Last time we saw our featured homeschool family, they were scrabbling to begin a new year without having prepared in advance. So how did they fare? Did they begin their lessons?
When I began homeschooling, I researched various options. At that time, it was a limited offering to sift through but I was determined to find the best methods and the right way. As more information and more materials became available, I considered the new products and even tried a few. This became a never ending search for perfection.
My panic this year was not over selecting curriculum. It was the record keeping and getting all my goals in neat order that had me dashing around and grabbing at my hair wildly. I must look over what I intend to cover for the year and copy our goals into neat little boxes and plan out lessons for the week on the correct pages. I must have the perfect system that keeps us on track and works with our homeschooling methods! But where oh where can a planner be found that covers our unconventional and somewhat old fashioned subjects, our activities and the large amount of resources we use by choosing more real books over textbooks?
How was I supposed to find this wonderful and elusive system that could do it all? Perhaps if I did one more search, new forms would magically appear that offered custom spaces to fill in our information. Perhaps if I went to the store, I would happen upon that commercially produced planner that had been hiding from me. Perhaps I should give the computer planner another try or use Outlook as my husband suggested. I could take some time and create my own forms again.
Over the years I have tried and rejected so many record keeping systems that I had quite a stash of master forms or unused pages and books. I sat on the floor with these spread out around me as I thought the matter over. This stack had spaces for activities but the pre-printed assignment boxes did not have copywork listed. That bunch gave me more freedom in titling but was set up for a five day system while we have four day school schedules. Some worked well for our year round schooling while others did not. I struggled to record evaluations from our unconventional grading system. I was at the end of my rope when I came to determining how to document my son's apprenticeship time.
A record keeping system should not force the schooling to fit into it's predetermined spaces. It should be a record of what was taught and the activities that were done. Ours should suit us and our methods. So why have I not been scribbling lessons in a leather bound journal or inking in goals for next week?
I stood up from where I sat with all the copies of planners past and gathered them all up. I walked to the trash can and tossed them in. With them went my dreams, nightmares and stress over finding the perfect solution.
So what am I doing for record keeping you might ask. I turned to an old fashioned method as I have in many aspects of our homeschool and life.
With pen in hand, I began with my own household notebook where I jot down all manner of things for running our home, keeping track of schedules, creating lists for groceries, clothing and other needs and other things to remember. I decided I would make a notation in my calender for the days we had instruction and keep track of resource and supply lists there. I am also noting my upcoming goals for things to be covered in lessons. I took two unused composition notebooks from our supply drawer, one for each of my children. The system is simple and written by hand in ink. I used the first page as a record of which student the book belonged to, the school year and the date of the first day recorded. Each day I start on a fresh page and record the date. I write down what we accomplished and leave a little note on how well the children did with speciffic lessons. As I have done in the past, I will also be keeping a portfolio of sample work and evaluations along with a summary of our methods, resource list and yearly goals.
We gained something from my decision to simplify my system for records. I have discovered that I am spending more time teaching lessons than planning them and I am enjoying homeschool more rather than stressing. I like the inexpensive cost of documenting our work. We gained all this without sacrificing good documention. Sometimes, the old ways are best.
