In the Home Ec post I mentioned a Tracking Sheet I use. It is nothing fancy, nothing spectacular, but it is a way for your older children to track what they are actually doing. It is a simplified form of our Daily Log (which is more of a Journal, than a “form” – my *PREFERRED* method for their day to day tracking).
For us daily *assignment* sheets have not worked well. They require a whole lot of work and planning on my part, and become frustrating and obsolete when we get off-track or “behind”. It works much better to know where we’re headed and how we plan to get there and then just start. I do have “finish date” goals – that are sometimes met, sometimes not, so we just continue until we’re done, or if it’s not something progressive and interest is waning, we lay it aside until another Season (or maybe never) and go on to something else.
The youth fill out a Tracking Sheet for each course area, each week – such as: Bible, Math, Family Living/ Home Ed, Topical Study (Unit), (and any others they are working on). They list the course/ topic, the beginning date (and ending date, when they get there). This and their name are in a header at the top of the page. Then weekly they list what they accomplished – reading (what they *read*, or other resources), project (what they *did* with it), report (brief summary of what they *learned*). This is strictly a *list* – not their full documentation (Topical Journal) – for me to see what progress they are making. This is divided into 6 “weeks” on our chart, listing “week of”, Reading, Project, Report for each of the 6 sections.
Tracking Sheets can be a simple way to see at a glance what your older, more independent studiers are doing.
