Home educators sit right across the whole continuum from being highly structured through to completely unstructured. Some plan out the year’s learning, dividing it into termly goals and weekly lesson plans. They might file completed math worksheets, written work and other notes into a folder so that they can see how they are faring week-by-week against their plan. Others may not work to any kind of schedule except for a rough idea of where they are heading in general.
It’s worthwhile documenting your child’s learning in some way – this might be as informal as annotating digital photos or it could be a more comprehensive scrapbook. Keeping even a small record of your child’s activities is useful for those times when you’re feeling like you aren’t achieving anything (you can look back and see how far you’ve come) and it may also be a sentimental record for your child down the track. Additionally, if you are ever reviewed it does help to already have some kind of record-keeping procedure in place so that it isn’t a mad rush to get evidence of your activities for the reviewers (although this will soon become a chore if it is the only reason you keep records).
Many home educators make a digital scrapbook throughout the year, uploading photographs and writing captions/stories about what they’ve been up to. This can then be printed at the end of the year as a record of the child’s learning and activities … a kind-of “year book” for that child. Click here to read about how two different home educators record their children’s activities. Some parents keep a diary of what they do each day, jotting short notes about their activities so that they can reflect back and see the progression their child is making over the course of the term or year. You can develop your own unique record-keeping system or canvas the opinion of other home educators through one of the networking groups.
These are some of the planners NCHENZ has come across (note, NCHENZ does not endorse any particular planner, you will need to do your own due diligence with regard to what type of planner will suit your circumstances):
Calm & Wave Calendar Planner from www.calmandwave.com
My Homeschool Planner from www.powerfulmothering.com
Morning Basket from www.thisbitoflife.com
My Weekly Planner from www.thisbitoflife.com
Weekly Tracker Pages from www.thissimplebalance.com
Homeschool Planner 2021/22 from www.Christianbook.com
If you have a planner you can recommend, please email website@nchenz.org.nz
