The CLAA provides families with the finest classical liberal arts instruction and great flexibility with that instruction.  We do not tie students down to school calendars, schedules, class meetings, etc., but allow all students to work at their own pace and for their greatest benefit within their own family life.   This flexibility is welcome to the well-organized but can be a stumbling block to others--especially parents with a greater number of children studying simultaneously.  To help all families succeed in the CLAA, Mr. Michael has produced a complete homeschool management system, available to CLAA families at no cost.  Really it is more than a homeschool management system.  You will find it more useful the more you use it to manage all aspects of your life.

When we consider the importance of planning, Our Lord's command to "Take no thought for tomorrow" puzzles us.  He Himself taught us about the foolish builder who began a project he was unable to finish because he had not sufficiently counted the cost, yet He tells us to take no thought for tomorrow!  Obviously he cannot literally mean that we should not think of tomorrow.  The context reveals that he is talking about the anxious thoughts of the future many people have and that because they do not have their priorities figured out and live in confusion.  When our goals in life are clear, we can move from those goals down to our daily tasks and there we can live as Our Lord teaches us to live--quietly, presently and obediently.  This is all but impossible in modern society without the assistance of a management system and we are happy to provide such a resource for CLAA families at no cost.

To begin, you should obtain a 1" heavy duty 3-ring binder and add 5 dividers labeled:  (1) Task Minder, (2) Calendars, (3) Lesson Tracker, (4) Progress Journal, (5-Optional) Current Lessons.  The content of each of these sections is explained below.
 

PART 1.  THE TASK MINDER

When our Lord visited Martha, He disapproved of her scatter-brained household management.  Our minds will always be filled with things to do and the mind is not the best place for those things.  A task minder provides a central location for all tasks that come to mind--regardless of what department of life they belong to.  Rather than rely on your memory to keep track of things that need to be done--WRITE THEM DOWN.  Once written down, your mind can be at ease.  This is the first part of our homeschool management system and should be always open and ready for quick entries.

Print the CLAA HMS Task Minder
 

PART 2.  ANNUAL CALENDAR

God created the year, with its changing seasons and liturgical celebrations.  Many of the tasks to be completed are annual or season and belong on an annual calendar. Spring cleaning, standardized testing, family conferences, fall harvesting and other such events need to be visibly penciled into a single-glance annual calendar, which we provide.

Print the CLAA HMS Annual Calendar
 

PART 3.  MONTHLY CALENDAR

As annual and seasonal tasks are mapped out in time, we must zoom in to consider monthly deeds.  Here we look at the 30 (or so) days of the month.  Major events from the annual calendar are penciled into their appropriate places and we move closer to the goal of holding only our daily work in mind.

Print the CLAA HMS Monthly Calendar
 

PART 4.   WEEKLY/DAILY PLANNERS

From the monthly calendar, we continue to zoom in on our weekly and daily planner.  Using this weekly planner we move tasks from our monthly calendar--and from our task minder--into our actual daily plans.  Tasks move from the realm of ideas into the realm of time and space--which is the key concept here.  The schedule for the day is laid out and tasks are prepared for the day by priority--high, medium and low.  High priority tasks are those which MUST be done when scheduled in the day.  Medium and low priority tasks are those which could be cancelled or moved to another day. 

An important point here is in the importance of action after deliberation.  Usually, when we have deliberated on a decision, we make that decision in our best state of mind.  When the time comes to act on the decision, we often have second-guesses.  These second guesses are rarely the products of a mind in a superior state to that in which we deliberated.  Therefore, we we are resolved to do a thing, we ought to do it and not question at the time of action.  Once your weekly and daily planner is filled in, you should be able to block out all thoughts of your monthly and annual tasks/events and be "present" to those you are working with for the day.  This calm, focused state of mind will allow you to think clearly, avoid confusion and frustration and work wisely.

Print the CLAA HMS Weekly Planner (Parent)

Parents can help their children manage their own days by using the following individual daily planner.   Parents can lay out their children's schedules and assign tasks for the day.  Students can use the daily planner to work independently and keep records of their daily work.

Print the CLAA HMS Daily Planner (Child)
 

PART 5.  WEEKLY LESSON TRACKER

The resources above may be used for life in general to help manage tasks and times, but here we begin to zoom in on CLAA planning and management.   The weekly lesson tracker allows the parent to maintain a visual summary of where all of the children are at in their studies and to establish a set of goals for each week that ensure progress is constantly being made.   Parents should simply walk through their children's student pages, listing the current lessons each child is on in each subject.  Once the lesson number is known, parents can simply check the task lists for the children's lessons to monitor student progress through each lesson.  At the end of each lesson, parents can easily review the lesson objectives and confirm whether or not their child has mastered the lesson. 

Print the CLAA HMS Weekly Lesson Tracker (Petty School)

Print the CLAA HMS Weekly Lesson Tracker (Academy)
 

PART 6.  PARENT PROGRESS JOURNAL

Experience is supposed to be one of our greatest helps, but when experience is lost in the past, many lessons are lost with it.  By keeping a simple journal of daily observations and notes, homeschool parents can become more and more efficient in their management and identify patterns in their homeschooling experiences.  When younger children reach lessons already completed by other students a parent can refer back to past journal entries to recall any troubles or tricks and progress more and more easily with time.

Print the CLAA HMS Progress Journal
 

PART 7.  CURRENT LESSONS

One of the major improvements we are making to the CLAA courses in 2012, is the addition of detailed lesson objectives and student task lists that allow parents to easily supervise their children's progress without having to study the lessons for themselves.  (Old lessons are being converted, please be patient.)  If parents have the students' lessons listed in their weekly lesson tracker, all they will have to do to supervise their children during the week is monitor their completion of the student task lists in the lessons.  Therefore, parents should have a copy of each of the lessons (or at least the first page) their children are currently working on--or simply refer to their children's copies.

Please note that the development of the CLAA's courses and lessons is tracked on the CLAA Course Development page.  Course development affects only 1% of all CLAA students.
 

MORE HELP IS AVAILABLE

If you would like to learn more about managing your time and tasks outside of homeschooling, Mr. Michael's popular article, "How to Create a Schedule" is most helpful, as well as this link to the Michael's family daily schedule. 

We are happy to help you learn how to use this management system more and more effectively with time.  Feel free to contact  Mr. Michael directly with questions either by e-mail or live chat:

Mr. William Michael, Director
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
E-mail:  wmichael@classicalliberalarts.com
Live Chat:  Sunday 9-11pm EST or whenever online*

*e-mail to schedule an online chat if you wish