Review: Lee Binz Transcripts, Comprehensive Record Solutions

I've enjoyed a number of seminars that Lee Binz has created on how to determine grades for high school, how to create transcripts, what records to keep, course descriptions, and more. A couple of years ago I purchased her Comprehensive Records Solution, which came with a whole bunch of freebies at the time (access to seminars about transcripts and grading criteria, transcript templates, record-keeping tips...)  It also came with lots of examples of course descriptions and other material.  I've found this invaluable!

Ever wonder how to calculate a grades?

Or how to present your child's accomplishments in a way that colleges are looking for?

Or what records you need to keep and how to organize them?

Check out Lee's FREE webinar for answers to these questions and more! 

I love her transcript samples, and she has forms you can download right to your computer to fill in. Very professional looking. I enjoy making templates for various forms in Word, but this is one time that I really appreciated having something already set up for me and easy to use. (If I remember correctly, there were other formats to choose from--Word is just easy for me, so I chose one formatted in Word).

Lee's Total Transcript Solution also includes access to a lot of great bonuses online, including a free 20 minute consultation call and a month's access to her Silver Care Club. You can see those at the end of the webinar.

With the Comprehensive Records Solutions, I also learned how to make course descriptions. If you have a student who even wants to TRY to apply for scholarships, this is an important step to take. However, even if not, I still find it helpful personally.  This is the one place where I keep a record of all the books we read, what the course was about, what grading criteria I used, what my student's grades were for tests, papers, discussions, lab reports, reading lists and so on. I can at any time look back to see how I calculated last year's math grade, or what books my son read for history to compare to what I'll have my next child read, and so on. The seminars and examples helped me see exactly how to decide grades and organize our records.

If that sounds like a lot of work--it's truly not. I jot down my kids' grades throughout the year--I keep a simple record in my Teacher Binder. Then, at the end of the year, I make a list of all the classes we did. (I also keep a list of any extra activities as we go, and keep this list in my records file--some of those activities might make nice "extras" on a transcript or might turn into classes worth credit--Lee explains how to do that, too.)  I often find a description that is exactly what I need (including examples of what to base grades on), or close to it, and then just type up reading lists and other info. Each year, it literally only takes me one evening (about 2-3 hours) to fill in the transcript and make a complete record of all the classes that my oldest did--and it's such a relief to do this as we go and not have the stress of waiting until his senior year and then wonder what to do!  My son's only going into his Junior year, but already I have looked back at his Freshman year and forgotten things he had done or books he read.

If you are wondering how to grade a subject that doesn't have tests (which happens here because we use a lot of Sonlight materials), or how to best present what your student has accomplished to prospective colleges, this training  webinar has great info to help you.

A friend of mine has Inge Cannon's Transcript Boot Camp, which also had some helpful information, but with the "rubber meets the road" stuff, I find myself using what Lee set up for transcripts, grading, and course descriptions. She had things so well organized, that once I found what I liked and needed, it's been easy to adapt for our homeschool.

In my case, I'm not sure I'll ever need to send more comprehensive records to a school, so the Total Transcript Solution probably would have worked just fine for me. I like having the extra info though, and feel it's kept me better organized, and I'm glad to have the records if I do need them. Even just for my own use year to year, I find I've referred to them often. Lee saved me tons of time and worry by showing me what records to keep and how to keep them, and I'm so thankful!

I don't do lots of affiliate programs, but when something really changes my homeschool for the better, I like to share about it, in hopes that it will help someone else and possibly help me with a few expenses too! So, this is one program I did decide to become an affiliate for. Check out her free webinar and see if it might be helpful for you too, and let me know what you think.

School Rules

For years, we had this posted on the wall in our kitchen, and I thought you might enjoy:

BTW, one of my kids asked for 100 hugs when I posted it, and so I gave 100 hugs--we both laughed so much! One of my favorite memories!

Planning Language Arts Simplified

Why is it that Language Arts seems to be the most difficult subject to plan?  One reason is that it encompasses so many subjects--phonics, reading, penmanship, listening skills, spelling, grammar, writing, poetry, literature, vocabulary, speech...  It's overwhelming at times to consider all that we could do, and to try to figure out what we should do.

Another reason is that it can be an area of struggle for some kids.  34% of children struggle with learning to read.  (As a side note, if you are dealing with a child who struggles, here's a free webinar on that topic).  Many struggle with spelling or complain about writing.  

I remember in my early homeschooling years, longing for an all-in-one language arts curriculum.  I knew if I chose separate curricula for all the various topics that I would either miss something or end up with 3 hours of work per day for my kids to do!  The trouble was, I could never find an all-in-one that fit us.  Kids tend to learn to read faster than they learn to write or spell, and programs that lined up these subjects frustrated us by being too slow for reading or too advanced for writing.  

So, I decided to come up with some basic goals.  Why do we teach language arts?  What are we trying to accomplish?

At the basic level, language arts is all about communication.  Taking in information, and being able to communicate with others.  We've actually been working on these skills from babyhood.  We have already taught them a lot about how to speak and to listen, vocabulary, grammar, syntax, all before they even hit school-age.  We don't really think about it, but we've been busy! 

Practically speaking though, I needed a plan for moving forward.  What order should I teach skills, and what priority do I give them?

Reading Aloud

For all children, 20-30 minutes minimum reading literature aloud to your child is a wonderful way to naturally build language arts skills as well as pass on your values, character training, and just enjoy some snuggle time. 

You can cover so much through this.  It's a great way to teach vocabulary (I often stop to see if my kids know a word, or they will stop me and ask for a definition.  If I don't like the one I come up with, I pull out the dictionary and we look the word up together.)  Syntax and grammar and the flow of our language are taught informally.  Poetry can teach rhyming, alliteration, and the musicality of language.  You can work on listening skills and oral comprehension by asking simple questions like, "What do you think will happen next," or, "Why do you think the character did that?  Would you have done that?"  Most of all, reading aloud can help your child develop a life-long love of learning.  I still read to my high school and junior high students, and will as long as I can get away with it!

Building a Plan for Daily Work:

To reign in our budgets (both time and money!), I recommend some basic time limits for daily work.  I like to do 30-60 minutes or so for kindergarten and first grade, and 60-90 minutes for second grade and up.  

To fill this time, set your priorities.  A basic beginning plan might start like this:

Phonics and reading instruction:  20-30 minutes

Penmanship: 10 minutes

When a child becomes somewhat fluent in reading simple three and four sound words, add in:

Spelling: 20 minutes

When a child can read chapter books fluently, then that Phonics/reading instruction time becomes:

Silent Reading:  30 minutes  

You may still want to have your children read aloud to you on a daily basis.  We cover this during our Bible time, but you could also choose to have them read a paragraph from a reader to you each day.

When your child is ready for more, you can add in grammar or writing instruction.  I start off working on these topics informally, as I find it easier to add in a formal writing program after a child can spell around a thousand words.

Writing or Grammar: 30 minutes

Writing and Grammar do not have to be taught simultaneously.  You can choose to focus on one per year, do units in 6, 9, 12, or 18 week segments, alternate days, or use a program that incorporates both.  

Eventually Speech can be woven in to that writing/grammar time slot.  

So that's it!  Think through your goals, the skills of your child, and step by step build your plan.  You don't have to do every language arts topic every year.  Next time I'll cover what each of these topics might entail, and some of my favorite curriculum choices.

Workboxes - 3 Years Later

My son's workboxes

"Do you still use workboxes?"  That's a common--and excellent question to ask.  I've read a lot of blogs on workboxing over the three plus years that we have used them--I always like to see pictures and read descriptions of how people are using their systems!  The people who stick with it found a way to mesh the system with their way of home schooling.  It seems like a common reason for giving up is because someone tries to completely change the way they home school to fit the system.  If you are thinking about starting a workbox system for your kids, I suggest using what works for you first, and gradually trying some new ideas, rather than a quick and sudden overhaul that leaves you exhausted and giving up a month later.

Do older students like workboxes?  Mine are 15 and 13, and they still like the system.  Here's a link to my original post on workboxes.  I thought I'd share some of the ways I've tweaked the system to work for us. 

My daughter's workboxes

One thing I realized early on...my kids didn't want "fun" things added to their day.  They didn't think the things were fun, they thought they just made their day longer, so that didn't work as an incentive.  They also didn't like to be surprised or to have boxes out of order, so I actually label our drawers.  (I also let them have input on the order).

I no longer use a separate box for them to turn in their work.  I found that we were all better organized if they simply returned everything to the drawer before putting up their sticker.  (Last year I updated the stickers, got rid of the old ones with pictures, and changed to a round style--my son saw a friend who had round stickers, and he thought they looked more professional!)

This has greatly simplified the system for me.  No trying to think up what to put in boxes, no loading them each night (things that burn some people out on workboxes)--the drawers are ready to go as is, and if I get sick, no one has to guess what the system is or look for some kind of master list--the kids can get up and get to work on most things without me.  I think if I had started with younger kids, I would have enjoyed mixing things up with fun crafts and so on, but my older kids want to get to business and choose their own "fun" activities.  

Each night (or sometimes in the morning before school), I check their work and record what they did in my teacher binder.

I also added another row to their progress charts so that I can include their weekly "Family Service."  I made a sticker for each of these chores and put them on top of the workboxes.  They add these to their progress chart whenever they do them, and leave them up for the week.  I let them manage their time, so long as all of the chores are done each week.

My daughter, always the crafty one, needs her scissors handy, and you can also see a magnifying glass sticking out under her progress chart.  She's the resident detective.

I added a top drawer for a few supplies, and to have a place for daily stickers that don't need or wouldn't fit in a drawer--practicing their instruments, making their beds, exercising, and taking out the garbage or recycling.

My daughter's #1 drawer (which still needs a label!) is a "Time with Mom" drawer, where I put any of the previous day's work that we need to go over.  After we do that, she simply puts those books back in their respective drawers, and starts her day.  She keeps her Bible in the top "supply" drawer, but doesn't put a sticker up for that.

My son prefers not to have a separate drawer for "Time with Mom" any more, and just comes to me with the work he knows we'll need to discuss.  When he started high school last year, I found that our time was getting longer and felt it was more fair to him to schedule things like longer history discussions into his actual history time.  We spent enough time on history last year for 1.5-2 credits!  So I make sure longer discussions no longer derail the day but count as part of his work.  This helps me not to be such an over-achieving home school mom, trying to squeeze in one more thing!

The boxes help my kids know what to expect each day, and help them efficiently use their time.  They keep their items well-organized, and we seldom have missing books due to our rule that they can't put the sticker up (marking a subject as "done") without returning all of the supplies.  It's simple, yet effective.  Having a very visual organizational system is helpful for anyone who might struggle with losing things, and yet I find this flexible enough to be creative in our schooling.  My kids can work on a project or experiment, read outside, and manage their own time--this just helps us keep on track, not forget to do things, and not lose things!  If I want to schedule only a half day, I only put some stickers up.  If they want to write in their science journal for Language Arts time, I can make that switch.  The system hasn't changed us so much as it has made us more efficient and effective in what we do.

I also like that it allows me to clearly see how to organize my day--both kids can't use the computer at the same time, or work with me at the same time, so I make sure to lay out their boxes in an order that accommodates those needs.  My son reads history while I work with my daughter, and so on.

One last thing we have changed since I started:  location.  We no longer school in our kitchen.  The only remaining school items in there are a wall map and a cupboard with art supplies.  Their boxes are now in our livingroom with all of our home school books.  My kids are growing up!  sniff...

Next time I'll post about what's in each box.  How do you use workboxes?

Need a template for number circles?  Here's the one I made.

Sticky Tabs

Since I mentioned my slight fascination with Sticky Tabs last week, I thought I'd post about them!  

What's the big deal you ask?  I don't know, but they are so convenient!  First, I like them better than "flags" because they are thicker like plastic.  It makes it much easier to turn to the page than a floppy flag.  They make great bookmarks.  

Here you can see them in my Teacher Binder.  Along with having a section for each subject, sometimes I have papers for each child in that section.  I use blue tabs to mark my son's pages, red to mark my daughter's, and yellow for both.

My kids like to use them for bookmarks in their readers because they don't fall out, and if you lose one, they are easy to replace.  I also use them to mark where they should start and stop reading in a text book.  Often the place is not only on a certain page, but at a certain paragraph, and the tabs can mark that place easily.  Sometimes I've found green tabs, which I like to use for "go" and red for "stop," but I've also used blue for "go."

In a reader, I always mark the glossary or list of characters if there is one.  In textbooks I use them to mark glossaries, appendices, maps, and other tools that my kids might not automatically think to look for.  I write right on the tab what I'm marking.  It also serves as a visual reminder to me to point these features out to my kids.  (You'd think that since I marked the book I'd remember the next day when I hand the book to my child...but that thought is sometimes lost overnight!  Until I see the tabs, that is.)

What are your favorite or most useful school supplies?

Teacher Box

I use my Teacher Box almost as much as I use my Teacher Binder!  This is where I store all of my answer keys, as well as worksheets that we'll be using throughout the year.

I like being able to have everything I need in one place.  This box has a handy storage compartment on top where I keep index cards (great for notes to the kids as well as making flash cards), a pen & pencil, paper clips, and one of my most important tolls...Sticky Tabs!  (handy for bookmarks and place-holders of all kinds).

Inside there are hanging files for organizing my worksheets and Teacher's manuals.  Up front I have my All About Spelling Letter Tiles Mini Office.

The hanging folders are color-coordinated for each subject (the kids have folders and spirals of the same color for that subject).  Green is Science.  Here are some handouts for my daughter's Supercharged Science.

My son is doing Lego Robotics this year, and his worksheets and quizzes are in the other green hanging folder.

Red is for Language Arts.  Here are some homophones worksheets for my daughter that I printed off from the All About Homophones e-book...

...and my honkin-huge Easy Grammar manual.

I'm always surprised that the hanging folders haven't given out on me yet, between the huge EG manual and the hardbound math guides from Math-U-See, but they've held up pretty well.

Finally foreign language.  My son really wanted to learn Japanese this year.  He's using Irasshai (put out by Georgia Public Broadcasting, looks like a great course!) and My Japanese Coach on the DS for a fun way to review.  Between this and robotics, I think I'm in trouble...translated  私は困っている !  

When it's time to check my kids' work, I just sit down with my binder and my box and I'm all set!

Organization - Teacher Binder

I love to hear how people organize, so I thought I'd share some pictures of my Teacher Binder.

I use this daily, and the cheap binders always wear out.  Last year's was falling apart before Christmas!  So this year I splurged and bought a 1" "Better Binder" from Staples, which has a "lifetime guarantee."  I didn't read the fine print, so I'm not sure what that means!  But the binding does seem to be extra-durable.

When I got home, I decided to look for a nice cover sheet, and found this one at Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus.  She has wonderful organizational pages (with a great, 7-step curriculum planner method), plus lapbooks and more.  I haven't used the lapbooks but a friend of mine has and she loves them.  I was tickled pink (er, aqua) to find a coordinating cover!  And I agree with the quote at the bottom too--there are no perfect plans, sometimes we just have to start!

One of the nifty things about the binder is that it has a pocket to slide in a title tab, which makes the binder very professional looking.  

Another great feature is that it lies completely flat.  The yearly calendar on the right is also from Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus.  I use that to plan out our year--days I know we'll take off, and a rough count of how many days we'll have per month.  Then I mark the actual days we school and know whether we are on track with our school year or if I need to make adjustments.  

I also like that the binder has a pocket in the front, because that's where I always keep my current week's schedule.  I don't plan every subject for the week out exactly, so my schedule is also like a journal in some ways--I write down what we did each day.  I use workboxes, so the schedule for each child lists their workboxes in order.  

Just behind the yearly calendar, I keep a daily schedule.  Don't let that fool you...I'm not a clock-watcher by any means!  But I do find it helpful to come up with a daily schedule because it reminds me what my time-goals are for each subject.  If a subject routinely goes overtime, I may need to adjust my plans or how I use our curriculum.  It's too easy to over-plan, and schedules keep me "honest" in this way!

The schedule also helps me coordinate when my kids need my one-on-one attention.  I don't think I could teach pre-algebra and geometry at the same time!  Another consideration is computer usage--both need the computer for science, so they can't do that topic at the same time.  So, even if we don't follow the times exactly, this gives a workable flow to our days.

After the calendars, I have a tab divider for each subject:  Bible, Literature, History, Science, Language Arts, Math, Japanese, and Records.  These are sturdy plastic tabs that you can write on and erase.

Behind each tab I keep any record-keeping charts for subjects I want to track grades (helpful now that my son is in high school.  I didn't track grades at all for younger grades, though I did grade some things such as tests.)  For example, Math-U-See and Mystery of History both come with a record-keeping page that you can copy/print off and stick in a binder.

I also keep any needed plans behind the appropriate tabs.  At the beginning of the year, I come up with a plan for each subject.  That plan might be as simple as, "a lesson per day for math," or "a chapter per day for Bible."   This chart is behind my "Bible" Tab, and is a place where I keep track of which books of the Bible we've read over the years.  Rose Publishing sometimes sends out newsletters with free downloads, and this chart came from them (there's a sign-up at the bottom of the page I linked). 

For subjects like literature, I come up with a listing of books to use and put them in order that we'll use them.  Our literature often complements our history, and usually it's easy to tell the time period of the book by looking at the back cover or the introduction or first few pages.  Occasionally I might look online for this info in a book description.  

If you have used Sonlight, I make a similar 1-page guide to what they have up front, listing the week that I anticipate we'll start each book.  I keep a list of optional books as well, in case we get ahead of schedule.  We can also easily drop a book if we don't progress as quickly as I anticipated, without throwing the schedule for our whole year off.   

For history, sometimes I have additional resources that I want to include with a spine.  When that's the case, I'll make a chart showing how the lessons line up.  This is fairly easily done by looking at the Table of Contents for each book.  Here I've lined up Mystery of History 3 with the Famous Men books. 

I use the table function on MS Word for all of my charts, but you could just as easily keep your plans on notebook paper or whatever is convenient for you.

I use the "records" tab at the end for my weekly schedules that are completed, as well as things like a working transcript.  This form is from Lee Binz, who has great information on transcripts and record-keeping.  The simple charts and reading lists I keep for each subject made it a breeze to get my son's transcript started--I recorded his first year and compiled simple course descriptions with reading lists and curriculum lists in about 2 hours.  Then I don't have to keep all of my scraps of paper and everything is organized.  

Here's a back page I printed out on cardstock from Tina's.  I enjoyed the quotes!

Short answer keys also go into my teacher binder, but for longer ones, worksheets, and other materials, I use my Teacher Box, which I'll post about next time.  How do you organize your materials?

You might also enjoy other posts on Organization such as:
Priorities and Passions
Creating a Workable Routine
Implementing a New Routine
A Typical Day

Or check out the First Day of School Questionaire

All About Reading and All About Spelling Magnet Board

Don't have room to hang a 2' X 3' magnetic board?  Maybe you can reorient the setup vertically.  We hung our board on a closet door near our school area for convenient use.  Our school area had no available wall space because of windows and an open layout, but this closet door worked out well once I changed the layout of the tiles.  Check here for more organizing ideas, a board alternative or to see my review of All About Spelling.

My "Everything Box" for AAS

Here are some pictures of how I organize my All About Spelling Supplies. This is my "everything box"--everything we need except our magnetic whiteboard is in here.

The Teacher Manuals are on top:

Under those you can see the Review boxes. My kids each chose a sticker to identify their box.

I love the AAS boxes because they fit the cards exactly--no sliding around or cards falling over. But before I had these, I found the best thing that worked was the $1 Sterilite flip-top boxes:

Those hold about 2 levels of cards each.

Taking a peek inside our Review box...

You can see that I have modified the review box to fit our needs. I like to have one daily review tab with all of the current cards, instead of a separate tab for each type of card. (I do keep the different types separated once they are mastered though). It's simpler to get my mind around one daily review tab instead of 3, LOL! So I took some of the tabs and turned them around, which is why they appear white.

The first tab is the daily review tab for me, and the 2nd and 3rd white tabs are for once a week review that I do between the daily review and "mastered" tabs. This is something I added because my kids needed extra review to make things "stick," and this has really helped us. After a card goes through the white tabs, I put the mastered Sound, Phonogram, and Key cards in their respective mastered tabs. I review these once every month or two. The Word cards get reviewed again a month later, and after that they go in the "Mastered" tab until time for the scheduled mastered review. If they pass that, the word card is "retired," but if a card is missed at any time, I put it back in daily review.

I love that it's so easy to modify the review for our needs. I also keep some blank cards in the back of each child's box so that I can add in words they miss from the reinforcement lists or from their writing.

Underneath the boxes I have a folder for my supplies:

  The kids keep a folder with their supplies in their workboxes. Their folders contain all of the Word Banks and other pages from AAS, plus blank paper to write on for things like the Writing Station. I also keep some blank paper in case they run out, so we don't have to go looking for it, plus stickers to put on their progress charts. I prefer to do the Writing Station on paper so that I can keep them--sometimes they write cute things!

Then I have a hand-held whiteboard, marker, and eraser--my dd likes to write her words on that, while my son prefers paper. (They could also write on the big white board, we just happened to have this one around and made use of it!).

I like to use the "Progress Charts" as a bookmark in the books, especially since sometimes I have 2 kids in the same book. Then I can easily see where each is, and it keeps the progress charts handy too!

When the kids were younger, we used the File Folder Game & Phonogram Bingo for an occasional change of pace.

Finally, some baggies with extra tiles and materials:

Typing it out, it seems like more than it is, LOL! But each day I just grab my "everything box," and we are set to go. I even have a pencil in my box so that I can lightly mark where we stop in the lesson. Then we can easily pick up there the next day without having to guess where we were.

Our tiles are on a magnetic whiteboard on the closet door in our family room/school room. I hung it vertically because I didn't have room for the horizontal layout. What are your best organizing tips?

Do-able Decluttering!

I have to pass on this gem I recently discovered: The Declutter Calendar. This is awesome! It breaks things down into very doable parts (and if you miss a day, don't worry about it, just pick up with the next day). Every day there is some small task to do, such as sort through your spices, throw away expired medicines, or clear off the top of your night stand.

You can print off the calendars a month at a time, or print the whole year.

Happy Decluttering!

Organization: A Typical Day

So, now that I've done all this work organizing, what does a typical day look like at my house?

8am: We're night owls, so we don't start very early. Ideally I wake the kids up at 8:00, they get dressed and straighten their rooms while I have my quiet time, and we all come down for breakfast by 8:30. In reality...sometimes we've all been known to snooze until 8:30 or 8:45 and barely make it down by 9, and I have to make time for my quiet time later in the day.

I throw a load of laundry in before breakfast many days.

Breakfast is cereal, nothing exciting. I tend to eat faster than my kids, and clean up the kitchen while they finish--empty the dishwasher, fill it, wipe counters etc... Sometimes I start a crock pot meal or grind wheat and get some bread rising. I wish I did these things more often, but hey, I do them sometimes!

9:00 The kids clean up their dishes, and then we go over to the couch for family devotions--usually around 9 or 9:30. When my husband is able to, he joins us, which I really love. He has so much knowledge to add to whatever we read, and great insights. He has chronic Lyme disease though, and often is sleeping during this time.

9:30 After Bible, around 9:30 or 10, my son reads history while I work one on one with my daughter. I have a "tutoring time" with each child. During this time we go over the previous day's work--what went well, what needs correcting, and any special instructions for today. This usually takes about 15-20 minutes for my daughter. Then I read history to her. She takes notes as I read, which helps her concentrate and remember things. She actually came up with this idea on her own after not doing well on a test. I love it when my kids think about how they best learn and discover how to help themselves!

If I have a busier day ahead of me, she'll read history on her own, but we prefer to share this time when we can.

Finally we do spelling together, and then she moves on to reading for 30 minutes. I usually move the laundry to the dryer at this point, after pulling out yesterday's laundry from the dryer. If my daughter and I finished early enough I have time to get it folded.

10:30 About 10:30 or 11 my son has finished reading history, and he comes down for one on one with Mom. We spend 10-20 minutes going over what he read in history, and then another 5-20 minutes discussing algebra. (He loves to tell me about his daily history reading! He'd rather dump algebra though!) Sometimes we also discuss science or a writing assignment. On lighter days I have him narrate from his reading. If it's a new math lesson day (with Math-U-See), we watch the dvd and work some practice problems, then he goes to work on math, usually around 11 or 11:30.

DD will work on language arts (either grammar or writing--we're alternating these topics this year) for about 30 minutes.

I might finish folding that basket of laundry about now. Or, if I have bread rising, it might be time to knead again now. Or my husband might be coming or going, depending on how he's feeling, so we touch base or he sees something that needs to be done, or he comes home with a few groceries and the kids and I take a break to get the bags and put them away. I also tend to make a pot of coffee about now, so I can enjoy a cup when I'm ready to sit down at the computer.

11:30 Time to start my online job answering emails for All About Learning Press. Sometimes I work for 1-2 hours straight, sometimes the kids need me to stop and help with a subject and my logged time is in 20 or 30 minute increments. I try to stay flexible here--I love my job but the kids and dh need me too. I strive to be interrupt-able!

12:00 Around noon my daughter moves on to science on the laptop downstairs (she's using an online curriculum that includes lots of experiments.) Sometimes she requires my help getting materials or setting up an experiment (like the time we made plasma grapes in the microwave), but often she does this independently.

When my son is done with math he moves on to science. On a good day he'll finish that by our 1pm lunch time.

1:00 Yes, we eat lunch at 1! It's a habit I started earlier on in our school days, when I wanted the psychological edge of finishing school by lunchtime to last another year or two! Gone are those days, we no longer finish by lunch time...but the 1pm time has stuck!

We all grab our own, or sometimes we cook for each other (it's fun to have older kids who can make eggs or noodles or other simple items).

1:30 On Tuesdays and Wednesdays we often play a game together--board games, card games...just two of us, all 3, or rarely my husband is able to join and all 4 of us play. Mondays are busier though--my daughter babysits from 1-4, and my son has a guitar lesson, so we don't play on that day. Fridays we only do a half-day of school (typically math, reading, and history as those subjects need the most time this year), and in the afternoons we go to a friend's house. Thursdays this year I've been writing in the afternoons.

2:00 After lunch the kids finish up school. My son will usually finish science and go for a bike ride or walk, then we do spelling together. Then he does lit and writing for 30 minutes each. Both kids spend about 10 minutes a day on Bible memory, 30 minutes practicing their instruments, and 15-30 minutes doing family service (a daily job like cleaning the bathroom, sweeping & mopping the kitchen or an entry-way, vacuuming etc...)

I try to have the kids take their folded clothes upstairs on one of their trips up. If 2 or 3 baskets are waiting to be folded, we might all have a folding party in the afternoon for 20 minutes and get it done together.

Typically I go for a walk after lunch, have my quiet time if I missed it earlier, work again in the afternoon, or help my dh.

4:30 Usually it's 4:30 or 5 when we're done with everything. That's also when I typically remember that I need to cook dinner soon. I have dreams that one day I'll be that mom who pulls meat out of the freezer the night before and menu plans weeks at a time, but that's rarely me. More often it's my son's question of "what's for dinner?" that brings me out of my internal world and reminds me that people are going to be hungry! Sometimes my daughter cooks dinner, occasionally even my son does (I even pay them to do this!)--sometimes they tell me what they're hungry for and then I don't have to decide what to make!

6:30 After dinner we clean up--sometimes I do it, sometimes the kids do. Evenings might be small group Bible study, watching a few shows together, a family game night, time to talk a bit, youth group for the kids, time to run errands, and so on. On busy days I might work online again after dinner.

9pm We usually do read-alouds around this time. Since my oldest is in high school, I don't know how much longer I'll be able to keep up this tradition, but I'm holding on to it as long as possible! We all enjoy it. After this, I correct school work. The kids go to bed around 11, and I go to bed around 12.

Next time I'll discuss curriculum for Organization: My Teacher Supply Box

Organization: Implementing a New Routine

I've discovered our priorities and passions, I've planned out a workable routine...it's time to dump it on the kids, right? Surprise them one Monday morning after a relaxing Christmas break or summer holiday? No! That's the fast-road to burn-out for me and my children!

Kids like warnings just like adults do--it helps them to get ready for what's coming. A day or two before we start back up, I let my kids know how our first day will go. I like to start school gradually. We don't do every subject the first day. Instead, I like to start with something old and something new. The "old" thing is the easy part--something the child can do independently while the other child and I figure out a new curriculum--how is it organized, how long does it really take (versus how long I think it will take), and so on. I give us time to warm up to new books and new ways of doing things, and alternate that with something that's familiar. This year I started with math, reading, and history. Math and reading were familiar, history was different.

After a couple of days I add on one or two more subjects, again something old and something new if possible. When they kids were young, I took up to 4 weeks to get into our full schedule. Now I might only take a week or two.

I also start back gradually after Christmas, spring break, or other shorter vacations. I might take only 1-2 days or even up to a week to get back to full speed. Judge your own and your children's needs as you see what needs to be done. (Sometimes what we need is a day to unpack and get the house in order, instead of jumping into school.)

New schedules will need to be tweaked. Maybe the order I've scheduled things just won't work. Maybe my daughter can't work on a certain subject while I work with her brother, because she needs my help too often. Maybe my son needs things divided up differently--I found that to be the case this year.

My pattern is to start with the things that require my attention and work towards the independent subjects, but my son needs the longer, independent subjects divided up more. So he does history on his own, and then spends one on one time with me. Then he works on math--sometimes with my help, sometimes without; and then science on his own. After lunch he might go for a walk, and then do spelling with me, then do some more independent work, then finish up with guitar. Each year we have ordered things a bit differently, depending on the kids' and my needs.

Starting slowly allows me to see what order works best for all of us; gradually adding in subjects helps us all to get the flow of our day. I ask the kids for lots of feedback here, and we restructure until we hit on a good routine for all of us. So...when you start back after Christmas break, expect to take a day or two to ease into things, especially if you are making changes.

Lots of people have asked for our "typical day," so next time I'll write: Organization--A Typical Day

Organization: Creating a Workable Routine

Last time I discussed Organization: Priorities and Passions.

Once I have prayed over and planned our priorities and passions and made a list of these, I next look at:

What other subjects would I like to cover?

and

Where is my time needed? What subjects can my child do independently or with minimal guidance, and which subjects require a lot of my one on one attention?

and

How long do I want my child to spend on each subject? If a curriculum lays out a "daily plan" I consider that, but I don't take this plan as etched in stone. Sometimes a child can get through several lessons in a short time. Sometimes they need more than a day to really absorb one lesson. I like to come up with time limits and reasonable goals to structure my day, as well as taking into account natural breaking points in a text or book.

Subject times grow and change over the years. When they were little, 10-15 minutes was plenty for many subjects, and all their attention spans could handle. By high school, an hour is more appropriate for many subjects, though there may still be shorter times for some things.

I list out all of the subjects we'll do, and decide how long to spend on each of them. Then I evaluate: Is that reasonable? Is it a slight step up from the previous year...or a huge leap? Is it all realistic? I pray through this process as well. Maybe some subjects don't need to be done daily. This year my daughter is doing both writing and grammar, but only one of those two each day. In the early years I sometimes alternated history and science, rather than doing both subjects daily. I allowed 1-year curricula to last for 2 years (and loved the flexibility that afforded us to pursue field trips, areas of interest, days off to bake around the holidays, and so on).

Do you have too much planned? You may need to pray through it all again and scale back. Ask the Lord to guide you; He will. When my kids were little I thought we'd do composer studies and nature walks and art and spanish and music and... whew! The list I created was very long and not very realistic! I culled back, started with the basics, and got creative with the others. Maybe we could do art one quarter and composer studies another, and then only once or twice per week. Nature walks could take the place of science sometimes. Not every subject has to be done daily, weekly, quarterly, or yearly. Over the years my kids have tried many, many things, but not all at once; life is a marathon, not a sprint!

Once I have my list of subjects and activities and the time they'll take, I start to put it together into a schedule. First I plug in the priority subjects, then the passions, then the rest. I take into consideration when I need to be working one on one with a student, and what our style is. Some moms like to teach math to everyone at the same time. My kids need quiet to concentrate, and since I can't be in two places at one time, this approach doesn't work for us. So, I think about what subject the other child can do while I work with one.

If a child struggles with math, that's not a good subject to schedule during one on one time with another, even if math can be done independently. The likelihood of my being interrupted is high. Instead, a subject that rarely requires my help is a better choice. My 7th grader reads while I work one on one with her brother. My 9th grader reads history while I work one on one with his sister. In earlier years, sometimes the independent subject was playing with manipulatives or puzzles, independent reading (even if it was just looking at picture books), play dough or another easy craft, a chore they knew well, or even a quiet play-time in their rooms.

My rule has always been, don't interrupt Mom's one on one time with a child unless there is blood, broken bones, fire, or other serious harm to person or property! We've used workboxes for several years, and these make it easy for a child to go on to the next box and then ask me when that one on one tutoring time with the other is finished.

In the early years, I read to or did an activity with my little one first, then set her up on something to do while I worked with my older one. www.paulasarchives.com has lots of great ideas for toddlers and preschoolers. One of my daughter's favorite activities when she was 3 was to stand on a chair at the kitchen sink and play with a sink full of water, some bowls, spoons, and measuring cups.

Once I have my schedule outlined--I know what one child can do while I work with another, I have a general flow to my day...then I put the kids' workboxes together.

So, if you're changing things up, play around with your schedule and routine this week. Feel free to email me with questions too, I'm always happy to help. Coming up Friday: Organization: Implementing a New Routine

Organization: Priorities and Passions

Are you looking to change things up in the new year?

I thought I'd do a series of posts on organization since this topic comes up a lot. This week I'll focus on how I come up with each year's routine, because I often re-evaluate during Christmas break!

I say "routine" because while I do make up a schedule, I use it loosely, as a guideline. I'm not a strict clock-watcher--I like to follow a general routine instead.

Over the years I've re-evaluated our schedule. What works well one year doesn't always work well the next, so I find that each year I do just a bit of fine-tuning. Some things stay the same: We always start with Bible, and we always do literature read-alouds before bedtime. These habits I started when the kids were very little, and they still enjoy read-alouds at 12 and 14. It sets the right beginning and ending tone to our day.

When I think about how schedule everything else, I look at a few things:

1, What's my focus for the next year? What subject for each child needs to be the highest priority? Where do they need the most work? I make sure that I focus my time and energy here first, and give these subjects priority in the schedule. (But priority doesn't mean "first" necessarily--it just means that if other things need to be dropped for that day, the top priority subject still happens almost every day). In different years, the priority has been reading, writing, math, grammar, or spelling.

2, What is each child's passion? Or, what topic would each child really like to study? My daughter loves the science fair, so I always make sure we can work that in. One year my son wanted to study sharks, and a local children's museum was actually going to have a class and disect sharks--yes I'm serious! The timing was incredible! So I made sure to work that in. My son always enjoys history, and I look to capture his interest there (Sonlight curriculum has really helped with this).

If you make sure the priority subject happens, and you make sure your child has time for their passion--then on those crazy days when something has to give, you can let go of the guilt. You know you are getting to the things that are most important.

As a side note, I like to say that sometimes God's curriculum isn't my curriculum. Pray over the priorities, and ask your children about what they are interested in. Be a student of them and discover their passions. But if God has different plans for a day than you do, that's ok. Sometimes life is the lesson. Sometimes learning to help someone in need, care for someone who's sick, character training with your kids, or answering a question that has nothing to do with school but your child really needs to discuss--sometimes these things are just more important than our plans. So...I try to hold plans lightly.

So, if you are looking to reorganize this week, spend a few days praying over your kids' subjects and activities, decide your priorities and their passions for this spring. On Wednesday I'll post: Organization: Creating a Workable Routine