonder, is how old are the older ones – and do you need ideas on getting them more independent on those subjects that are independant?   The ideas from http://www.URtheMOM.com might help.  She also sells a planner (which I DON’T have) that looks fairly basic – but once the kids are a certain age, THEY use it to write down what they have accomplished – not what is planned to be done.  It is the ideas I am lookint more at – which is basically goal setting, and then accountability when reasonable goals are not met.

I, too, don’t plan out an entire year.  Even a week is a stretch for me, but lately it has been working.  I assume you’ve seen the threads over the past couple of weeks about schedules and planners?  Maybe those can give you ideas.  I am like Tristan in that I have a list of books for the year for each subject and we plug away at them.  We have a planner page for each day, and I write in each subject and their assignment for that day.  They have a section for independent work, a section for with mom, and for the middle 2, a section of work they do together (with me this year because the older of the 2 isn’t a strong enough reader quite yet – last year I could have the oldest 2 work together on a couple of things because the oldest could read really well).

My oldest is 9yo.  She has a “hefty” set of independent subjects with a set time to do them in (more than enough time – she easily gets done early most days if she’s not goofing around or staring into space).  If they aren’t done, she loses part (or sometimes all) of her outside time in the afternoon while her siblings head out there.  She LOVES to be outside.  So this works for us.  I forget what we did for our now 8yo, but she usually is pretty good about getting her stuff done on her own now.  We are kind of surprised, because she’s the most distractable person I think I’ve ever met.  LOL  She is becoming quite responsible.  Whatever consequence we had for her last year and the beginning of this year obviously worked.  So for your olders (and really, all of them that have any sort of independent work at all, even if it’s just 1 thing), try to find something that is a consequence they will feel deeply.  If they don’t get their work done by x:00, this consequence happens.  My 3yo we found out, as an extrovert, feels consequences deeper if we send him to his room for awhile along with a spanking.  I know that doesn’t work for all families, my point is just that each child has something that will work for them to motivate them to do their work, obey, or whatever.  I’ve also found that many times, the same motivation works for both obedience and dawdling.  Oh, to go back several years with what I know now, right?  🙂

I have a word table that shows our basic outline for 5 days (for my Year 2, Kindergartener, and Preschooler it’s a two page spread, but once they are all school age, I’ll do one page per student per 5 days.)  World history twice, Canadian History once, Geography living book once, map work once, copywork and math and literature daily, and so on, each have their own square.  This gives me balance so that I know we are not leaving anything out or overloading anything.  I print enough pages for 180 days of school.

Then, on the weekend I spend a few minutes filling in any details that are needed for materials that aren’t just ‘do the next chapter’, such as if a literature book is done and we need to switch to the next, or which songs we are practicing for our Hymn study, or which math games I want to do. 

In theory, the 5 day page is one week’s worth of school, but I don’t stress if we don’t get it all done in a week.  We school on and off year round.  So if we want to take a spontaneous day off, we do, and then pick back up where we left off.  If we want to leave a science activity until Saturday to do with Dad, it doesn’t mess anything up.  In the summer, it takes us about 2 weeks to finish one ‘5 day’ page.  As long as we finish the 180 days worth by the next fall, we are fine.  I just date each column on the day it was finished, so I can look back and see what happened.

Aaaahhh! Schedules! A love/hate thing for me! When we first started out we did Sonlight so it was all scheduled for me then I would use Rod and Staff’s little $4 organizer to write it all down after he fact. Then a few years ago I decided to get each child their own R&S planner and they are responsible to write down what they have done. It works very well…they can see how much they have accomplished/or how little and saves me time. This coming fall I am going to try the SCM Organizer for an online experience plus I am planning on scheduling in lots of extra books so I think the guide will do for me what something like Sonlight schedules for you. We’ll be doing Modules 1 & 2 next year with a big mix of things to round everything out for my oldest dd who will be a senior in the fall. After 13 years I will hopefully be ready to put together a schedule that is custom made for us with the help of the SCM Organizer !

Sheraz,

I just went to your link about your binder/schedule using the table of contents idea – that is BRILLIANT!  

Thank you – love it!