“Mothers owe a thinking love to their children…how shall this heart, this head, these hands employed? A question the answer to which involves a futurity of happiness or misery to a life so dear to thee.”
~ Charlotte Mason, Volume 1 Home Education, pg. 2
This page’s drop-down menus will show several ideas on how to organize, plan, and track your personal Charlotte Mason Educational Journey. The ideas in here have been used successfully by me. As we go along this journey, I find myself fine-tuning our record keeping each year to be more stream-lined, easier to use, and to keep up with the State Law requirements for our records. That is why I have used such a variety of ideas. Perhaps something will spark an idea for you!
The Big Picture – Your Over-All Educational Plan
For more ideas on how to plan, these books are excellent:
Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education
How to Write a Low-Cost/No Cost Curriculum
What to Plan
In order to plan the details, you need to know what subjects are required where you live. In the United States, each state has its own requirements. You can find them your states education department online or you can find them at the Homeschool Legal Defense Association’s State Law Page.
You can see my list of curriculum ideas here or you can look for more ideas online at these sites:
Ambleside Online Curriculum Years
Charlotte Mason Help see also her page Books and Schedules
Simply Charlotte Mason Curriculum Guide
Your Personal Planning, Tracking, and Record Keeping
Here are several ideas that I have used over the course of my homeschooling journey:
Planning and Keeping Records for a School Year – a simple way to track your progress using the table of contents from the books you read.
Our New School Planners – another customized CM paper planner I created to be independent of the computer and let each child be accountable for their own schedules. Each planner includes the list of books for the year; along with weekly, term, and yearly evaluations.
Simple Weekly Planner – a condensed 1 page, weekly schedule that includes color coded days, time spent on each subject, everything that is to be done that week in manageable days. It allows for notes, a place to calculate core hours taught each week, and brings the big notebook down to a simple 36 page log for my records. This is in addition to the portfolio required by the State of Missouri for my homeschool records. This is by far my favorite method!
Online Planners:
Simply Charlotte Mason Organizer – this amazing online planner allows you to track your students day, marking an assignment complete or worked on. If something wasn’t done that day, the SCMO retains the assignment until the next scheduled day. LOVE that part! You can also print out check-off lists as needed for your children. Note: You need to know your schedule (what day you plan to do each subject) before you start scheduling your year. It saves a lot of time.
Disclaimer – I included links to books I used because they are helpful. I do not receive any thing in return for sharing my personal experience.
My Soul Doth Delight... 