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Schedules for high schoolers
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I have always made schedules for my children, but now that my daughter is in high school I would like her to start becoming more responsible for her own schedule. She has a very eclectic schedule this year (coop, online, family and individual lessons.) Although I’m excited for her to branch out and be more independent with this type of schedule, I’m a little nervous about how we are going to keep track of it all.
I was wondering if anyone has had success with transitioning their high schoolers to keeping their own schedules. What did you use and did how did you make that transition (gradual or cold turkey? ; ) I have looked on line for a variety of notebooks or schedule pages and I’m a bit lost on how to do this.
We have used a plan in place before (which is good) and last year we just used composition books for daily assignments. She really liked the composition books, but I think it might be too much hand holding. I would like to transition her to being more independent. Any ideas???? ; )
http://www.urthemom.com has some articles, a book and a planner meant to help your children learn independently and be accountable to you. My dc are not in high school yet, but there is a gradual plan discussed in The Self-Propelled Advantage by Joanne Calderwood. I try to help them become a little more independent with their schedules each year. I would think any planner or notebook would work; it is the method that matters.
My oldest is in 11th and has been self directed for a couple of years. We started gradually in 6th grade or so with my plans being daily and she figured order of her day and moved gradually to me giving weekly plans and her figuring the week. Now we do some of that and some more semester type plans and she figures from there.
We’ve used a variety of online and paper planners. I tend to get lost in making perfect plans and fall behind on execution if not careful. This year I bought paper planners for all 4 from Order Out of Chaos.
We started school Monday and already dd16 declared it her favorite ever. It’s easy to use and she is pulling together – dual enrollment college courses, online classes, home classes, and co-op classes. She has a syllabus for each that guides her. I check her work 1-2 times per week.
Ds13 is in 8th and not yet ready for the same level of set management, but it’s a big goal this year. Right now I’m teaching him to put EVERYTHING into the planner when assigned and when due. He has mainly online classes this year and multiple teachers. (This is the right fit for this kid at this time.)
dd10 and ds7, I fill in their planners with their work, they check it off and I verify.
Its a slow transition, but has worked well for me thus far.
Missceegee, those planners only have space for 7 subjects along the side. Does your dd have more than 7 and, if so, how does she incorporate those into the scheduler?
Thanks
She just doubles up as needed. I’ll link a photo.
She has a syllabus for each class and can work from that and just put day 15 in planner or she can spell out specifics to whatever extent needed ds13 has to have all specifics in planner!
Bear in mind, we just started school Monday and several of her things don’t start til next week The ones with days and times are either online classes (Bible and Psychology) or college classes (SLS and English). French is via skype with a French friend in Europe and fluctuates due to her health This is year 3 of French for dd so just focusing on more conversation at this point
We’ve used check lists from middle school on over here. Really basic stuff – list of lessons in varying order, arranged by day, they check off when finished and move to the next one. I think I was more involved in the order and keeping lesson times in check in those early years. I found we just naturally transitioned to accommodate personal learning styles as the years have gone on. I have a junior and a freshman in high school now.
My older one has opted to do her junior and senior years of high school as a dual enrolled student and earn her AA simultaneously with her high school degree. Because of this she has rather abruptly gone completely independent and only has me edit for her occasionally. She put a lot of thought in to her own style for study and learning and is adjusting as she goes if needed. She’s really determined, goal oriented and this works for her. I’ll admit it is an odd feeling but also seems like a very natural and healthy one too.
For my one still studying with me at home, we use a daily list but it’s up to him to keep an order that doesn’t exhaust him and one that keeps his times reasonable. I can see he still needs help with time management but he’s also a young man who wants more control and independence so I try to breathe deeply and let him learn from poor choices (too many basketball breaks) or lackluster time management rather than take over and mommy him to death. 😉 He knows where the bar is set so he knows the consequences.
I’d be happy to pass on any of my schedules over the years. Most are Word or Excel documents. Just let me know but they’re not much to look at … we tend to go simple!
Yes, I would like to see them. Your son sounds like my daughter and I’d like to see how you handled that. Do I need to include my email or can you just link the documents here?
I’ll attach them here some time today. I’m a little embarrassed … there are a lot of them. Apparently I like to tweak them?!
Claire, I will confess to making countless checklists and planners in the past. For me, I get so caught up in making the perfect plan that I can fail to execute because the plan isn’t perfected yet. I tried online planners too and always returned to my own. I thought I would really hate having to write out plans weekly in premade planners. It’s only week 2, but for me it is freeing in a way. I have a syllabus or plan of sorts for each course for the kids but I can pencil in as much or little detail as I want. (Not my high schooler’s but my younger ones.) I’m in no way knocking tweaking your own. Just sharing that I’m trying (still) to let go of my perfectionist tendencies and this is helping a bit.
I just thought I’d share what I decided to do (for this year ; )
I decided to buy the Well Planned Planner for high school. Here are a few reasons why in case your situation is similar to mine.
1. My daughter’s schedule each day is different. There is not one day that she will be doing the same thing at the same time. I liked the idea of a matrix, but I had no idea how to line things up since the only subject she would be doing at the same time each day was math.
2. This schedule layout still gives her the ability to see her week at a slightly longer glance ; ), which helps with time management and project planning.
3. She was already used to the daily list style schedule, so I think this planner will be helpful in transitioning her toward more independence not to mention better organization and time management skills.
Just thought I’d share my thought process in case it helps anyone.
Claire, I would still love to see your schedules if you have time ; )
I typed up this LONG post and included the link that I finally figured out how to do and then poof … it went away. I’ll wait to see if it pops up and if not I’ll repost the link and try to remember all the babble that made the linked schedules make sense. 🙁
Well, it’s been about an hour or so. I’ll assume that fat post is in wonderland.
I really have lost all those thoughts I had earlier. 🙁 So, I guess if you see something interesting just ask. I’ll be more than happy to answer.
This is a link to the Google Docs folder holding five of our seven years of homeschooling schedules as pdfs.
Olson Academy Schedules
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B3_g5-mu1ms0SV9OaFJBeElPdW8?usp=sharing
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