Sunday, September 28, 2008, 10:26 PM EST [organizing]
I like to keep the identity of my kids private on this blog and I usually refer to them as DD10 and DD8. I decided to give them anonymous names to make it a little less dull :) DD10 will be known as Firefly, since she is bright and adventurous. DD8 will be Butterfly, who is sweet and lively.
A few weeks ago, my friend listed her school year goals here:
She sent me the template, and I couldn't get it to exactly work the way I wanted, but here it is anyway, with my biggest goals for the year.
How I plan to achieve goals:
Cursive: Practice 10 minutes per day in Handwriting with Tears workbooks for 3rd and 4th grade.
Multiplication: Daily practice with Flash cards or online programs. For October we are shooting for 0s, 1s, and 2s. We will adjust as we go along for the year.
Study Island: Play games on Study Island for at least 20 minutes per day.
Learn to work independently: Balance out working together with work on her own. Reward working well independently with breaks and other rewards.
Completion - Keep an eye on progress and make sure 10 - 12 percent is achieved per month, and 25% is achieved each 9 weeks. Use vacation time to catch up on anything that is behind.
Hours - I will be sure to enter at least 5 hours per day. I will enter more time when possible.
Cursive - Transition printing to cursive by requiring more assignments be written in cursive as the year progresses. 1st 9 weeks - 1 assignment in cursive or separate cursive practice, 2nd 9 weeks - Spelling and GUM in cursive, 3rd 9 weeks - all of LA in cursive, 4th 9 weeks - all assigments in cursive
Multiplication tables - practice using Fact Dash or other drilling games. October 0 - 3, November - 4s, December 5s and 6s, January - 7s, February 8s, March 9s, April 10 - 12, May - Mixed practice.
Typing - Daily practice with Typing Instructor.
Completion - Keep an eye on progress and make sure 10 - 12 percent is achieved per month, and 25% is achieved each 9 weeks. Use vacation time to catch up on anything that is behind.
Hours - I will be sure to enter at least 5 hours per day. I will enter more time when possible.
Responsibility - Use electronic calendar to keep track of appointments and chores.
How I will achieve these goals:
Bible - Daily Reading. It's an easy version to read so I can read through it more quickly.
OLS - Be diligent on assignments, making sure I understand and teach objectives, and taking time to review unmastered objectives.
Time management - revise schedule when not working. Limit out of house activities and try to keep errands/activites to 2 times a week. Keep calendar organized and follow schedule.
Typing - use kids typing CD for practice. Also blog. :)
Finances - Schedule financial tasks daily. Stick to budget for groceries etc.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008, 08:27 AM EST [organizing]
I thought I'd share my homeschool binder today. I finally got it the way I want it, and it works well, especially if I need to go out during the day and we are bringing school with us.
This is what it looks like, nothing special. It is just a regular 3 ring binder.
The first thing I have in it is our weekly schedule. It is just a guide - nothing set in stone. It keeps me on track until I have the routine down pat, and then if someone calls or something happens and I lose track of where we are:
12:30 afternoon - literature, science or art (m-w), thursday - out, Friday - music
5:30 Make dinner
6:30 dinner/cleanup
8:00 dd8 showers, cleanup, and bedtime story
9:00 kids in bed
10 - 11 bedtime
Notice I have dd8's showers, but not dd10's. I can assure you that she does shower, but she is expected to remember to do that on her own. :) We also have things on the schedule like Homeroom period (every monday at 9:00 am for dd10) or Parade of Picture Books (every Friday during lunch).
Next up - Weekly Household Chore Schedule. Mine is very simple and easy:
Basically, Thursdays are errand/car cleaning day, Saturdays are weekly and monthly chores, and Sundays are for coupons, menus, and shopping lists. Daily Chores are: Cleaning the bathroom, making beds, sweeping the floor, preparing meals/cleanup, laundry, and Quick pick ups in each room. Some people like to do a little each day, but for now school is taking up a lot of the day and it's just easier this way. If we plan to do something on the weekend, then I will just switch things around.
Next, I have our Monthly Calendar.
I keep our calendar on paper and electronically (using Microsoft Outlook and my blackberry). This way I can look at the month at a glance easily (paper), and have reminders chime (electronically) so I don't forget anything or have to be always looking at the clock. Our calendar gets pretty full, so I definitely need to stay organized.
Next, is the weekly lesson planner. The Online school we use provides our lessons and gives a daily and weekly snapshot, but I like to have each subject written down and what we are doing each day in that subject. That way if the OLS goes down, we still know what we need to do, and I can easily take it with us if we go somewhere:
Right now I am only doing one day at a time, but if I had a big block of time (like instead of doing this post, lol!) I would plan the whole week. An example of what I have is Math: Review Yesterday's test, Skills update, Math minute, start next lesson. It has a place on the left for notes and I write in there if there was something that was particularly challenging. Today I wrote "Review counting by 25s" for dd8.
I have a separate plan for each child.
Next section includes Important Information. Book it info, passwords, etc. No pictures :)
Then I have a tab for each subject for each child. I have Math 5, then Math 3, Spelling 5, Spelling 3, etc. Behind each tab I keep the teacher guide pages for that day or that unit. The pages don't come perforated in the teacher guides, but I will just cut them out. It makes it much easier to move around without having to lug out each teacher guide each time we change subjects.
Then in the back of my binder I have a section for prayer requests (for particular behavior or academic problems my children are having specifically), Bible verses, and ideas or thoughts I want to remember.
I plan to add my weekly menu but I don't have it in there yet. I will be using www.menus4moms.com and adjusting a bit for our family.
Thursday, August 21, 2008, 06:23 PM EST [organizing]
I found a wonderful resource today that I would like to share! I was looking for an assignment sheet I could print out to write the girl's daily work down on, and I found that and a lot more here:
There are printable calendars (very kid friendly, with seasonal pictures to color at the top and they fill in the dates), awards, templates, bulletin board ideas, planning guides, election references, graphic organizers and lots more! I am adding this to my favorites :)
Monday, August 11, 2008, 01:06 PM EST [organizing]
I was reading on another site and I found a few good ideas for putting together a school binder for each student. I put them together with some of my own and thought I'd share. We have always used separate binders for each subject and I don't know why I never thought of putting it together before.
*Students decorate the covers with things they like. (DD10 used webkinz, American girl pictures, and club penguin art, DD8 used Barbie, Hannah Montana, High School Musical, and webkinz)
*In the beginning goes a copy of the daily schedule, a monthly calendar (for outings, Elluminates, homeschool skates, conferences, etc.), a book-it log form, and a log for Study Island (and benchmark results).
*Then a divider for each subject. Math, Language Skills, Literature, Spelling, History, Science, Art, Music, and Handwriting.
*In the math section, you could keep: a chart for math minute results, math journals, word list for math journals, blank paper for book work, and assessments for the current unit.
*In the Language Skills section you could keep GUM worksheets by unit, Blank paper for compositions, Proofreading checklists, Vocabulary words, and assessments, and blank paper for journaling.
*In the Literature section, you could keep literature lessons, extra paper and assessments.
*In the spelling section, you could include spelling words for the week, spelling worksheets, and assessments. Perhaps also a list of missed words. In 4th grade you could keep a map of the US to color the states as you learn to spell them.
*In History, you could keep paper (for history journals) and activity sheets.
*In Science, you could keep paper to record experiments, activity sheets, and assessments.
*In Art, you could keep your art prints (in sheet protectors), and paper for sketching.
*You can get one of those pencil cases with the 3 holes to add to your binder. Keep pencils, crayons, scissors, and glue in it.
This makes it easy to take school work along with you in the car, or at Grandma's! It also keeps all the kids papers in one place and gives them a calendar and a schedule to keep track of their day. I started one for each girl today. (One side note: don't buy subject dividers at Dollar Tree! They are made out of regular paper and I don't think they will last very long!)
