Taking Role With Another Purpose
Present!
Check.
There are multiple ways to keep record of homeschool days, and so long as your method is functional for you, then certainly keep at it! Around our third year of homeschool though, my record keeping, day tracking, was definitely not at the standard of my former first year self. Not to say attendance tracking needs to sit at the top of the priority list, but being the thorough individual I am, I couldn't let it go by the wayside, especially since it is a requirement in my state, after all. For some it may look like ticking a calendar or checking boxes on a PowerPoint print-out, but in order for me to excel at "taking role", I was going to need a bit more. Being that we are a homeschool, where all things are done together, I realized the potential- for something as simple as our attendance- to enjoy doing together while gaining practice of the obvious time and charting math skills involved in the task.
So to engage my kiddos in the task of attendance, I put together a fun and efficient activity that could be used over and over, but in multiple ways in order to avoid monotony. Once completed, we would have a complete year of record keeping, which is a "check" for me!
ATTENDANCE TIME ACTIVITY
Get the Attendance Time Activity Here!
The Goal:
The ultimate goal may be keeping a record of the days we homeschooled, but my personal goal went beyond that. I wanted to create an engaging activity that provided my kids with calendar and charting practice, in an efficient way.
Now some may be thinking, well it's just attendance it doesn't need to be an elaborate project, and although at the surface attendance taking is simple, there are some basic math principles that can be highlighted and taught with this simple task, so why not use it to grow their skills?
The Process:
Using this activity, we were able to reinforce elapsed time, days of the week, counting, and charting- that's already four math topics showing up to work! And to think, I had overlooked this in our previous years and just completed it on my own- what a miss!
This activity also allowed for a quick writing practice and month identification, by way of the traceable letters and month cover for each booklet. My kids also enjoyed adding their special touch of creativity by decorating and coloring the letters in the month's cover.
While in each month, the booklets were kept inside their binders along with their Bible Verse charting page, and as part of our daily meet-up, they charted the day we were on inside their booklet along with the date for the day. We used various ways of marking the weekdays in order to keep the activity fun.
The Outcome:
Once the month was charted and complete with the cover month page, I collected the booklets and stored them together in my record keeping system for the year.
This system involved my kiddos in the process of something so basic, but showed us yet again, that there is learning to be had in everything we do- all we have to do is pay attention! I really appreciated how they put their skills to use and stayed responsible for their attendance tracking, all while enjoying the process.
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