Homeschool Rrecord Keeping

I have been homeschooling for over 20 years and have tried many organization methods for keeping records of what we did for the day. All seem great until actual day to day use. More times then not the planners/organizers tend to bog me down and eventually I stop using them all together.

Things I have used in the past:
Teachers grade book
Homeschool Organizer Binder
Homemade organizer page
Teacher's Ultimate Planner
Online Homeschool Planner
CD with planning pages you print off
Daily schedules printed out in cute colors
Daily calendar/planner
Notebook

The notebook, so far, has been what I like the best. It's easy to use, no wasted pre-printed pages I do not need, and cheap. I started using the notebook a few years ago. Emma would finish a school day in a few hours and I was worried we were not covering a complete days amount of school. To visually see what we were getting done I started writing down the subjects we worked on. And yes, she was doing a full day plus more, just in a very efficient amount of time. After a few weeks of doing this it hit me...this could be my record keeping/organizer/planner. After tweaking it I came up with what actually works for me. I have been using this method for 3 yrs now and will probably continue till Emma has graduated.

How I Use the Notebook:
*I buy a 80 page notebook. Iowa requires 145 school days. I want 180, but settle for 160. The 80 page will give me exactly that many days of daily records if I write on both sides of the page.
Each side of  the page is for one day of school.
*I label the page with the school day number. I use to write the date but then I would need to count the pages to see how many school days we did. I do write the start date on Day 1 and every 30-40 days, plus the date we start back after winter break and the last day of school.
*Then I write the subject and a very brief note on what we are doing.The key is brief notes, do not get bogged down with explaining what you did for the day. For example I write Latin:DVD lesson 9, Reader: Egypt Game Ch 6, or Art: tints. I make it as brief as I can.

typical days schedule page

*Since this only takes up half a page I can add notes to the bottom half. Ex. Work on 8x tables, get marshmallows for science exp, or Discovery day at HSAP working on archaeology. I have used this space for teaching math, or showing her handwriting help. I write words she keeps misspelling. I will write notes on problems I am having with teaching a skill or on things that are not working. Endless possibilities.

Schedule page with notes added

*Draw a vertical line (or two) down the inside front and back cover. Write subject headings you need to keep track of what was covered during the year. Math, Grammar/writing, science, history, and books read are the subjects I need to keep track of. Then as we cover a new topic or skill in a subject I write that down. Again make it brief. Under history my list might be WWII spies, Assyrians, Mummies.Then at the end of the year when you have to fill out official papers for the state, you know exactly what you covered for each subject.

Inside front cover: Skills covered in math, English, and History

Inside back cover: Skills covered in Science and books read for school

*I keep the notebook with our days school work and write in it just before doing the subject or just after. I do not wait to the end of day to record the days lessons(I will forget something), or write in it in the early mornings or the week end before(get too busy/tired and it doesn't get done). I found if I used it as a planner I always had to cross of something for the day or days. For us, homeschool gets interrupted by life more times then not. I might plan a full day or week but then someone gets sick, or hubby needs me to pick him up from work early, stay on one subject longer then planned or rabbit trails take place or the day is just too pretty to stay inside and do school.

At the end of the year I place the notebook in the file with all her papers and things I am keeping from the school year.

This might not be a neat organizer where all of life is located. I tried those and always ended up leaving it half undone because it was too much micro-managing for me. A planner/organizer that is not used is not helping and is just a waste of money. This one works for me. Simple and easy. Gets the job done....which is the main goal of record keeping.

A Visit with Monty

Monty is getting big. The Chunker they call him. His brothers and him are very playful, rough housing around. Tails and ears seem to be the biggest targets to pull on.

Emma was trying to get him to play but he only had eyes for mama Libby today.

Here, Monty is playing with his mom and another dog. After one barks he decides to sit.

Monty and mama Libby rough housing.

Just 11 more days till Mr. Monty arrives home. To help with the waiting, Emma and I hit the pet store. Monty now has a name tag, a stuffed toy, and a pull toy to add to his bowls, leash, and collar. We still need his crate, food, treats, and a coat.

Egyptian Adventure

The next 6-10 weeks will take us to the Land of Ancient Egypt (study wise that is). There is so much available for this study it is hard to pick and choose. Our main guide will be Winter Promise. So far this seems to be my favorite one for World History for the Grammar age student (I am comparing it to Story of the World, Beautiful Feet, Mystery of History, and History Alive). For our Egypt study I will pair Winter Promise with History Pockets to get the following schedule:
Introduction to Egypt
Daily Life
The Nile
Writing and Math
Egyptian Beliefs and Gods
Egyptian Architecture
Egyptian Pharaohs
Mummies
The History Pockets pages will be our jumping off point. After reading the information pages for each of these topics we will then look at other sources for more detailed info. Mostly from the internet, but also from the many books I have and the library has on Egypt.

Egyptian readers Emma has to read.

Along with our study we will be reading some fun Egyptian themed fiction books. Our read aloud will be Golden Goblet. Emma is reading The Egypt Game and then will read Egyptian Diary. Hopefully we will get the audio book The Red Pyramid so even in the car we will be transported to Egypt. I have started rereading the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters just to keep my head in Egypt and because this is such a fun series. There is also a compendium for this series about the Egypt Amelia Peabody is part of that I might look through and share with Emma.

Some fun fiction with an Egyptian theme.

The writing and Math study will be fun. We will practice writing hieroglyphics on papyrus. But the math lover in me is really looking forward to the Egyptian math we will study . A few months ago I stumbled on Count Like an Egyptian that was really interesting. It might be too detailed to use it in its entirety but pulling tid-bits from it would be great. Another book I have that we will use for Egyptian math study is Can You Count in Greek?

Books on Egypt I collected over the years and are for free time reading.

The amount of hands on projects you can do for Egypt is astronomical, actually the amount of info out there on Egypt (books, projects, and internet) is just too great one can get lost in Ancient Egypt for years. Trying to pick and choose what we will use to study each aspect has been the hardest thing I am doing for World History. Also I do not want to get bogged down with hands on projects. I picked just a few but have let Emma know she can work on any projects she wants from the different Ancient Egypt craft books the libraries (mine and the city) have. I did find a neat Mummy making kit that we will use, but we will  try the mummified chicken project from Story of the World to end our study on Egypt.

*A note on the History Pocket pages and how we are using them.

History Pockets had a drawn and labeled map of Egypt, Emma had to draw her own map of Egypt and label it

I am not constructing the actual pocket book but instead making them part of her hands on notebook she is creating. Some of the pages we will take the idea presented and then make her own version. This way her notebook is not filled with photocopied workpages. 4th grade is when we do more writing and drawing for our notebooks. So far I have not been met with discord on creating her own pages but with enthusiasm and taking the ideas HP gives and jazzing them up Emma style.

An example of a recreated History pocket page: History Pockets had a drawn and labeled picture of Egyptian dress, Emma drew her own and wrote about the clothing.

History Pockets had a Venn Diagram you filled in, Emma made her own.

Meet Monty

Cavalier King Charles puppy...AKA Monty 

Here is Monty, our soon to be, puppy.
This is the puppy we have promised Emma many years ago. when she was 4 she begged for a puppy of her own but we told her she was too young and would need to wait till she was at least 10. Emma turned 10 in November 2014 and all that waiting is about to end.
We will bring Monty home in early February when he is about 8 weeks old. Until then Em and I are preparing for the fur baby by looking at his pics, visiting him weekly, reading about puppy care, and (of course)shopping for his supplies.

Puppy love at first sight

5 weeks 

What a face!

Update on Life of Fred

I thought it would be good to give an update on Life of Fred (elementary series) after using it for a year. Let me just start by saying the love Emma had for Fred has never waned. She still is enjoying this math program even though the books have introduced much harder math concepts.

The books in the Life of Fred elementary series are:
Apples
Butterflies
Cat
Dog
Edgewood
Farming
Goldfish
Honey
Ice Cream
Jellybeans
*Kidney
*Liver
*Mineshaft
*these are the intermediate elementary books
I previously posted I thought each book would concentrate on a math fact like Apples did with the addition facts for 7, but I was wrong. More and more math facts are add in to each consecutive book and by Farming you have learned them all....and the way Fred does it Emma had them all memorized (no more pauses in her recitation of addition/subtraction facts). In Honey you began memorizing the multiplication facts in a way only Fred can do it, which means painless. He even has you make math fact cards and in the next few books you can not proceed to do certain chapters until you work on these cards.

Dr. Stanley Schmidt strongly recommends you start with Apples even if you are in 4th level math. Many will try Apples and feel this is way beneath their child's level, and it will be, however if you bear with the simplicity your child will embrace math like never before. Simply go faster through these first few books and cover the ground work Fred is laying down. Besides the story is fun and quirky enough to keep you and your child interested. Trust me, within a few books your child will go from very simple math to geometry, algebra, trigonometry, and even calculus concepts I never covered until advanced math classes I took in high school/college, as well as all the elementary math concepts they need to know.

In these books when a concept is covered it is not then drawn out to get increasingly harder like most math books do. What I mean is when a child is learning addition facts, they learn all the facts and continue to add one digit to one digit equations (5+6=11) until all the facts are introduced, then proceed to two digit plus one digit (12+4=16), then two digit plus two digit (12+13=25), then carrying and so on....tiny baby steps. Not Fred. Once you begin adding he shows you adding with however many digits you want, and 156943726+852081= is not scary or anymore advanced math then 2+2. I think this helps take the fear out of math for some kids, Emma for one. The not announcing of doing 2 digit multiplication or the starting of algebra keeps some freaking out before they attempt the math and only after they see it and do it do they learn they just did advanced calculus helps add to their confidence that they CAN do math.

Another thing Dr. Schmidt recommends is go through the books together then have your child redo the entire series on their own. I sort of scoffed at this idea as we worked our way through the elementary books, but when we started working through Kidney I felt Emma was relying on me more and more to help her with the Your Turn to Play sections. She was using me as a crutch. I decided to trust Dr. Schmidt and have Emma reread and redo the series over on her own. Emma has worked through Apples to Goldfish so far with only a little help from me. This gives me the reassurance she knows the concepts covered.

So far Emma has worked 2 lessons a day, making each book take about 2 weeks. When we return to school after our Winter break she will start Honey and maybe start doing just a lesson day since things start getting a little more time consuming with the making of math fact cards and the pre-lesson drills.

Life of Fred Intermediate Books

One thing I do find I dislike with Fred is I think a few more daily problems are needed. Maybe a side book for the Elementary series with daily drill work. Although as I type this I am wondering why, since Emma seems to be learning the stuff.

Life of Fred....turns kids from math haters to math lovers.

Time to set my goals

Another New Year has begun and like the last 35+ years I am making goals for myself. There are some that seem to be made every year....eat healthier, get organized, loose weight... and some over the last few years started adding in...maintain my blog, read the Bible, keep our school days full of quality learning...and then there are the new ones thrown in...focus on creating notebooks/journals (for me and for school), practice art weekly, knit more. Usually I start out good but then as the year progresses I become lazy, this blog is a prime example. C'est la vie.

Over the last few weeks I have been looking at myself and at how I do things and I see there are areas in need of great change while other areas just need more focus. In the personal column the "eat healthier, loose weight" will always be there, but there are some things I really want to concentrate on. The idea of journaling has always intrigued me. When I was little my dad made us write in a diary every night. He said we will enjoy them later on and he was right. Emma and I sat reading the old diary and laughed at the day to day adventures a little girl of 7 had. I have another diary I kept during middle school. Oh the emotions a girl of 13/14 can have. As the years went on I would start several more but things tended to get busy and I would stop only to start a new one with promises to keep that one going. Sadly, I broke those promises.

This year I have plans to take the idea of journaling and make it part of my life. I have been doing extensive research on the art of journal writing and can see this working for me. One thing I plan on doing differently is not feel like I need to write daily. This has been what gets the ball rolling on journaling failure for me. I skip a day or two and feel guilty. I would even try to go back and write an entry for the days I missed plus write an entry for that day. It would become too much work and eventually I would stop.Another thing I plan on doing is keeping several journals going at once. This sounds like more work and juggling more then one will lead to failure...I was failing trying to keep one going but now multiple ones, I must be nuts....however, by having journals specifically for different areas in my life it will help those areas get organized and between the two I might just keep them going. Besides, what I have been reading on journaling, this seems to be the norm. So I will have:
gardening journal
nature journal
home organizer journal
common place journal
reflections journal
and possible a knit/projects journal

I found these beautiful journals (set of 3) at Blick that will be perfect for my garden journal. They have a black cover with  a nature study collage on the cover. One has a study of plants, one of flowers and one of mushrooms(I think). The set had a red string and a paper band around them. They just had an aura of old fashion-ness about them that I had to own. With the plants and nature goodies on the cove I knew I had to use them for something with a similar theme and I had just read about a garden journal...perfect combo. My plan is to write what I plant and where, how they are doing, and about future ideas for the garden. Troubles and solutions and anything else pertaining to my gardens and plants (outdoor and in). Since we moved into a new house where the former owners had no sense of gardening (house was surrounded by weed gardens), I have my work cut out to form some sort of visual delight of botanical display. I might as well record the adventures and pitfalls I come across. I only wish I had started the journal when we moved in. I am sure reading about the jungle of weeds I had to remove, the war on chipmunks I campaigned, and the reshaping the yard to include a dry river bed would have been quite entertaining once the blisters had healed. Oh well, I can only go on from here.

The gardening journal is not to be confused with my nature journal. The nature journal will be observations I make about nature, all kinds, from air temperature to clouds and weather, sighting of new bird to spotting a neat mushroom, and mapping out places we hike to drawing the details of a butterfly.  The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady was a big inspiration for me. It has poems and weather, musings and drawings. Besides it is a true delight to look at. Coupled with the Keeping a Nature Journal and Illustrating Nature, I am renewed with the spirit of nature journaling. My interest in drawing (which needs much work) and nature will go together.

The home organizer journal will be my aid to getting organized. We moved into our new house in June and it is time to organize and deep clean this place. The first few pages will contain a cleaning schedules. The rest of the notebook will be in several sections, one will be a month by month breakdown of a detailed cleaning of each room or floor. An example is January is my month to clean the kitchen from top to bottom, I wrote the ideas for January on a page titled January and then I am keeping a daily account of cleaning, organizing. January 1st had: vacuum under oven and dishwasher, wipe dishwasher gaskets, side panels, and front, wipe down oven, vacuum under fridge and around coils, wipe down all sides of fridge, clean air duct. I will dust/clean every surface of the kitchen. Also during this month I will make decorator changes, organize cabinets and drawers, buy new flat wear and towels. I plan on doing the same thing to every room of the house one month at a time. So by the end of the year my entire house will be clean and organized from top to bottom inside and out. Another section will be for house plans I have, things I may have to wait for such as building bookshelves and painting my room. Hopefully this journal will help me get this house organized. It probably will, however trying to get those who live here to keep it organized is another matter.

The common place journal is just a place I will put my thoughts about nothing in particular and lists of just about anything. It will be a place to put the miscellaneous things I want to jot down. I even wrote a few pages on the different fountain pens I am trying, each page written about the pen and it qualities and failures. Silly but it gives me a place to write...and I like to write.

The reflections and knit journals are pretty much self explanatory. The reflections journal might get morphed into the common place journal though. The knitting/projects journal is one I have been wanting to start for a while. I had one started when I first started making things for Jacob when he was a baby. I have the pattern number and a picture of the finished product. I renewed it when I was making clothes for Emma. Making notes on future dresses I wanted to make and finished dresses. But those were sporadically kept. I want this one to be about all the things I am making with notes and pictures, either drawn or taken. For instance I made 3 pairs of fingerless mitts for Christmas presents this year, I should have taken a picture, made notes on the yarn and needle used as well as the size and pattern and any changes I made. Also add in who they were for and why. I think as a knitter and fiber textile artist (souds impressive but it just means someone who works with fiber textiles:yarn and material) it is important I record my craft.

This all sounds like a lot of work but I think it will be a better system for me. I will become a more organized person I believe. But the most important outcome of this new direction in journaling will be the need for more notebooks. I have a tiny obsession with notebooks and anything I can do to feed this obsession I will. Now I have a good excuse.