Digital Upgrade to TJED Homeschool Planner

I am really excited about my current project! Technology is a fabulous thing when used as a tool and not only as a toy.

Confession here....I am a techie-nerd-wanna-be!

I wish I could spend all my time in Geekville messing around with computers and learning new things about computers, phones, and tablets. Because I am a mom and busy, like most people who read my blog, I don't have time to do all that I would like to do (sound familiar anyone?).

I have been diligently working on making the TJED Homeschool Planner a digital option. Evernote is where we have decided to spend our time developing templates that will upload into the computer Windows or Mac app, giving the user options to use the planner templates on all of their compatible devices once it is uploaded.

These templates will be editable to allow for personalization and individualized record keeping. Customers who have already purchased the TJED Homeschool Planner should keep an eye open for an email to let you know of how you can get the digital version upgrade for FREE!

Evernote is FREE, but some users may want to upgrade to the Premium version if you already use it for a lot of things. Or, users may get another free account just to use for homeschooling.

Stay tuned! More information will be coming soon!

The Education Journal

In past posts, I've talked  extensively about our Planners. These various stages of Planning tools have evolved over time and been very useful in our Leadership Education journey, especially during Core and Love of Learning phases. I still have book lists and record what books we read in a large 3 ring notebook that houses all my 6 Month Inventories and miscellaneous lists.

Mostly, these planners helped me to feel:

• Productive
• On top of things
• Like a good parent
• Organized
• Calm

This year we have developed into the next stage of recording our progress, which I call "The Education Journal". In The Student Whisperer, Tiffany Earl calls them her Academic Journal. I just can't bring myself to call it that with my teens, but they are one and the same.

Why the switch?

One reason for the change is that my two at home are both in various stages of Scholar Phase. I am in Depth Phase. I've been keeping both a Planner, to track what I do with the children and what they do individually, and my own personal Education Journal. 

As they have progressed, a typical planner just isn't enough. Sure, they could write essays about each book read, but that wasn't enough either. Been there, done that. What they need now is to record THOUGHTS, not just what they learned. The need to record what they are thinking.

After all, isn't the purpose of TJED or a Leadership Education to learn how to think? 

If so, then isn't the purpose to also record the processes that leads up to:

• what they think, 
• how they arrived at these thoughts, 
• and what action/reaction these thoughts might bring to their life?

Making the Switch

After Christmas, I felt restless to figure out why we, as a family, were in such a rut. Had our routine become...well, too routine? What were we missing? What could we do to shake up the need, the real fire, for learning? We all seemed to be somewhat....meh? 

I wrote about my own malaise, but through much prayer and meditation I determined that the loss of my mother was not what was at the root of our slump. The root of our slump was a loss of desire to take that next step, to step out of our current comfort zone and make the leap to the next level.

Yikes!

Sometimes those leaps are scary. Sometimes they are painful on the landing. And, sometimes we don't quite make the leap and have to try again.

We had a family meeting, discussing what changes can we make, what will be the "thing" that makes the next 6 months "work" for our family. We debated. We argued. I even cried. Coming up with the next level was not an easy task.

In the end, once the switch from Planner Mode to Education Journal Mode was mentioned, the feeling in the room suddenly shifted in a significant way. We felt lighter, like a switch had turned on. I saw that each of my children and my husband were nodding their heads and looked thoughtful. 

As we've made the switch, I can see more energy in our daily studies. My son, Chris, mentioned to me today how much he loves the Education Journal and how he feels it is just the thing he needed. That "Ah HA!" moment has made a major difference.

Easy, Cheap, and Profound

Making the change to an Education Journal cost about 50¢ a person. Simple spiral notebooks have been effective. No need to spend a fortune on the next new curriculum, or that book everyone tells you that you need.

My notebooks are numbered and the date range is written on the front so that I can easily look back over my progress. While filling in a planner only took about 15 minutes, the Education Journal takes anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how much one wants to record about what they are learning/thinking.

The change in how we are perceiving our education is profound. I am so happy, and just a little surprised, at how effective this is for us and how much more we are learning with it's use. Give it a try for a few weeks! You might find it helps your education too.

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!

 

End of Year Records

We "school" year round, with a few well-placed breaks among the un-planned breaks throughout. We typically go from July 1st to June 30th each year, which means we are nearing the end of this "school" year (I really don't like the word school...it reminds me of mindless fish). I take all of the records we've kept throughout the year and place them in a new binder.

The records I archive on June 30th are:

• Each person's individual planner for the previous year.
• The lists of books read by each person that year.
• The calendar used for attendance.
• The Course of Study plan.
• Previous Compass outlines, the current Compass stays in their Binder.

Beginning the "new" year - the first week of July is when I usually get the Binders ready for the new year. This time of renewal is always a fun time when I feel jazzed up about what the new year will bring. I try to have new resources ready by this time, but I've learned that new resources just seem to naturally begin showing up when they are needed. More on that next month!

Yearly Breaks

We used to take all of July and December off as our yearly breaks, but as the kids became teens we discovered there are many other conflicting things in the summer that get in the way. This year is no exception. There is Girl's Camp in June and Scout Camp in July. Seminary lasts into the first week of June. We've already had several visitors who feel we are sufficiently settled and can come visit on their terms. My mother is nearing the end of her life and we are taking more trips to visit her...and a wedding in another state at the end of July. With all this going on our calendar is rather disillusioned compared to the simplicity we used to experience.

We will be taking two weeks off in June and two weeks off in July instead of the whole month of July. We've already had too many breaks with the move and all the company we've had lately (I won't even get into some of the comments company made when they were here). It feels like we are really not making the kind of progress we've made in years past. We discussed these issues in our recent Family Council and discovered that we are all feeling a bit out-of-sync. With the new break schedule on the calendar, I think it gave everyone a much needed overview of what to expect this summer.

Book, Video, and Other Lists

Another important part of our yearly binder is the lists we keep of completed books, videos, magazines, and other articles. Here is a link to some list forms. My favorite is the books, issues and videos/plays/concerts forms. One requirement for my Scholars is that they record all of the materials they finish on these forms in their individual binders. Nayna and I also record the books we read on Goodreads.com with reviews. This is a nice way to have your student write a review and share it. Sometimes she reads so many books that she does not write reviews on every single one.

In addition to recording every book we finish, we also have checklists to chose books from. Our most important list is:



Once an item has been read they check it off on their list. Our goal is read all of the books during their Scholar Phase and marked off as level 1 and to hopefully have at least one a month marked off as level 2. (For an explanation of the three levels please see "TJED for Teens" by Oliver DeMille and Shannon Brooks.)

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.

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.