How To Succeed in an Online Class

October 18, 2018 Leave a Comment

A few years ago, I stopped teaching science to my oldest daughter. She was ready for a change of pace, so we began to explore online science options. After sifting through many possibilities, we finally found an excellent science instructor. My daughter has done well and her love of science continues to grow. Both of us are pleased with online science classes.

Online classes can be a great way for homeschoolers to learn. However, our children need to know how to make the most of the online experience. Here’s what I’ve done to help my daughter achieve success in online classrooms.

Understand the class requirements. Sit down together to read and discuss the course description and class syllabus. By doing so, you’ll better understand class content, class expectations, and grading processes.

Understand the technical requirements. Learn how to use the educational platform the class will be using. Possible platforms include Go To Meeting, Google Hangouts, and Skype. You’ll need to know how to use additional laptop features such as the webcam and microphone.

Get the instructor’s contact information. Have your child add the teacher’s contact info to his or her personal contact list. If your child has a question or concern outside of class time, she knows how to reach the teacher quickly.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Remind your child that even though the classroom is virtual, it’s still okay to ask for help. A good instructor will answer questions during class and also answer questions outside of the class.

FInd a quiet and distraction free place during class. Help your child focus on the class by steering them away from noise and activity. If you don’t have a quiet place, have your child listen to class with earbuds or headphones.

Create a schedule. Many online classes only meet one a week, so students are responsible for completing additional work alone. Sit down with your child and create a weekly schedule. This gives your child something to do each day and limits the frustration associated with late assignments and looming deadlines.

Online courses are a great way to enhance the homeschool. Are any of your children taking online courses? If so, feel free to share how you’ve helped them find success. Leave a comment or suggestion. We’d love to hear from you!

7 Things You Can Do Tonight To Make Your Tomorrow Better

September 27, 2018 Leave a Comment

I like to begin each school day in a clean working space and with a clear mind. But as you know, these things won’t happen on their own. In order for me to have a pleasant and productive homeschool day tomorrow, I’ve got to do some planning tonight.

And so, each night before I head to bed, there are certain things I do. When the new day arrives, I never regret having spent time doing these things the night before. Today I’m sharing the seven things you might want to do tonight in order to make tomorrow’s homeschool day even better.

Plan tomorrow’s dinner. To me there are few things more annoying than standing in front of the fridge and pantry at 5:00 pm and having no idea of what I’ll be serving for dinner. Avoid this horrible scenario by planning ahead. Take meat from the freezer to thaw in the fridge overnight or get a head start on things by prepping ingredients for a slow cooker meal. When you plan for tomorrow’s dinner tonight, life is much easier.

Review tomorrow’s lessons and activities. Take a few moments to look over tomorrow’s lessons, activities, and appointments. Do you need to print out copies for tomorrow’s math activity? Do you need to stop by the gas station before heading to music lessons? Will bad weather cause a change of plans? If you review these issues tonight, you’ll feel better tomorrow.

Get clothes ready. Some people think homeschool sit around in pajamas every day, but we know that’s not the case. Since we usually need to be better dressed than that, it’s wise to prep clothes before going to bed. Select your outfit and have the kids do the same. If anything needs to be washed or ironed, take care of it before you go to bed. Your morning self will thank you.

Reflect upon your day. Before you go to bed, take some time to think about your day. How’d you feel about how the day went? Did you meet your goals? How much did the kids learn? How well did you teach? Did the kids have fun? What went well? What would you like to do better tomorrow? Reflection helps you make mental preparations for the new day.

Clean up. It’s hard to focus on learning if things are messy and disorganized. Plus, it’s no fun to rush around cleaning in the morning. At the end of the day, do yourself a big favor by putting school materials away and organizing your materials for tomorrow. If you clean up tonight, you can begin the new day in a clutter free atmosphere.

Treat yourself. You’re a hardworking homeschool mom and you deserve a treat! Make time to do something for yourself. Take an extra long shower or indulge in a bubble bath. Phone that friend you’ve been meaning to call. Scroll through your favorite Pinterest feeds or tune in to your favorite show on Netflix. Eat a bit of that Sea Salt Caramel Gelato. Whatever it is you like to do for you, do that before you call it a night.

Go to bed at a reasonable hour. You already know rest is important. Your body and mind need to recharge each day. Wrap up your evening tasks in enough time so you’ll be able to enjoy a good night’s sleep. If you don’t, you may soon find you’re not functioning well. Don’t rob yourself of the rest you need by staying up too late.

A good homeschool day doesn’t just happen. It takes planning and discipline. How do you get ready for a new homeschool day?

Printable Student Planning Page

August 21, 2018 Leave a Comment

A while back I described what happens during the Weekly Planning Meetings my older girls and I have each week. Though these lesson plan meetings will continue this school year, I’ve decided to update the tool the girls use to plan their weekly assignments. This new system will allow us to plan more quickly and easily.

A New Way of Planning

Instead of using a notebook to record weekly assignments, the girls will now be using the 8.5×11″ Student Planning Page I recently designed. This new page is larger than the notebook the girls used last year and offers them more room to record their assignments. The Student Planning Page also eliminates the time consuming process of spacing and dating notebook pages.

What’s On the Student Planning Page

I designed The Student Planning Page for students in middle and high school. This single planning page has a separate section for each day of the school week. Each of these sections features a place to write up to eight subject names and corresponding assignment details. In addition, there is a column for students to check off completed assignments.

How To Use the Student Planning Page

It’s easy to use the Student Planning Page. When you’re ready to plan the week, print a copy. Gather the school books and sit down with your child. Have your child complete the page by filling in the assignments that need to be completed during the coming week. Once it’s filled in, punch holes in the planning page and stash it inside a three ring binder or a pronged folder. This will help you keep track of the school year’s lesson plans.

Download Your Copy

This new Student Planning Page is a great planning resource, so I’m offering it to AAHM readers as well. Click the link to download the Student Planning Page. I hope you find it helpful!

Weekly Planning Meeting: Middle School

October 17, 2017 3 Comments

Lesson planning is part of the weekly routine here in the Thorpe household. Before the start of each new week, I sit in a comfortable place, sift through a stack of student textbooks, flip through teachers’ guides, and jot down multicolored notes in composition notebooks. My planning routine has been going on for years, but as my children have gotten older, I’ve shifted some of the planning duties to them.

Once my girls entered middle school, I required them to join me as I planned the week’s lessons. I wanted them to begin taking more responsibility for their assignments, to see how much time and effort went into planning, and to understand my lesson planning process. These joint Weekly Planning Meetings have given the girls much insight into lesson planning and have helped me make the planning process more productive and more efficient.

Benefits of Weekly Planning Meetings

Weekly meetings give us time to talk about how school is going. As we plan together, the girls and I have time to chat about what did and did not work well during the previous week. Was there enough time to complete the science experiments? Did we plan enough time to finish the assigned amount of reading? Can we move a bit faster in math or do we need to slow down? As we plan together, we can adjust the lesson plans to suit each girl’s needs.

Weekly meetings foster independence. When it’s time to school, the girls open their planners and begin to work, often without much input from me. Because we’ve planned together, they know exactly what to do and can often begin to work on lessons independently.

Weekly meetings foster encourage flexibility. I’m teaching three separate grades, so my girls need to be both flexible and patient. If I’m teaching a lesson to my first grader, my older daughters can easily switch gears and work on another subject while they wait for me to finish teaching their younger sister.

Weekly planning meetings reduce the number of questions I receive. Throughout the week, I answer fewer planning related questions. What do I do next? What books do I need? How much should I read? These are no longer questions that need to be answered because they’re always addressed during our weekly planning meeting.

What We Need For Weekly Planning Meetings

Each of my girls has a separate planning time. So when it’s time to meet, my daughter and I come to the spot with our materials. They include:

journals
writing utensils (pens, highlighters, pencils, erasers)
student textbooks
teachers’ editions
ruler
laptop

What We Do During the Weekly Planning Meeting

I have the girls use a two page spread that provides them with ample writing space and allows them to see the entire school week at a glance. If necessary, they use a ruler to divide the pages into six equally sized sections. The first five sections are labeled Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The sixth and final section is labeled Notes. Once sections are labeled, the girls go back and date each section.

Next, the girls open their books and use them to write out plans by subject. As we review each subject, the girls fill in assignments for each school day, including page and/or lesson numbers when necessary.

The Notes section is optional, but it provides a space for the girls to record any other details that affect their week. This includes instrumental lessons, soccer practices, church youth group meet-ups, medical appointments, etc.

As the girls plan in their journals, I also write the plans inside my bullet journal. If the girls misplace their planning journals, I still have record of their weekly assignments.

Tips for Using a Weekly Planning Meeting

Make time to plan. Set a predetermined day and time and stick to it. Make planning part of your weekly routine, but choose a day and time that will work for you and your child.

Start slowly. In the beginning things will likely move slowly as you get used to this new routine. As you hold more meetings, planning will be completed in a shorter amount of time.

Allow plenty of time. Don’t rush through the planning routine. This meeting often sets the tone for the school week, so make sure you take time to ask and answer questions. Discuss plans fully so everyone knows what to do.

Make it fun. Break out the special planning tools. Allow your child to choose their own planning journals and writing utensils. We love colorful Leuchtturm 1917 journals and we swoon over Ink Joy Gel Pens!

Pick out a comfortable meeting place. Planning takes time and space, so you’ll want to select a work space that has plenty of room for all of your materials and features comfortable seating. Our favorite place to plan is in our sunroom because we love the room’s natural light and comfy couches.

My girls and I have found Weekly Planning Meetings to be an effective way to help keep our homeschool running smoothly. For more tips on lesson planning, check out these additional posts: Creating Lesson Plans Using Evernote and Tips For Creating Weekly Lesson Plans.

Creating Lesson Plans Using Evernote

July 25, 2015 Leave a Comment

One thing I do to help our homeschool run more smoothly is to create and use detailed lesson plans. Weekly lesson plans tell me what I need to teach and show my children what assignments they need to complete throughout the week.

Lesson plans can be completed in many different formats using a variety of tools, but I prefer to create my lesson plans using Evernote, an amazing organizing and notetaking application. (If you’re not familiar with Evernote, please check out this post, How I Use Evernote in my Homeschool. It includes a helpful video in which I explain Evernote and describe how I use it in my homeschool.)

Creating lesson plans using Evernote is quite simple. All you need is an Evernote account and all of your homeschool books and materials. Once lesson plans are created in Evernote, they can be accessed across multiple devices at any time. This is especially helpful when we’re away from home and one child has to wait for a sibling to finish a private lesson. As long as we pack the schooling materials we need, I always have my lesson plans with me and can teach while waiting for a child to complete that class or activity.

How to Create Lesson Plans in Evernote

Create an Evernote account. If you don’t already have an account, you can sign up on the Evernote homepage by clicking the button that says Sign Up Now. Once there, compare the various versions of Evernote and select the one that is best for you. (The Basic version is free and provides you with everything you need to create lesson plans.)

Once logged in to your Evernote account, create a New Note. You can create a New Note by clicking the + sign. A new note will appear and you can begin creating a lesson plan template there.

Name your new note. Each of my children has her own personalized lesson plan, so I title each note using the child’s name and lesson plan start date. This makes it easier to find the plans later on.

Create a list of the subjects you’ll be teaching. Then, add them to the lesson plan template. I use the format menu to make the subject names appear in bold print. This makes it easier for my children and me to read the lesson plan.

List weekly assignments using bulleted points below each subject. I prefer to use a checkbox as my bullet, so my children can check off assignments as they complete them. When I list assignments, I include pertinent information such as the book title, page numbers, selection title, internet links, etc.

Save the note and file it away into a notebook. Once all the assignments have been added, you’ll need to save the lesson plan. Storing the lesson plans in a notebook keeps lesson plans neatly organized. This is especially helpful if you’re doing lesson plans for more than one child because each child can have his own Lesson Plan Notebook. In addition, notebooks help you keep track of the year’s assignments and serve as an awesome digital record of completed work.

A Few Notes About My Lesson Plans

I never include days of the week in my weekly lesson plans. Our schedule is a very fluid one. I’m working with three children, so things can change quickly during the course of a week (sickness, rescheduled activities, etc). Therefore, our weekly plans to have offer flexibility and enough room to include last minute changes. This type of schedule allows my children to work ahead if they wish and allows them to slow down if they need to without being held hostage by a day of the week.

Some subjects are taught only a few times each week. Most subjects contain five bulleted points, one for each school day. However, other subjects are only taught a few times a week (for us that includes Reading Comprehension, Social Studies, and Science) and therefore only have two or three bulleted points. I give my children the flexibility of completing the three assignments when they prefer to do so. This could be three consecutive days, every other day, or however they decide.

I give my children printed copies of their weekly lesson plans. Though I could give my children their own Evernote accounts and share the lesson plans with them, I find there’s no need for me to do so. On Sunday nights, I print copies of the weekly plans and place the plans inside their workboxes. The children check off assignments as they complete them and I do the same within my Evernote account.

Creating a new set of lesson plans is easy. After a week of lessons is done, I can easily create a new lesson plan for the upcoming week. I just need to create and name a new note and then copy and paste last’s weeks information into the new note. From that point, I edit to include a new set of assignments. If an assignment from last week was not completed, I leave it in the plan and adjust the additional assignments.

We’re fortunate to homeschool during a digital age, so homeschool moms can use technology to create awesome lessons plans. Creating lesson plans using Evernote is quick, easy, effective, and child-friendly. If you have any questions about this post or how else I’m using Evernote, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email using the Contact Form.