I'm finally starting to pull this school year together. Because of our possible move, we're starting the 'official' year late - September 27th to be exact. So while many homeschools are starting up, I'm just now ordering the last of our curriculum and building a schedule. It's been nice to have the extended summer, but I feel like I'm behind before I start. However, we're planning to start schooling year round, so I think that will help to alleviate some of the stress.
Last Saturday I spent some time ordering curriculum (though I still haven't decided what Bible material to use) and organizational materials. I downloaded Homeshool Tracker Plus; I cannot wait to get in there and start mapping out a weekly schedule!
The highlight of the week was Thursday, when the boys' Daily Grams, and Tony's Teaching Texbooks Pre-Algebra came in the mail. I was pleasantly surprised to see the boys seem interested, excited even!
Other than that it was a pretty standard week with chores, appointments and down time. How about you, how was your week? Share and link-up at the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
It's ok to start later. I always feel like odd man out since we are starting Term 3 now when everyone else is starting Term 1. It's ok though. Do what works for your family. It will all work out in the end.
ReplyDeleteI really wanted to use the homeschool tracker plus, but I just couldn't get into it. Of course, that could also have something to do with the fact that I downloaded my $5 trial of it right before my Grandma died. So, I probably didn't get to mess around with it properly. You'll have to let me know what you think of it once you get it up and running!
ReplyDeleteI'd be curious to hear what you think of Homeschool Tracker. I've heard of it, but never used it.
ReplyDeleteOooo how I love HST! It makes my life simpler in so many ways.
ReplyDeleteI think my favorite thing is the reschedule feature. If there's anything we didn't get to at the end of the week, I just make a couple of clicks and viola! It's reassigned.
My other favorite feature is the lesson plan feature. This is really handy if you'll be using the same curriculum for later children. Every summer I take a few hours to enter in every, single assignment for the year. They're not scheduled with a due date mind you, just entered into the system in order. Then every Sunday, I take a couple of minutes, make a few clicks, and select the assignments that I plan to cover for the week and submit them to the assignment grid. Then I can print out a nice assignment calendar for the week. I love having all the assignments on two pages instead of having to drag out all the different IGs.
And the best part is that I can reuse the lesson plans with my youngest when the time comes. This is very handy because we use Sonlight and there's a lot of resources and I only had to enter them once. Woot!
If you have any questions about it, be sure to let me know. There is a bit of a learning curve but I've learned a few shortcuts and I'm happy to share them.
Life and learning go on whether you have an official start in August or September or later. We often do things that are a little off-kilter compared to others' school years.
ReplyDeleteMy friend recommended Homeschool Tracker, so I've been using it. I haven't fully used its capability yet as I'm still figuring it all out. :D That is great that they are excited about schooling!
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