Home School Curriculum Planner

I have been hard at work finishing my new website. Full-Year Notebooks.com has been around for a long time and the site desperately needed to be revamped.

Finally, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work. I didn't do it on my own, I had help from Cricket or I never would have gotten it done so quickly.

If you would like to take a peek, you can click on this Home School Curriculum Planner link.

I have some additional items that I know will bless you but I was not able to get them listed on the website yet. Keep checking back because the Getting It All Done materials are going to be the next project on which I intend to devote my time.

Whereas Full-Year Notebooks concentrates on getting your home school materials organized, Getting It All Done branches out into organizing all of the areas of your home life, not just your home school.

Blessings to you,
Julie
Home School Curriculum Planner

Home School Record Keeping

I think one of the hardest things I have had to learn as a home school mom is how to keep track of my children's school work. When my oldest son graduated, I had no idea how to count lessons learned as credit on a transcript. It was even worse when my second born son joined the Air Force. I really didn't believe he would go to college so I was very laid back about the way I recorded his school work. Boy was I wrong! Not only did he go on to college in the Air Force but he has done very, very well! (No thanks to my record keeping : )

Since that time, I have learned to keep track of my children's school work. I am no longer worried that I won't have transcripts for my younger two children. I created a Record Keeping System that has proven to be invaluable as a record keeping system as well as a home school planner. This is the system I use in my own home school and I honestly don't know how I ever got by without it.

I was able to adapt it so other home school families could utilize it in their home schools, too. It takes all of your favorite home school materials and teaches you how to plan your school year so you can complete all of your materials during the year. It even includes instructions for how to plan for those unexpected life events that usually ruin all good home school plans. In the process of creating your home school plans, you actually create the perfect record keeping system.

The system basically works like this:

You analyze your materials
Then - Prioritize
Lastly - Organize

By the time you are done, you have a whole year's worth of curriculum organized into one notebook per child broken down into weekly assignments. The weekly assignments become the basis for your record keeping system.

Of course, any mom can organize her home school in this way but why reinvent the wheel? I choose to learn from those who have gone before me. Click Here for more information about this record keeping system.
Blessings,
Julie Anderson

Working and Home Schooling

A little over three years ago, life took a dramatic turn for our family. Someday I may go into the details of that situation but for now, it is enough to know that I became the head of household and the financial burdens of my family now lie squarely upon my own shoulders. In reality, the Holy Spirit is the Head of my Household but my role within my family has changed to include that of income producer as well as home school mom. I have tried to learn the skills to be able to be a work at home mom but for the time being, I am also working an outside job.

How does home schooling fit into a working mom's daily schedule? With great care, planning and cooperation from the children. I have to say that I have finally realized that life will never be the same again. It is time to put the past behind us and move forward. If our family is going to thrive, we must work together to accomplish our goals. I can no longer focus on homemaking like in the past. The children have had to learn to help with daily household tasks such as cooking, cleaning up after themselves, and kitchen and bathroom chores, etc. My children are older and don't need constant adult supervision but a schedule and weekly assignments are critical to achieving success.

I also have a work schedule that helps significantly to maintain the maximum number of hours I am home throughout the week. I work on a compressed schedule so I only work three 14-hour days per two week pay period. These are long, hard days but it gets my part-time work schedule finished with the least amount of disruption to my family's life schedule. It looks like they may be adding two days to my bi-weekly schedule which will be an answer to prayer for our financial needs but it will add more stress to our life.

Also, as another way to add to our family's income, I list home school and other merchandise on ebay. I highly recommend this to any home school family who needs to cushion their income. If you don't know where to start, I found a great resource to help me get started. It is a downloadable ebook written by a home school mom who has used ebay to build her 4000+ volume library FOR FREE! using the techniques she teaches in this book. How To Sell Books Using Online Auctions has been a wonderful source of advice and I believe it would be helpful for those just starting to learn about ebay as well as those who already have some experience selling on ebay because she goes into all of the smallest details to help you be successful.

If you are a home school mom who finds herself needing outside employment just to meet her family's financial need, please share with us how you are able to manage your time and resources.

In future postings, I will be going into more detail on successfully combining home school with work so be sure to check back often.

And as always, I desire to speak God's blessings to everyone I meet.
Blessings,
Julie Anderson

Starting A New School Year

I just got home from church where I was made aware that some of the moms are feeling like a doe in the headlights because the school year is upon us and they are not prepared for their children to start back up after summer vacations.

I can relate because my 16 year old daughter was recently diagnosed with Macular Dystophy and can no longer read. Even though I had made plans for her education, it was very much reading based and I will have to start all over again. For the moment, she is listening to educational audios that were lent to me by a precious friend. Over time, we will be learning how to adjust to this condition and we will learn what low-vision devices will help her the most. Until then, I am winging it, which is a place outside of my comfort zone.

My son, on the other hand is all situated because his Full-Year Notebook is already completed for the entire year. He knows exactly what to do each day because it is spelled out for him. This does not take the place of teacher interaction but it does allow him to know what to do next. It becomes his responsibility to come to me when he has questions about his school work instead of me going to him to get him started each day. This has been the most significant step I have taken as a home school mom.

If I was going to be offering a tip of the day (which I am not : ) - today's tip would be to recommend that every home school mom quit putting the cart before the horse and let those students pull their own carts! By this I mean, if the mom's attention is required to get the student started in the morning and she becomes preoccupied with another important task, those students should have the tools available to get their school work started and later, when mom is available, they should be well into their day's work.

Of course, the age of the student has to be taken into account and the older they get, the more responsiblity they can handle. Let's give them responsibility and make them accountable! This relieves the stress of home school more than anything else I have done over the years.