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Becky Parker
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I'm not sure if "syllabi" is the word I want, but if you plan your year in advance by creating a chart or table that lists the year's assignments, could you help me out? I have done this for the past couple of years, just create a chart in word that lists the assignments for each subject for each day. It helps me really think through how our year will go and then stay on track once we're in the midst of it (as long as I don't drop the ball!  ) BUT, creating the chart is soooo time consuming and teeediiiious! To do it, for each child, I make a chart with columns. The first column lists the weeks/days. I don't use dates in case we get behind (or move ahead!  But that rarely happens!  ) After that are columns for each resource or subject. The first one might be Math and under that I just type in Lesson 1, Lesson 2, etc.
Is there a better way?
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Becky
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Maria Rioux
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Hi, Becky,
Not sure you'll find it helpful, but we've been doing what you describe and have made our syllabi available online for more than a decade. Here's a link: http://mariarioux.weebly.com/home-schooling.html
I tweak every year to adjust for the individual and I also make changes incorporating new materials that surpass the previous ones. I generally leave as many options available as i think might be helpful (so, for example, I've used several math programs for our children and left them all in for the various years we used different texts so people could choose what works for them. I have a huge overhaul to do this year...well, maybe not huge, but it feels huge to me who doesn't seem to have much spare time. Anyway, there are updates coming. Hope this is helpful.
God bless, Maria
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: June 06 2014 at 7:13am | IP Logged
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It is, Maria! Thanks! Actually, your syllabi are what inspired me to do mine checklist style! 
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Becky
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: June 06 2014 at 7:28am | IP Logged
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Revisiting yours, Maria. They are much more pleasant to look at than mine! Maybe I should ditch the chart idea and instead just use columns, and a nice font, as you have.
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Becky
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Maria Rioux
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I'm not at all techy, Becky, and found this format to be the most helpful. The kids like it, can easily figure it out, and it's easy for me to update. Techy persons might devise some much more efficient and effective means, but this has worked for us these many years. Happy to know you have found it even somewhat helpful. Good luck on your preparations!
God bless, Maria
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: June 06 2014 at 8:34am | IP Logged
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To save time, Becky, I use an excel spreadsheet for my whole year plan. I have a master sheet for each child, and there are subjects/bookists going down the first column. Then, I have it laid out by week across the top. Above the numbered weeks, I have space to lseparate the weeks by term and label the dates I expect that term to happen, but I can adjust this part.
The nice thing about excel versus a prettier format is that I can type 1 in a cell, 2 in the next, highlight the two cells and drag across, and it will fill in the numbers accordingly, and I can see at a glance how far a resource will take us.
I then have a sheet where I work out their weekly plan by subject/resource.
Each term, I create a spreadsheet broken down by day. This is what I use to create the daily checklist for ds. ETA: For the most part, I can copy and paste the info from the master sheet. Insert enough columns between each weekly assignment to make the number of days in the term and shift the assignments from the single weekly cell to the appropriate day. I don't do this at the beginning of the eyar because it is much less complicated to make changes to the weekly spreadsheet.
With the spreadhseet, it is really easy to shift whole books to a different time, replace a resource with something else, etc...
With, Excel, you also never run out of column space. You can add columns and rows forever. You can also insert a spreadsheet into a Word chart and format it if you want something prettier for the final product. If you wanted to add checkboxes, you can insert a column into the Word chart alongside each column of assignments.
Also, I suggest not ditching the chart if you want efficiency. To make it look nicer and less chart-like, when you are finished (I say that because I find it easier to organize with chart lines), simply reformat your chart to have no lines, or maybe delete only the outside lines leaving the intererior ones.
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Becky Parker
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| Posted: June 06 2014 at 9:19am | IP Logged
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I guess I'm going to have to take some time to play around with Excel, which I never use. It does sound like it would save a lot of time though!
CrunchyMom wrote:
| To make it look nicer and less chart-like, when you are finished (I say that because I find it easier to organize with chart lines), simply reformat your chart to have no lines, or maybe delete only the outside lines leaving the intererior ones. |
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Genius!  Thanks for the excellent suggestion!
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Becky
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Martha
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Maria, is that the list you give your children to work from? I'm looking at your third grade list for example and thinking, MY 3rd grader would spaz and dissolve in his chair if I handed him one of those sheets. The sheer volume of content on it would cause him to shut down. Now for ME, it would be fine bc I can visualize the daily breakdown as not a boulder-sized amount of work.
If this is just for you, what do you give your student to work from?
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I have MY planner and I have the kids lessons check sheets.
My plans include:
Booklists
Breakdown of typical weekly lessons
Major calendar events
My assignments Things the kids can't do without me or my significant help, such as art lessons, science experiments, planned field trips..
The kids plans are daily assignments in their lesson planners, which I fill in only 1 or 2 weeks ahead and grade/mark complete daily for young ones and approx every other day for teens.
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Maria Rioux
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| Posted: June 06 2014 at 11:20am | IP Logged
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Hi, Martha,
These are the basic syllabi we give our kids to work from, but I tailor each, so I take out the extra math options, for example, or the extra Bible Story options, and leave in only the one I think will best suit this child.
No one has ever whigged out, and we generally get most of it done. :) Giving a talk on this at the KC Conference tomorrow, and I'll put that and all my other talks on to the website as soon as I can manage that. Hope you find that helpful.
Must dash. Making lunch for about a dozen people and then off to KC for the conference. :)
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Becky Parker
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Wish I could be there Maria! I would love to hear how this all works in your home.
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Becky
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MarilynW
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I have used different methods, but the one that works best for me is as follows:
1. I make a list like Maria's for each grade - this is for me so that I can see what has to be done in each subject for the whole year. It is an overview and what I resuse for subsequent children. It is our "curricula" per se.
2. I make a quarterly schedule - which shows how the annual list is to be divided up. Just a Word table by subject and quarter. (eg which composer, which artist, which readers, how many lessons of Math etc)
3. I have a daily plan for each child up to 8th grade. Either I write it into a planner (this takes long though)or I type up a Word document for each week which has the daily plan. Children 2nd grade and up have to check theirs off and go through with me. For younger kids I keep the schedule.
I keep a copy of each child's weekly/daily plan in my binder so that I can go through it with them.
4. When the system works well - we should be done by teatime - so after teatime chores and putting away laundry, they are supposed to bring their planners to me and confirm that everything is done.
High school kids are different - we work together on schedules and I have only a weekly meeting with them. Procrastinators and those who waste time have to catch up on weekends. I do the high level planning for the high schoolers - that is what work has to be done for the year, by quarter and a weekly suggestion. Together we decide how they want to do that daily. For the twins for 9th grade, we shared books, so they chose to do "blocks" - Math every day, Latin every day, English everyday, and then blocks for Theology, History, Literature, Chemistry. It was hard fitting in piano practice - they only managed 15 minutes a day often. They were not as good with time management as their older sister - she would be done by 5pm. They often worked late into the evening after soccer/voluntary work to finish their work. I want to avoid this in Grade 10.
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MarilynW
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I wanted to add that I have a separate schedule for Morning Time/Hive Time that everyone does together. My high schoolers just do a little part of it - but all the younger ones are together. I have it by quarter - and schedule all the things we do together:
1. Poetry - reading and memorization
2. Read alouds
3. Habits/Virtues
4. Composer study
5. Art study
6. Drawing
7. Nature Study
8. Shakespeare
9. Plutarch
10.Liturgical Year activities
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MarilynW
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Serial posting again - another benefit of having detailed plans - it keeps me from second guessing, looking at other people's plans and changing direction.
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Mackfam
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I think we each tend to *settle* into a planning style and format that just seems to work, or be intuitive, to us personally. And that probably varies a lot - just because we each *see* things in different ways.
I tend to work my way in from a yearly booklist, to a term breakdown, to the weekly and day-to-day plans. Like you, I work most intuitively by dropping tables into word processing documents. (I use Pages for mac as my word processor)
I'm linking you to a post I wrote with an insane amount of detail on building a considered booklist which walks through my process from the yearly booklist to the daily plan.
And here are all of my booklists including a few samples of Morning Basket plans (K - 12) and planning resources. You can see some sample lesson plans for elementary, middle, and high school. (Many of these plans are being revamped, and I'm still in the process of moving all my files from Adobe to Wordpress...so...just a heads up that these links go to pages that are still somewhat under construction.)
-----------------------------------------For high school, our plans are evolving a bit. Last year, my high schooler was very involved in the planning process. This was integral in her ownership of her year. I structured lesson plans differently, too. I came up with a yearly booklist (as normal), but for each term, I provided a term syllabus (an overview of the work expected for that entire term). Then, I built a blank journal for the student to map out their work for the week. The student was responsible for time management. She checked off work on her term syllabus as it was completed, but she also journaled daily so that I had a record of her work. This was helpful in terms of handing over time management, and it allowed flexibility for a student that works or takes classes outside the home. Anyway, I found this very valuable (as did my high school student), so I plan to move my high schoolers toward this type of plan (handing over time management) earlier with future high schoolers. Here are some samples just so you can see what I'm talking about:
12th grade, term 3 syllabus - this was printed and kept on the student's clipboard for the entire term. We met semi-regularly, touching base, reviewing work, identifying challenges, with me reviewing the syllabus to see progress.
12th grade, term 3 blank journal - each week, the student printed a new blank journal sheet to record daily work. At the end of the week, this was turned in to me and I filed it.
There was a definite learning curve for my high schooler - and I wish I had shifted and handed over time management to her earlier (probably 10th grade is when I'll begin with my next high schooler) to help her begin earlier in building good habits. She did great, and though Term 1 was a little shaky, by the second and third terms, she had a system of breaking down reading/work goals and managing her time. She juggled her senior year, a seasonal job (an intense month of work in the fall), regular babysitting work, a fun social life/activities, and started her own photography business - all in her senior year. She learned a lot about making very good use of her planner, budgeting and managing her time, identifying priorities and goals, and breaking them down into smaller parts. -----------------------------------------
Anyway...hope this is a help as you consider and plan, Becky!
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4Real Forums : Planning and Ordering our Days
Topic: syllabi?
