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Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

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Welcome

Free Academic School Calendar 2014-2015 1 of 3 {Maybe}

April 6, 2014 | 1 Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today I am sharing the first of three {maybe} Academic School Calendars for 2014 to 2015.  You know how I get when I go to designing and creating, I can’t help myself and sometimes end up with more color choices.  So I always put “maybe” in there in case I get carried away create more.

Free Academic School Calendar 2014 – 2015 – Hot Color!

Too, I got so excited about early planning that I released the Year Round Homeschool Planning Schedule. Color Option 2. before I did the regular academic school calendars this year.  I don’t think it matters because in the end you have just about everything you need if you want to start printing early.  Me? I wait closer to June to print mine.

2014-2015 academic calendar sweet pea

I gave this one a name, Sweet Pea.  It reminds me of peas, which I happen to love by the way.

Curriculum Pages for Planner

Download Here 2014 to 2104 Free Academic School Calendar Sweet Pea. 1st of 3? Choices.

If you missed the other forms I have created so far because you always get them first, you can go to the links below and grab them.  Sometimes I don’t get them up on my blog pages fast enough.

Homeschool Planner Cover – Blue Serenity
Homeschool Planner 1 – Melting Bubble Gum
Free Homeschool Planner Cover Point Well Taken
Free 2014 Year Around Homeschool Planning Schedule
Goal Setting
2 Pages Per Month At A Glance Academic Calendar
Curriculum Pages for Planner  Homeschool Planner Free Inside Title Page
Year Round Homeschool Planning Schedule – Option 1
Year Round Homeschool Planning Schedule. Color Option 2.
Day 5. Creating Unit Study Objectives. 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study
Free Curriculum Cklist Thru 12th Gr
InLinkz.com

I hope you like this newest color choice.  I won’t make you wait long until I share some other color choices, I promise.

Hugs and love ya

2012Tinasignature French Revolution Lapbook–Finalized!
Linking up @ these fabulous places

Hip Homeschool Moms | Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop | 3 Boys and a Dog |

1 CommentFiled Under: 2. My FREE Organizing Printables {Any topic}, Curriculum Planner Tagged With: curriculum planner

Homeschool Field Trips Free Field Trip Planning Page

April 3, 2014 | 2 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

We have t-shirts that we used for our homeschool field trips that read “Home – An Important Piece of the Educational Puzzle” because part of learning at home is not learning at home. 

I know that sounds weird, but if you have taken any field trips at all, which I know you have, you know what I mean by it.

One year, we even had a cake made about our theme as we celebrated our time away from home.

Though I love to talk anytime about how our lack of socialization is a bunch of baloney, I am really focusing today on sharing how to plan a homeschool field trip and survive to enjoy it too.

Homeschool Field Trips An Important Piece of the Educational Puzzle

Some of my tips may save you sanity whether you are planning for a larger or smaller group.

Homeschool Field Trip Hurdles

There are some things you want to think about when planning field trips that will make them successful and help you to avoid making some rookie mistakes.

When we first started, our group was small and we had young children pretty close to the same age.  It was easy to plan field trips because any place basically enamored our younger kids.

Our problem came later as the group got bigger and we had a larger mix of ages.

Here are a few tips to think about when planning

  • Be sure you know the age range of your children before planning each trip.

If you do not separate your group by ages like we did, then you will want to balance how many field trips you have for younger kids and for older kids.  It simply is not fair to the group as a whole to do preschool things each month or to do something that only highschoolers can do.  It requires a bit of finesse and a little more work on the part of the planner to stay balanced.

More Homeschool Field Trip Resources

  • Free Editable Field Trip Tracking Guide for Homeschool Field Trips
  • 7 Benefits of Virtual Field Trips that May Change Your Perspective
  • Homeschool Field Trip Journal Pages
  • 22 Awesome Homeschool History Field Trips

The moms in our groups chose to not separate our group because we had kids in both older and younger groups.

We wanted our kids to stay together so I balanced the places we go to each year, which included some for older and some for younger.

  • Determine the total number of people, not just students.

Another obstacle to look out for is asking your group for only the total number of children.  A lot of places assume you are bringing just students and you generally are not.

On our field trips, not only did we have moms, but sometimes dads came too and maybe even grandparents attended. 

The field trip place needs to be aware of the total number of bodies they are going to crowd into a room. 

Communication is vital and it is up to you to educate facilities on how we do field trips, which means that a whole family can come.

  • Set up a easy way for groups to communicate the number going and how to pay, otherwise you are receiving text and emails that you don’t have time to answer.

Sure, if your group is about 10, it’s not problem, but a small group didn’t last long for us and we needed real life workable solutions.

We normally set up a RSVP poll on our field trip group and we also have a date deadline for those to sign up. 

It is important in managing a group that you have deadlines because otherwise persons are always late and it puts more stress and hard work on the ones who are stepping up to lead.

Few Rules on Field Trips

Leaders do not generally get paid when planning homeschool field trips and so I find that by respecting deadlines, it keeps the work load light for those sweet volunteers.

  • Balance paid versus free field trips.

Another point of controversy in a group can be that only paid field trips are planned.  If a family has one or two kids, it may not be a problem.  If you have more kids, then it can get costly.  Lovingly, we tried to balance the field trips each month by making one a paid field trip one month and the next month, host a free one.

field trip planning guide

Because I was asking the same questions over and over again each month, I prepared a Field Trip Planning page so that I could use it as I planned each field trip.

Using it as checklist will help you to avoid making some of the same mistakes we did, like too large of a group, having some members who paid for the event and others who did not and deciding ahead of time whether to eat lunch out or go to the park.

How do you go about finding places in your area and connecting with other homeschooler?  I will share some of my tips in the second part of planning homeschool field trips.

Have you already hit some of these hurdles when planning field trips?

Want to read more about how we are educated and yes, socialized?

  • Socialization – A Homeschool Hallucination?
  • 5 Ideas to Kick-Start Your New Homeschool Year By Including Others

How to Grab the Free Planning Your Field Trips Form

This is a subscriber freebie.

That means when you sign up to follow me, you get access to my subscribers library and this freebie.

However, not all my freebies are in the library (wink).

I like to keep up to date with what is valuable to you so I can give you more.

So, some freebies you must sign up again on the form below even if you are already a follower.

Sign up again like you’re resubscribing, but you’re not. You get the freebie instantly when you’re a confirmed follower.

It’s the only way I have of freely delivering them to you. Just follow the steps below if you’re not a follower.

► 1) Sign up on my list.
► 2) Go to your inbox and confirm your email from the automatic reply I sent you. 
 ►3) Last step. look for my reply AFTER you’ve confirmed your email.

2 CommentsFiled Under: Plan, Attend, and Explore Ideas for a Field Trip Tagged With: homeschoolfieldtrip

Finishing Strong – Homeschool Link Up Party {Homeschooling Middle & High School Years} #5. 04/02/2014

April 2, 2014 | Leave a Comment
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Are you ready for another week of encouraging posts for middle school and high school?  Before we start the party, I want to remind you that I have a wonderful giveaway going on right now for Ultimate Typing.  Be sure to scoot by the blog post to comment for a chance to win.

The Value of Learning How to Type in Education & Psssst! A Little Something For You – A Giveaway

 

Finishing Strong Link Up Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Finishing Strong Homeschool Link-up!

Spring is here!  For many families that means getting outdoors to explore nature, starting new homeschool projects, and  planning for a new school year.  We would love to hear about your adventures!

Please stop back every week to share your creative and inspirational posts about homeschooling older kids.

Do you want to connect with other parents homeschooling older kids? Join our Finishing Strong Community on Google+!

Here are a few of our co-host’s favorite posts from last week:

Amy from Milk and Cookies liked Celebrate Spring with Hodgepodge Art! from Heather Woodie

We are NOT an artsy family. Painting, drawing, sculpting…it is a challenge for us. Heather, Tricia, and Nana make chalking look SO easy. This post has convinced me to give art another try! Pass the chalk pastels, please. 

Celebrate Spring with Hodgepodge Art!

Amy was also a fan of: The Benefits of Making Mistakes: Lessons from Toll House Cookies from Megan Zechman.

My blog name tells you that I am definitely a fan of cookies, so I immediately clicked over to see how Megan was going to creatively incorporate yummy cookies into her homeschool. Not only did I discover a new book about inventors, I learned the difference between baking with 3 different styles of chocolate.

The Benefits of Making Mistakes: Lessons from Toll House Cookies

Kyle from Aspired Living enjoyed Life of Fred Homeschool Math by Heather Woodie

Have you heard of Life of Fred? LOF is an innovate and unusual Math program written by a college professor that teaches math to children while the follow the Life of Fred. She uses as her main math program and I use it to as a supplement to our math program. This post provides a very detailed explanation of LOF a unique and fun math program.

Life of Fred {Homeschool Math}

Kyle was also excited to see: Year Around Homeschool  Planning Schedule by Tina

Maybe it’s just my personality but unless I plan it out it just isn’t happening. When I first began homeschooling I took a class from Tina IRL and ever since I’ve used her planner pages in my homemade planners. As we begin to school multiple levels from High School to preschool I’ve found planning is even more important and then ever!

Year-Round-Homeschoool-Schedule2-Collage-2014-to-20151

Kyle also wanted to let everyone know how much she really likes the blog AngelicScalliwags!

This is one creative homeschool Mama as you will see. This woman used Playmobil to explain Dante’s Inferno to her students. This is off subject but in her post she has the biggest basket I have ever seen it almost engulfs her teenager.Back on topic….she created a Playmobil Diorama that does a better job explaining the rings of the inferno then my professor did at Berkeley!  At the end she says “I’m not sure how we did it, and I’m certain I never want to do such a complex project again, but we did finish it and in the assigned week.  Phew.  Never again though.” What I want to know is how she thought of this in the first place?! If you are looking for creative homeschooling go no further stop and visit Angelic Scalliwags!

Making a Diorama of Dante’s Inferno

Don’t forget to visit all of our co-hosts – Aspired Living, Blog She Wrote,Education Possible, Eva Varga, Milk and Cookies, Starts at Eight, and Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus.

 Follow Me Linky Party Finishing Strong

Blog Button Link Up Pinterest Button  Link Up Google Plus Link Up

Twitter Link Up You Tube Link Up

Follow Group Boards Linky Party Finishing Strong

Pinterest Button Link Up-1 Google Plus Group Link Up

Easy Details to Remember & Even Easier Guidelines.

    • The link up party goes live at 5:00 a.m. CST each Wednesday and stays open until the following Tuesday at 11:55 p.m.
    • Each week we will pick our favorite links as features and share them.
    • You can link up to 3 posts. Please do not link up advertising posts, or other link ups, or parties. I will remove them. Homeschool related reviews are permitted and of course all topics related to homeschooling middle to high school students.
    • Grab a button to add to your post after you link up and if you were featured, grab an “I was featured” button.
    • By linking up with us, you agree for us to share your images and give you credit of course.
    • That’s it! Glad to have you here and let’s party!

 

Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus
Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

An InLinkz Link-up

Leave a CommentFiled Under: Homeschool Link Up Party Tagged With: homeschoollinkup

The Value of Learning How to Type in Education & Psssst! A Little Something For You – A Giveaway

March 31, 2014 | 67 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

This Giveaway is now closed! Thanks for stopping by! Guess what? I plan on doing another giveaway for this wonderful typing program in the summer right before back to school.  Be sure you are following me to know about it. The winners are listed at the bottom of this post after I draw them.

Learning how to type was something I valued learning in high school.  Dare I mention that the typewriter I learned to type on was even older than an IBM Selectric typewriter, which is dinosaur old by today’s fast changing standards.  It had one of those moving carriages and weird me loved looking up at the end of a sentence as I pushed the carriage return back to the left.

Though moving carriages and the more advanced sphere like ball, which replaced moving carriages are both things of the past, the skill of touch typing is alive and thriving.

How Did You Learn To Type?

Because typing is a necessity in this fast changing world of technology and a life long skill that I know my kids will use, I have been searching for a typing program that fits my standard.  It has not been easy.  So I was thrilled to receive Ultimate Typing and to use it with both of my sons these past few months.

(I received Ultimate Typing free in exchange for my honest opinion.  All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my kids.  And for sure I will tell you what is on my mind. Click here if you want a full disclosure.)

touch typing in education-1

Oh sure there are some free programs and other typing programs I used when the kids were little that taught them some light typing.  But now that they are older, I have been looking for a solid program that goes beyond just fun.

Look at my list of what I think a well-rounded learn how to type program should include:

  • Tutorials should be state of the art.  With the technology we have today, my interactive learners like video teaching and the videos should be high quality and engaging.  Boring lessons on a blank page do not do it for us.  I mean this is typing right? So I need it a bit more lively;
  • My older kids should be able to do it independently;
  • Don’t penalize me because I have a large family or want to use it with multiple children.  Even if I had one child, I may want to use the program for myself or brush up on my skills without worrying that I am breaking copyright laws.  Complicated pricing for multiple users is a big turnoff for me;
  • It should have incremental teaching tips;
  • It needs to educate my boys on ergonomics because when sitting for a long time, it is important to take care of their hands, wrists and back.  I had a test in high school on the importance of posture and its affect on the body.  Of course this was because I was a serious typist typing 130 words a minute in my prime, but its important that my boys know how to correct back or hand problems if they have them;
  • Because my boys are not preschoolers or kindergarteners, I want a tracking system that I can use for each child to chart their progress, which is not babyish;
  • I want it meaty enough so that I can count it as a high school credit elective for Mr. Awesome;
  • I want it to have easy to read text with bright and clear pictures; and
  • And for both age groups, I want lots of games and ways to make it fun.

I got all of this and so much more as we used Ultimate Typing over the past few months.  At first I was hesitant about accepting the curriculum for review because of the lack of well, glamour, in previous programs I have used.  Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t just want something that is state of the art with high quality graphics that is pretty to look at, but it had to teach typing in a way that is not boring.

After I unwrapped Ultimate Typing, I instantly saw the superior quality.  There is just no comparison to other programs I have used over the years and that includes comparing what you get for the price too.

learn how to type ultimate typing 1 learn how to type ultimate typing 2
learn how to type ultimate typing 3 learn how to type ultimate typing 4

Ultimate Typing has a variety of games and exercises for every age learner, which is one fact that I really love.  Also though, a high quality video precedes the lesson to explain what to do and what you will cover.  Watch the high quality tutorial and begin your lesson.  The boys don’t need me standing there.

The boys hunted and pecked with free programs when they were young, but wanting to seriously learn how to type so that it is a life-long skill requires a program where you actually learn how to type.  I am glad we have used free things over the years as it strengthened their finger skills.  But teaching my last two boys how to type shouldn’t take as long as it did with Mr. Senior 2013 because of not having an actual typing program instead of just playing games.

Bored and Board

There is no substitute for old fashion drill, repetition and practice when learning how to type.  So I certainly don’t envy the company that can make tutoring that skill a lively one and Ultimate Typing has done just that.

learning how to typeThere is even practices for dictation and the first one was A Tale of Two Cities. learning how to type
Love the fact that even though my sons have not got there yet, the advanced lesson topics include vowels and diphthongs, common phrases and prefixes and suffixes to name a few.
learning how to type when there is a mistake learning how to type

Educators know that the value of typing is the ability to be able to articulate and convey ideas without being hampered by fine motor skills.

Though I feel that cursive handwriting will always be the hallmark of a well-educated child, learning how to type is essential today.  Communicating ideas through typing allows any level of writer to focus on his overflowing ideas instead of formation of letters.

Whatever the complexities about keyboards too, most young children start learning quickly on them and their passion to express their ideas needs to be nurtured.

learn how to type ultimate typing 8

Ultimate Typing touts several honors and recognition and rightly so.  I too am proud to partner with Ultimate Typing because I want to use a first-rate typing software in my homeschool.

There is so much more to Ultimate Typing that you will want to visit Ultimate Typing’s site to take it all in.

One more unique feature though I have to tell you about and that is after completing this program a certificate is issued to you stating that you have successfully completed this comprehensive course.   Knowing that Mr. Awesome will have this skill to add to his high school diploma just makes his future opportunities for employment a bit more aggressive.

learn how to type typing certificate

Who knows maybe the Mr. who refuses to give up his hunt and peck style will give Ultimate Typing a try also.

If I had to change one thing about it, I would change the name of a few of the games.  Some of the games like beat the monster says to type in the magic spells and another one is titled ghosts.  Again, a program of this caliber and high quality doesn’t need to use those title names.  Titles like solve using your detective skills or mystery type games would be just as appealing to learners.  Though there are plenty of other games to choose from, I did want you to know that.

Overall, I am delighted to partner with Ultimate Typing and to tell you about them because they have been committed to not only make learning to type educational, but to make it entertaining.

Ultimate Typing is a program that your family grows into and never outgrows.

Guess what? The folks at Ultimate Typing love giveaways and love educators too. So I will be giving away 2 programs.

Product Facts a Glance  Learn How To Type in Your Homeschool

Product Name: Ultimate Typing

Prices:  Windows version: $29.95

Mac: $29.95

License: Unlimited User Accounts. {I love this because we can ALL use it.}

Type of Product:  Instant download.

Customer Service: I received my download on time and it installed safely and quickly.  Also, when I had questions, I received timely answers.

Ages: 7 to Adult. Love this fact that you never outgrow this program either!

Social Media Links:

Facebook

Twitter @ultimatetyping

Google +

All prices are good at the time of this blog post.

A Giveaway! Yipppeeeeeee

>>>>>>> RULES. Let’s keep it easy. <<<<<<<

  •  The Giveaway for 2 Ultimate Typing programs starts today and ends Saturday April 5, 2014 @ 2:00 p.m. CST.  Winners will be chosen by Random dot org and I will notify the winners by email and post here on the blog.
  • Let me give you every chance to win and allow up to 2 entries on this baby.  Comment here on this blog post for all entries.  So one entry per comment here on the blog.

The first comment is your choice.

The second comment should be posted on one of the social sharing sites for Ultimate Typing (and then post the link here on my blog as your second comment).  Here are the social sharing sites again for Ultimate Typing.

Facebook

Twitter @ultimatetyping

Google +

Your comments/entries should look something like this.

1st comment. “I can’t live or school without this or I hope you are having a great day or I don’t like my kids.” (okay okay). Your choice!

2nd comment. “I commented or shared on (insert Google, Facebook or Twitter) and here is the link : (insert link)”

  • Lastly, because I can’t have once in a lifetime email readers, the winner has 24 hours to claim his/her prize or I will pick another winner.

Hope You Win & Let’s Get this Party Started!!  Come here to this blog post: The Value of Learning How to Type in Education & Psssst! A Little Something For You Too – A Giveaway, and I have even linked it for you.

Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature Homeschool Organization – Forget Once a Month Cooking When Meal Planning

Congratulations to the 2 Winners! Comment Numbers 23 & 5

Danielle & Tanecia

Winner 2 Ultimate Typing Winner 1 Ultimate Typing

Danielle Hull
Mar 31, 2014 @ 13:37:54 

Thanks so much for the thorough review! We have been using a free program, but my oldest has completed it and is ready for something more!

Tanecia
Mar 31, 2014 @ 11:53:04 

This looks like a fun program!

67 CommentsFiled Under: Giveaways, Product Review, Type Tagged With: learnhowtype

Homeschool Organization – Forget Once a Month Cooking When Meal Planning

March 28, 2014 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Though I love to cook, I have been slow about sharing my tips about organizing meals only because I would rather organize my kitchen than cook in it.

But this month, my habit of freezing meals regularly paid off because my mom has been in and out of the hospital twice this month.

Besides the trips back and forth to the hospital, and feeding my family, my mom and dad also needed meals.

Simple Meal Planning – Forget Once A Month Cooking

Look at a few easy tips for meal planning that don’t take as much time as once a month cooking and is a great back up system when life is unplanned.

Homeschool Organization - Forget Once A Month Cooking

{I have spaghetti, stew, soup and breakfast frozen back.}

  •  Focus on freezing regularly while you cook.  Though I have done once a month meal cooking a lot more when the kids were young, the truth of it is it takes times.  Though the rewards are huge and I did save on my budget, sometimes I just didn’t have the time to devote to the planning, prepping and preparing.

Through the years, I have found that freezing a meal or two back when cooking regularly proves to be a huge help when you’re sick, when your parents are sick or just when you have the blahs and don’t want to cook or go through the drive-thru either.

  •  Prepare simple meals, include breakfasts.  One of my main go to breakfasts since breakfast is a real important meal to me is what I call a McDonald-like McMuffin, but only healthier because it’s home-made.

I scramble the eggs with whatever I want in them, usually onions and set it aside.  Then I toast the muffins.  After everything is cooled off, I build my muffin with scrambled eggs, add some cheese and cooked Canadian bacon and freeze it.  I use the bag the muffin came in to freeze them.

I make them over the weekend and usually have them in the freezer.  It takes about 2-3 minutes to warm it up (yep completely frozen) in the microwave and so there is no fuss in the morning for breakfast.

You can even bake your eggs ahead of time if you don’t want scrambled eggs.  Look at this recipe;

Homemade Egg McMuffins at the Baker Chick.

You can see one of my freezer packages in the picture above that I took to my parents.

  • Focus on crowd pleasers.  Because my teen boys are big eaters, I find that focusing on casseroles, lasagnas and spaghetti combinations can accommodate even picky eaters.  But too, having one or two meals like that in your freezer can feed another large family and is a crowd pleaser when you need it for an emergency meal.

Though I decided to cook chicken pot pie for my parents too, which is one of their favorite recipes of mine and I cooked more meals for a week, knowing that I had meals in my freezer to jump start my cooking process allowed me to serve my parents when they needed it.

Homeschool Organization & Hospitable

I have been loving reading about Freeze it Forward on Once a Month meals because everybody needs help at some time or the other and it just feels good when you can help out.

An organized homeschooler always has time to be hospitable and you don’t have to do over the top meal planning that might be more stressful than helpful.

Check out some more tips!

Menu Planning – A Lifesaver!

Homeschool Organization : Are you Collecting Cookbooks OR Recipes?

Day 10 1/2: Grocery Shopping, Cooking & Laundry. Oh My! + Free Printables {31 Day Boot Camp For New Homeschoolers on My Blog}

Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature Day 8. Creating a Unit Study Lesson Plan. 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together.

4 CommentsFiled Under: Home, Meal Plan, Organization Tagged With: mealplanning

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