5 Ordinary Homeschool Days - Wednesday

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 Good morning! Grab a coffee and we'll start our ordinary Wednesday. Today I'm sharing a little about our scheduling and how we try to keep track of what we're working on.



A lot has changed in our homeschool from the days when the kids were little and needed me to actively teach every subject. Now that my students are middle school and high school age, they really are capable of doing almost all of the schoolwork themselves, and I am more of a facilitator and supervisor than a tutor.

We've tried several versions of schedules and assignment tracking, and this is how we've been handling it for most of this school year. The kids and I worked together to figure out a general schedule for each of them. We had to work around gym class on Tuesdays, and allow for a late start on Mondays and for Kennady's music lessons on Wednesdays. We also had to schedule the computer, since we have only one that is used for internet and most of the school-related things. Landon and Kennady both use web-based programs for Math and Science, so generally they can't both work on Math at the same time. We blocked out about an hour for each subject so we had a flexible but sort of predictable routine for each day.

The daily schedules are printed using the Homeschool Tracker Plus.

Sometimes it's hit and miss with whether the kids get up on their own in the morning, or whether I have to *ahem* remind them that they need to get moving. My goal is to have them getting up on time on their own, and finished their breakfast by the time class starts. They are both capable of that, but not consistent. It's one of our ongoing challenges. Anyway...

Except for Tuesdays, we start the school day with Social Studies. That is the only course that the kids are doing the same thing, and I am working with them, so it's best to start the day with it. This year we have been doing a survey of the geography, cultures, and history of the Americas - mostly South and Central America, since we did a full year of American history last year. We do a lot of the reading and discussion together, but there are also some writing assignments, art projects, and assigned books so that they can still work on Social Studies for that first hour or so whether or not we are together. Hmmm... looks like there were some kind of shenanigans going on during this particular lesson...


As you can see, breakfast doesn't nearly always get finished before school starts. Somebody was still working on their bagel or toast during class on the day I took this picture, and they didn't take the dishes to the kitchen when they were done either.





Next is Math for Landon - he likes to get it out the way early in the day. Kennady's schedule is pretty flexible the rest of the morning - literature, art, music, maybe science or math depending on when/whether the computer is available.

After lunch, they work on English together, and can spend the rest of their time working on any of their other subjects - science for both of them; economics for Landon; math, literature, art, or music for Kennady.

Since I want kids to learn time management, I have them keep track of their own time spent on school. They do a pretty good job of it, but do need reminders from time to time. They each have a small student calendar - the pocket size kind you can buy for very cheap. All they need to do is write down what subject they work on and the start and finish times for it. This way we do have a record of time spent for things like music practice. The other reason they keep their own record of time spent is that I require 5 hours of educational activity each school day. They need to work on math every day, but other than that, they have the freedom to decide for themselves whether they'd like to do three hours of literature or art at a sitting and then be pretty much done with that subject for the week, or if they want to spread their work out more evenly over five days a week. As long as they are working on it regularly and getting assignments done by deadlines (I do have a few of those!) it's okay by me. I read about this approach in an article by Andrew Pudewa (of Institute for Excellence in Writing) that appeared in The Old Schoolhouse magazine some time ago, and this has worked so much better for us than me setting arbitrary times that they need to work on certain subjects.

I have to keep records too, and I make use of Homeschool Tracker Online for that. I bought Homeschool Tracker Plus many years ago, and I almost can't imagine using anything else at this point. I keep track of grades, assignments, resources used, time spent, and more. I have detailed course descriptions for the high school courses, and if I wish, I can weight grades for credit courses. I can produce my own report cards and transcripts. When it's time for our year-end portfolio reviews, I can print out the reading list of all the books covered in certain subjects. Probably the most useful feature is the reusable Lesson Plan. I entered all the assignments for Exploring America (Notgrass) years ago when my oldest student did it, and saved those as a Lesson Plan. When the next student came along to do that course a couple years later, I already had a Lesson Plan and with just a couple of clicks of my mouse, all the assignments for the course went into that student's assignment grid for the current school year. Homeschool Tracker also allows me to reschedule assignments, to copy a series of assignments in one step rather than entering all 36 chapters of a textbook separately. I also like the ability to print out the assignment lists or calendars for individual students or subjects. (There is a free Basic Edition of Homeschool Tracker; as well as the online subscription version I use, which is Homeschool Tracker Online.) 

With all the grading and record-keeping looked after (LOL I crack myself up sometimes! I have been having an awful time remembering to keep the grading current this school year. I will regret my procrastination when it comes time to do final report cards, I know!), it's time to go to Kennady's music lesson.  We recently switched her lesson time from 5pm to 3pm so that she would be able to get to softball practices and games which are also on Wednesday this season. Kennady is learning both piano and guitar, and has the same teacher for both instruments. She has a piano lesson one week and a guitar lesson the next.

Heading out the door with her guitar.

After her lesson, we head home and grab dinner. Most of the year we have a decent amount of time, but in the spring, we have to get her to softball practice or to a game. The arrangement we have right now is that I generally take her to Monday games and the hubby takes her to Wednesday games.

This is last year's team - she hasn't got her uniform for this year yet, and games
won't start until after Easter.

Wednesday evenings are also church activities. Landon and Kennady are both in youth group. Our oldest son and I are both youth leaders, and our second son works with the kids ministry. Following youth and children's activities, we now have a small church choir that Kennady and I are involved in. She sings and I am the accompanist.

This is a youth group picture from the fall when we had our youth carnival
to kick off the year.

How strictly do you follow a schedule in your homeschool? How do you keep records? Leave a comment and let me know! For tomorrow's coffee break in the 5 Ordinary Homeschool Days series, I will be sharing the courses Landon is working on this year for ninth grade.

Visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog to see all the Crew bloggers participating in this "5 Days of... Blog Hop". There are more than 60 bloggers sharing on a variety of subjects. You might want to start by visiting the following featured blogs:
Monique at Living Life and Learning is sharing 5 Days of Homeschooling with Lapbooks, and yesterday she explained how to use lapbooks to teach History.
AnneMarie at Future.Flying.Saucers - her Christian Worldview 101 series is a great primer on the importance of worldview.
DaLynn at For the Display of His Splendor has a neat approach to grammar and Bible study with her series on Diagramming the Proverbs
Dawn at Double O Farms - Helping Your Struggling Learner
Gena at I Choose Joy! - Homeschooling Middle School
Marya at Suncoast Mama - Homeschooling Special Needs
Lisa at Farm Fresh Adventures - Our Favorite Family Recipes
Christine at Our Homeschool Reviews - Free and Frugal Homeschooling (with daily giveaways to enter!)

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