Keeping Organized

A. Day-timer – Keeping a day timer of some sort on my desk and jotting a younger child’s daily work helps me a great deal. Sometimes it is done after the fact but it keeps us on track and I do not need to relie on my overtaxed memory facilities.Categories at the back of the day-timer are invaluable if you are educating a number of children over the years.  Suggestions are:  Educational Resources We Own,  Library Books Worth Reading,  Preschool Reading Program,  Bible Instruction Program, Field Trips, Community Programs Friendly to Homeschoolers, E-mail addresses , $$ Educational Purchases (where, when, how much).    Although this is not an education item I thought I would mention that I also keep one category for each child  and jot down their personal health facts.  It helps a lot when questions arise such as “What was that medication they reacted too?” “Did they get an immunization?” “Who was it that had _______, and when ?”   “How did I try to remedy that problem?”  I wish I had done this for myself over the years.

B. Booklist – I also print out a book list for each child and record books read and exams taken on it. I circle the number of any books to be postponed so we will be sure to come back to them and list any additional reading (such as from the Books of Knowledge [-1962 edition] or any books you have personally chosen as required reading) on the back or a separate page.

C. RC Weekly Assignment Record – This is a page where each student records their daily work. For the younger student I check it each day or write the summary myself . The older child hands it in a the weeks end and completes neglected work on Saturday.   (see the separate category in Ann’s Corner for a link to the printable version)

D. Binders – Each student has a binder in which they keep  1. Supplementary Reading List   2. RC Document List (booklist)  3. RC Assignment Records  4. Writing Helps (student pages that explain how to write a book report, different styles of poems, organizing an essay etc.)   Now I have the older ones keep separate binders for their examinations and daily writing

E. Timer –   As I go about my daily routine with the little ones, in the kitchen, household chores, etc., it is easy to forget ‘the time’ and neglect checking up on someone who is still learning to self-teach. To minimize this I set a timer for myself and inform the child that I will be back in __ minutes to check on their progress … and I am.   It is also essential for the child that is memorizing math facts.    We have also gotten them for the older children if  it helps them to be faithful in working for the required time elements.  This CAN be a problem if they use the time for daydreaming and do not actually complete the work. Knowing the  WORK requirement is more important then their knowing a time ‘requirement’.

F. Checklist – The best system (meaning simple and straightforward) for keeping track of younger, or all, children’s daily requirements I discovered just this year (Sept. 2004).  I like it better then the RC assignment record.  It just takes moments each day to keep effective track of the whole family.

For each child I took a 70 page spiralbound notebook (all of .10 each on sale at Meijer) and made half inch columns, one for each school day from Sept. through Dec. (in Dec. I will do Jan. – June/July).  On the top of each I put the day of the week from Fri.- Sat and day of the month.   I left some space on the right side for comments.  I took one page out and folded it in half.  Turn the first page so you have columned pages on both sides.  Glue the folded page on the left side, matching the lines, so one folded side will fold out to the left.   (Maybe you can find an actual pre-columed notebook to avoid this busy work..I couldn’t.  The Columnar Pads fall apart.)

This extension is for writing down ALL the child’s weekly work requirements, in each category, one under the other:    MATH – timed test, flashcards, Saxon, error rate;  WRITING – copywork, original composition, grammar; VOCABULARY; READING; (EXAMS);  MISCELLANEOUS – Bible reading, Scripture memory, catechism: CHORES (whatever they routinely are responsible for through a week) (e.g. empty dishwasher. petcare, wipe table, meal prep, vacuum etc.); MUSIC practice; help younger sibling; (even brush TEETH, make BED if you so choose)…till you run out of spaces.

Each day I pull out the notebook and simply make a check mark down that days column beside each item that was accomplished that day.   My 13 year old comes and checks it for herself.  (If there was a very bad attitude there will be a check with a line through it. ) It is now clear to each child and to me what the requirements are and how often some things are or are not getting done.   If they want to go off to play..we check the list .. requirements come first.  Not everything is necessarily to be done everyday, on off days you just put a slash through.  If you took a holiday or someone is ill etc. it can be written in the column for that day.  For Math I put the lesson #in instead of a checkmark and can see at a glance how many lessons a child is achieving in a week.  At a glance I can see a child’s ENTIRE weeks/months/years accomplishments.   Rewards can now be administered for excellent achievements and improved work ethic. 🙂

At the back of the notebook, about 10 pages in,  I put a tab marked BIBLIOGRAPHY.  Each day or so I list the books the child is reading, with a star to mark a favourite.   Now I have a list that goes beyond RC books and I can refer to it for other children’s reading pleasure.

Just beyond the checklist/columed pages  I have plenty of pages for anything else I may want to write in regards to that particular child’s schooling etc. I make sure I date each comment.

G. Drawers – in the kitchen I have placed a small drawered unit.  Each child has their own drawer for handing in writing and keeping of the above notebook. Some also keep their timer there. That way it is convenient for me and writing doesn’t get left all over the place.  Eventually it gets handed back to the child to go in their binder.  It works great.

Have you ever wanted a form to help you help your children be more accountable in their daily work and to have on hand as a record of their yearly work?

Arn and I have designed one recently and have been implementing it with our 3 oldest with good success.

Click here for a printable HTML version of the Weekly Assignment Record.

Click here for a printable PDF version of the Weekly Assignment Record.

Click here for a explanation of how to use the Weekly Assignment Record.

MATH – I think it is pretty self-explanatory.  To make sure they are not short changing in the time element my husband now has them write in the beginning time and have it initialled (by one of us). Having the older children accountable directly to him has kept them more honest in this aspect. When they are done they do the same.

READING – The ‘book #’ refers to those books from the RC booklist. In actuality we use it very little because the children write in the title and then use an abbrev. for the following days they are reading from the same book. It doesn’t hurt to have them jot down the book # as it makes it easier to locate on the document list.

I included the ‘titles’ category because we, and most families have other books, not on the RC list that we allow or require for study time (such as The Books of Knowledge). WE do not even use the ‘pages’ or ‘time’ categories but I included them because I thought it would be useful to other families who monitor a child’s reading that closely (from discussion on the forum).

WRITING – ‘Editing’ is the brief way of saying, ‘Did you fix the grammar errors?’ I just looked the word up in the dictionary and it appears it may not be the best choice here, a little overkill maybe for young writers(editing being “to prepare for publication”). I probably should have used the word ‘Corrections’.

Dr. Robinson always had his children correct their writing errors prior to beginning another essay. With my younger children who tend to do their writing with less contemplation and research they fix them the same day under my supervision. When the piece of writing refered to in ‘topic’ is corrected we put a check mark (or my initial) in the ‘edited’ column.

VOCABULARY – Again, the ‘book #’ is the number used on the RC booklist. I use only 2 lines for the ‘words’ as one can fit more than one word on a line. (We wanted the assignment record to only take two pages. We played around with more but narrower lines but found that the younger children had difficulty writing that small.)

For the columns with ‘pronunciation’, ‘spelling’, and ‘review’ either the child or I check off or initial when the words can be spelled correctly, said correctly and they have not only written 3 new words but reviewed all the words from that week (on Monday they quiz themselves on the previous weeks words).

Now, I have to say that that is the ideal. Most of the time they do not practice spelling them, pronouncing them or reviewing them!! That is too much for me to keep up with so I have left it to them. Those who do more will know more. I DO enforce the 3 words a day. For those who neglect even this during the week they get to add it to Saturday’s agenda (as many as they skipped.). We only require the math on Sat. which they, of course, enjoy so adding ‘catch up’ work is a deterent to skipping requirements during the week.

At the end of the week I go over each child’s assignment record and I sign it and make any comments like, “You’ll have to do this on Sat., sorry!”, “Work on your handwriting for a couple days please.” or “Keep it up.” etc.

Sometimes a child doesn’t fill in the assignment record and so that has to be done Fri. or Sat. just as any other neglected work. It has helped to have the older ones accountable to dad, knowing he is going to look over their record and be pleased or displeased.

Each of our students has a Study Binder and one of the categories is “Assignment Record”. They put it in there and I do refer to it to see what my comments were and if they followed through.

Well, I think I have exhausted all aspects. Blessings, Ann Jagt