School Check-Off Chart

These charts have been a tremendous blessing to our homeschooling journey. I have always loved making a variety of charts to organize things over the years but this has been one we use year after year. With homeschooling 4 children plus doing foster care, I have purposed to find ways to delegate jobs and teach my children to be responsible and get their things done on their own, as much as I can. These charts do just that, it's a list of school work that my children can complete on their own.  I created and found things that my kids could do independently with little instruction as much as possible yet retain quality learning.  This would be their foundation for school then I would teach my unit studies 1-3 days each week in addition to what was on their charts.

CLICK HERE FOR A FREE PDF DOWNLOAD OF MY CHECK-OFF CHARTS

HERE IS A LIST OF IDEAS AND THINGS I HAVE PUT ON MY CHECK-OFF CHARTS OVER THE YEARS.

Copy work- I use copywork for ages 4- 10 or grades pre-k to 4th maybe 5th depending on their skills and abilities. For this I would use free printouts from the internet, hand writing workbooks, scripture passages or free Charlotte Mason copywork. I would usually have them do 1-2 pages each day. If I used free printouts I would print enough to make a small book and staple together. I would prepare enough for them to do each day for a couple weeks then change the copywork to something different or a little more challenging to keep them interested. If it was a larger workbook I would just set it aside for a short time and do something different  for a week or two then re-introduce it so they wouldn't become bored or overwhelmed at "all" the pages they would "have" to do for the year. You could also use this for improving their hand writing. Look through their copywork, what letters or formation do they need to work on? Are their words too close together? Do they use a mixture of uppercase and lower case? Choose 1-3 things each week for them to work on as they write. Copywork acts as a model, showing children how to structure sentences, how to spell, how to use proper punctuation and grammar and how to space and form words and letters. It also improves short-term memory skills and increases vocabulary giving them a strong foundation to successful writing in upper elementary and beyond.

Find-A-Book Read-N-Write- For this they could choose any book off our shelf (or books from the library), read it or if younger look at the pictures, then they would use my form “Find-A-Book Read-N-Write” (found in my free forms tab) to write out 10 letters or words or sentences from the book depending on their ability. My kids liked this because it gave them a sense of control over their learning. It also created fun trips to the library where they could pick out books they liked or wanted to use for this assignment each day.

Math- I do not generally enjoy teaching math, unless we were doing some sort of fun math unit study then I was all-hands-in! So I purposed to find ways to make this a subject they could do independently most of the time. We used Horizon math for grades K-2 and then 3-12 we use Teaching Textbooks. These are fairly independent and self teaching so I always included math on their school check-off chart. At the beginning in kindergarten they could not read so they needed me to read the directions but were able to do the rest on their own. On the days or weeks when we needed a break from the textbook I would add in some fun math activities to do. Here are a few of those-  make their own math by writing out 10 of their own addition or subtraction problems, use the Beat The Clock math fluency boards from http://products.lakeshorelearning.com/search#w=beat%20my%20score%20math, watch an excellent video from Sonlight called MathTacular and MathTacular 2 http://www.sonlight.com/subjects/math/mathtacular/, read a math-themed picture book or do a math lapbook.

Read- When they were old enough I would have them choose a book and read for a set amount of time. I used to have them read a chapter or a set amount of pages but I found that my boys would get overwhelmed, so when I switched to a set amount of time they seemed to like it better and though it wasn’t as much work. At first I had them pick beginner books or picture books when they were younger but as they got older I required them to read chapter book. Often I would give them a stack of books and tell them to choose from those. Other times I would find history books or fiction books based on real history if that subject was lacking.

Bible- This is a no-brainer, every Christian wants their child to read their bible.

Classes taken outside the home- We would often join homeschool co-ops, take violin lessons or do speech and debate club, if there was a potential for homework or practice I would add these to the chart.

Responsibilities- When my children were preschoolers their first introduction to a check-off chart would include things like; get dressed, brush and floss teeth, dirty clothes in hamper and clean room. When they were ready for school work I would begin to add things they could do independently and their “Responsibility Chart” would morph into a “School Check-Off Chart”. My kids always got excited when they got their first chart and they LOVED drawing a check-mark when they finished something. I used very specific pictures next to the words to prompt them since they could not read or read well at this age. 

Switched on Schoolhouse- Occasionally I would use this program for various subjects. It’s independent and fun (Well, at least for first 3 months, then it becomes repetitive and the newness wears off, but none-the-less, an excellent program!).

Learning Videos- I would make a list or give them a stack of learning videos or documentaries I wanted them to watch. I found learning videos at the library, on Netflix or Christian cinema. I would also buy a variety of learning videos, one of our favorite is Drive thru History by Dave Stotts.

How to make my check-off chart- Print out, fill out their independent school work you want them to complete each day, laminate then attach a dry erase marker to the chart using sticky peel-off Velcro. Use the dry erase marker that has the eraser on the cap. I use a $20 laminator from Costco and I purchase my laminating sheets from amazon, I found they had better prices than the local office supply store.

With these charts my children had a good foundation for math, language arts, electives (out of home classes), bible, science and history. This freed up my time so I could teach the rest using unit studies. They knew if they wanted to have “free time” or “electronic time” they had to have everything done on their chart and I would need to inspect to confirm they did in fact do it. This accountability gave me an opportunity to test their comprehension by asking them what they did, what they learned and what they read about. This helped train their brain to think and organize their thoughts. They didn’t even know that it was part of their well-though-out, secretly-devised, formal-education. Brilliant!