Getting Ready for School

Summer is almost over for us, we didn't do much on our break so we are looking forward to getting back to school next week. Most of my lesson planning has been done for a while, and it feels good to be organized. Today I'm cleaning up our 'school room' in preparation for Monday -if I could just get my filing done!!
This year will be different for us, I am using a mix of homeschool materials for the kids whereas in the past we have always used curriculum packages. It was a lot of work -but fun- to research and find the best choices for our family this year; I am happy with the materials we will use and am excited about teaching with them. I will share some details and opinions as I begin using each, for now I'd like to tell you about a helpful planning and record-keeping tool I'm using this year.

My planning began in June (I think!), I started by setting our school calendar dates, then designating subjects and lessons for each day to fit in all that we need to cover for the year. My daughter likes to be able to look at the day's assignments and see what she has to accomplish, so I used a desktop planner  which I had on hand and started filling in her daily work. I decided to just use a separate planner for my son to avoid confusion.
Since my son is in high school, record-keeping and transcripts are important to me now, so I set off on my web mission to find a good resource for those purposes. I came across Homeschool Tracker which I had used briefly several years ago, they still offer a free 'Basic' version so I downloaded it and began to play around with it. I liked it but the Plus version and Online version offer much more, including the ability to make transcripts. I downloaded the 'trial' of Homeschool Tracker Plus and started inputting information for our past school year. Very nice!  I now have our upcoming school year planned with my kids daily schedules laid out. Since I have already done most of our lesson planning in my books I am not doing very detailed plans in the program as I don't need to create more work for myself. It is very easy to make a series of lesson plans however, based upon lesson/chapter number etc., I appreciate this feature. Each day I will input any grading and the program will keep track of it; it is easy to create a variety of reports at any time. I chose the Homeschool Tracker Plus over the Homeschool Tracker Online because it fits my budget better and I prefer not to have to rely on internet to access my program.


I would highly recommend the program if you are looking for something similar; the company offers a referral program so if you purchase through my links I receive a small referral fee!

Linda

Just in...for homeschoolers

From Alpha Omega Publications, one day sale. Save 20% today, July 27th.

Alpha Omega provides high quality homeschool curriculum from a Christian perspective. I have personally used the LifePac, Horizons and Switched on Schoolhouse curriculum with my kids.

Call 800-622-3070 or shop online at http://www.aophomeschooling.com/

Homeschool Savings

Are you a homeschooling family? I received this today in my inbox from the Homeschool Buyers Co-op, membership is free and you can save a lot of money by being part of their group buys. Below is a special offer for language programs, of note... Rosetta Stone...is very highly acclaimed.

Check out the Homeschool Buyers Co-op website for more information http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/

~~ July is LEARN A LANGUAGE MONTH ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The competition is heating up! The top three foreign language products are battling it on the Co-op home page, for the first time ever -- head to head!If you are looking to buy foreign language curriculum for the coming school year, NOW IS THE TIME and the CO-OP IS THE PLACE! We won't have this many great deals in one place for a long, long time!
Rosetta Stone -- Get Bonus Curriculum + 500 SmartPoints -- REDUCED!NEWS FLASH: This offer keeps getting better! Rosetta Stone just announced even deeper discounts for Levels 1-3 and 1-5 and the Co-op immediately increased our discount to the maximum permitted on those products - 14%. We not only offer the BIGGEST discount permitted by Rosetta Stone, but we give you FREE Shipping plus FREE Bonus Curriculum!
Auralog TELL ME MORE - Save up to 50% - EXTENDED!!GOOD NEWS: Auralog has agreed to extend our Group Buy through July 31. We're only 10 orders shy from reaching the 40% discount level, so there is an excellent chance we'll blow past that and perhaps even get up to 50%! TELL ME MORE packs four years of language learning for the entire family in a single software package, making it one of the best values in language software around.
powerspeaK12 (formerly Power-Glide) from K12 - Save 25% - NEW!This program was designed specifically for kids, boasts a Reader's Choice Award from Practical Homeschooling, as well as Teacher's Choice Awards for 2004 and 2005. Co-op members SAVE 25% off of their choice of the powerspeaK12 programs. As far as we know, this is THE best deal available for this product for homeschoolers -- anywhere!
TELL OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS!!! IT'S A PITY!! In these tough times, it's a pity that non-member homeschoolers collectively are paying HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS more than they need to for foreign language instruction, simply because they don't know about the Co-op!!! Even if language learning is not on your agenda for this year, help us make sure that other homeschoolers know about these great deals!