The title of this post might sound like an exaggeration, but truly, this idea (that I did NOT come up with on my own!) has been the BEST thing to happen to our home since sliced bread. {grin}
Here is where I first got wind of this fabulous idea: How I’m Using Spiral Notebooks to Simplify Homeschooling {But Sarah’s blog is amazing, so you should definitely click around awhile!} Also, after I had written this post, I listened to a podcast where Sarah talked about this notebook idea, among other things! Head over to The Simple Show episode 8 to hear all about it!
So, if you’ve been around these parts for awhile, you know that 2 years ago was a bad, very bad homeschooling year. Last year our kids attended a private school. And this year we are back to homeschooling even though I’m going into it a bit begrudgingly. I keep reminding myself that homeschooling is not about me.
This summer we also moved. So, we’ve had quite a lot happening around here. I knew I had to find some way to ward off the incoming bad attitudes that would appear with the start of school. I am farming out nearly every subject this year, so that will help with the whole dilemma of my kids not wanting to do their school work for me. I think that really was a benefit of school last year.
But what to do with the dog days of summer?
Spiral Notebooks saved my life!
It’s the truth. The long, hot, unproductive days of summer were GREAT before Minecraft was invented! Now my kids suddenly do not know what to do with themselves if they aren’t playing! Well, we can’t have that, now can we?
Enter the spiral notebook.
Along with wanting my kids to do just a few simple things each day, I also wanted to REMIND them of all the BLESSINGS they already have in their lives. I keep coming back to this post from Ann Voskamp in my mind. I know the statistics from her post are true and that grateful people really are more happy. My kids needed a BIG dose of remembering just how very blessed they are! {Scroll down to the bottom of this post where it says: 6 Reasons Why To Teach Children To Be Grateful}
So, at the top of each day’s assignments I put “I’m thankful for…” and some days I number to 5, some days I number to 3. My kids may not realize it, but they are learning a very powerful lesson in learning to count and name their blessings. I pray every time I read their lists that these truths and these moments of gratitude will sink down deep into their hearts.
What to List on the Spiral Notebook?
Well, truly, the options are endless! But some of my favorites are a thankful list, chores and looking up verses in the Bible. I also add in little bits of school work that they can do on their own as well.
Also, as Sarah mentions in her post, it really doesn’t take THAT long to make this list! I can usually write them for all 3 kids in 20 minutes or less. Sometimes I look up verses and spend more time finding things I want them to do, but overall it’s pretty quick!
- gratitude list
- chore list
- walk the dog
- play with the dog
- feed the pets
- read a morning devotional {in the basket my kids choose from are these books: Hero Tales, Missionary Stories with the Millers, Exploring Grace Together, Jesus Calling for Kids, Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing}
- look up a Bible verse
- write down the Bible verse
- paint in your Bible! {see more Bible Journaling ideas}
- write down what you think the Bible verse means
- write the Bible verse in cursive
- math app
- read for 30 minutes
- tell mom what you read about
- play a game with your siblings
- find something to do outside
- instrument practice
Spiral notebooks have helped my kids to more willingly be productive each day. {Because they must complete their lists before getting on electronics or watching tv, etc.} This simple spiral notebook idea has brought PEACE to our home, believe it or not! Using these spiral notebooks ensures that I don’t forget these “little” things I want my kids to be doing. You can create a master list of your own with lists of things to choose from to add to your kids daily checklists. Sometimes those things go by the wayside, but they are important too! This idea with the spiral notebooks has helped our long summer days to be a lot more PLEASANT!
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I agree! I mostly use my white board for this, I make up my lists the night before and post them. I’ve tried differnt planners, but I have not tried just writing my white board notes in a spiral notebook. I will try it and see what happens!
I really like that my kids are filling in the answers each in their own notebooks. I love looking back on things they were thankful for 5 years ago. So precious!!
We are doing this as well! Why oh why do we think things need to be more complicated!? The easier, the better! So excited to see you homeschooling again. I am praying for you my friend! May God use this year to bless you abundantly!
Simple, yet brilliant! Do you give them any guidance as far as verses to look up? And what is the math app you use / for how long?
Lauren, I do give them a certain verse to look up, then I tell them to write down what they think it means or how they can apply it in their own life. If there is a word they might not know, I have them look it up and write down definition. Or I might tell them to write the verse down in their best cursive. Kind of a little something different each day.
Oh right now we are using Flash to Pass and Rocket Math for the math apps. 🙂
I pulled my daughter from public school after third grade because I couldn’t get the school system to hold her back (starting at kindergarten). She is a very darling and pleasant child with no behavioral issues, but once I started homeschooling and we had her tested at the local Child Development Clinic, she tested two years below developmental and school grade level and had already been diagnosed with ADD. So, after 4 yrs (K-3rd grade) of trying to get the school system to hold her back and seeing how badly she struggled, we knew there was no other choice than to homeschool her. My husband has four kids and I have four kids. My husband had homeschooled one of his boys using the A Beka program and I have an Early Childhood Ed degree (fancy words for “preschool aged”). However, I was extremely nervous about whether I would know what subjects/topics to cover with my daughter, because I was a fish out of water with the elementary & above grades. I was very self-doubting on my own abilities knowing the responsibility I had taken on by homeschooling her. Compounding my worries was that I knew the public school was passing her onto 4th grade, yet after working with her, I realized she didn’t even know what odd & even numbers were. Our first year homeschooling, I had to go back through 1st and 2nd grade work with her! The point is…for our daughter, the choice of whether or not to homeschool was made for us. We have to homeschool her. My oldest children went through the public school system and if I could do it all over again, I would have definitely homeschooled them all. I can’t tell the specifics here, but all of our kids were presented with various safety concerns on all levels (violence and sexually) while attending the public school system. In addition, topics once considered totally inappropriate to discuss or teach is now common practice in the public school system. I got tired of being treated as a second class citizen when it came to my own child. The public school system has a belief system that the professionals are more fitted for education your child WHATEVER they want to teach them and that “whatever” pushes the envelope further and further with each passing school year. The point is, if you approach your decision on whether or not to homeschool as if the choice has already been made for you and that there is no other choice but to homeschool, I would expect you would find peace and acceptance with your decision. I would imagine that your kids may be picking up on your own hesitancy and non-commitment to the decision to homeschool. Since we were forced to homeschool our daughter, or else loose her behaviorally and in her attitude towards life in general, the choice was made for us. Either homeschool her and do it in such a way that allows her to start loving the actual event of learning and teaching her how to allow herself the extra time, practice and pacing SHE NEEDS (instead of what some ambiguous sources say) OR ELSE take the very likely risk of loosing her to drugs, alcohol, and inappropriate sexual encounters. Because, that is where we would have been heading if we hadn’t pulled her from the inappropriate position she was placed in the public school system. I would suggest that you make a list of the things good and bad that the public school system WILL TEACH your children including what other children of all different backgrounds and moral compasses WILL be teaching your children. See if anything on that list makes you cringe and is totally against what your family believes. Then, take a second look whether by homeschooling you can eliminate these negatives (and the future life altering consequences these negatives will bring) while still providing the positives yourself at home. Add the additional pros onto your “What ONLY I can provide by homeschooling” list. I would imagine by doing these things, you will find more peace and confidence in your decision. Then, talk to your kids about all these good reasons why you homeschool them. Once you are confident and have truly accepted that homeschooling your children is the best for them, each individually, then they will start picking up on your confidence and that same acceptance. Give yourself permission to remind them and yourself, often, reasons homeschooling is working in their favor. For example, “If you were in school, you wouldn’t have been able to review this material again. The class would have to move onto the next chapter. But, you really get to understand this (topic) better.” or “If you were in school, you wouldn’t be able to do…eat…take a break now…be on this field trip, etc. etc.” or “Because you are homeschooled you get to…..”. I sincerely hope this will help you in your homeschooling endeavors. I just couldn’t bring my self to simply say “Good luck”. I do wish you the very best in your homeschooling endeavors.
thank you for this eye opener
p.s. I love your idea of writing a “To Do” list in a notebook and starting with “I’m Thankful For…” and including their independent work, devotionals and chores. I can really see by having one list, the child can take ownership of the expectations for them for the day. I’m sure they will carry this management strategy on with them through life. 🙂
Ok. Foolish me, I just read more on your “About Me” page and see that you’ve been homeschooling 8 yrs before putting your kids into private school. Ooops. You probably have more advice for me than anything. (Blushing now.) But, I do stand by my above advice to stick your conviction that homeschooling is the best for kids. I don’t know your personal experience with the private school and can’t advise about that, either (other than to say, I attended a private Catholic school as a Protestant and enjoyed the small class size). But, I’m sure you have your reasons for returning back to homeschooling. Take my previous advice as a good dose of support for your decision and a heaping mound of encouragement that you are doing the right thing. You go girl! 🙂
~A neighbor in SW Virginia 🙂
Tonya, LOL!!! No worries. 🙂 I know that not everyone that stops by my blog knows our entire history. I have been a huge homeschooling advocate for more than 10 years now…still am!! It’s also been the hardest thing I’ve ever done! Sanctification is never easy no matter the form it takes. 🙂 Coupled with my overly sensitive and introverted nature, just the sheer noise in my house sometimes stresses me out. Finding and MAKING time for myself has to be more of a priority and I’m learning as I go what things I can do to have time to feed my soul. We are definitely a work in progress around here, I welcome advice and prayers!! 🙂
I began using spiral notebooks heavily last year, and in a slightly different manner. Each week the kids had spelling list, spanish list, free writing time, handwriting practice, etc. So they began recording all of their work in the spiral notebook so I had everything in a single spot. I used the Japanese tabbing method to keep track of their pages (draw a dark dot at the edge of the paper in a specific location meant for a specific topic, as in, the Spanish copywork got a dot halfway down the page, and when the book is closed, you can see the dots by looking at the edge of the notebook). This year I will be doing the same thing, but I may try assigning things first so they don’t constantly come back to me asking me what to do everytime they finish with one thing.
Love this idea.. Although I am tweaking it a bit, it is exactly what I needed to see.. I am doing the I am thankful part but adding I will pray for(names or situations, etc) we already do bible verses etc in our bible class daily! Thanks for this post/idea!
Wow! Mind. Blown. I’m getting ready to homeschool my 7 and 9 year old girls with a toddler on my hip next year, and knew I would need to keep it simple, but wasn’t sure how I would accomplish that. This looks like just the thing! Thank you so much for sharing this <3
I am so glad I found this post! I’ve been trying to figure out a great way to keep track of their work without me having to write in my planner plus a planner for both of the children I am homeschooling. We are visiting our home state for another couple weeks and will pick up on our schooling once we get back to Hawaii. I would like to teach them to be a little more independent (ages 7&10) and this surely will do the trick. At least I am praying that this is what we all need.
I love this! Thanks for sharing!!!
I am planning to homeschool each of my 3 boys for at least middle school…starting with my oldest going into 6th next year. I’ve read Sarah’s blog on using spiral notebooks but I never considered using them for all three for the summer!!!!! You have totally changed my attitude about the coming summer in five short minutes. I think they would all really respond to having their own notebook. If I tell them to go read for thirty minutes when they whine about “nothing to do” I am positive I’ll get attitude (even though they love to read!!). If they have to check it off in the notebook before they play on the iPad, they’ll do it with a better attitude I’m sure 😊. My brain is churning with ideas to write in them!! You have potentially saved this introverted mom from a summer of whining 🤣.
Such a great way to bring some needed structure to summer days! Thanks for passing on the idea!
What a fabulous idea! Right now, we’re using reminders with Alexa, so when things don’t happen right on time, our days get mixed up. Having it all on paper as a checklist will give the kids more freedom to get it done on their own time. Love it!
Where did you get your writing prompts? The two I can see, I love and plan to use for my 7th grader.