Homeschool Planning and Record Keeping

I'm not that type of blogger that normally shows you things in a timely or useful manner. I'm more like "here's what we did for St. Patty's day" three weeks after the fact when it's of no use to you and you probably won't remember for next year even if you do think it would be fun to copy.  And we start our new grade of school curriculum in January (or whenever we finish one book if it's handwriting, math or piano) so I can't even participate in the regular Not Back to School carnival. I still love visiting those because I love all things planning and organizing and curriculum related but I I have a hard time finding motivation to write about something that's 6 months old in my life. But in this case, I'm starting to use my newly designed homeschool planner/hour logger in July so you might actually be able to glean some ideas if you start on a regular rotation! 

Last year I used a weekly checklist that was modified from Elaine who I think modified Celeste's, along with the basic AO one sheet term overview pdf which I used by simple highlighting the readings as I read. The last term I tried adding dates to each reading but the spacing was tight as I felt  my basic record keeping was a little sparse. (Sidenote:  I am in the sorta unique position that I believe in giving the state exactly what it legally requires and not a dot more on a principles level- but I also am involved with the foster care system and while our licensing worker has been nothing but enthusiastic about our kids and their education, I still want to make sure all our t's are crossed in case we end up with a different case worker that is a bit more antagonistic. So, this might be more involved than most people but it works for my peace of mind.)

Then I used a cheap weekly calendar to record what we actually did each day for the legal record and so I could input that into my excel hour log. That all worked. It was simple, which I liked, but in three different places, which I didn't. I needed to streamline. 

I started with the Big Happy Planner. I got mine from Michaels online using both the standard 40% off coupon plus they were having another 20% off everything and surprisingly it let me combine those so I got it for a really good deal. 

It's really pretty. I love it. 

It's my first time using a disc bound planner but so far I'm really liking it. I saw a number of great planners, even self designed ones and thought about doing that and having it comb bound but I knew that I needed something I could alter as I went because I'm not even sure yet when I'll be starting Jonah in Year 1. But last year I found my 3 ring binder to tear up pages and take up a lot of space on our very small kitchen table so didn't really want to go that route again. I got an Arc punch which was a bit pricey but works really well so this is what I added to their basic calendar. 

A couple very simple reading logs to track hours (for our library's program) and another set to list the titles that they have read as well as our read alouds so I can remember what I've already checked out so I don't put a hold request on it again. (Not that I've ever done that ;-)

I'll use the year at a glance to plan our breaks. I normally only do a term at a time and hold it loosely but this time I'm having to be even looser. Notice that week between the blue and green is still a ? I'm guessing we'll be doing school since I've never had a baby come before their due date but I'd actually prefer to be holding my newborn. A pregnant mom can hope. 

Behind that I keep my term overview sheets. I'll start filling these out tomorrow as it's our first day of the term but will continue as we learn things and move on to the next. These are very helpful at 1) exam time because I often forget where the term began and exactly what poems/bible verses are new and 2) when trying to look back on the years and remember when we did different things like handicrafts. It seems like something that wouldn't be THAT hard to remember, but apparently it is.

Then before each monthly's spreads is a paper printout of my excel hour log. I'll fill it in as we go along but update the computer version so it does the calculations for me and then print out a nice neat version to save for our records. As Missouri residents, this is our main legal requirement and its slightly annoying but not really difficult. 

Next is the main planner portion. The left side is an updated weekly checklist I mentioned above. It's basically the same as last year except I've included a few things for Jonah.  This is my messy sheet. I write notes about exactly what we did for nature or our science experiment. I scratch things out or make notes on things I need to look up. It's the working part of the planner. And because of that, and because I don't think the state needs to know what days we went to the dentist, I don't want this to be a part of my official records. Plus I get great joy from looking over these at the end of the term, seeing what things consistently got missed and making notes and then THROWING THEM AWAY. It's the last thing I do after exams and its cathartic. 

 The right side is new. I've always liked to work with each "AO week" being treated like a unit. We do 2 or 3 AO readings a day depending on their length and our schedule that day. With just one AO student and my still doing 90% of the reading aloud, I don't need to plan which readings to do which days in advance. We almost always finish our term + exam in about 13 weeks so we really do make it through about a weeks worth of material in a week but it almost never matches up exactly and trying to do so would stress me out.

This is to replace the term sheet but still allow me to keep working things as a unit, separate from our regular "weekly" schedule. It gives me more space to write the date(s) when each reading occurred. So these sheets, along with the hour log and the calendar pages will make up the official record I'll save in their portfolios for a few years. 

If I didn't need to save/not save them separately, I'd probably print them front and back but I printed on just one side and put a month's worth in front of every month. When I use up either side, I'll move it to the back of the stack ( from where I'm looking at it here, still in front of that month's tab) so I always have my two current sheets together for easy access. 

I also used my arc punch and a spare binder tab to cut out a few bookmarks to keep my place at this spot as well as my weekly work page so it's easy to find. 

After all my additions, we finally get to the purchased planner part. This monthly overview sheet isn't something I'd thought about but I do want to do a better job about the fun/memory part of homeschooling so I hope to use this to set some goals/intentions as well as record our highs (but skip the lows, we can forgot those)

This is the weekly schedule planner I used last year as my legal record book (and source of hourly info for the hour log).  I know how long a lesson typical takes so I write "AO reading" or "copywork" on my record sheet and only indicate times if it abnormal for some reason.

The Happy Planner has a weekly planner page which I'll be using instead. I think I'll really enjoy having the three vertical boxes. I'll probably use them for the same three categories I did last year: Lucy, Jonah, Everyone. I like that is has the weekends unlike a lot of homeschooling record books I've seen because while we don't do regular school on the weekends, we do often have education experiences I can count for our hours.

The planner also has monthly calendar pages. I don't foresee a need for those right now but that if we start any sort of co-ops or group activities in the fall, that might be useful. I also took another plastic tab sheet lying around and punched new holes to make a clear dashboard. I'm not sure how much I'll use this but there were some times that we were doing messier things but I still wanted my planner next to me and it got a bit sticky. So this will allow me to keep it covered but visible during tea times or other messier activities. 

And there you have it! More than anyone ever wanted to know about my homeschool planner. Now it's time to start school tomorrow and put it to use!