Schedules and structure?

Question

How structured are all of you. I have homeschooled through 4 kids now with only one left in highschool. I still create weekly assignment schedules and do quarterly progress reports. I keep portfolios of work and attendance records. It isn't required in my state, but I have always done it. I have a set start date and end date. I don't really grade, but I do make sure everything is reviewed and corrected. We do keep a schedule on books to make sure they are finished by the end of the year.

I know many of the younger homeschoolers are unstructured, and some don't keep logs. Just curious of how you all keep track of things and what kind of paperwork trails you choose to keep.

Answer 1

My kids are still really little.  We have a routine, but we only do about a half hour of structured sit-down school work for the almost five-year-old.  My husband teaches college, so we tend to kind of follow his schedule with less school time when he is off.  As each child gets around age 10 we'll add more structured subjects.  Until then my plan is just to stick with math and reading/vocabulary and unschool everything else.  

This semester we're shooting for one lesson a day from "Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and no more than two lessons a week from Singapore Early Bird math.  I also got some Singapore science workbooks as filler.  I am trying to incorporate more read aloud time in our day.

This past January I started a monthly diary on the computer.  I make notes throughout the month on activities we've done, big books read, things accomplished, ways the girls have developed in any way, their likes and dislikes, and anything else that seems noteworthy.  Then at the end of the month I write it up in narrative form.  I do this more for me; no documentation is required in our state.  I also keep some folders to hold some of their art work, as kind of a pre-writing portfolio.

Answer 2

I'm on my 5th year of home schooling.  I've kept records of everything they've accomplished.  We've used curriculums in the past, so it's been pretty easy.  This year we plan on doing a lot more unit studies and unstructured things.  I still do intend on keeping records.  It's not required in our state either, but I do it just in case the need to see them ever comes up... by somebody. (?)

Answer 3

Good JOB YOU ARE AWESOME ALL WAYS KEEP THAT STUFF YOU NEVER KNOW AND IT IS SO GOOD TO BE ORGANIZED teachers like you make homeschooling so easy my hat goes off to you and yes I keep it too I do pretty much what you do All though my son is on a program k12 and I send in work samples and stuff so I KEEP EVERYTHING PUT THEY SPECIALS UP ON WALL it is fun and much better to be organized my son loves homeschooling he is 14 good luck to you mom and schedule ans structure are a must....

Answer 4

Our schedule is very flexible, and serves only as a guideline, since I cannot "plan" daily life.

Yes, we do have a certain amount of structure, and we do teach the children that it is important to learn to schedule certain things in life, and to stick to these.

We do not want them to get into the habit of thinking that it is more important for a schedule to run their lives.

We want them to feel free to set the schedule aside when they need flexibility to adapt to unexpected situations, or have to make time for someone in need.

It is also a way to teach them how to handle stress better, because people who's schedule is in control of their day, and activities are always stressing out over not completing the tasks; important or not, and to many get stressed out if they need to make changes.

I am not sure if we could be called "young" home schoolers, our youngest is a pre-teen, and our oldest is in her late twenties.

We are also proud grandparents.

We call what we do relaxed home schooling, or unschooling.

We use curriculum, and textbooks, although we keep them to an absolute minimum.

Ultimately how they learn is just as important as what they learn.

Over the years we know what we have covered, and if they did well.

Most of the time when we study the needed academics we try to make sure they get at least a consistent 85%, and we do stick with it until they get the concepts that are needed to built a foundation of good math, reading, speaking and writing skills.

Come transcript time we write down the subjects that were covered, the name of the books used, and 85% becomes a solid B average, or 3.5 GPA.

The SAT/ACT is what they take come college time, unless they have enough credits to transfer to a four year college from the college courses they may have chosen to take during their high school years.

Just another point of view.

http://www.unschooling.com/

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/meth...

Answer 5

I have used various methods of record keeping throughout our homeschool journey.  With my oldest I kept a log when she was younger, didn't use the traditional A-F grades, but instead had the following "Grades":  

Progress was:

S+  (more than satisfactory)

S    (Satisfactory)

N     (Needs improvement, but still acceptable)

U    (Unsatisfactory)

As you can see this was rather subjective, and was based on "progress made" rather than a strict "standard" of performance.

Problem was, after I started working outside the home, plus had two more kids, keeping a log every day became impractical.  For about two years I kept no records, but I saved all the work in a box in case I decided to evaluate it later.

Now my oldest is Homeschooling in High School, so I am becoming more conscientious and traditional in my grading methods.  I also purchased a software program called "Homeschool Tracker Plus" that allows me to keep everything neatly organized and print report cards and transcripts.  I like the program a lot, and find that my brain "gets along" with it very well!  (I am not the most organized person in the world, and paper records always got lost anyway!)  Since I find it such an easy program to use I have now started using it with my younger kids also.  It has lots of options, I can use it like a log by typing in what we've done after the fact, or I can plan out a whole year in detail before hand, I can also print a schedule for exactly what time of day to cover a subject (if I want to).  I tend to plan out a quarter in advance traditional materials that have consecutive numbered lessons, and use the log method for more spontaneous spur of the moment activities.

Really, before High School, it isn't necessary to keep detailed records unless your state mandates it, but in High School it is more of a necessity.   For High School I follow a pretty traditional course of study, but even if you follow an unstructured program, its good to log things in afterward according to what traditional "subject" they would fit into.  For example, lets say your teen decides to build a table, you log that in under "wood shop" or "occupational education" along with the amount of time it took to complete it.  Then the program will add up the time and let you know when you've earned 1 credit in that subject.

Really I don't work for Homeschool Tracker and am not trying to sell, I just love the program so much that I want to tell others about it!  I am still discovering all it can do, it is very flexible and lets you enter info in multiple ways, so it can be adapted to whatever homeschooling method a person prefers.

Now I never print out an actual schedule, because I am not good at predicting how long something will take.  If my kid is not interested then we might just do the minimum needed for that subject that day, but if they are engaged and excited we will delve in and do more, so its hard for me to know in advance whether science will go from 9:00-9:30 or from 9:00-11:00.  Instead of a Schedule we have an assignment list of what we want to get done that day.  If we cant get it done then I just have Tracker reschedule the things we didn't get done.

Well I am not sure if I answered this or just rambled!  At any rate, those are my thoughts! :-)

Answer 6

Wonderful question.  It is nice to read and share.  We home schoolers love to compare notes,huh?  

We don't grade.  I write out the plan few weeks ahead with room for a day off if all work is done.  As things are accomplished, I check them off.  We are required to keep attendance, and I usually use my plan book to check off the days several times during the year.

We are not super structured.  I try to be relaxed but get stressed when we have interruptions that keep us from getting it done.   We are a two income family and our time must have some structure to have time to home school.  If I were full time at home, I think we would be more into unschooling. (Except for spelling and grammar.  Spelling and grammar mistakes drive me crazy.)

Answer 7

I'm on my third year of homeschooling. Previously, I kept records on an Excel worksheet, but it was too hard for my daughter to fill in.

Now I just printed out double-sided sheets with time blocks for her to fill in.

I've let my kids select what they are going to do, but they aren't all that excited by school and then they tend to push the worst subjects to the end of the year or the end of the day, depending on how long I let them avoid something. So this year, I just printed a schedule, so I can avoid this.

My daughter is several years ahead of schedule, so she really wouldn't have to do much this year, but I figure she should get it under her belt sooner than later in case she has trouble as a teen. I tend to use 30 minute blocks, but she can go over that and write in higher times. Last year, we reconciled near the end of the year, but this year, I think we will reconcile times each week.

I buy the books. She picks which books she does first. She is in fourth grade this year, but she is on independent study, so she mostly teaches herself. She has a tutor once per week and I chime in every now and then. She doesn't want anyone teaching her, especially me. So I just set guidelines.

Her school day is mostly broken into half-hour subjects. Those subjects are Reading for fun, Reading comprehension, Spelling, Grammar, Writing, Vocabulary, Science, Art, Physical Education and Specials. She has 25 minutes for social studies and 45 minutes for math. Every other day she has a half-hour of either thinking skills or personal development. She has 20 minutes of printing/keyboarding because she is lagging on her printed communication.

Answer 8

1.We don't do assignments, I facilitate their interests to broaden their vision of their own interests.

2.I don't do progress reports, I know intimately how they are doing. I keep a blog of ongoing interests. I have photos of activities and special creations.

3.I don't keep a portfolio, but we do have a rubbermaid hanging file box for each child, with their favorite items, letters, papers, drawings.

4. I don't have a set start/end date, we learn all the time.

5. We don't do grades, texts, etc.

As my oldest approaches high school age, we are basing more on his desire to attend college, and because of his desire, we are helping him find more books based on the requirements for the local university.

Answer 9

Where I live, we have to do twice yearly evaluations with a teacher from a school  board. I write up reports for that. Other than that, we don't have a set schedule as we are fairly relaxed, although I may set certain requirements for a specific week or day. I don't use textbooks as a base (yet), so I don't need a schedule to make sure we finish something in a school year. (My kids are 6 and 9, btw.)

Basically, I kind of work out what I'd like to accomplish during the year with them and break it down into months, although this is just a guideline, not set in stone. Then each week, I work out things based on my plan or on their current interests. I try to keep track of everything they've done (because what I plan is only a fraction of what they usually do).

I do not keep attendance records. We don't need to and I really don't see the need for it. Just extra busy work and paper. Besides, they are in attendance every day out of every year. Their education isn't just limited to school hours.

We do usually keep all of their work during a school year, then at the end of the year, as we go through things for the year-end review with the teacher, we get rid of things we really don't need--there are just so many sheets of times tables practice that are worth something. ;) What we keep goes in a file box for that child so that they can kind of see the different things they've done over the years.

Answer 10

As 'unschoolers', we don't really use schedules or structure or progress reports or start date/end dates or any particular syllabus or curriculum etc. Round here we just go with the flow and pretty much make it up as we go along. However I guess much depends on where the child is going and what they want/need from their education, that 'individual education' people talk of.

Actually re-reading your post, I reckon it's fair to say my family can be found at the exact opposite ends of the spectrum to yours! lol!