Systems: Family Work

I love a clean house! Doesn't everybody? What I don't love is pleading, threatening, and cajoling to get children to love having a clean house as much as I do.

Nor do I love cleaning up after all my little piggies without them lifting a finger. Nope. Not an option at our house. Hiring a maid is also not an option, which I think is detrimental to family development anyway (unless you have extenuating circumstances, like new baby, bed-ridden, or health issues that prevent a family from being able to do their own cleaning).

Finding the right system for our home has gone through a few levels of changes over the years. When my children were very small, they loved to pick-up toys while we sang the "Clean-up Song" from Barney.

Eventually their keen little minds realized cleaning was not a game, but was actual work! Oh the shame of it all! Mom tricked us into working!

We have a few systems that I've posted about before:

• Life Skills in the Home
• New Plan - Check!

We are still using the Cleaning Calendar mentioned in "New Plan - Check!" I really love rotating the monthly, weekly, and daily cleaning through my digital to-do list on the Freedom Educators Evernote Template now with the Daily Planner to keep track of meals, appointments, to-do list, and family work.

Daily Planner - Meals and Appointments

Daily Planner - To-Do List and Family Work

I love Fly Lady even though it can be a little overwhelming at first. Starting off on the right foot with some of her simply techniques for getting it all done has helped me a ton. Check out her Baby Steps first.

One idea from her website that I've used extensively is the Zone principle. Each child is assigned a "Zone" for the week. They have to check their Zones several times a day. 

In each Zone is also a detailed cleaning list of what is supposed to be cleaned or checked daily and a list for weekly. I put the list in a clear protector sheet and tape it to the inside of a cabinet or the back of a closet door.

I adapted Fly Lady's list to be specific for each zone (and how the kids use it) and also for the age of the children who will be doing the cleaning. When my children were really young, I had a simple picture list of what to clean.

A couple of free ideas online:

• Raising a Healthy Family
• Clean Mama
• Fly Lady's PDF lists

Multiple Kids in One Zone

We have a buddy system with older children training younger ones. Mentoring younger children in how to do family work is a must. If you don't have enough kids, think about borrowing some.

No! I'm not kidding! Once a month give your children a chance to mentor or be mentored by other kids.

We have a "Littles Checklist" and a "Bigs Checklist". The Littles do things like pick-up toys, put small trash bags in the larger can in the kitchen, wipe off cabinets, etc.

Check out these Littles cleaning...

Matching Socks, One of Their Favorite Things

The Bigs can help the Littles learn how to do chores and/or do the big things themselves. I sometimes divvy up the list to help the Bigs learn when a child is ready to learn a new skill.

Since we are a foster family, children come to us with varying abilities even though they may be the same age. We adapt and help them learn. We do not assume they know anything, yet we are always amazed at how quickly they come to like working with the family. Even children that are emotionally damaged and have never cleaned before find new excitement and achievement as they learn to be part of the family and work together. For many of them, working together is a completely new idea.

Worried your kids will rebel? Well...they might.

The key is to talk about "family work" and not "chores". Family work is everyone chipping in to make our house run smoother and have everything ready for the next time we use it.

Systems: Academic Journaling

How do I journal? What should it look like? What goes into the journal? Should I go "old school" paper or "new wave" digital? (See more on digital journaling at the bottom of this article.)

These are very good, but also very personalized questions. One person loves lists and bullet style notes, while another loves to write in complete sentences with perfect punctuation and paragraphs that read like a good novel.

A person may start in their early years with one of two sentences about a book and end up in Scholar and Depth Phase writing a short thesis. Or, a student may be a combination of the two with bullet style notes for quotes and topics you want to remember from an informational book and longer, paragraph style reviews of books for sharing on a venue like Goodreads. (A link to my Goodreads reviews.)

...it just really depends on you...your preferences and where you are in the Phases of Learning.

People are always looking for examples. I do to! I like to see examples. So, here are some from my personal journals.

My Journals - Depth Phase

Just a few...

Right now, I am using 4 regular journals and a couple of "item specific" journals, all of them numbered. I am also making a master list of what is included in each journal. Rachel DeMille says that they leave a few pages blank in the front of each journal to add a table of contents as they fill up the journal. I didn't start out that way and so I created the master list in a blank notebook and list the journal # and page number of each item.

I started with the Master List as part of my binder (back when it was a short list), but moved it to it's own spiral notebook when it started getting pretty thick. I also need to print all of my book reviews on Goodreads and keep them in a binder for the day when technology ends (depends on your point of view here to if you feel this is necessary).

A list of my current journals:

1. Fiction reading
2. Non-fiction reading
3. Religious reading
4. Mentoring - "Student Whisperer Journal"
5. Food Storage & Emergency Preparedness
6. Marriage (I have a small notebook that I have recorded specific things about being a better wife and mother.)
7. Everyday life - personal journal

I have a mixture of how I record my reading epiphanies. 

I have some bullet style lists of quotes and topics I want to remember from the book.

Quotes from "The Jackrabbit Factor"

I have details of answers to exercises...

"Student Whisperer" exercises

I have full book reviews, many of which I duplicate on Goodreads.

I have diagrams of topics discussed...

Notes from a lecture on Child Development &
Foundations of Great Education

Digital Journaling

Technology has a lot to offer as well. I personally use Evernote and I have also used SpringPad. Both are free and come in PC and App formats. Both have unique things to offer. For journaling purposes, I find that Evernote has the most to offer, which is why I developed the Freedom Educator Planner Templates. The planner includes forms for book reviews, lecture notes, etc.

Evernote also prints nicely if you wish to print hard copies for future use or storage.

Evernote - Books Read 2013

I keep a list of books read by year and then add tags for the topic of the book. My reviews are copied from what I write in Goodreads, saving me a step in copy-and paste.

I also keep notes of other topics, especially website information that is hard to convey into a paper notebook.

Evernote - Curriculum Plans and Notes on Books we are studying

However, using a digital system can be in any method you wish. Any software that allows for typing up the information you want to store will work.

The beauty of systems is YOU decide what works for you and just start recording your information. It is not hard and it does not take a long time. Just start something and adjust as you learn what you like and what works for you. There is no right or wrong...just progressing and growing.

Transcript Time!

Alright...I've taken a few weeks off to decompress after a 1200 mile move and the red tape of foster licensing (Can you say "government torture test"?). Whew! Now I need to prepare the transcript information for this past year. Yep...now that the kids are "high school" I need to keep track of what they do each year for transcripts for college. Yes, BYU-Idaho did want to see transcripts before enrolling Nayna into concurrent enrollment.

Our plan is still to let the SAT do the talking for college entrance, plus being in concurrent enrollment she has proven she can excel in their college environment.

So, I need to buckle down and go through the stuff we did and compile it, then package up the previous year's planners and get the new planners ready. The idea is to have all this done by July 1st...which is what I usually do. I'm just not feeling particularly motivated this week. *sigh*

Unmotivated?

So, how do I inspire myself to get motivated? For me, I need to go through my Compass and each child's Compass to see how we did. Then, I need to review Scholar Phase in Leadership Education: The Phases of Learning and some other sources. Next, it is time to write a new Compass and get fired up! Every time I write a Compass I get excited about the next 6 months. Yeah! I really do!

 

Home Library Cataloging

We own a lot of books. Keeping track of all the books we own is a huge chore! I can't tell you how many times I have re-purchased the same book because I thought we did not own it yet. Plus, I have several different types of lists that I want to know what books are on which lists.

For example, I want to know which books are included in my Great Books of the Western World set, which books are for homeschooling by subject, which books are on the Thomas Jefferson Education for Teens list and which age group they pertain to, etc. etc. I have copies of all these lists, but it is not incredibly easy to keep this lists in my purse when I run across books at a yard sale, Goodwill, and Bookman's.

I tried a program for my home computer, but again, I would have to print the lists and carry them around in my purse, hoping the one in my purse was the most up-to-date version. Hmmmm....still not meeting my ultimate need to KNOW exactly what I have at home and what I still need.

I recently acquired a smart phone, which I love, and discovered an app called Book Catalogue. Gee...the name was so vague I had to read more...just kidding, I'm really not that dumb. The coolest thing about this app is that it can scan the barcode of the book and enter it into the bookshelves, entered manually, or synced with Goodreads. All very useful in my book.

Another great feature is that when I catalog the Great Books of the Western World set, it allows me to enter anthologies, or the list of books/stories in each individual volume with the authors names. Sometimes one volume will have several authors and numerous books or stories. This has made it super easy for me to keep track of all the items included in this set.

My Complaint
The only complaint I have about this app is that it added all of my Goodreads bookshelves even when I do not own the books. So, keep that in mind if you want to sync that website or not. I have a separate bookshelf for our "Home Library" of books that we own rather than just the list of what we have read or what is on a specific list, like the 5 Pillar list.

I also wish it would keep track of multiple people so that I can track what each child has read. I suppose I could just make a bookshelf for each child, but then there is not an additional section for their comments and ratings of books. It might be a useful item to ask for from the creator of the app.

Other Cool Features
There is also a section for adding notes and keeping a rating system for the books you have read, which it will sync from Goodreads if you have that already, and puts a big green checkmark next to the ones you have read.

I love that it has a "Loan Book" feature so that I can record who I loaned the book too! Sometimes I have loaned out books and can't remember who has them.

The app also pulls in cover art for the books if you connect it to Library Thing, which is free. Sometimes the covers are not the actual covers of the books I own, but usually the covers are correct.

Life Skills in the Home

I know this post is not about homeschooling...but who can homeschool effectively without some sort of organization to their home. Teaching life skills are an important part of educating all children regardless of where they get their education, so I discuss this topic here a little.

I decided that this house needs a better plan that what I've had in the past. There are three floors and it is VERY easy to overlook areas, like the basement. Which, by the way, attracts a LOT of dirt from the backyard as it is the only way to use the backyard, passing through the basement and upstairs to the main living areas. We live in a dry, dusty area of the country now and so the dirt is a constant issue.

Anyway, my new plan to keep on top of things is moderately based on Flylady principles where I take a space and spend 15-30 minutes on it for that day. Routinely doing each space will keep it up so that less time needs to be spent on it than if I just attended to it when it is so bad no one can use it. So, here is our current Cleaning Calendar.

My children also have "Zones" to clean, similar to Flylady. They are now old enough to be in charge of the entire Zone for a week at a time. We've been doing zones for several years now. The children are required to check their zone 4 times a day, cleaning as needed during those times.

The 4 times a day to check the Zone are:

1. After Breakfast, before education hours start.
2. After education hours are done.
3. After dinner.
4. Before bed.

This new cleaning calendar allows me to keep up with all those nooks and crannies that only need sporadic or monthly cleaning, like windows, organizing the storage room, or desk organization...along with the weekly maintenance items like vacuuming, bathrooms, and grocery shopping.

We've been on the new schedule for two weeks now and I love it!

Course of Study for 2011-2012

Each year is a new experience in preparation for the next year. One of the things that I like is to get a general plan in order with some of my thoughts on what we need to study together. I like the files at donnayoung.org for helping me get organized. I'll be featuring a few of the forms that I personally use over the next few posts.

The Course of Study form is one of my favorite all-in-one-place forms to show my general outline for the entire year. I combine my two youth still at home on the same Course of Study. Many things we do together but for those things that are separate it is listed by their initial. To some this may seem a bit vague. Basically, I am outlining the mentoring portion of what we are studying. The rest will be determined throughout the year as the Scholar finds new interests and passions to study. It is important to remember that this is not a complete layout of the year, but this is a list of the things that I want to inspire them with and what I will share with them during our devotional, read aloud, and do-together portions of our education time.

Some are just resources for further study in specific ares. Some items are review, something we often turn to when we need to brush up on certain skills, like grammar and spelling. These resources are on the list for sporadic use. A few items are curriculum that has been purchased for that use. Each student chooses which resources they will use at any given time.

Weekly Planner #2

Nayna decided that she didn't want to use the Weekly Planner #1 anymore. She devised a specific planner to suit her needs. This planner includes all of the subjects she wants to study, planned out over the days she wants to study them. She checks off the subject and writes in the details (chapter or page numbers) of what she did that day.

I am really proud of her for coming up with her own study plan that is so detailed and specific for her needs. I think this is the main ingredient missing in so many homeschools. We bring our children home to give them personalized attention, but do we give them a personalized study plan or do we just bring the public school curriculum home?

Personalized Curriculum
My opinion is that if we are bringing the public school curriculum home we are missing the mark. Most of the "homeschool" curriculum out there is the SAME as the public schools. Public schools teach to the bottom 20% of students. Is this what we want for our children? It's not what I want.

When we personalize a curriculum for each child that is strongly based in classic works, we are teaching to the potential of our students rather than just to the "norms" of the public schools. If we are going to put in the effort to educate our children at home, shouldn't we make it worth our time?

Weekly Planner #1

We have several different types of planners that we have used. I've been asked a few questions about what each planner is, how it is used, and what we liked or did not like about each one. So, here is the first planner I used. It is a weekly planner that is pretty generic. It is a two-page per week planner style, with lots of room to write the basic details of what we accomplish each day.

In the beginning I wrote in the subjects down the left side - Grammar, Math, History, Science, Music, Physical Education, and Other. Chris uses the planner in this way. He writes in what he accomplishes each day in each subject.

Then, I changed the headings to - Devotional, Read Aloud, Chirs, Nayna, Do-Together, and Me. This is how I am still using the planner now.

The Notes and To-Do sections are very helpful for planning the week, adding in notes on special events and fieldtrips, and gathering details on things we may be planning to do in the next few weeks. In the To-Do section I often write in things that need to be gathered, details about upcoming curriculum purchases and Mentor Meeting things I need to remember.

Shh! Scholar in Progress

During our Mentor Meetings Sunday night, a startling discovery was made....I interrupt my Scholars too much. Nayna politely asked during the meeting to not be interrupted during her study hours. I was pretty surprised, because I thought my kids have pretty un-interrupted time, but she explained herself well and was able to make excellent observations about the issue. Mike then commented, "When did you become so grown-up?" (Overnight...almost).

Basically after discussing her needs, we realized that 6 hours of study, which is the time we had allotted for her, is not enough time to accomplish all of her studies on some of our more busy days. She often chooses to use some of her Free Time hours to complete her studies. A new plan is now in place to allow her to complete her studies on days we have to travel into town for events. She has devised her own study plan and a new format for documenting her studies. She used to use a weekly planner as discussed in this post. Last week she created her own weekly checklist with room to write in the chapters, lessons, and other details of what she did that day for that subject.

Her subjects include:

• Home Study Seminary - Doctrine and Covenants
• Reading - Classics and personal choices
• Math - Math-U-See Algebra I
• Latin - Wheelocks Latin
• Music - Choir and Piano
• Physical Education - Wii Fit Plus, Yoga, Walks, etc.
• History - Early Modern Times
• Government - The 5,000 Year Leap
• Logic

I was thoroughly convinced by this admission that Nayna is over a year into the "Self-Directed Scholar" phase:

The Self-Directed Scholar studies eight to twelve hours a day, five to six days a week, ten to twelve months a year for three to four years.  This 5,00 to 8,000 hours of intense study builds a huge base of knowledge and skill which can be applied to whatever mission the later adult embarks upon.

It is exciting to see that she is really taking charge of her education in every way. I do not do much more than try to stay out of her way now!

2011 Winter Schedule

I feel like I am always writing about schedule changes on my blog. LOL! I guess that is because we are always adapting our schedule, which is one of the perks of educating our children at home. With my part-time job as a substitute teacher, my schedule is never fully known from day to day. I am thankful for this part-time work and that I had a regularly scheduled classroom to work in one day a week, then I received news that my regularly scheduled classroom was cutting back and didn't need me every week anymore. Hmm, well that just makes it a little bit more difficult, but still manageable, I hope.

So, our new schedule is like this...you may find it quite strange...and that is OK. It is not you schedule. But, I hope anyone out there who wants to educate their children at home, but has to work part-time, will see that it is possible!

Days I am HOME - School time is 9am-3pm.

Days I am WORKING - School time is 3pm-9pm, except for Wednesday's. I can take a half-day job and do school from Noon-6pm and then we take off to Mutual.

Some days are reserved and jobs are declined, even if we badly need the money. These days are Friday's because of music classes and some Thursday's because of our homeschooling friend meetings which include Park Days and our TJED Teens Club. It has been a challenge to do so, especially with medical bills, Christmas break and the basic decline of available substituting jobs. The temp company I work for decided to hire another 100 substitutes, making job availability MUCH less.

Things I Learned From Public School Teachers

...that are useful in home education.

Last week I taught in a Kindergarten and 1st grade classes. Each teacher had some things that are smart that I realized I could use at home. Many things in public school are not useful at home (most really), but there are things that are useful in both circumstances.

Personal Dry Erase Boards
I have a large dry erase board, which is nice in a lot of ways when teaching a concept that I want to have both of us (or all of us) write on the board together or I want to write a lot of details. The drawback is that it takes up space and in our smaller rental we don't want to a) put big holes in the walls to put it up and b) use valuable wall space that is needed for all our furniture.

These personal sized dry erase boards are much better for spelling quizzes, math computations, and grammar practice. I have tried to reduce the amount of paper we use and these dry erase boards are PERFECT! The 1st grade teacher has them for each student and has them practice math problems and spelling on them while she teaches the lesson. It made it pretty easy to have the children show me their boards so I could quickly see who needed help. The second thing she had was to use socks as erasers instead of the flimsy erasers that come with the sets. Personally, it gets a lot more of the flakes erased than the eraser anyway, and you can always throw them in the wash. (It is also very easy to find "divorced or separated" socks). She has the students store their dry erase markers in the sock.

Rolling Carts
The kindergarten teacher I subbed for (and will sub every Wednesday through the end of the year) has rolling carts for each child under their tables. I also saw this used for a special education room. If I had a home school room I would definitely use the rolling carts. Right now, I like our "cubby" solution, but if I had younger children the rolling cart would be my choice.

New Plan - Check!

With the addition of substitute teaching, I needed to come up with a new plan. I have become more of a list maker now that I am older. My brain just can't seem to store things in it's proper place as it used to. Things on the "priority list" seem to get dumped to the "things I can't remember list". Things I don't need to obsessively think about end up on the "priority list" and clog my thoughts with mundane tenacity. Thus... planners and lists have become my friends.

Planner #1
It first started with foster parenting that I began keeping a simple weekly planner for appointments and such. When we moved and stopped fostering I was happy to place that little planner in a drawer. Five months later I pulled it out when I realized that work, callings, and homeschool commitments were getting missed or I would reschedule because I couldn't remember something else was already planned. The main thing missing from my current planner is a weekly "To Do" list, a must have in next year's planner.

Mike likes to rub it in that he has a Palm (which I bought him two years ago for his birthday). I wish I could afford the fancy cell phone with data service and Blackberry apps. How sweet that would be! But, alas, our budget can't handle that kind of luxury. I guess I'll just have to cowboy up and use pen and paper. *sigh*

Planner #2

The second planner change was to add a check list type of planner for Nayna and Chris so that on the days that I am at work they do not get off track (keeps me on track too). They are both in Scholar Phase, but not all levels of Scholar Phase are the same. You can see this week's plan here. This is a form of Structure Time, not Content. They have certain criteria that needs to be done each day, but there is some choice as to fulfilling that criteria. We have been doing this for four weeks now and it is working really well. We had a few trial and error moments, but make-up work is a consequence...so my kiddos are much better at completing the list. ;-) The 2 child-planner sheet is from donnayoung.org. I filled in the basics that are the same each week and then copied the sheet. The things that change I just write in every week. I prepare this on Sunday during our Mentor Meetings (same as FEC meetings).

We still have our individual binders with student planners that I shared before. This one-page plan also has the appointments that affect them and the days that I work listed at the bottom.

Planner #3

My kids are very proficient at making meals, they have been for some time. We have come up with a system that the kids and I each make meals two nights a week, except Sunday. Mike is not home for dinner or he would take a turn in the rounds also (working 60-70 hours a week I figure makes up for it). You can see our meals listed here and who is cooking that night. The kids typically cook on the days that I work. Chris and Nayna can make a pretty awesome spaghetti from scratch.

Sunday is a day of rest for us. We typically eat left-overs or simple meals. I remember reading about Sister Kimball and that she didn't want to spend all day preparing meals on the Sabbath so she would prepare on Saturday. I felt that this applies to me, I also don't want anyone to slave away on Sunday in the kitchen.

Over time I have learned a great deal from Mike on organizing and planning. I'm thankful that I have a husband who values a "house of order" both temporally and spiritually.

Garage Sale Genie!

I always gripe because others find such awesome deals at garage sales and I don't...well I have no room to gripe anymore! The Garage Sale Genie brought me some finds.

Mike and I spent $20 and got all of this...

and this!

Mike was ecstatic because this bike is super light. He has been looking for one like this for awhile. It looks even better all cleaned up and tires pumped. He and Chris have been riding twice already.

Mission: Organization

I know a lot of you already think I'm organized. This is a learned talent that Mike has helped me to learn over the years. He is a highly organized person - "Everything has a place and it belongs in it's place any time it is not in use." I truly appreciate his dedication to cleanliness and order even if it is a step above my comfort zone sometimes. I was able to unpack a few more boxes of books that were sitting in the garage with no place to go, utilizing our new Freebie Fairy gifts. This smaller bookshelf now houses all our church oriented books, both fiction and non-fiction, plus a few small photo albums (not pictured).

My bedroom has been were I pile all the things that need to be filed, worked on, organized, stored, looked at again, etc. Mike hates these piles. I do not love them either, but I see them as a necessary evil since I do not have a desk anymore. This tall shelving unit from the Freebie Fairy is making my honey very happy as my mess turns to organized chaos.

You may be wondering why I have a computer by bed. That is a Linux Server that Chris and I are working on. We are currently stumped about getting it to work right. Everything is installed, but not everything has the right settings yet.

Tomorrow --- Dining Room and Desk Mess!

"Freebie Fairy" Comes to Visit!

When we moved to Missouri, we could only afford to bring one truck. So we had to reduce our belongings and only take what meant the most to us. Everyone was willing to sacrifice and so we were able to do it without much trouble. I did get rid of a few things that I now wish I had, but nothing of any great value. My biggest disappointment in moving is the things that got damaged this time. Other than replacing all my Pampered Chef pans and cookie sheets, the damage was manageable. I have not been able to replace my Pampered Chef stuff yet. :-(

However, the Lord has blessed us with a community that gives a lot of things away. We also gave away a great deal of our belongings when we moved, so we are happy that we can partake on the receiving end once in a while, as well as the giving end. We have been given 2 book cases, 1 shelf unit, 1 closet organizer, 3 chairs, and a piano! (so far). I am so happy about the book cases since I had two boxes of books that I could not unpack. Yeah!

I feel a little weird posting about our freebie stuff. But, I also feel that in this economy, we need to all help each other out if we can. We received these items from a neighbor who can't take everything with them. We gave away tons of stuff when we moved. "Pay it forward", right? I also believe that Heavenly Father wants us to be wise stewards over what he has given us. Thank you neighbors! Sorry to see you go.

The piano has not arrived yet, we need some help getting it moved. It needs some TLC, but plays beautifully! Marly is so happy to have a real piano! I'll post some picks of our piano once I get it refinished. Thank you Thom-Ann for the piano!