Challenge - A, Daily/Weekly Planner
Everyone has to organize their child's work in one way or another. There are some amazing planners and strategies out there. If you know of something great please feel free to share with us in the comments.
I have found the biggest challenge in Challenge A is communicating schedules and helping my child manage their workload. The Guide dictates the weekly work. Yes, I as the teacher can scale* as needed. In order to be prepared in class, my student still has to get at least a portion of the work done.
In previous homeschooling years I was the master of our schedule but now I must blend with the Ch A schedule.
I might know that we need to get a bulk of our work done on Tuesday because we have guitar lessons, a doctors appointment and grandparents coming into town. However, my Ch A student, who is learning to take ownership of his work, may not know all these things. They think they can focus on just Research and Reasoning and the next day get caught up on their LTW paper. The results between parent and child is frustration. We have to communicate schedules and expectations.
Here is what I highly recommend. No matter how tired you are after a Community Day sit down with your student and plan out the week. If you wait till the next day, your student will forget important instructions given in class and it will cut into your productivity. Have your student bring out their planner, we use the attached sheet, discuss your week. As the parent, let them know of family commitments, late nights, or interruptions in a day. Together fill in their planner and strategize how they are going to get their work done that week. If you have other kids or commitments it's ok to tell your child when you will and will not be available to review work and answer questions.
It is best to establish a routine for what days and what order your child will do work on. Let them have a say in this. However, it is important to provide boundaries. Such as, your student wants to start with Research. You make it clear that that is acceptable but Logic and Latin must be done before lunch. Also, establish if you are unavailable to help them or check work between 11- 12 because you are working with another child.
Attached is the planner I will be using with my son. I type it up as we go through the Guide and discuss his tutor's instructions on Mondays after community. We print it out and put it on a clipboard for him each week. If this is not your thing you can do something as simple as writing it out on notebook paper. Do not make this harder than need be. Keep it simple and help your student take ownership by effectively planning. Welcome to the teenage years of your child having a life apart from you and learning to blend the two!
I am providing this in an editable form so you can customize it and change it for your specifics. The sample content is for week 2 work of Ch - A. We have a Monday community day and my son will be out of town with his dad on Tuesday. Therefore I have cleared our schedule for him to work fervently for 3 days.
“Those who fail to plan, plan to fail. ”
* A note about Scaling: As your student's teacher, you can scale your child's work. I am not a Challenge A Director but can I encourage you to communicate with you Director when you scale. Email, call, text them and let them know. Directors want to hear it from you, not the student that their work was scaled.