I spent some time researching the best way to track my
lesson plans. I started by entering everything into My Mardel Homeschool. This is an amazing website that allows you to
do so many things. The best part is, it’s all free! You can enter and track
grades, enter weekly lesson plans with multiple options, enter assignments,
curriculum and so much more. The one thing so far that I don’t like is how the
lessons plans look when printed. Once I realized it wasn’t going to work, I
started looking for other options. I found 3 that I like and plan to alternate
them until I decide which I like best. I shared the links for them in my
previous post.
I found this filing
idea while searching on Pinterest and have been working on tweaking it to
fit my needs. I bought a plastic crate, green hanging folders and manila
folders. This is what I am doing since I just have 1 child that will be
homeschooling on a regular basis.
I’m planning to have 2 manila folders for each subject. One
will hold anything that fits from that subject. The other one will be used to
hold the assignments for the week. I have hanging folders for each month and
then each week.
Once everything is entered into My Mardel Homeschool, I can
put all assignments back into that month’s folder and then move the folder to
the back of the crate. That way, everything for this year will be organized in
one place.
The other thing I really like about this system is I can use
it for other things besides stuff for homeschooling. For example: Baby Boy just
had his two year checkup. They like to see them when they are 2 ½ and Little
Man will be due for his 4 year check up at the same time. I was given the
paperwork that needs to be filled out and returned for these check ups. This
paperwork was put in the January hanging folder, so when January comes around,
I have the paperwork and know that I need to fill it out. It’ll also be a
reminder to schedule their appointments if I haven’t done so by then.
Another great thing about this system is that if something doesn’t
get finished, it can stay in the folder and be moved to the next week to be
completed.
We started school today and I’m anticipating needing to make
some changes. The most important thing to me right now is that Sweetie Girl
continues to enjoy school. So if it seems like too much we’ll scale back or
make needed adjustments.
I told Sweetie Girl right before she went to sleep that I wanted her to make her bed, get dressed eat and brush teeth in the morning. When I got up at 6:45 this morning, she had done everything except eat. I know, I know, she brushed her teeth before eating. My plan was to start school at 8am, but she was begging to start school by about 7:15. We made it to about 7:45 and then started. I had planned for a break/snack time at about 9:30, but she didn’t want to stop.
So, we kept going while she ate her snack and we finished
with all our book school by 10:30. Then she helped me clean the living and
dining room windows. She’s loving the school room! As I’m typing this, she’s in
there coloring! When we finished, I asked her what her favorite part of school
was and she said coloring. She had a couple of coloring pages to do while I
read. She said her least favorite part was spelling. She had to write her 8
spelling words 3 times each. She doesn’t seem to like writing much. Here is my
schedule of subjects each day:
Daily Subject Schedule
Monday & Thursday
Bible
History
Math
Geography
Spelling
Reading & Phonics
Language Arts
Tuesday
Bible
Science
Math
Spelling
Reading & Phonics
Language Arts
Friday
Complete Unfinished Work
Science
Library/Field Trip
Spelling
I made a schedule to go with our homeschooling to clean a
part of the house each day of the week and a load of laundry; washed, dried,
folded and put away. I’m trying to avoid having to do all the laundry on one
day. When there are 5 people in your family, the laundry can get pretty
overwhelming! Here’s what my schedule looks like:
Cleaning
Schedule
Monday- Wash Kids Clothes, Sweep, Clean Living Room
Tuesday- Wash Colors, Clean Kitchen, Sweep
Wednesday- Wash Whites, Clean Playroom, Sweep & Mop
Thursday- Wash Bedding, Clean Kids Rooms, Sweep
Friday- Wash Kids Clothes, Clean Master Bedroom, Sweep
Saturday- Wash Colors, Clean Bathrooms, Sweep
Sunday- Wash Whites, Clean Homeschool Room, Sweep
Little Man even joined us to do a little school as well! Baby
Boy played with his trains, he is obsessed with them! Sweetie Girl and Little
Man played with play dough as well.
We also got serious about potty training Little Man this
weekend. He’s been pretty stubborn and I just haven’t had the desire to force
it. He went in the potty several times yesterday and today. We did have a #2
accident this morning, but besides that, he’s been dry and went in the potty a
couple of times.
Now, it’s 11:30 and we are finished with school and my room
of the day is clean. I still need to fold and put away some clothes and make
dinner, but I’d say this day has been a success!
1 comment:
i am super impressed by the number of separate subjects you are managing to juggle! That looks like the sort of master planning I only have to do in my nightmares, hah hah. I told the kids I was tired of planning school activities for Five in a Row so we were just going to relax and have fun playing this fall. They objected heartily, so I caved and bought the kindergarten My Fathers World curriculum and intend to move at a snails pace through it so we don't get too far ahead of ourselves. You're my hero for braving all the planning that goes with working outside the box(ed curriculum)! We'd love to join you on some fun Friday outings!
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