Who knew???

If I had known waaaay back at the beginning of homeschooling that my children would be more independent and get more accomplished by this simple little change in the way I plan I would have saved tons of money and time along the way! I thought that the way *I* work and loved to make forms would mean that *they* would love it too. Not so. One simple little change has made the world of difference in our homeschool this year. So simple, it makes me want to do the "I could've had a V-8" sound on my forehead. Wanna know what it is? Daily lists. Yup. That's it. I fought it all the way. I thought, "It'll waste too much paper, it would make more work for me.. etc. etc." But in reality my older dd likes to see what to do all laid out and she likes to cross off lists! Who knew? I thought she should like charts with all their squares side by side, you know the way most school planners are laid out. I've tried every visual version of charts there is, weekly vertical, weekly horizontal, 12 week charts, you name it. Now we have a daily list and I just fill in the page/lesson numbers and they do the rest. Actually 17yo dd already knows what to do and I fill in 9yo ds' list.

It's not overwhelming seeing all the things you haven't done, and for me the charts with "holes" would make me crazy thinking we weren't doing enough.

I give the credit for this discovery to Homeschool Tracker Plus (even though at the time of this writing I am not using this program, but may pick it back up after the holidays).

We are getting much more accomplished on a daily basis now, which is VERY important since I'm working part-time. I need all the help I can get!