I found Edu-Track online and thought it looked like really great software. Then I saw the purchase price... $59.00. Ouch! I know Homeschool Tracker offers a free download, but with my dial-up connection it will take several hours. I believe they will send me a CD for $8.95. So, I'm just throwing this question out there to see if there are any reviews on either of these or any others that you recommend.

I downloaded Homeschool Tracker and I love it! I bought the plus upgrade this year. It's cost effective, easy to use, although I don't use everything ... I haven't' figured it all out yet. My favorite part is the support. They have a yahoo group and the programmer and his wife reply to questions or problems within hours of posting ... they are wonderful ... I've never seen such wonderful customer support anywhere. They also listen to our wants in a program and our problems and they fix and upgrade in ways that they can that works for us. They offer free upgrades within the version number ... we are expecting a new upgrade in plus on September 15 ... it will be free and it sounds awesome!
Plus is quite different from the basic version ... the weekly planner is wonderful... and it's only a plus feature.

For those who have dial-up, myself included, I have two words when it comes to large downloads: download manager.

As far as Homeschool Tracker goes, I give it a big ol' . I'm still using the free version, & am very happy with it.

I have personally tried and bought several programs out there and I personally like Homeschool Tracker. The free version is great but I bought the plus version more our of curiosity and I love it! I am hooked and planned a whole year in a matter of hours and can reschedule very very easily!

We have Edu-Track. They are still working out the bugs, and you have to stay on top of the updates and pay for certain services. It didn't offer some of the features that I thought it would and should. It was a waste of money for us, and it is a very expensive dust collector!

I have tried using MLR too, and I can say for a fact, Homeschool Tracker beats it hands down!

Now, I know this is my own opinion, but even the free version was better than MLR, but the Plus version is by far worth the price...and MUCH better than the free version.

As a matter of fact, since I will soon be out of the homeschooling business (unless some grandchildren start showing up at my door wanting homeschooled ) I am thinking of adapting this program for other uses.

Has anyone tried just using MS office? I did download HS Tracker, the free version & I did like what I saw. I think it's a great program, but it's nothing more than a database with a nice looking front. For those of us with an office background, how beneficial is it? Just wondering. I've been logging everything in excel, just bc excel is my preference. Somewhat of a bad habit. I have thought of working access into my excel spreadsheets to be able to query them for reports.

I agree that Tracker is a database program and that you could accomplish some of the same things in Office ... my knowledge of office is ok... but not extensive. My thought on it is...why should I reinvent the wheel when someone else has done such a fantastic job at doing so already.
I love tracker...it has totally changed how I organize my school records and my lesson plans (previously I had used excel loosely...along with pen and paper)... my knowledge of Office would never allow me to build lesson plans and manipulate them as I do, to reschedule assignments forward or back... a single activity or the whole week. I also couldn't produce a transcript with the click of a few buttons. I think it's well worth it's price tag... which honestly is less than taking my family out for dinner. Good luck with your choice...

Tracker does have a 30 Day money back guarantee... if you tried it and found it not to live up to it's reputation... you wouldn't be out anything.

Thanks for your input Barbara-Sue. I had the same thoughts of not "reinventing the wheel". But I am such a cheapskate. I have the free version and I STILL built my lesson plans and weighted gradebook in Excel.

Maybe I just do things the hard way.

I don't think it's doing things the hard way ... it's time for me... but if you have a system you like, why change. It's more of what works best for one, hinders another ... thank goodness we all have so many options to choose from.

Does HS Tracker Plus come to you on disk or do you download it after they have received your money?

You do get a CD when you purchase. You can download it immediately... but the CD still comes in the mail... updates are ALL done through downloads. The CD they send isn't the most current version either... you have to download an update immediately to bring it up to par ... BUT the major framework is on the CD ...which is where your long downloads come into play.
They make constant upgrades...one major one a year and minor ones to improve glitches that people find or things they want to make minor changes to, which I assume is why the CD isn't current to the most recent version ... cd's do cost money to make no sense wasting them. Excellent customer service.

I have the Plus version of Homeschool Tracker and love it- but I feel guilty for letting myself get behind, and I haven't used it lately. It is time consuming, and you have to set a scheduled maintenance time to keep it up to date, then it's not a big deal.

Anyway, these tools should be useful helps, they shouldn't control us.

I thrive using Tracker...but I am organized by nature and actually I NEED order to function without stressing out. I use it as we go... but I also have the computer at my desk where I work. If I didn't have that convenience I would print the assignment sheets and add grades etc to that and input them at night. It's just finding a balance in how to make it work for you. I do agree we can't be slaves to it ... but for me it brings order and sanity to my day. I would be stressed without a written plan, be it on paper or on the computer.

I spent a ton of time erasing plans in my plan book when things changed because I needed it to be written down.

What program are you using? I use Homeschool Tracker to keep my records and the program is great. The basic version is free and the support is great.

I tried to use hs tracker but my schedule doesn't seem to fit any program that is out there so far.

I can't plan what my kids are going to do because I can't plan on them missing x amount of problems. If they do, they have to correct and do the lesson over again. I just haven't seen how I can incorporate this into a lesson plan.

Blaise, Homeschool Tracker could accommodate this in several ways.

One... you could submit lessons to the assignment grid on a daily basis. Meaning you would have them already inputted into your lesson planner ... only available in the Plus version ... and rather than submit lots of plans you could do it daily... I think this would be time consuming...but it might work for you.

The other thing that HST does is it has a reschedule feature. So you could submit several weeks of lesson plans...or even just one week and should you need to reschedule ... the reschedule feature can move all of the assignments or just one kind of assignment.

Some people also use Tracker to show what they did ... they don't plan lessons ahead, they input the data after the fact.

It's very flexible. I would be lost without it!

Now why didn't I think of that?

No problem ... sometimes the answer is right in front of us.

If it were me... I will still do the data entry work ahead of time ... just submitting it as you use it ... inputting data is the most time consuming ... when you use it, before or after you do an assignment, doesn't really matter.
The best part is with the lesson planner you can save your lesson plans for younger children coming up behind.

I usually put everything in after it is completed. I was going to try and plan ahead this year but so far that hasn't worked

I've been using the Tracker Lesson Plan feature this year, and I really like it. I won't have to do it all over again for the younger kids, if we are using the same books.

I have a question for those who use Wordly Wise. How you do schedule it? I got book 3 for ds (6th grade). This is our first year using it and it is really just an added bonus for ds. His vocabulary is pretty good, so I am not sure he really needs this.

Anyhoo, there is only 20 lessons, with five activites per lesson. Do you schedule out one activity per day and then finish the book early in the year? Do you begin the next book? Do you schedule it every other day or so and make the book last all year?

I will not be giving any tests for this, but I will be checking he work daily.

Thanks for the help!!

I haven't scheduled a whole lot before this year so we tried to do WW3000 2-4 times a week and at the end of each unit I gave dd a spelling test and she had to write the word and then use it in a sentence. She had a lot of vocabulary with English from the Roots up and literature in co-op I didn't anticipate so we just did WW3000 in between assignments. In the public school she used to do one word list a week. The 5 lessons during the week one a day and then the test on Fridays.
I can't find my book but I thought the first lesson is just reviewing the words.

I think Donna has a WW3000 schedule.

I thought the review words and activity 1A were on the same day. There is nothing in the book that tells you how to schedule it. I saw Donna's example, but wasn't clear what she did. It is scheduled everyday on the planner, but at the top she has highlighted "every other day". I may do the every other day thing. This is not for his spelling, just to help improve vocabulary.

When I used Wordly Wise years ago with my older kiddoes, we did the one lesson a day and finished it early. But my kids loved this book. They enjoyed the activities so it wasn't a problem. We'll see what happens next year with Noah and WW.

I'm using book 2 with my son in the 3000 series. I scheduled one activity a day. I am giving him tests so this spreads a week's lesson over 6 days. Since the book has only 20 lessons I don't mind. Every 4 weeks or so there is also a review activity.
At first I was going to keep it a 5 day a week lesson...but I decided there was no reason to push him through the book and have some days with extra work ... I really want him to take time to grasp the words.
The way I scheduled it..one activity, test on the 6th lesson and the added review lessons came to a total of 125 lessons to fill the year. I probably won't schedule vocabulary on Thursdays as we have co-op so we should still spread this over the entire year.

I scheduling like this too. I left Tuesdays blank for Vocab, Grammar and Math because every other week is co-op and there is usually something that takes more time than I allowed What do you think of this idea Michelle, just doing it 3 times a week and you finish when you finish?

Here is the WW3000 scheduling what-if's at the dy site:
http://donnayoung.org/forms/help/go/ww.htm

Applie that is a series example that is using only wordly wise reading parts. It was for brushing up on comprehension which was something my daughter lacked back then. Even though every block is filled, the work was to be done every other day for a while.

Thanks Donna! I think I'll work on the four days a week schedule.

Thanks for starting this thread Applie. I have not gotten my WW books yet, but I will be working on this as soon as I get them. I will come back to this once they are here.

Day One: 1A
Day Two: 1B
Day Three: 1C
Day Four: 1D
Day Five: 1E
Day Six: Looked words up in dictionary
Day Seven: Used each word in a sentence
Day Eight: Wrote a short story using five of the words
Day Nine: Spelling Pre-test
Day Ten: Spelling Test

We used Wordly Wise this way for grade eight

My daughter made up this schedule so that she could remember the words better

Teatime, that is a good schedule.

I have decided to make it a 4 day schedule and have the fifth day free. We are not using this as a spelling test and I will not be giving a vocabulary test. I did tell ds that I will ask for an oral definition for two to four words each week.

I have read Donna's ideas about planning for the year, but I was wondering about how closely you all really stick to the year's plans. What do you do if you have to adjust to reteach, etc.? I was wondering if you all plan this way only for the workbook-driven subjects or for all subjects. Do you think planning this way is easier than going week by week? Are you required to do this by your states, or are you doing it for other reasons? What are the benefits to this long-term planning? I hope you don't mind answering these questions because I am always interested in hearing about what is working for other homeschoolers

I'm planning for the year so that I have a framework to go by. I hope to follow the plan, but by no means am afraid to change and adapt it. I am inputting my plans in excel in such a way that changing/adapting will be as simple as clicking the mouse. (inserting a row, cut and paste, that kind of thing)

This is my second year homeschooling and I feel as if I need have something in place for the duration to give myself an idea of how the year will go. I've already noticed that some subjects are going to take longer than others to finish. I guess I feel more confident about making a change here or there, or even prepared to explore other things (eg. unanticipated field trip) if I have it all down. Not sure if I've made sense or not... but that was my thinking.

Oh, and there's the fact that my wonderful family found it difficult to give me the time each week to put plans together this year. I found myself "flying by the seat of my pants" most of the time. Not a good feeling.

I normally do my planning after kids are in bed on Sunday nights...but work on it a little while they are doing some sort of work that does not need my attention (and that happens NOT often)

I plan for the entire year, so that when life happens, I won't be caught off guard and not have plans ready. As for having to review etc ... I plan a day a week for reviewing..etc...

I try to follow my plan, but it doesn't always work out that way. I always have high hopes at the beginning of the year, but by Christmas I see that I have planned too much.

I am scheduling work-book driven subjects (math and english) on Donna's quarter planner. I will move those schedules over to the weekly planner. A few weeks at a time; maybe two. If I see that I need to reteach, I will skip the time needed on my weekly planner. Once that is done, I'll go back and move more days over to the weekly. Does that make any sense?

I find it easier for textbook studies. Unit studies I work as an outline and then plan weekly as we go along.

In Florida we are required to keep a portfolio with a teacher's schedule. We can do it daily, weekly, quarterly, or monthly. I have been doing it as a monthly journal, but want to be more specific this year.

You know what is coming up. If you plan out the year schedule for one child, it is done for the next child (if using the same book).

Ask away! That is why we are here.

Hope this helps. Everyone is different.

Last year was our first year homeschooling . I planned out a week in advance, but had some rough goals established. As it turned out, all kinds of things interfered with our plans -- not the least of which was some major health problems for my oldest daughter. This year, I'm trying to set some plans for the entire year. Although, it won't help overcome health problems interfering, it will give us some sense of where we've been and how much we still have to accomplish.

I am also going to try to get my 8th and 10th grader to do some subjects together. I think that will increase the motivation for each. And introduce a certain element of competition, which might be good.

I'm working on my lesson plans for the year as well. I find it helpful...but I am the kind of person that thrives on order and having a plan ... flying by the seat of my pants is too stressful! Not to mention, my days are filled homeschooling 3 kids ... finding time to plan lessons is much more challenging when we are doing school too ... for me at least. I use HST Plus, which allows me to input all of my lesson plans but save them to apply to the assignment grid when I need them. I haven't applied anything to the assignment grid yet, I am just inputting data. Once I know, I will be able to formulate lesson plans very quickly because the data is all there. I usually apply about 6 weeks worth of lesson plans to the assignment grid. It's easy to reschedule if I need to do so... however we tend to stick to the plan ... although things come up on occasion that require rescheduling... can't help that...

While planning is a necessity for me, I am open to the needs of my children and the possibility that our lessons don't follow the plan. My son was struggling with multiplying and I stopped his regular math book and took 2 weeks to drill him intensively ... he did so much better later that it was well worth the break. He didn't finish his math book... as both of his sisters did, but I didn't stress it... he needed that time and honestly the end of his math book will be reviewed in the next book. My youngest is a struggling reader and I am constantly adjusting her schedule to accommodate her abilities ... I actually threw out her reading program mid year... it wasn't working. We started with a different program, which I am thrilled to say is really helping her.

OK I know you have probably told me but for review and others.. what reading programs were they?

We started the year with Bob Jones ... which I LOVE ... but it was moving way too fast...she couldn't keep up. Now we are combining Reading Rods, Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and Bob Books. I like the hands on activities of Reading Rods, but they were expensive and don't cover all the skills we need...like blends. Because she is hands on, I incorporate them when I can. The Ordinary Parents guide uses a magnet board which is wonderful for her too.
Bob Books are really building her confidence ... short easy stories... she loves reading again! We also are using Explode the Code... very good workbooks. I hope to return to Bob Jones someday... I have used it with my older kids and love the program.. she just isn't ready yet.

I am working on my lesson plans right now too. We start back to school the 2nd week of July.
I do the whole year ahead of time. First, I take each subject and divide it into how many days I need and write it down from there. Then, after I see if everything is going to work, I put it in my main lesson planner and add more details. I have the lesson plans written up already and now I'm working on getting them into my planner with more detail for each subject. I am the type of person that craves organization in everything.

WOW and here I am still trying to decide what to use this year and school starts 7/11 here ...
I am so impressed with all you ladies

I make what I euphemistically call Master Schedules and we follow them closely. I have examples of them all over my web site and examples of how to make them for various kinds of books. A master schedule is a list. The books for one subject is divided into weeks or days and placed in a planner. If I need to add more detail to a master schedule, I can add it later. I don't try to forumlate details extensive plans for the whole year.
http://donnayoung.org/forms/help/lessons.htm

This web page example here: http://donnayoung.org/forms/help/go/ex/sww.htm shows a single subject (vocabulary) planned using a book and a software program. This is an example of a master plan for one semester.

Here are a couple of samples of how one could plan Wordly Wise
http://donnayoung.org/forms/help/go/ww.htm

Here is a text book detailed master plan:
http://donnayoung.org/apologia/physical.htm

Here is a text book simple master plan without page numbers:
http://donnayoung.org/apologia/chemistry1.htm

These are all simple book schedules, (a list of pages and sometimgs a little detail) in other words, the books are scheduled so that they can be read/lessons done within the school year. This is just how I do it, others do theirs the way they want to do it. For me, planning this way is simple and easy and to the point.

The children get a copy of the master plan in some form. The history plan gets glued into their books, the science plan takes the form of bookmarks. In workbooks, the plan is either written inside the book cover or 'stop/start/do this' is written on the actual pages of the workbook.

If one of the kids needs reteaching it is just a simple matter of stopping where we are in the master plan, doing the reteaching, then resuming where we were in the master plan. If the reteaching requires a schedule, then that is made on a quarter planner or one of the new planners ... for example if I want to do the reteaching/extra practice in 9 or 12 lessons, I'd use a planner from this page:
http://donnayoung.org/forms/planners/columns.htm
I'd use the one with 9 or 12 blocks and use the bottom part for detailing what is going on and the progress made.

If you must keep records in a weekly planner, then transfer the plans from the Master Plan (subject planner) to your weekly planner.

Me too.

I also record all my grades, so above each slot for each grade, I write down what the grade is for ...

Thanks for the links, Donna!

Oh, if we only lived closer to each other ... .We are so much alike.

I'm also very particular with my grades.

Thank you all for your wonderful input and links. I love hearing about what is working well for other homeschoolers. I think it is terrific that you are able to organize for the year while still having ways to be flexible according to your kids' needs. One thing that I have learned about homeschooling is that as homeschoolers., we have to juggle so many more things than other families. So, I have learned that sometimes I have to think outside of my box to succeed. That is why it is so helpful to hear from all of you and to draw from your experiences. Thank you!

I was wondering how much planning you ladies do for the early grades (say K-3).

I just go thru the books I am using and make weekly assignments for each child (an 2nd and a 3rd grader this coming year) for the younger 2 we are sort of cheating this year and found a place online that has the whole year done for us.. and they have curriculum for babies thru K. The best part is it is FREE.

Brightly Beaming Resources

I hope this helps...

I am very type A and plan the whole year out. I don't put dates down, because something always comes up, that changes the date. I learned that the hard way, after the 1st year.

I don't write out the workbooks, because I know how much we have to do, in order to complete the book. Especially with math, lesson 1, follows lesson 2! LOL

For more difficult things with extras, like science and history, I plan in much more detail, because of the books and experiments. I try to plan them to a T.

I don't want to look disorganized with the kids, not that it doesn't happen. But I don't want them to think they can be disorganized, by my example.

I am now starting to plan things out. I take my books with me to dr's appointments, to the pool, etc...

Good luck everyone! It's a huge task.

I have several teacher planner books from that era. They are full of plans that have been checked-off, some are whited-out (is that even a word), erased and remarked. That was long ago, but apparently I planned everything more than a week in advance (hence the white-out). I probably sat down and planned two or three weeks in advance at a time, but I'm not sure, it's been a long time. I didn't start out planning the way I plan now.

Thanks for the link Nana!

I've been dappling, going by his interests or what I remember I have around the house, etc. He's been doing so well that I haven't really worried about it. Of course, I have decided that writing every day is going to be a must - his writing is not good (but quickly improving). He'd be going into K if he were going to public...so I feel a little structure may be in order ... I just haven't decided how much.

I don't really plan for K. Just kind of went along with whatever book I was using. This year I am planning though.

My littlest is going to be doing probably PK I think I won't plan anything out for her. Just write what she does daily. why make myself crazy if we don't get my plans done.

We don't have any reporting requirements at all in Alaska, so I didn't make a lesson plan for the past three years. This year I kept a diary-type record of what we did each week, mainly just to prove to myself that we learned a lot even when we didn't do any workbooks. I'm now in the process of drawing up lesson plans for next year because we're moving to S. Carolina and they seem to want some sort of daily record. I thought making out lesson plans in advance would be easier in the long run, but now I'm not so sure. There's no way we will stick to this schedule for any longer than a month! I'll have to update the lesson plans constantly and I'm not sure that will be any easier to deal with than a daily diary entry.

I wanted you guys to know you all are such an encouragement to us all


I used to be a good planner/organizer and then I had kids

Now I am flying by the seat of my pants too!

Last night I checked out the web page Nana sent in and printed off lots of stuff from there and then pondered on what some of you said about organization and lesson plans

I am from TX so they are pretty lax. . .but I want to do it unto the Lord so if anyone ever wants to check I have done what is acceptable and above. So I printed off the quarterly lesson plan sheets 2 per kid like Donna states on her web page. Then I started planning (without a pitcher of tea!) and got several weeks done. I am doing Interlock and FIAR books. . .and now will do a little of this Brightly Beaming. My twins need lots. I am hoping this will help keep me on my toes. The Interlock is only 3 days a week but maybe this will keep me focused. I tend to put off till tomorrow as I am trying to get my house in order. . .so taking a mini siesta on school right now. But oldest needs it and well I think they all need it. Went today to ps and they are wanting to test twins and see if they have autism spectrum stuff like their brother. So we all need structure in the home. . .including me!

Anyway, just wanted you to know I am converted and am going to be doing lesson plans like the "big girls" and this is my only 2nd year to HS.

I plan too much and find myself falling behind and feeling like a failure when I don't get the things done that I planned.

This has been my downfall so this year I am determined to have a better yr and not plan so far in advance and just plan 2 or 3 weels instead of 12 weeks.

That is a neat link, nana. Thanks.

I didn't do much planning for K this past year. but I need to plan now that I have a 1st grader and a K .

Thanks ya'll for all of the good ideas. This is the first year that I am trying to plan out the whole year ... very interesting so far. Last year (1st grade) I planned ahead by no more than a month ... it was too easy too get sidetracked. I am really going to make the effort to make school the priority and not just an activity. That will be hard to do with my parents needing some help regularly and no one else in the family really pitching in. Somehow we are just going to have to do it though ...

This fall my husband is going hunting again with a few friends and he'll be taking DS along with him - they had a great time last year.

I've asked my husband to talk with the guys about when they plan on going so that I can plan on not doing school that week. I'll work with my daughter on stuff that is solely hers and areas where she needs a bit more help with. But with so much of our school being done with both together it makes no sense to do with her and then just have to redo when the guys come home. So August is all that I have done for now.

How about the rest of you?
Are you done with planning or do you have a lot more to do?

I do have to have my son's take an assessment (not sure if that is what it is ) with Saxon Math so that I'll know just which level to buy for him.

I'm not done.
Here's what:

Apologia Biology: planning done
Home EC: planning done

Art: Not done, but at least I know where I am going with this class now.
Algebra 2: Not done ~ easy to plan
English II: Not done ~ hard to plan

PE: don't have to plan
Typing: same

I've planned the entire 2005-2006 school year already.

I've already been looking in the Rainbow Resource Catalog to see what I might use for next school year. (2006-2007)

I'm planning ... and checking the board! LOL

I am finished ... whooooooooo
hoooooooooo!!!!

We will be doing our Coop swimming again I just don't know when it will start. I'm waiting to hear from the organizer about this so I can put it in the schedule - I hate having to hold back on working out my schedule for other people to do their planning.

So I should plan something along that line for until then as the swimming won't begin until at least mid Sept or Oct. And it would probably be good to have something going on a different day so that we get more exercise in.

Typing is something that I need to get for both my kids. I've seen a couple that look good at CBD but I would like to find something locally if at all possible so that I don't have to wait on the mail for it to get here. Any recommendations on a good program that would work for both a 12 year old boy & 9 year old girl? I'd rather not buy 2 different programs.

Woo Hoo For you ladies who are done. What a great feeling.

I'm not done but I'm making progress.

English I -It's taking me a long time because I'm trying to integrate SAT and college prep studies into my English program for my daughter. I'm almost done with most of the English planning. It will be ongoing with the literature component because I have to read the next book first before I can make a study guide and I have to order the other study guides. I'm teaching a literature discussion group and I have the first novel 6wks planned out but I still need to do the rest of the year. I'm not keeping giving grades though. I told the mom's I would only lead a discussion group because I agonize too long to grading writing papers for other people

Or someone keeps changing their minds and causing you to do likewise.

Math done for two kids. (I forgot I have one more to do )
English done for all three.
ART Pacs done.
Earth Science - sort of done. I do better with this kind of planning as I go along.
Geography - not done.
Birds (spring study for daughter#1) not done.
Spelling done.
History not done.

I guess I should get busy, since school starts next week.

We have finally decided what to use this year, so that part is done. But the actual planning NO WAY, is that done yet. we did start school back again but very loosely, DS reads everyday for about 15 min and then I have a summer bridge workbook that he is doing everyday.

I'm only just beginning!

Nope, not nearly done yet. Still finishing up last year, in fact. Bible School is over for the year, but we have a church conference this week (Applie, your pastor will be attending. ) so I won't be able to devote myself to planning until next week. Which is a little crazy because we will be doing some school at the same time - though not a full day.

Time to plan has really been in very short supply here.

Mine is pretty much planned out for me already. All I have to do is enter information into the Homeschool Tracker. THAT takes time! I spent an entire day just doing the first two weeks for three kids (I forgot to do the preschooler).

Planning? What's that? Just when I was getting ready to start that we had the basement flood.

So now every book is packed and I hope to be able to start planning in August.

I really didn't want to be planning while we were trying to school. But that's what it looks like I will be doing ... ... ..

Ginger,

Who needs planning ... when you can fly by the seat of your pants!


You are very organized, so I bet you have it planned in your head already!

The plans are on paper, but will they actually work!?!

We were relaxed last year (1st year), going with their interests. This year I'm gearing up with what they need to know (4th & 5th); and pray that we all settle into a routine of learning.

Well I am glad that I do my planning in pencil. What with the possibility of my husband changing jobs with in the next month that will cause me to have to make some changes in my plans. I've only planned about the 1st 3 weeks out well and the rest is not complete. I still have to have DS take the placement/assessment test with Saxon math to see just which books he should be in. I have the public school version of 5/4 and it looks like about 1/5 of the book would be review for him - we've struggled with math concepts on and off he's struggling with division right now. Fortunately I can get the books in Anchorage so that helps ALOT - no waiting on the mail to arrive.

Right now I'm in a holding pattern and waiting on others to help me schedule. I hate this. quiltinmommy,
I'll be praying for your DD as she goes into this surgery. More likely her youth will be on her side in the recovery of the surgery. Their bodies just seem to heal so much faster than ours do. Glad that you and she have peace about this. God is the best doctor and He'll be in there guiding the surgeon's hands as well as the others present.

In my years of HS I have come to realize that the planning will not work if you don't stick to it. I know that I have to be the one to be disciplined to not stray too far off course and to not let other things distract me. When I focus on the task and don't let myself, and therefore the DC, get distracted and off course then we do well.

I do realize that I have to be flexible because life has a way of getting in the way. I also have to learn to say no to that which is a detriment to our routine and schedule but also to say yes to those things which will be a benefit or just HAVE to be done. The have tos need to be evaluated as to who says they have to be done.

Well put! And sometimes (in my case) the have tos are a way of avoiding buckling down and doing table work. Sometimes the have tos can be put off until later.

Wow, did I need to hear that! thanks so much ... I'm personally easily distracted. And recently feeling guilty and pulled in other directions by others, that I just have to say 'no' to, and get on with the grand plan.

We are doing a summer unit study on Ancient Egypt. Happily, I've realized today we have done 1/2 of what I initially anticipated. Now I just have to stay to the plan (more) with the actually daily assignments. I can do this!

I have not started yet!!!!

What are the major differences between Notebooking and Lapbooking? I don't know exactly what either of them are.

Both are a "scrapbook" method of displaying ones study. You add graphics, drawings, etc to your research and work. Maybe charts or maps ... whatever you might need to display your work. Notebooking is done in a notebook. Lapbooking is done in a larger folder, or I use poster board. Cut and folded into a folder, it's larger than a file folder. Some people have their kid's notebooks comb bound when they are done, as a book or "their" study. Nice addition to portfolios and impressive to look at.
I am using notebooking for science, as my children will add their experiment charts, plus research and photos we take or pictures from the internet that help explain the concepts or their own drawings. Notebooks are traditionally used for older students who need to add more detail...but lapbooking is by no means limited to younger students.
Lapbooking, I think, is more creative. You make folded mini books to creatively display what you are learning. All of which are glued into a large lapbook or folder to display the contents.
The learning goes on in the mini books, the large folder is just a way to pull it all together.
We are enjoying it immensely. I am amazed at what my kids are picking up while doing this...much more than from just listening or reading. I am in the middle of dinner, but later I would be glad to add some specific examples of what my children are working on.

Oh! Thanks, quiltinmommy, for the details.

We use the mini-books, different folds, tabs, and flip books for our notebooks. To me they are about the same. One is in a folder, the other in a notebook . Lots of fun.

Donna,
I'll give you a couple of links that may give you some examples of lapbooking and notebooking:

Lapbooking

http://www.geocities.com/gibsevengang/lapbooks.html

http://justdawne.tripod.com/lapbooks.htm

http://www.geocities.com/mamabrown_1122/lapbooks.htm


Notebooking:

http://homeschoolinformation.com/Articles/portfilios.htm

http://www.ignitethefire.com/fuel.html


I wrote a chapter titled, *Lapbooking vs. Notebooking* for a friend's homeschooling book. The title may have been Notebooking vs. Lapbooking.

Anyway, basically, lapbooking is more contained, often used for more of a single subject matter, and contained in a shutter book, or lapbook type of thing (folded file folder usually). For example, we made lapbooks for our study on The Iroquois Indians when we were doing our NY State study.

But notebooking is more general, or when you want it to be a bit more ongoing. For example, we COULD be making notebooks for INDIAN TRIBES OF NORTH AMERICA.

We do our notebooking in three ring binders, and if we want to divide them, we use binder dividers of some kind. And we use file folders for lapbooking. The term lapbook was coined by Tammy DuBay Tobin's Lab.

Dinah Zike is a teacher, who started *lapbooks*, which she calls project books. She has helped teachers to learn to teach a bit differently, not just with *dittoed worksheets* that she feels as a teacher does not do the best job in helping her students to learn. Her web site is here: http://www.dinah.com/ Her Big Book of Books is the first to buy to begin lapbooking. Although I see Tammy DuBay of Tobin's Lab has a nice new book called Ultimate Lapbook Handbook that would most likely be very good as well. I heard her give a lapbooking presentation at our state homeschool convention.

My children each also keep a notebook that they add to whenever they feel like it. In fact, our oldest was just adding to his WWII weapons and vehicles notebook this past week.

I hope this helps. If you have any more questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.

Elaine, I'll have to get some pictures together ... don't let me forget.

Thank you very much Tracy!

Tracy,
I'll have to come back and check on your sites another time when I don't have so much going on I'm really interested in this and I think that my kids will want to do this as they like being creative - much like their Dad but not me

So glad that there are so many families that are willing to share what works for them so that I can learn from what they've done

Thanks! These links really help explain it. I think my kids would really like the notebooking especially since it is something that doesn't have to have a definite finishing deadline.

Thanks for sharing the links. I also was wondering what the difference was between notebooking and lapbooking.

If anyone really wants to get started in either style and doesn't know where to begin, join a yahoo group. There are lots of groups for notebooking and one I know of for sure on lapbooking, I am on the lapbooking one ... as well as many others. You don't have to get the mail in your mailbox, just join as "no mail" and read the posts as you are able on the site, as some of these groups are very busy. The best part of these groups are the "files and photos" sections. Most are filled with handy info to get you started. Your kids will have more fun schooling and may even learn a handy and fun lifelong skill!

Well isn't this interesting? I have four sets of old (really old...like 60's) child craft books, and 30 yrs worth of National Geographic's I need to do something with... I've never head of this before, but it sounds like something my kids would love!! Thanks for the info!

It looks like a scrapbook??? And from what I read up top too it looks like it acts as one too?? I must be missing something

Yeah, kind of. It holds things like little envelopes, pockets, flaps, puzzles pieces, etc. Scrapbooks you just look at, where lapbooks you interact with .

That is really neat..do they take a long time to do? They look like something my kids would really get into...

Ok I think I am getting it a bit, can you give me some examples of this interact stuff? Sorry to be a pain hehe..I tried looking at the web sites listed but it was to slow on my dial up trying to get them up with all the graphic stuff.

I have done both with my children and both are very great learning tools. I prefer my children to PRODUCE their learning material rather than to consume them--if that makes any sense


Since you have gotten a great deal of good info on lapbooking I would only add to it that I have found the "mini" books and the lapbooks very handy for just about any subject you want your children to remember. I make lapbooks for my younger preschoolers and they are very much enjoyed--I made one on spiders that was a BIG hit and am currently making a "Goodnight Moon" one for my 3 yo to teach him some basic skills like right/left, his phone number and address, time, etc etc. If you want to do this I would highly suggest you purchase your own copy of Dinah ZIke's "Big Book of Books" and either rent or buy the video. I rented a copy of one of her older videos (this was back before the lapbooking rage hit) and it opened up a gold mine of possibilities that simply escaped me when I was just looking at the book itself. Tobin's Lab offers a free info sheet and you can purchase a sample blank lapbook for a very nominal fee of $2-3. YOu can also rent the video from them. I think Susan has also produced her own lapbooking video on the lapbooks themselves.

Now on to notebooking---

We have really enjoyed notebooking and it really doesn't take a great deal of time to do--the children can be easily trained to be responsible for keeping up with their work this way. It also makes for a very nice portfolio and you can see much better the improvement each child makes over time. I was so glad to have had my daughter's notebook to take when we were having her evaluated for learning disabilities. It is also great to have if you have disapproving or distant relatives. THey can actually "see" what your children have "done in school"--we do not use much in the way of curriculum/workbooks or texts, so since we have started notebooking they do have some concrete evidence of what they have learned. Plus I have noticed that my dc take much more pride in their work to see it showcased in this manner.

Notebooking is great for things that you can't get into lapbooks or mini books easily. It is great for daily work--you can even insert some workbook pages in there. We put copywork, artwork, Book lists, audio book lists, video/computer game lists, narrations the children have dictated to me and I have typed up on the computer and printed out using colorful inks, fun fonts, and pretty paper. We put nature stuff--dreid flowers, leaves, feathers, etc, coloring pages, maps we have labeled and colored, end of unit math tests, math drills, timelines, reference materials like counting charts, phonics charts, handwriting guides, etc. I print off pretty papers and forms from this site using pretty colored and bordered papers. My children often illustrate their copywork and narrations using different media, clip art (we cut up a lot of old textbooks and magazines), stickers, etc. photos of field trips and projects, and the list goes on and on...

We slip it into sheet protectors. We use dividers to keep things organized and quite frequently a section evolves into a whole other notebook. SOmetimes we put things into the binder that we come back later and finish--like one spring we gathered and pressed all the wildflowers we could find. THen we ID'ed them and glued them onto colorful papers. I found some poems that we about some of the flowers and my daughter copied some of them for copywork and mounted them on the paper the flower was on. There are still some flowers she has not yet done anything more and the blank paper with the mounted flower is there. This happens a lot.

But that is the beauty about notebooking--when interest lags, you can move on to something else and come back and finish it later.

I also put divider pockets in my dc's binder to hold their little mini books, and other stuff that won't fit into a sheet protector.

I print off so much stuff from the internet and assemble what I want them to be working on daily on their personal clipboard. Then when the work is done--they slip it into their binder -I already have it loaded with sheet protectors in sections. It keeps things so neat!


Can't you see we really are into this??

I got not just the Girl Scouts started with notebooking, but the Boy scout troop AND now the Tiger cubs and the GA at Church. I made a binder for each of my children to keep their stuff and it caught on and became "required".


I apologize for rattling on for so long and I really wish I had some pictures of some of the binder pages my dc have done--it really give them a chance to unleash their creativity and make their schoolwork their own!

HTH!!

Blessings,
Trish

I am not much into scrapbooking and have very little in the way of scrapbooking supplies---and what we have has come mainly from those everything is a dollar or 88Cents stores. BUT notebooking does dovetail very nicely with scrapbooking and you can use a lot of the supplies---die cut outs, stickers, pretty paper and card stock, the scissors and stencils, punches, rubber stamps etc. But we usually don't get all that fancy.

Now I am a wee bit confused here-

Are you wondering how one interacts with the lapbooks?? Or are you saying that you don't see how one can interact with notebooking??


TO answer the first question, in DInah Zike's "Big Book of Books" she gives directions on how to make all kinds of nifty little booklets out of plain 'ol paper--mostly by making a series of simple folds and cutting here and there and gluing this place and that. Most are simple enough for the average 5 yo to do, some require a wee bit more dexterity, but all are very simply to do. Once you make your "mini" books as she calls them you can use them to write, draw, paste, and decorate all kinds of information in them on any subject. These books fold out, lift flaps, etc in all kind of of ways and they are of different sizes. You can also make shaped books, too. If you make a bunch of these mini books in the course of studying a particular subject or book (we used to do one for the subjects we covered in each of our FIAR books that we rowed) then you can affix them in a file folder, again folded a way to make a cover and then you can interact with them
by lifting flaps, unfolding, turning, etc etc.


I have a dinosaur computer and dial up, too, and I know it takes forever for a page of photos to load , but in the cause of lapbooks, a picture is TRULY worth a thousand words---they are one of those things you really have to see

I would highly recommend that you take a few minutes when you have time to sit down with a cuppa your favorite beverage and look through the pictures--then you will begin to see what we mean. Words just don't do them justice!

Tish,
You need more enthusiasm when you discuss notebooking Just kidding

You sure know how to get someone interested in what interests you. I've been wanting to do this for/with my kids just haven't quite been able to figure out how to do it. I went to the link you provided in your first post and printed out Cindy's message on notebooking. I'll be reading it later today. I think that I'll also go and take a look later today at the lapbooking & notebooking links from the beginning of this topic.

Thanks for all your suggestions and enthusiasm for this topic

It was very informative

I wanted to thank you all for telling me about notebooking. My daughter who has now finished her scrapbook of 50 states postcards is now doing a "State book" and is starting all over again. Except now she will be studying more that she is older and can do more.

With the scrapbook we discussed where it was on globe, maps the state/country. Now we can add more things to it like more facts, latitude, time zones foods, etc...
We wrote the chamber of commerce for our first state Alabama and I know they will send us tons of stuff to look at from that state to include in our 3 binder notebook. Daughter has already colored the state from the crayola site and has done a crossword puzzle and hidden word puzzle from the state and she proudly punched holes in it from a three hole puncher and added some reinforcement tabs to hold it in place. We also have those clear see through protectors for special things.

Dad will teach her about Latitude and Longitude with examples to include in the notebook, while I do a history timeline with her to include in it too. We plan to put historical postcards into the notebook from people from that state and maybe have them write her a letter telling us about their state. The ideas are endless.

I am very grateful to y'all for letting me know about this. I even got a lot of my postcard kids members doing one too.

we are just starting our science notebook, Noah is in 1st grade this year. we are studying the water cycle. We read MSB at the Waterworks. So I think I will reread it slower and have him draw pictures of it like the kids do in the book. I will write down facts for him since he is not reading or writing much yet. We hate worksheets in my house so notebooking is in. I also went to a scrapbook party yesterday and bought a book just on ideas so I will use that many times over the next few years I'm sure.

Since Noah is so young i just picked up a crayola spiral bound sketchbook for our notbook. I hate lines when we are drawing
Eventually we will move to a binder thing but for now, I want/need simplicity.

And here I had my kids notebooking thinking it was the same thing! No wonder we're not getting anywhere! Considering they are 8 and 6 (the oldest 2)...

Okay, it's going to be a new year, a new year, a...

I love it I can't wait for Jan. I asked the kids about doing this and my daughter is already to start she even thinking of using black construction paper for her pages and using a foam centered poster board covered with material & batting and cross stitch her name on it and binding her book with a leather cord ( I can't type as fast as she talks)
Great ideas she wants to check-out the sites now.

Elem Science Yahoo group

Jeannie Fulbright's webpage

Boy, I sure am having a hard time getting these links posted tonite.

The first one is a yahoo group for anyone using Apologia Elementary Science books (Astronomy, Botany, and Zoology is soon to be released). There are some excellent printable pages for astronomy and for botany notebooking. If you don't want to sign up for a yahoo group...these pages are also available in a pdf on her website under Course Extras.

The second link is to Jeannie Fulbright's (author of above mentioned books) website. If you look down the left menu, you'll find a link for notebooking. Includes some pictures and some good instructions.

Thank you for sharing this Sheri! I have a plan for this next school year, but after that I think I will check out these books ... the downloads are incredilble... what a resource!

O.K. that's it. I'm sold on Apologia. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for sharing this Sheri! I have a plan for this next school year, but after that I think I will check out these books ... the downloads are incredilble... what a resource! I will have dh look at this. Right now where using alot of different things from the library. I'm ready to get the books.

Wow!! I didn't know this was out there! What a great site. We use Apologia for the older grades, but plan to use it in a couple years for the younger grades. She has a ton of great information. I especially loved the page she wrote on young entrepreneurs. (dd's are trying to raise money for mission trips & camp.)

I wanted to bump this up since Tristain had asked. In doing so I just remembered you all wanted to see our hurricane lapbooks and I haven't taken pictures yet .

I am currently preparing a Washington DC lapbook to do with my co-op. It's turning out to be a HUGE endeavor, mostly because I am doing a lot more prep work than I do for my own children. I'm planning the books and preparing them. The kids will assemble them, gluing, filling in the blanks info to add to them and coloring. But in just three 45 minute sessions ... I don't see how I can do it any other way. After I signed up I had wished I had signed up to do this over 5 weeks, rather than 3...but due to my medical tests I can't do that so I am just going to go with it. Not to mention, if I had more time, I would probably make more mini-books rather than do less prep work ... I still think each one will look very different, as each child will make them their own.

I have the first mini-book designed... I am making the pages to put in the mini-book on my computer adding line drawings with my copier for the coloring.

Only 4 left to go and a ton of cutting, hole punching and general prep work! Mind you I am offering this to 10 students!

Thank you Barbara Sue, I appreciate you thinking of me This has been great to read. I have learned so much, and what informative sites I can't wait to be able to sit down a bit longer and really get into them. You certainly sound very busy with all that you have to do. Good luck in finishing everything.