Thursday, August 27, 2015

Using a checklist instead of a schedule to homeschool

I'm doing it, Blythe! I'm just sitting down and doing it and NO ONE CAN STOP ME! AAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Running with scissors!!!!

Hold on.  Cecilia wants help doing the math book we haven't started yet.

Holy moly.  Okay, I'm back.

So today on Instagram, I shared these two pics of a quicky project.....

Dagblamit all to heck.  Called away again.  THIS IS WHY I CAN'T BLOG YOU GUYS.

You know when this can't blog thing basically got started?  When I hit six kids.  It's like I'm maxed out.  We have a LOT of fun, I love homeschooling, I love my house projects.  But I can't manage to do all the things anymore, I guess.  Especially in the not-housebound weather.

Welp, it's been 14 minutes since I wrote the above paragraph.  Enormous bug-eyes emoji.

This is why we have to do checklists and not a schedule.

Back to the quicky project....

Here was the first pic with caption:
I'm ridiculously pleased with this 20 minute/$4.99 bulletin board project. How did I not know that you could buy foam board with cork on one side??? #11daystilschoolstarts #almostready #yeehaw

A closer-up of the quicky project for @mablemurple. Foam board with cork from Meijer-->drill a hole in each upper corner--->run some ribbon or fabric through as a hanger (I braided three strips of fabric together because...????). Ta da! These are the kids' weekly checklists. Instead of a schedule, it's "do these things at least this many times." Works so much better for us this way!
If you click over, you can read all the comments on each one, but they basically consists of me promising to blog about doing weekly checklists instead of a specific schedule for school.

Firstly, let me tell you that I did not come up with this idea.  The suggested scheduling on the Mater Amabilis site, which is a site created for Catholic Charlotte Mason homeschooling, says things like "once a week, three times a week" so it only follows that tons of people would be like CHECKLISTS YES PLZ.  And we were.  Or are.  You get it.

Secondly, these checklists don't include household responsibilities (yet!) which they should.  Or will.  Or we'll have separate lists.  I haven't gotten that far yet.  I do write a daily chore list for the kids, but it's by hand and it goes on the fridge and maybe that's enough?  We'll see, we'll see.

Okay, here is how it works.  The things that need to be done once a week have one little box next to them.  The things that need to be done three times a week get three boxes next to them.  If my people want to do all three days or lessons in one afternoon- like they're really on a roll, then go right ahead.  History your little butt off, check off all three boxes, and don't think about it for another 7 days.  That's cool.

This also allows you to "count" the interesting and fun stereotypical homeschooling activities (cooking for fractions practice, seeing how big the den is for measurement practice, etc.) and not feel guilty at the end of the week that you didn't "do enough school."  As if schooling, learning, only happens within the pages of a specific book published by Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich or something.  But I've been there.  Maybe we've all been there.  And we get anxious that we aren't doing enough while at the same time not seeing how there is any time to do more without crushing their enthusiasm for learning.  Know what I'm saying?


Holy moly this is so ghetto.  I'm sorry.  Forgive me!  I just can't with figuring out how to make a pdf into a jpeg so I can upload it like a normal human being.  So....here's a screenshot?  I'm seriously sorry you guys!  I could open it in a photo editing program and crop it but the children and it's almost dinner time and all the things.

Okay.

So.

You hand this checklist to your 8th grader and you're like "have a nice day!" and walk away.

KIDDING.  No. Of course she looks at the categories and has no idea what any of it means.  Like, what does one square of Nat Geo even mean? 

Never fear, friends, never fear.  You write this out in advance as well.  No lengthy discussion whilst he/she staring through you wondering if there are any m&m cookies left in that bowl next to the toaster, nope nope nope.

Voila.




There is one of these sheets for each category for Term 1.  Some of them have specific chapters (e.g. "You will read one chapter per week of this book for a total of 11 chapters by the end of the term."  or "In order to finish by the end of the year, shoot for 7 chapters per term.  Wanna finish sooner?  Do more work each week!").  I am a firm believer in having a set amount of "work" that is sufficient so that if they complete it, they can have their free time.  Piling more work on top of more work just encourages my kids (maybe not all kids!) to work as slowly as possible so they are assigned the least amount of work possible and that's not good for anyone's morale, nopety nope.

Okay, is that...helpful?  Does that make sense?  The younger kids have much simpler schedules, also roughly following the guidelines in Mater Amabilis.  I like to do my own thing, as always, so there are lots of nips and tucks everywhere, but it's definitely a Catholic based Charlotte Mason style year we've got planned and we are stoked!

And here are horrible pics of the smaller people's things in case you've got super-human vision:





Pop your questions in the combox and I'll do my best to be helpful if I can be.  NB: this is only going to be our 5th year of homeschooling (we'll have a 9th grader, 8th grader, 3rd grader, kindergartner, and two tag-alongs) so Lord knows I am no expert.  But more ideas can sometimes send you down the trail that leads you to what works best for your family, yes?

Okay, to cook dinner!  Chug all the coffee!
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20 comments :

  1. Narloozibeth!!!! Such a great name! I want it for my next grandchild. And I don't even care if it's a boy or a girl.

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    1. It'll be the next trend in Catholic baby names, you just wait and see!

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  2. But seriously, this looks pretty darned cool. Thanks!

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  3. Sweet. We are like homeschooling soulmates! This is our first year and we are using Mater Ambilis as well and after the first couple days of trying to do school with a schedule, I made up a weekly checklist and yes if that way they want to do a lot of lessons one day and not so many the next.. as long as it is all done by Friday that is fine!

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  4. Oh my goodness- ever since you posted about Mater Amabilis, I refer to it so often. I have a Kinder and tag along, and we've been working our way through the reading lists, especially geography. Those books are wonderful! Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters?!!! One of many that we have LOVED! Wish I learned geography like that when I was little. Thanks for the rec and love this approach too with checklists. So much more freedom and flexibility. Always a good thing. Thanks for sharing! And thanks for still making time for the blog amidst all the demands on your time. Yours is one of my favorites. :)

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  5. Oh my goodness- ever since you posted about Mater Amabilis, I refer to it so often. I have a Kinder and tag along, and we've been working our way through the reading lists, especially geography. Those books are wonderful! Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters?!!! One of many that we have LOVED! Wish I learned geography like that when I was little. Thanks for the rec and love this approach too with checklists. So much more freedom and flexibility. Always a good thing. Thanks for sharing! And thanks for still making time for the blog amidst all the demands on your time. Yours is one of my favorites. :)

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  6. Oh my goodness- ever since you posted about Mater Amabilis, I refer to it so often. I have a Kinder and tag along, and we've been working our way through the reading lists, especially geography. Those books are wonderful! Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters?!!! One of many that we have LOVED! Wish I learned geography like that when I was little. Thanks for the rec and love this approach too with checklists. So much more freedom and flexibility. Always a good thing. Thanks for sharing! And thanks for still making time for the blog amidst all the demands on your time. Yours is one of my favorites. :)

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  7. I think I need to look into Mater Amabilis! I am only very vaguely familiar with Charlotte Mason, but intrigued by what I've heard.

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  8. Love the checklists! I am writing up weekly plans right now, a la Kelly Mantoan, and I'm using Mater Amabilis as my jumping off point. I was trying to figure out a loose daily schedule that would make sure we covered the bases, but the checklist will work so much better with my weekly plans. Thanks for sharing!

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  9. You did itttttt!!!! What's cracking me up is I just assumed this was all about chores and household duties until you mentioned "subjects." Priorities right on track over here (how do I get them to cleannnnn?!?!) but I APPRECIATE YOU

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  10. I love this! I'm planning to try workboxes this year, thinking that my kids will really like the freedom of being able to go through their boxes at their own pace. But I'm starting to wonder if that it might be too much to reload the boxes every night, soooo maybe this is better?? Hmmm. Now I might need to rethink my entire plan for the year. Kidding! I AM going to tuck this fantastic idea away in my brain in case I need to change things up down the line, though.

    And I don't even know how to do a screen shot, so you're far ahead of me in the blog images department :)

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  11. Dweej, love it! PS The homestead-garden-farm yall have seems like such an amazing place. :D

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  12. I agree-six kids must be the magic number to have no time to be on the computer. I can barely manage to type this as I feed my 2 year old my breakfast.

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  13. Love the whole checklist idea! I was home schooled until 7th grade, and my home school experience was very similar to this. We didn't have a physical checklist, but there was the understanding that "1 Saxon math lesson, 1 Science lesson, and possibly 1 spelling lesson a day" was good, plus some of my history book. But basically, once you got through math, everything else slid into place and you were home free. So some days we would double up on math lessons, science lessons, history lessons, whatever, and finish up the book that much sooner. Be done with my formal history book by March? That works with me! Or how about that earth science book which I dislike? Barrel through it so I can focus on learning science by reading horse-related books! :)

    And for 3-6th grade, all of my schoolwork was always done by lunch time, leaving the rest of the day to walk to the library & read, reenact medieval archery tournaments in the backyard with my siblings (making our own bows and arrows out of sticks & twigs), or learning about all things Native American (because what girl hasn't been obsessed with Native American culture at some point?). The whole idea of checklists-for-schooling is the BOMB.

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  14. You know how some people use lesson plan books that have a set amount of work for each day so for example on August 25th you do this and then on August 26th you do this, but then life gets crazy. You have to skip a day here or just do Math and reading on another day and before you know it the date is October 15th, but according to your lesson plan you are sort of on September 20th and you spend the rest of the term loading up work on your kids so you "aren't behind." Maybe this is only my problem. Anyway, I solved this by no longer writing out a lesson plan per day. I just write out the chapter title, lesson number what ever and put it check list form. That way as we do each lesson it gets marked off and I don't get that "we are behind" feeling. I don't have a daily checklist like you do, but I like that idea so I might steal it. I hope this makes sense because I am going on around 4 hours of sleep and no matter how much coffee is consumed it isn't helping. Is it nap time yet?

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  15. I could reallllyyyy get into this idea

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  16. Did you just use the phrase "this is so ghetto"/ haha I told my first batch (#my20somethingyearolds) that moms were allowed to use this phrase. All I ever get is eye rolls if I dare say it. They have a whole list of blacklisted words I can't use cause I am a "mom". Gosh they sound so homeschooled. great post and checklist idea!

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  17. Ack! I kept clicking the "x" on the screenshot to try to close the window out! I think I need sleep....

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  18. I do a very similar weekly checklist for housework, and I'd vaguely wondered if it would work for homeschool (although we are a few years away yet). Good to know it does :-)

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  19. Would love an editable version of this! Can't figure out how to get those perfect little boxes after the text!

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