There are nine tabs/sections to work with: Main Menu,
Overview, Assignments, Attendance, Reading Log, Field Trips,
Daily journal, Maintenance, and Reports.
Main Menu: This is the “Title Page.” This is where your
school’s name and public information are shown, plus your school
motto (ours is “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens
me!”) and a summary of your children’s attendance records to date
(with columns for each of the following designations: sick,
present, hours, and average). Not every state, including mine,
must account for hours or attendance, but it is always nice to have
that information. One never knows when things might change in
regard to state law, and it is always nice to have your records on
hand should a problem arise.
Student’s Section
Overview: This is a handy page; it has columns labeled as follows
(with sample entries here):
Activity
Class discussion
Field trip
*The points show actual grade/possible grade.
Subject
History
Points*
98/100
Avg. Grade
99. 3
Hours
1
Assignments: I have to tell you, maybe it’s just me, but this was
the hardest part for me to figure out—and it’s just a calendar!!
Once I figured out that I was required to set up the calendar to
show the dates for our school year, it was easy. I had begun to
think that I had to go get one of my teenagers to show me how to
figure this out! But the Lord is good, and I began to put it all
together. Actually, this was one of the most fun sections to use
after I got the hang of it. On this calendar you can show whether
your child was “present,” “sick,” that this was a “holiday,” or that
the day was designated as “holiday/present.”
Reading Log: Here you can list: Student/Resource/Type
/Started/Finished. If you are like our household and use lots of
books and other resources, this can be one of the most gratifying
pages. It is incredible to look back and see all that was read and
used throughout your school year. Assessors love those lists!
Teacher’s Section
Field Trips: This section includes the following column titles: Trip
Date/Time Spent/Subject/Description (location). The only thing I
think I would change would be to add a place to record things that
were accomplished or objectives learned at each location.
Daily Journal: This is in the teacher’s section, but I give my
students access to it. On those days when one student’s activities
take your time away from the others or if some of your other
students are in their junior high or senior high school years and are
Where to Find These Resources
• Homeschool Tracker: www.homeschooltracker.com
• The Homeschooler’s Journal and The Homeschooler’s
High School Journal: www.fergnusservices.com
Ferg N’ Us Services
P.O. Box 350
Richville, NY 13681
(315) 287-9131 or
Christianbook.com® ( www.christianbook.com,
1-800-CHRISTIAN, 1-800-247-4784)
• The Schoolhouse Planner is available through The
Schoolhouse Store: www.TheOldSchoolhouseStore.com
/ index.php (always free shipping!).
more independent workers, in this spot you may leave notes to
them (or to yourself) concerning lessons that need more attention
or work they can do on their own. You also can use it as a reminder
that you will need to find a map of China for this Friday. This is a
very useful “free” page, and you can make it what you want!
Maintenance: Just as the title suggests, this is the place where
you can add/enter/delete any type of information. Subject areas
covered include Activities, Resources, Resource Types, School
Info, School Years, Students, Subjects, and Terms.
Reports: Here is the handy-dandy page that allows you to print
off any or all reports from the previously mentioned sections. If
you really wanted to, you could make your own hard copy lesson
planner from the printed pages.
Overall, this is a very easy record-keeping system. It would be
a great system to use to teach your students, at any age, how to
record their own work. This could even be included as an ongoing
homeschool assignment if you are working with them on
computer skills or record keeping; it’s easy enough that they could
manage their own records for you!
Tried and True—
The Homeschooler’s Journal
There are those of us who do not have access to a computer or who
simply prefer to have something tangible in our hands. Those
families may be interested in The Homeschooler’s Journal and
The Homeschooler’s High School Journal, both offered by Ferg
N’ Us Services.
The Homeschooler’s Journal is the blessedly simple planner
that is excellent for grade school ages up to junior high level. This
planner is specifically made with the homeschool family in mind
and is set up for two hundred days of school with a subject log
