Calendar and morning work

Does anyone have calendar time? I realized that we have never done any calendar practice! How about morning work? How do you run your calendar/morning work time? Do you use a cute wall calendar and add the date each day? Do you use a calendar notebook that are becoming so popular (I believe @erica has something like this?). I’d like to create a morning work notebook with things that have fallen through the cracks. For example: skip counting by 3, writing numbers to 120, work on any letter formation issues, etc…and also use the notebook for any area he may need extra practice in. I would just print off a simple/short worksheet or puzzle with that skill and use it a 5 minute review:). Does anyone do anything like this?

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Yes! I am planning on doing something like this. Probably a notebook style with wipe off pages. I remember seeing something from Erica’s website, but I couldn’t find it when I went back to look.

It’s called the Daily Learning Notebook. Erica has one for preschool and one for grade school kids.

I’ll message you later with my files. We have a notebook… I was going to make a wall version also, but it seemed redundant to have it on the wall and in her notebook. She was quite happy with the notebook version and it saved me a lot of wall space :smile: Most of the pages in our notebook are in page protectors and she does them with a wet-erase marker - then we erase everything at the end of the month. There are a few exceptions where she does it with a pencil so we can save them “forever” (at least until the end of the year) - for example, the page where she writes her name once each month - we like to see how it progresses over the year. Anyway - I’ll message you later. :smile:

As DeannaForgard said it is called Daily Learning Notebook and there are several. Here is a link:

http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/?s=daily+learning+notebook

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I purchased this large wall calendar at Joann fabrics with a 60% off coupon. We absolutely LOVE it. It comes with holidays and special school day markers. Then I made some of my own. We also have a morning notebook and has each months calendar in it. Kids can choose to color it, trace it, or bingo marker it. Each day. Also have a daily weather tracker chart and a space each month for child to write name. It is so amazing to see the August written name compared to May. My children are in preschool and kindergarten. I plan on using this every year. And adding more to it as they get older.

Hope this gives you some ideas!!

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Sorry forgot to add photos:)

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We started with daily calendar work and the Daily Learning Notebook two years ago, but after making daily attempts at it for a few months, I realized it was really bogging down our day. We were spending SO much time trying to fill in the calendar information, fill in the temperature of the day, the time, etc. that it was putting us WAY behind on our other work every morning. So we finally admitted defeat and put away the pretty notebooks and said, “Not for us!” :slight_smile: Honestly, our math program continually calls attention to the calendar, day of the week, time, etc. so it really was unnecessary for us and was just busywork. We have a wall calendar that the kids can look at to see the date every day along with holidays, they put the date on their paper every day, and like I said, the math activities continually reinforce the other concepts, so I don’t think we’ll go back to any type of Daily Notebook or calendar activity.

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@Forchristandkids Thank you for sharing. That’s a very valid point that these types of things can take up to much time and bog us down;)
Can you expand on what else was in your Daily Learning Notebook? I thought I may just use calendar and a math notebook until September when we start next school year:)

@Alwayspainting Are you using Ericas Learning Notebook? Or have you created your own (if so, can you post pics please:)

@Luvmyboys We were using Erica’s Daily Learning Notebook for Pre-K and for the older level. They are wonderful notebooks, but we just didn’t have the time every day to spend filling in the information. It contained filling in the date, tracing numbers and words for days of the week/dates, filling in the time and the temperature, coloring clothing on a figure for what type of clothing would be appropriate for the day’s weather, charting the weather on a calendar for the month, noting if it is an odd or even day of the month, etc. Again, wonderful notebooks, but just too time consuming for our school day. From there we went to just looking at our wall calendar and naming the day of the week and what day came before/after. Now we don’t do any of that because my children just know the months, days, etc. very well. As I mentioned, Horizons math really reinforces all of these concepts over and over (and if you use any spiral math program, you may find that yours does too). I hope this info helps! :slight_smile:

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I haven’t started morning circle time…still brainstorming how to do it so no one gets bored of it!!! Couple thoughts were just doing it Monday, Wednesday & Friday…assign a kid for each day to change date, weather, so on…Add music to it, so some days it’s just us verbally talking about it & other days we sing about it :slight_smile: lots of circle time songs out there!! Still thinking though…got time :slight_smile:

@Forchristandkids - YES! I agree, these notebooks are cute, but they can become time consuming. We revamped ours so it would be less time consuming, but now that my daughter is going into second grade, I’m going to revamp again to make it even shorter. It’s nice to hear that someone feels the same way. Thanks for sharing :smile:

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@triton17 @Forchristandkids My thought is to use morning notebook work for areas he needs reinforced, like writing the date. Once I feel that he has a good handle on the concept, I will drop it for some thing else:) I HATE busy work, but sometimes it has a place in our homeschool;)

@Luvmyboys - YES! When busy work is achieving something, it definitely has a place and is worth the time… then it’s not really busy work :slight_smile: I like your idea to use it until it achieves its goal, then moving onto something new you can work on. It’s a constant work in progress :smile:

I’ve had this on my Amazon list for a while. I like that the pieces are wooden, less likely to get damages. Also looks compact which I like.
Of course, other options would include free printables you could google online under images, for calendar and weather cards or something like that. :sunny:

@GC123 That looks very nice! Not a bad price either😉

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You could also look into Everyday Counts Calendar Math. You can find cheaper copies on eBay. You would need to prep s little but just having the teaching guide would be a sufficient purchase. You will be amazed at how much math is taught with just a calendar.

Did this come with all the cards too or just the pockets?

I saw this at Michaels crafts recently. You could use a weekly coupon and really get a good deal!

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