The simplest use for a control journal is in creating an ongoing schedule for homeschooled children. Such a journal can be created a full school year, a semester, a month, or even just a week in advance. A schedule control journal would ideally have a section for each day, divided into segments for each subject. The person preparing the schedule would write each subject's daily assignments in the designated section, such as: "Monday - Literature - Chapters 4-5, 'Moby Dick'; Thursday - Math - Lesson 72, Adding Fractions.' " This type of control journal is ideal for planning purposes, for giving assignments to children who work well on their own and for effectively managing the curriculum of many children at once.
Homeschoolers can also effectively use control journals to track work completed. While such a journal would be structured very similar to one used to create daily assignments--with spaces for every subject, every day--the journal entries are made instead after the work has been completed. In each space, the child or parent would write the actual work completed, making the control journal a helpful tool in realistic scheduling. Such a journal can also be used to keep track of other experiences, such as extracurricular activities, field trips and special projects, for later reference.
Control journals are an excellent place for homeschoolers to keep track of grades. This type of control journal can easily be combined with another, with grades marked for each completed assignment. Grades can be tracked by assignment, subject, week and school year. This type of control journal can be realistically kept on paper, but is most effective in electronic form, such as an Excel spreadsheet created to track grade point average, perhaps with accompanying graphs.
While control journals are an excellent tool for teacher-student communication, detailing assignments given and completed, grades, and ongoing projects, they are also a good tool for consolidating resources. This type of control journal is best kept in a large binder, outfitted with pockets, blank pages and custom dividers to organize materials according to individual needs. Use this control journal as both a record of the year's experiences--containing piano recital fliers and field-trip location pamphlets--and to brainstorm for upcoming assignments, like jotting down the name of a book to use in your child's history class in a few months. You can also use it to organize contact information for everyone from saxophone teachers to math tutors.