In yesterday's post, I talked about my log book where I keep track of everything that the kids do. I only showed one broad picture that shows the 2 page weekly planner there, and I thought I may get a little more detailed on it so you can really see how this works for our family. Please remember, this is my first year of trying it this way instead of making a ton of plans ahead of time and then falling short daily on everything.
First, I'm not going to show an outside shot because there is no cute cover page, yet. I've not figured out how to create one and lacked the time to do so. If time allows, I'll create something simple to use as a cover page. My binder is a standard white 1" binder with clear outer pockets for covers and spine labeling. You can get one for under $1.50 at your local big box store, any brand will do really. This binder I've used EVERY year as a lesson planner even when we had a prepackaged curriculum with all the planning done for me (I'd spend hours transferring all my planned curricula pages into a planner in this binder so I didn't have 5 or more binders and teacher guides laying all over the place). This is the 6th year that my binder has been my lessons slave in this manner.
Now when you open it up, you first see my approval letters in the inside pocket. I have an excuse letter for each of the 4 girls to homeschool this school year, and when Preston is 6 I'll have his letter there each year as well. The first page is this:
This is my year calendar, where I mark school breaks and scheduled days off (or unplanned ones). I use this as my "academic calendar" like the public schools have. At this point I've not marked any days off scheduled, but I can tell you that as soon as I get another highlighter (someone ran off with mine again) I have a 6 week "winter break" from Thanksgiving until New Year to mark in there (I always take the craziest time of year off for my own sanity, Christmas gifts and cooking and cleaning just means no intentional learning will happen though my planner section will still happen). When Scott gets his scheduled time off for next year, I will also mark that on this calendar (we always take his vacation time as time off from intentional learning as well).
The next section is my monthly calendars.
This happens to be my August calendar. As you can see, I have a couple written notes on the lined top half. This area is where I put details for certain days. The day listed here happens to be the first day of public school. I have listed there that school starts that day, with my plans for making the day special here at home with cinnamon rolls for breakfast (and chocolate milk with silly straws), a trip to the zoo to spend the day without a huge crowd, and the girls' favorite supper (pizzas, likely homemade with a topping bar so they can each make their own pizzas). On the calendar I have little check marks for days we've done any kind of logged learning, sort of my way to keep attendance. I'm required to provide a set number of hours of instruction each school year, and this just makes it a little easier because I can automatically say "oh 4 hours on this day" when there is a check mark. Most of our days have MUCH more than just 4 hours of learning in them, but it gives me a good base number to go with. Behind each calendar, I will have a writing sample from each girl (yes each month they will be expected to write something monthly so I can show how they progress through the year, my plan is to have them copy a short poem or bible verse each month for this)
The last section, which is my BIG one here, is my weekly planner pages.
As you can tell, it is just a basic 2 page weekly layout. The days of the week are down the left side, with subjects listed across the top. Shown is this week's page, including the help from Preston yesterday in filling it in when I was tinkering with our Wii to try and get it working after it took a tumble off the tv stand. This is where I log all intentional learning we do, and the life learning as I catch it happening.
This is the left page, as you can see 3 of the girls did some math worksheets yesterday. I haven't put in the math practice I did with Jordan yet, but she did some practicing with the tape measure and we worked a little with a plastic learning clock. We also didn't do any kind of history or social studies, but that is ok because I didn't have any plans for that at this point. I think we'll read some American Girl books to cover that here as soon as I can get to the library again for a few.
This page is where I keep track of art, music, physical activity, books that I catch them reading, and chores we work on together. We had a pretty slow day on this side of the paper, as they spent most of their time reading and not so much being active or helping with the household tasks. I expect this page to vary in content based on moods, weather, and stuff like that.
I have a LOT of the pages for that section of my binder, and I'll likely end up printing off more as the year progresses I bet. I only have somewhere in the range of 40 weeks of pages here.
I've considered adding some lined paper and unlined paper behind the weekly pages so that I can journal and doodle about things, or for the kids to make a note or picture about something, but I'm not sure I want to do that yet.
The very last thing in my binder is a copy of my notification forms for this school year, including my outline and supplies list that I provided to the district (for informational purposes only, per state law) and the results of the girls' standardized testing that I did over the summer (this year we chose testing instead of a portfolio review). You may ask why I have these things in my binder, along with my excuse letters for this year, and the answer is simple. I've had a few visits from CPS in my first couple years of home educating, mainly because a family member felt we were doing wrong and was trying to bully us into using the public school system by using government offices to intimidate us. I just like to be a little OVER prepared in case something like that happens again. This is why I keep a log of everything we do as we do it and I keep attendance, and have these forms readily available at a moment's notice. I can meet CPS at the door and tell them to hold on, grab my binder, then step on the porch (not letting them have access to my home) and show them all the great things we've done so far in the school year and that I am indeed legal in my paperwork before I send them off on their way. I could join a group like HSLDA but I see no need. I'm fairly well educated in the laws and what they can and cannot do thanks to growing up in a very political family (my grandfather was a politician and attorney, I got this covered).
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