joyfulhomeschooling

Record keeping

My record keeping skills for homeschooling have been, well, to be honest, quite poor.  Our first year of homeschooling was in Japan, where there aren't any laws to follow.  Our next two years were in CA, where all I was required to do was keep attendance.  The last three years have been back in Japan, without any requirements whatsoever.

Don't get b me wrong, I did keep some things.  Very little though, looking back.  Of course, dad's been gone for about four of the last six years, so I was doing what I could to maintain my own sanity.  I did keep goal sheets and report cards, but that's about it.

I'm currently going backwards, starting with last year, and at least making a sheet of curriculum used and books read.  Yes, I know.  Its a royal pain.  I should have done it each year and I didn't.  My excuse-living overseas, husband deployed most of the time, and no family to help out.  Okay, enough excuses, it really wasn't that hard to do and now I'm paying for it.

This year, I'm back to using Homeschool Tracker.  For those of you unfamiliar with the program, they have two versions-free and about $25(Don't quote me on that, I bought it a few years ago).  I used the free program for a while, but didn't like it for one major reason.  ALl the lessons were directly assigned to the students.  So, for example, when entering the assignments, you must assign it a day.  My problem comes in when you don't get it done that day or for several days, say because of illness.  Well, then you have to change all the assignment dates thereafter.  With the upgraded version, you can load all your lessons for the whole year and then move them over to the student grid when you want to.  Much easier for me and my peace of mind.  Since, I do like to be somewhat organized.

Last year, I hand wrote my assignments, but that didn't work for me either.  I didn't mind so much, but it meant every week, I had to sit and write out the lesson plans.  Not so much.  I didn't have time for that. 

I've already entered in every lesson for the entire year for each student.  The only things, I don't enter are the unit studies, which I'm still working on.  I have the Vikings unit done and am completing the Human Body unit.  I break the units down by day and assign them a day in the lesson planner, but most of the planning in on my computer in microsoft word.  Its easier for me.

Now that I've totally bored you with my lack of record keeping skills, I wanted to share a website which most of you probably already know about  www.donnayoung.org.  She has lots and lots of record keeping, lesson planning, calendars, everything you could want or imagine for your school year. 

My other outside source that I use for goal setting is 'Home Learning Year by Year' by Rebecca Rupp.  She has basically broken down the public school goals for each subject and grade level.  This DOES NOT mean that I follow it.  I use different goals from different years based on my child's learning level.  Plus, we definitely don't follow the science or history goals for the year.  It does however, point me in the right direction for math, grammer, writing, and reading.  I make adjustments as needed.  It guides me along as I'm too lazy to write my own, I can copy it right out of the book.  She also has some suggestions for you to use for your homeschooling year.

Well, I'm off to finish up the Human Body unit, put in the art lessons, and finish up my curriculum book list for the year.   I hope to complete that all today and get my goal setting done for the year.

Good luck planning and organizing your year!