The Weekly Checklist
Five years ago, when I was just a wee lass of only 42 years old, I wrote an article about how I, a homeschool mom of three young kiddos, get my beauty sleep every morning. And guess what…I still do! I still get to sleep in as late as I want every single day…within reason of course.
Here’s the kicker - by the time I wake up, my kids have already learned some planned educational stuff ON THEIR OWN!
Previously when they were younger, I called it “solo time” (see article here) which was a pile of to-dos like books, activities, and games that I knew were good for my children’s hearts, minds, and souls…and now, I call it “the weekly checklist”.
This checklist has revolutionized our homeschool week. It really has. My kids have never been so efficient, productive, and achieving as they have been this year. Some call it maturity, but I call it “the weekly checklist”. (And yes, they have matured too.)
Why Do It
I don’t mean to say that the only reason to have a solo time or weekly checklist is so you can sleep in, although that’s a huge benefit. The best reason to have a weekly checklist for our family is the opportunity it provides for autonomous learning and a glimpse of self-directed study. I love that it helps my children learn to be in charge of some main aspects of their own education without my prompting. I never have to nag them. (I only check that their checklist is done prior to a reward activity or prior to our Friday Night Family Game Night.) The checklist isn’t the only homeschooling thing they do - we do plenty together with our daylies, science time, robotics, and maybe some other lessons. But there are numerous independent activities that they need to do too. The checklist is for that. The best part is that they are each responsible for accomplishing their responsibilities based upon their own timing and their own motivation to finish their checklist in the time frame they desire. I’ve included a recent checklist of ours below.
Think On It First
There are some things that we want our children to be equipped with for their practical life and their spiritual life - but we sometimes just let it go by the wayside. The checklist can make sure those things do not slip through the cracks. And some of these daily and weekly activities your child can do without you. Check out these two books that I used to help inform some of our decisions regarding our checklist.
What’s in the Checklist
Independent Reading & Activities: For my kids it’s reading for history lessons, their Sunday school theology book, their Wednesday night theology book, and their assigned homework activities from their homeschool co-op. This reminds them that they have other work outside of my leading and accountability. I love how these assignments are preparing them for their future academic career when there will be no parent to prod them.
Memorization: I have basically been bummed for years that my kids didn’t know all 66 books of the Bible, church creeds, Psalms, and more. With Morning Time: A Liturgy of Love, I have an anthology of important Biblical, historical, and literary memorizable passages and facts at my fingertips that I type into their checklist. Some passages take one week to memorize, others take three. Then the previous memorized passages go into a “well” basket. Some weeks we use the memorization time for a daily 5 minute review of previous passages so they don’t forget them. (See Morning Time for more about how that works.)
Math: I purposely have math set up to be a timed activity for a certain number of times per week. That way they always get their math done, even if they have to do 40 minutes on one day because they didn’t plan their time well earlier in the week. My oldest needs to complete 2 tests per week this semester to get on the college math track, so he has 8 lessons and 2 tests per week. So, the checklist is a box for each test. I label him “B” to set him apart from my other two kids.
Chores: For the most part, I like to include their contributions and their commissions for the week. Their contributions are chores that are just their service to maintaining our household like emptying the trash and vacuuming. I learned about commission chores from this book, Smart Money, Smart Kids which are the chores that earn money, such as cleaning baseboards and window cleaning.
Exercise: All three of my kids are in sports, but their sports don’t meet daily. Since we want to create a strong healthy habit of exercising, I put this on their checklist. I offer different ways for them to exercise, but the hardest one is an exercise channel we use, Bodi. So, I require they complete at least one of those per week. The other ways they exercise are their choice. My daughter made a checklist for me one week and it was my finest exercise week in years!
Playdates, Field Trips, & Fun: In small writing at the top, I usually list the items that are new to the schedule for that week, be it a CPR class, Zoo outing, play date, or birthday party. This way they have an idea that they have to plan around that additional activities. (Co-op, sports practices, etc. that are always part of our week are not listed since they already know about those.)
Reward: My kids came up with this idea. For the first few weeks there was no reward, but then I realized that our very long checklist is hard work and it’s nice to have a pay-off! Since my kids do not normally get video games like ever, this is how they earn them. Sometimes they get to have a mid-week reward of 30 minutes of video games and an end of week reward of another 30 minutes with a hot chocolate. It changes from week to week. The key is that they have to complete the activities by a certain time like “All of Monday-Wednesday activities completed by Wednesday 1:30 PM to earn 30 minutes video games.” Otherwise, they can just complete the entire checklist by end of day Friday.
How to Homeschool with a Checklist
Sunday evenings, I spend 5-10 minutes updating the one checklist on my computer (using Canva), and print out the checklist for each them. I have tried writing the checklist items in a notebook, but with three children it just takes too much time and is pretty repetitive. So, using a digital format makes it super fast and easy to produce. I use the same checklist for all the kids, but they each get their own copy and write their name on it. They can cross off the items that don’t pertain to them.
My kids work all week on the checklist, using their independent, autonomous, free time to complete it.
Before the reward moment, I check in to see if they completed their checklist.
That’s it!
We’ve included a checklist template below for free!
And the best part of all of this is they still have choices. They have the choice of when to start their work in the morning (since I’m asleep anyway), they choose what order they attack their activity list, they get to work without feeling rushed and without me hovering, and they have freedom to help each other, work together, discuss their problems, and feel a sense of accomplishment - ALL ON THEIR OWN.
Put in the work, build the foundation, and then let them go be independent and see what happens. You might love your new found independence as well!
For more ideas and practical tips like this one, check out our new book Hesitant to Homeschool? Answers to 20 Common Questions.
