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This past year our method of assigning school lessons changed a bit. For one thing, we couldn’t find the assignment folders we used to use in stores anymore and secondly, we have less worksheets which made these folders less of a necessity. {In my opinion, less worksheets are a good thing!}
So, we took the index card method I was using right after our 7th child was born {and while we were dealing with his colic} and made it more of a permanent thing that could be used over and over.
Making these markable assignment cards are very simple. All you need is:
index cards
clear contact paper
sharpie marker
wet erase marker
hole punch
metal book rings
1. Use your sharpie to write one subject at the top of each index card.
2. Cover each index card with clear contact paper (I love this stuff, but you can get them laminated if you like).
{See the scissors? These are my non-stick scissors from Discount School Supply. I use them for any project that requires me to cut through something that might end up stuck on my scissors.}
3. Cut out each card and hole punch one corner. Thread each child’s set of cards onto one metal book ring
4. Use a Vis-A-Vis wet erase marker
{Not every assignment card has lessons written on it for the week and not every card is separated out M-F. Some have a weekly goal written on them like: Finish chapter 6 by Friday and some are blank so that the child can set his or her own goals or just to serve as a reminder that that subject needs to be done – ie. our Piano card.}
5. Decide where you will put the assignment cards. Ours are attached to each child’s crate where they can easily be seen by both the child and the mommy.
Every weekend during my planning time, I simply redo these cards and hang them back up for the next week. I like that there is less paper being thrown away and less stuff lying around.
I’d love to hear how you handle assigning lessons and if you’ve found something that works for your family’s particular needs!
Love it! Great idea!
Oh, Amy, what a neat idea! I’ve never seen anything like that, and I really like it! Thank you for sharing! I recently wrote a post on my journey in creating my own assignment system: http://afullheart.blogspot.com/2011/06/homeschool-assignment-sheets.html It was hard to find anything premade that really fit my needs, so, like you, I had make my own.
This is awesome! We are gearing up for school next week and will be giving this a go!!! Thanks!!!!!!
We use planners. It doubles as teaching calendar things (days of the week, months of the year, and so on).
THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!
I LOVE this idea and would love to try it out!! I am wondering if you have a problem with the writing smudging or getting rubbed off during the week?
Thanks!!
If you let each card dry, the smudging is minimal. Truth be told, my children don’t actually ever take the cards off their crates. I thought they would, but turns out, they like to just have them on there so they can refer to them.
What size notecard did you use?
We use the 3×5, but the 4×6′s would work too. Take into account how much your child needs to accomplish per week per subject and how much writing space you will need to input those lessons.
This is a good idea. I suppose you have a teachers plan book with the assignments already written in there to keep up with their assignments (just in case it does get smudged) right? If I lost track, I’d be going crazy trying to figure out what was going on!
(It seems I have five students this year and this makes for the 9th year in a row I have had five or more students in homeschool, even with graduating some! Oh…my…word! No wonder I would go crazy!)
Hugs and blessings…
Cute idea. We’re starting preschool in a few weeks and I love getting ideas from you tried and true ladies. Thanks!
This is genius! I am totally doing this ! My kids will love it!
What a great idea! I use something similar for the steps he needs to do for his chores. I am starting him with a planner this year, as he really needs to learn to get organized and is always asking me when we are going certain places and doing certain things as a family. So I will be printing out a planner page for him with daily work…he is still young and since this is our first year we are learning out way through. Thanks for the great idea though.
And I took your advise, Amy, and am sharing our curriculum choices in a series of articles on our new website (that launches today) this week. Thanks for the tip!
Have a great week!
Mrs Mary Joy Pershing
Amy,
Great idea!! I found that if you use permanent marker on contact paper or laminate, you can actually use an eraser and then reuse the cards. Less waste. Thanks for all the idea and support!!
What a super idea! Thank you for sharing.
I love these, and may use this idea for outside chores.;)
This year for our assignments, and such, I have created an assignment page, that has a place for me to record also. http://peacecreekontheprairie.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Lesson-plan-by-day-number-with-chores-appt-prayer-memorey-verses-PDF-no-type.pdf
Because of the versatility of this form, I do not find it being a waste of paper, as it is a school record at the end of the year.
That’s really a great idea. I too, was looking for a method that did not generate so much paper. I previously printed out weekly assignment sheets x 4 children. This year I am schooling all 5 of my children, and I needed a new idea!
I found this idea: I typed up my children’s daily checklist on one page and then laminated it. They will use a wet erase marker to cross off each item as they complete it. Then at the end of the week, we will wash off the page and start over. Since I use Sonlight, each child can look at his IG for his reading assignments. I keep a few week’s worth of IG in the basket with the books the child is reading.
Thanks for sharing!
I love, Love, LOVE this method of assignment cards. We have been homeschooling for three years (4th starts in September) and I have searched high and low for a better way of assigning daily tasks. BTW where do you get your roll of contact paper?
Thanks! WalMart in the kitchen/home section where the other patterned contact paper is.
Thanks so much for sharing this was very helpful.
Amy, great idea! Now, when the kids are done with a particular task…do they rub it off themselves? Or do you erase things as you see them completed?
I don’t erase and redo until my planning time. Easier that way since they are wet erase markers.
Those are a wonderful idea! (And those scissors are genius! I hate cleaning sticky stuff off of my scissors.)
Thanks for sharing!
Amy, this is great! I really needed this idea! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Blessings,
Jill
That is a great idea! I had been looking for a creative, efficient way to handle assignments, so your timing was excellent!
I have a question… Do you write out lesson plans for each child to keep as a record? In MO we have to log hours and keep a record of progress. Most people do that with a lesson plan of some sort. Since you wipe off the cards each week do you keep a copy of lesson plans for your records?
We are not required to turn in any hours to the state, but I do try to log approximate hrs with a journal or calendar. Progress can easily be shown (if it were ever needed for court or something like that) by the books my children have finished. I do have an example of a lesson/assignment planning page we used to use to keep track, but I haven’t gotten it transferred to my new computer so I could show it here. I’ll try to do that soon.
I have been trying to figure out how to allow my kids (11, 9, and 8) to be more independent this year. I stop by your blog this more and BOOM! A solution that has permanence AND flexibility! Great idea!
Wonderful!
Great idea! We use a dry erase board on the wall of the dining room, where the kids do their independent work. We have a third starting school this year, though and fitting her work on the board will be challenging once she is able to do more independent work.
Thanks for the idea!
What a clever mama you are, as well as coordinated! I have a hard time trying to take pictures of my projects while doing them at the same time.
(Especially recipes!)
I really like this idea! I like things that are reusable. Less paper used (saving money!) and less wasted. It’s also short and simple. I will have to try something like this.
What a fantastic idea!!!! Thanks for sharing–off to make these!
I used to do these a couple years ago but never put them all together like you did. i have thought of doing them again since we are using KONOS but wondered about being redundant since I will plan it all out in my weekly/Unit planner. Plus I plug it all in online since we need to keep track of our hours here in MO. I like it for the children to not have to look in my planner for their lessons though. How do you tie all your planning/recording together?
Amanda – I ended up changing things up when we changed curriculum (that’s the beautiful thing about homeschooling, huh?). I use Scholaric now (online) and everything goes in there so that both the kids and I can keep track in one place. The address is Scholaric.com I believe.