An Assignment sheet is simply all the work I expect (hope) my children to work through in a study block (6-10 weeks). Each child has their own assignment sheet for those children who are independent learners they monitor their study by using this sheet, ensuring they are keeping a balance of all their subjects (actually Jessica writes her own sheet and submits it to me for approval). For younger students I keep a copy myself and monitor how they are going as the weeks progress.
I write sheets at the end of each block before we begin the next block (I use the word study blocks instead of terms). Depending on family life and how the student is going with the work, these sheets may be tweaked as we go along. My purpose is to teach my children to be accountable and though I may need consequences if they have been slack I also realise that because homeschooling is all about taking life opportunities, often times we dont have the same amount of study time as I had planned so their assignments get shuffled around with no consequences set that is just life!
I use Excel to write these up, so there are lots of columns going down the page and along the top is a column for every week of our study block (6-10 weeks)
Down the left side is all the subjects that they study. I divide this up into categories
- Relationship (Bible, Character)
- Basic Skills (Discipline subjects – things that need practicing every day – math, reading, writing, typing, music, foreign language etc this is different for each student)
- General Knowledge (History, Science, World View, etc… whatever they are learning)
- Workshop Subjects (these we learn together as a family, with the Homeschool co-op and friends)
- Delight Subjects (Subjects they choose for themselves or enhance their individual gifts and talents- this can be short term or long term)
- Reading List (this is prescribed by me – or approved by me) and infers a reading journal is kept as well
- Family Life which includes family read alouds,
- Individual Pursuits (Productive Free time)
I then plot what work I expect to see finished in each week.
- Eg. I expect a balance of Bible and Character to be done over a month (5x Character, 15x Bible)
- math, writing, piano etc gets done 3-5 times a week (depending on the student),
- I plot in what history unit, or Science lessons need to be done,
- speech once a month,
- Keepers x2 month
- etc…..
If I keep the assignment sheets, then it becomes a part of my record keeping.
