Sometimes I just need a journal / portfolio / assignment /planner sheet for the kids to use for school that I can customize....one that has fun activities like mazes and can help me keep organize with the books, movies, internet we use. One that doesn't have tons of coloring since I have a kid who doesn't like coloring. go.figure. Or cost a fortune, and isn't a ruled or blank piece of paper because if I hand a blank piece of paper to this kid he will stare at it. One that can be used with ANY curriculum or NONE at all for freestyling. One that ALL ages of kids can use instead of for specific ages or grades. I'm not asking for a lot....right? You can stop laughing now. I've homeschooled since dinosaurs roamed the Earth and up until this point I haven't seen this beast...
And then I found the Christian Homeschool Adventure Journal. Right now there are only 2 and they are "adventure" (read boy) oriented, which is fine since I have boys, but I'm hoping for more! The cool part is there is a page they fill in with pictures or writing about their day and what they did. They date it and there you go! D.O.N.E the portfolio is done.
I love that I can make a little list with checkboxes at the bottom of the first page to let them know stuff I want them to do that day. If I'm really on my game I do that the night before. ;) So planning done....
The next page is really open ended and has assignment ideas all around the outside so all I do is circle what I want them to do on that page, draw some lines to divide it if I need to. Assignment sheet...check!
The last page is either a maze, or asks them to draw something or has a coloring page that isn't TOO overwhelming....read NOT a whole page of crazy designs that my younger kid will refuse to do, and enough that the creative ones can really put some of theempty space to good use.
The best part is, you can adapt it. If it's small kids, you just have them draw pictures of their day, and as they get older you can begin giving writing, comics or ??? So cool. One journal per kid for ALL the ages and grades. How cool is that???
AND you just need 3 for the year and you have 180 days done without counting days on your calendar. LOVE THAT. For those that have hour requirements you can just put the hours on the first page for that day....though, homeschooling happens ALL the time not just for 2-4 hours since they are learning constantly. Just sayin'.
Now, I know you're probably wondering...what about math, etc... Yes, you'll have to add math & phonics for the littles, and math & grammar for the olders but if they pick their books according to the list in the front, and it's books they like, you won't be bugging them to read, fill out this sheet, etc. like when you use textbooks.
The really cool thing about this journal is it has a bucket list for them to put things they would like to do in the next 60 days and has them do them through out the 60 days. So, all that stuff you "want to do" that falls through the cracks actually gets done, and because the kids pick out what they want on their bucket list, it's stuff they will actually do. Not the stuff some curriculum says you should do that you have to drag the kids through. Now, I'll be honest here, and say my kids knew some stuff they wanted to do, but I kept throwing out ideas until they caught on and they filled out the entire list.
Here's some pics of different kids' books so you can see the inside:
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