The Official HSB Community Blog - Homeschooling is Life! ~ Lesson Plans vs Journaling

~ Home ~ View my profile ~ Archives ~ Email Me ~ My Blog's RSS

Click here to check out the latest contests on the HSB Company Porch!!

Homeschooling is Life! ~ Lesson Plans vs Journaling

2:49 AM, Nov. 15, 2007

I was talking to a friend this week and she had just done a internet conference about homeschooling through high school. She told me that the hostess had mentioned how hard it was for her to do lesson plans, but when she sat down at the end of her day and wrote about what they had DONE all day, she was astounded!

It is so true. We might not realize how much we accomplish, or how much we are blessed because we neglect to keep a record of it! I love to journal, I just don't always do it......unless you count my blog, of course. :)

Just for fun, I want to share what we have done today! A little after-the-fact homeschool journaling. Now, if I can only remember what we did!

Wake up

Get dressed

Coffee :)

Children begin to wake up.......

Breakfast preparations (everyone fends for themselves most days, bagels, granola, stuff like that)

Grooming and dressing

feed and water pets (all 6 of them!)

start laundry

load dishwasher

Son reads aloud "Keeping Chickens" while Mom and brother clean up living room

Girls clean room

Girls take writing and math out to car to work on (fun!)

Boys bring in firewood, light the fire

Mom checks email

Mom hangs up clean laundry

Mom cleans sliding glass door

Mom washes one wall and spackles the nail holes (hoping to paint some this week!!)

Mom works on computer

Mom finds great newsletters on raising chickens!

Boys wrestle computer away from Mom and play veggie tales games

Mom finds 3-hole punch for project and puts it in a notebook

Girl child decides to work on knitting project

Son makes lunch for everyone (quesadillas)

Mom sorts box of clothes to get rid of

Brother clips rabbit's toe nails

Big brother plans out chicken coop on whiteboard

Mom and Brother listen to "Nancy Drew mystery"

Brother and sister make clay figures while listening

Big sister peels potatoes for dinner

Big sister cooks chicken

We all eat yummy dinner

kids clean up

Mom blogs

Sigh.

You know, it was a really laid back day. We stayed in where it was warm for the most part, worked on home maintenance and obedience issues (I think we did very well today!)

And now we will have some family time and maybe some ice-cream!

Isn't God Good? I love HOME Schooling.

Nancy

Be sure to stop by my other blog, ok?

Posted in hsingislife, 5 comments, Link
Leave a Comment

Comments
Journaling

6:29 PM, Nov. 15, 2007, posted by angeliqua

Lesson planning is really difficult. I have resorted to using my blogging as a sort of documentation system. Of course I gab more about the non school stuff as much as the school stuff, because that is just as important in the rounding out of the day. I have started printing all of my blogs and putting them in a folder to "document" what we are doing. As my kids get older I might find a better system, but for now this is working well for us.

thank you so much

9:37 AM, Nov. 16, 2007, posted by Doverspike1

wow, what a great day you all had. Homeschooling does not have to be grueling. It is a life experience. So, thank you for being so open with your day. Maybe I will write an entry on one of my days.
TJ

Journaling works

1:08 PM, Nov. 16, 2007, posted by doehillhomeschool

What a great post! I'm glad we aren't the only ones who record our days 'as we go' or 'after the fact' One of our free gifts with our TOS subscription was Homeschool Tracker software. It uses lesson plans and has a daily journal feature. we've used both, and the journaling works best for us. Both require diligence and upkeep, but journaling works better for us. It leaves our schedule flexible for teaching moments, or for taking longer to cover a subject [like tens and ones with my 5 yr. old or common denominators with my 8 yr. old].

Life

10:33 AM, Nov. 18, 2007, posted by missionarymama

Thank you for sharing this. I needed to hear it! :) Lately I've been feeling bad about not having academic enough school days. But then I think about the reason we are homeschooling and I realize I need to not just look at the progress we are or are not making through our curriculum and look at other skills they are learning and character building that might be happening as well.
I like your idea of journaling it at the end of the day.
As dh and I have discussed just the other day, it seems we may need to turn our focus to more character training as well as the books. Journaling our days may be a good way for us to see where we all are in many areas.
This has really encouraged me! Thank you!
Libby

Thank you again Nancy

11:37 AM, Nov. 20, 2007, posted by Anonymous

Thank you again for the daily encouragement to remind me that no two days are going to look alike or that no two moms will have the same day. Learning is an adventure and it really is fun to be home, schooling with the children from son up to son down, well and the daughter too. Oops, better get the oatmeal off the burner.
Love you long time,
Jodi

Curious about The Old Schoolhouse

Magazine but not quite ready to commit to a subscription without seeing it first? Check it out for FREE! We're so certain you'll love our publication that we'll gladly send a FREE sample to anyone new to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine - we even cover the shipping!

... Click here for more information ...

{ Last Page } { Page 1230 of 3346 } { Next Page }

About This Blog

Welcome to the HSB announcement blogboard from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, LLC. We hope you will enjoy the articles posted here by the Porch Team. Please feel free to leave comments!
~ Tia Linschied,
Senior Editor of HSB

The Fall 2009 issue will be
available soon!
Click here to Subscribe!

To see the current cover up close, click here

TOS Homeschool Crew

Promote Your Page Too

Products of the Month

- Get this E-Book FREE!

- Schoolhouse Planner Module ($7.95)
Ring in the New Year!

- Feb. Molly Digest ($4.95)
Living the Good Life--Frugally

Living Heritage UK

Homeschool Resources

Cosidering Homeschooling

FREE E-News!

Our E-Newsletters give you wonderful, informative information about homeschooling, news bits, contests and PRIZES for homeschoolers, articles to encourage you, calls for writers, free unit studies and lesson plans, and just a lot of FUN. Bring the community to your inbox, and no worries, we never sell, trade or give your email or any other information out to anyone. Come join the homeschool party! The Homeschool Minute is our most popular newsletter, full of encouragement and support just for YOU! Subscribe to *FREE* newsletters offered by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.

Visit the Porch Team Writers and Features

Tia Linschied, Senior Editor

Monday - Friday! Homeschool Tip of the Day by Christina

Monday

Learning from the Master Teacher

Craft Corner
by Taneil Linschied

Going the Distance
by Amanda Suryan

Homeschool Nations Highlight
by Tia Linschied

Tuesday

Unit Study Adventures
by In The Hands of a Child

Taming the Chaos
by Dell

Kitchen Moments
by Catherine Love

Wednesday

Home Where They Belong
by the HWTB Team

Languishing in Languages?
by Suzanne Gose

Homeschooling Through High School
by Lori Havens

Thursday

Homeschooling is Life
by Nancy Baetz

Communication Corner
by JoJo Tabares

The Littlest Learners
by Karin Katherine

Homeschool Hilarity!
by Tia Linschied

Friday

Homeschooling Only One
by Donna Conner

Special Words for
Special Needs
by Heather

Notebooking on the Porch
by Lisa Golda

Blogger of the Week
by Tia Linschied

News Alerts

HSB Tech Help

What's Bloggin'

HSB News

TOS News

Contests

General Interest

Updates from Germany

Archived Features

Adoption Options

The Busy Woman

Classical Education

Education Through Imagination

The Experimental Zone

Geography Activities

Jamin's Internet Academy

Knitting

Our New E-book ~
On Sale NOW!

Quick Links

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine

HSB Military Blog

Growth of Blogs

Sifry's Alerts - the blog of the owner of Technorati

Homeschooling in the news
provided by HomeSchoolBuzz.com

Do you have the whole set of back issues from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine?

Click here to view all back issues and read the themes - you will want to collect the ones you've missed!!