Homeschool Journal

Well, I got out of the habit of blogging when the craziness of the holidays hit, but fortunately I began a new habit at the first of the year - a homeschool journal.

I have a notebook where I keep to do lists and planning ideas.  I added a spiral notebook where I have been journaling progress on all my girls.  I don't write in it everyday (I'm not that organized or structured), but I write in it about twice a month - writing goals I have for my children, activities we have accomplished, ideas for future activities or studies, etc.  I am only writing 1-2 pages a month so it is easy to look at our progress over a few months. 

It's a simple way to document what we are doing for school.  The state of Texas does not require much as far as homeschool records, but I think its important to document our accomplishments and goals.  A month overview works nicely for now because so much of what we do is repetitive - like taking a full week or two to learn a Bible verse and do theme activities that go along with it.

I am documenting character traits/habits that we are working on, as well as life skills we are learning - sewing, chores, piano, physical activity.  I might list out new games we have tried and liked or books we have read or social activities we have been a part of.

I used to do so much from memory, but I am now finding it helpful to write down my ideas, our progress, what the kids have really learned from and enjoyed.  It's great to be able to look back at all that.  I easily forget things I would have thought I would have remembered - like my child's first word and how old they were at certain milestones.  Now I can document when they have mastered a certain skill.  I can also look at activities that the kids thrived on - like our math blocks game or doing mad libs or certain websites that we had found helpful in the past.

And the added bonus from this homeschool journal is that I have five months of topics documented that I can blog about.