OK, so I attempted to do a little video tutorial of how I use the SCM Organizer to print out a weekly schedule for my kids per Suzkimom’s great idea that she shared with me in a post. I find this SO helpful!!! and I feel like I’m seeing more and more people who print out daily paper schedules for their kids and this might really be a great way for them to save paper and to save work.
I am curious how many of you print a weekly list of assignments, then enter all the accomplished work at once at the end of the week. Finding out how you use the Organizer helps us think about what kinds of features to work on in the future. For example, you mentioned in the video that the assignments don’t show which days of the week they are scheduled for. I just added that one to the wishlist.
Thanks Jordan! If you guys ever want to do your own, it TOTALLY would NOT hurt my feelings – I just know how busy you are with editing video (hint hint!) and such and thought I’d put it up for anyone who wasn’t getting it just by written explanation. The video tutorials you guys provide were SUCH a huge help for me in getting started with the organizer – they made a huge difference in making the most out of my free 30 days and convinced me I must have this resource for our school.
As for the format of the weekly printout – thanks for adding the days to the wishlist. I’d love to see something kind of similar to how it shows up if you print out the scheduled resources page where it shows all the days and then circles the days you have it scheduled.
I’m not sure that very many people only enter the work completed at the end of the week, but this has been a life saver for me. For some reason I dreaded doing this each day, I didn’t do it as we went through the day because there was too much temptation to check facebook or my email, so I’d wait til the end of the day and then I wouldn’t feel like doing it so I would put it off til the next day and the next – I’d get to the end of the week and then I couldn’t remember what work we’d done or WORSE I’d let a month go by and then I’d have to try to use the calendar and that would make things MUCH slower in getting it all entered and caught up. But THEN!!!! Suzukimom told me how to expand resources to show five days worth of subjects so I could do a weekly printout and even my five year old is able to color in the days she works on different subjects. At the end of the week I collect these from my kids and check off everything in the computer and then print out the following weeks work and this whole fall, there was only ONE week where I got behind! For me that’s amazing, especially considering I had a baby during that time! This has revolutionized our accountability as well as our record keeping.
One other thing that would be helpful would be a small [W] [F] box beside the additional assignments too….
btw – we do this a bit differently (and the days assigned wouldn’t be as helpful to me) in that for most resources, they just have to choose a certain number to do each day – so they are scheduled all days. This works great with something like AO – I have all the books assigned to all days – they need to do 2 or 3 a day (depending on the year)….
I don’t have a tremendous need to print out a week’s worth of assignments right now, but having the option would be delightful in some occasions, and I’ll tell you why:
1. My husband and I are away from our children multiple days at a time, usually 2-3 times per year for various reasons (church conferences, anniversary trip, etc.) My MIL is amazing because she always does school with the kids during these times. I usually take 2 hours or so before a trip to type out every day’s assignments so that she knows exactly what to do. Having the option to print out a week in advance would not only benefit me by saving me time and stress, but it would probably be very helpful and mess confusing for her too.
2. I usually go away by myself twice a year–homeschool conference and a girls’ getaway with my sisters-in-law. During these times, my husband schools the kids. He knows how to use the Organizer, but he usually forgets to mark assignments, leaving me to try to figure it all out when I get home. This possible feature would be a great way for the kids to keep track of their completed work so that I can mark things off in the Organizer when I return from a trip.
3. In the future, I can see that having the ability to give kids a week of assignments at once could really help in moving kids toward more independence in their schoolwork. My kids do about half their work independently right now, but toward the jr. high and especially high school level, this possible feature could really give kids direction and accountability and give some freedom to moms.
SCM, I do hope you will consider adding this to our wish list and making it a great addition to the Organizer. I never understood before why people weren’t content with the Daily Plan as-is, but seeing Rebekah’s video made me understand. I’m a visual learner though, so way to cater to my learning style, Rebekah!
Would love to have an easier way to print out weekly assignments and then check them off easily as well – with 4 children, this is much more efficient than printing off a daily schedule AND trying to remember to check them off the list before the day ends and the list starts over for the next day.
I made my own generic chart that I print weekly and fill in some needed specifics. It works
I would love an option to print the next 5 days that shows only what is scheduled over those days. When I expand resources I see 5 lessons for each resource even if I only use it once or twice per week.
It would be helpful to be able to choose the number of upcoming assignments for each resource. Having all five on the print out is sometimes confusing to the children.
My daughter is a list/calendar junkie! If I don’t make her a list she will make one!
We started homeschooling mid school year and she wanted a list every day / week of what she was supposed to do. So I concur with the above. I’m on the 30 day free trial right now and WILL DEFINITELY be purchasing the SMO subscription. I’ve read so much about how to homeschool and keep running across all these planning workshops and methods. I’ve gone in and put everything in the organizer and keep thinking “I’m done, is it really this easy!?”
But we really would love a way to print lessons ahead, (for my child and caregivers when we travel) and for her to check off, then I can adjust in the system. This would be huge!
Also, we are visual — would love color coding and ability to add in hours on the left if possible? I have my ‘master schedule’ of subject layed out in Excel and color coded….