My Student Logbook (Schoolhouse Review)

 Product: My Student Logbook

Price: $15 for spiral-bound My Student Logbook ; $10+ for pdf logbooks

Age: Second grade and up

My usual practice for planning and recordkeeping has been to make a daily schedule in my homeschool planner. Emily checks the schedule each day to see what she is to do, then she or I check off each assignment as it is completed. This has worked pretty well (except for her tendency to check things off before they have been corrected or even when they are half done.)

This year, we’re trying something different. In my planning book, I’m giving weekly assignments, instead of daily ones. For example, under math, I might write: “ Chapter 4, lessons 1-5.” For Spanish, I might write, “Mango: 1 hour, Flip Flop Spanish lessons 25 and 26.”  Emily is responsible for pacing herself so that the work gets done for the week. Emily doesn’t write in my planner, but I do check the assignments off when a subject is completed for the week.

Emily has been using My Student Logbook to keep track of her daily work, and to make sure she remembers to work on every subject. Basically, the Student Logbook is just a chart with subjects listed at the left side of the page and dates at the top. When a subject is completed for the day, the student puts a check in that box.

However, there are some features that make the logbook more versatile and very easy to set up. The front of the book has assignment pages that are to be torn out as needed. Subjects are written on the page, which is then folded vertically and glued to the back of the appropriate weekly page, creating a flap that can be folded each weekly page. Each week, a new weekly page is just tucked under the assignment list, which can be reused for as long as desired. When the teacher decides to make changes in the assignments, she simply pulls out a new checklist page, fills it out, and glues it to the current weekly list. The old checklist stays in place for a record of work completed.

The daily checkboxes are small, but there is space to keep track of time spent in each subject. This is perfect for:

1. Allowing the student to keep track of time spent on a subject over a week.
2. Keeping track of hours for high school credits.

A couple of our high school subjects this year will need to have time documented: computer applications and PE, and I’m hoping that My Student Logbook will be a useful tool to do that. At this point, I’m still having to remind her to keep track of and to record time spent on activities. In the spring, Emily will do an art course instead of computer applications and we will need to keep track of hours for that as well.

The checkboxes can also be used to keep track of grades. We haven’t done that at this point, since I keep grades separately in my planner, but I can see that this could be useful for some families.

My Student Logbook includes a very helpful article on creating high school transcripts and documenting hours for courses. I found it very helpful and timely, since we’re entering the high school years, when record keeping and transcripts are even more important.

My Student Logbook also includes record pages for:

• Books Read
• All About Me
• Prayers and Goals
• Bible Verses Memorized
• Events, Projects, Field Trips, Presentations, Activities
• Test Records
• Year Highlights

Using the Planner

I never find that pre-printed planners meet my needs exactly, so the first thing I did when we received My Student Planner was to make a few modifications. I repurposed one page for community service, dedicated one to just field trips, and added a page to document daily activity for a computer applications course.

 

Several pages did have example entries on them. This bothered my obsessive need for things to be “neat” and I probably won’t use those pages. I think a separate loose page with examples  would have been a better option.

Several choices are available for the cover, which is a paper sheet covered with a heavy plastic page. I was concerned about durability, but the plastic does seem to stick to the paper cover, so I don’t think we’ll have a problem with wear or tearing. Emily chose the Rainforest cover. Some of the other options are Jets, Butterflies, Ocean, Golden Vines, Vintage Map, and Dinosaurs.

 

The Student Logbook has been a good tool for us. It has helped Emily become more accountable in her work and she’s enjoyed having her own record keeping tool in addition to my plan book.