Homeschooling: How We Stay on Track

Thursday, August 4, 2011

A schedule is always good, right?  It keeps you focused on what you should be doing each day.  For the past several years I have used these types of schedules (see below) with my kids.  Each day they know what they need to do and they mark off each item as they finish it (I lamenate the sheets to use over and over again).  This way we don't forget what we should be working on.  A schedule has been vital in language arts/English since there are so many components to work on and we don't need to do each component every day. I don't use a box curriculum so it is a challenge to remember everything!  The first schedule you see is Noah's (5th grade).  This schedule allows him to be pretty self-sufficient.  There are a few items on the list that he does need help with (i.e. writing assignments).

The next schedule will be Zach's for his first year of high school! EEK!  Such a scary thought, but I think we can manage.  For his, I just want to give him a general idea of a schedule.  Because high school is different from elementary (we are talking credits and grades counting in his future schooling) I may sit down each week and schedule out how much he needs to accomplish on each day.  Just giving him an hour to work on English doesn't necessarily mean that a plethora of work will get done. Ask me how I know (remember, I am a former public high school teacher!).  So I may need to give him more specific goals instead of timeframes.  I am thinking I will do that by using a "row planner" for each week.

So how do you keep your homeschooling life together? Do you use a schedule? If so, how do you set it up?



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