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My Free 7 Step Homeschool Planner Update

December 9, 2013 | 6 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Before the year ends I want to be sure you are up to date with all my new homeschool planner forms.

So I grabbed the ones I have created over the last few months and put them here in one blog post for you.

To get ready for the new year, I also spent part of my weekend putting them on my blog pages since they were just on my blog posts. This makes it easier for us now when we need to make a new one.

Look at the list below to see if you got all the recent forms.

1.) Two Page per month spread physical calendars for 2014. There are two colors and font choices.

This set is called New Beginnings (ha couldn’t resist the name). Download it here.

This set is called Light as Air and download it here.

2.) A form for Planning & Tracking Memorization Work.

To see the blog post how to use it, go here to Homeschool Memorization Planning & Tracking Form

Download Memorization Planning & Tracking Form

3.) To master subject overload when planning, I made this form for us. You can read about how to use it at this blog post here:

5 Days Of The Benefits & Challenges of Teaching Mixed Ages Together – Day 4: Embrace Homeschooling Multiple Grades

Download Homeschooling Multiple Children Secret Planning Sheet.

4.) I prepared an editable High School Transcript and explained it about here in this blog post:

Dynamic Reader Question: How To Prepare THE Homeschool High School Transcript

Download below:

High school Homeschool Transcript @ Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus

5.) Then I prepared a year around homeschool planning schedule in case you are following the physical year.

Download here 2014 Physical Year Around Homeschool Planning Schedule.

6.) Free Homeschool Community Service Planning Record. You can read about how to use it in this blog post:

Free Homeschool Community Service Planning Record

Download Tracking Community Service Record Here.

Be sure you have grabbed all of them as we get ready to start the new year.

But that is not all I have been working on. I mentioned that my blog planner is coming soon, but I wanted to let you know that I also updated the plus curriculum covers for 2014 – 2015 in my store.

With the new year, I plan on adding more premium choices for my store. Of course, there will always be lots of free forms to choose from, but if you want something with unique fonts and covers, I have that choice too.

I am not rushing anything, but I look forward to the new year too as it has been crazy this year transitioning my personal blog from my website to WordPress.

Hope you love all the forms and ideas are swirling in my head for more as the new year is around the corner.

You know I love ya,

Stop Switching Your Curriculum, Switch Your Course of Study

December 5, 2013 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Spending hours poring over catalogs and websites to find the perfect best curriculum resources for your children only to find out mid-year that some are more time wasters than teaching helps is a huge disappointment.

The truth of it is that I could have saved myself hundreds of dollars through the years if I had stopped switching curriculum and switched my course of study, my approach or even my mind-set.

Are You Doing these Mistakes on Planning A Course of Study?

Now, I spend more time focusing on objectives and a course of study for my children. Finding a curriculum or tool that matches my goals is secondary to the plans I have laid out.

Course of study by definition is not overly intimidating to understand either. An easy definition is “the route or direction for a path”, “the way something progresses” and a “series of lessons in a particular subject.”

Who decides that? In public school the system is different for each school, but they all have one common thread and that is the almighty textbook. This is not a blog post about dissing the textbooks, but it is about deciding who determines what is best for your family.

I have learned that using a preset curriculum and doing every assignment in the textbook is still not a guarantee that your children will learn and remember it. Not once have my sons said oh yes I remember that textbook or worksheet, but they have remembered moments or projects that I created following their desire to learn.

Fear of thinking that we have to plan all our lesson plans or not knowing what to cover next may keep us magnetically drawn to textbooks. It did for me for several years. It wasn’t until my 5th year of homeschooling that I did the big switch over to thinking more about my course of study and less on curriculum.

In reality any curriculum is just a tool and that includes textbooks. Instead of switching curriculum, I have learned that adding better resources to my home library is the key to building my own course of study for my children.

4 Shortcuts to Curriculum Planning

Look at some of these things I have done over the years as I switched from changing curriculum constantly to planning my course of study.

1.) Limit my number of workbooks each year. Everybody is different on which subjects they decide to use workbooks for. I don’t want to print out math worksheets all the time, so a consumable math workbook is just fine for us.

Too, this year I’ve been using the books by Sharon Watson for teaching high school writing, The Power In Your Hands and I love them so much that Tiny is using the lower grade writing program too. But, they are both consumable. That is the extent of my consumables for this year. Here is the link to my review Review of The Power in Your Hands: Writing Nonfiction in High School

2.). Choose Topical Helps. What I spend the most on each year are topical helps whether they are printed books, e-books or magazines. Investing in topical books like the Eyewitness Books gives you information to choose from through the years and it is an investment where you add to your collection and not get rid of them.

3.) Choose Reference Helps. The longer I homeschool, the more I also prefer reference books. Whether it is ideas on what to teach next or understanding curriculum, I’ve used these books below when I have needed them. They serve as a reference source through several years and it makes switching curriculum choices minimal when I use them.

4. Use Textbooks as Reference only. If you have budgeted your curriculum for the year, sometimes you don’t have the luxury of changing. But, you can change how you use it. When I made the switch to choosing more reference helps, I went through all my older text books and I tore out pages that I wanted to keep.

It was pretty liberating to tear the binding off and rip out sheets that I felt were worth keeping and pitch the rest of it in the trash.

I pick textbooks more carefully now.

Early this year, I purchased a textbook about teaching geography to use a reference. Too, I am not sure what type of library access I will have when we move to South America. Even if I have access to a library, sometimes I prefer to build our home library and so I may use textbooks for topical references.

Textbooks are good for putting a lot of different ideas into one small space. Those ideas serve as launching pads for our unit studies.

As homeschool teachers our job should be to think of what topics or concepts we are teaching and to view any type of curriculum as supplements to that study, not the other way around.

Time is in short supply when you are homeschooling, use it planning what YOU want to study by using topical references and helps and not switching curriculum all the time.

You won’t regret any of the purchases you make cost wise because you get several years worth of use out of each book.

Also, look at some of the links below to help you gauge some topics to study each year.

World Book’s Typical Course of Study

Scholastic has a site on what to know for each age.

Scholastic

Ambleside Online I have used several times to find good reading books for my sons. Too, it provides an outline for a rigorous curriculum through all the grade levels.

Ambleside on Line

Are you thinking about adding any new reference books soon to help you plan instead of switching curriculum?

Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature Cyber Monday for YOU. Begins at midnight. 1 Day Only!

Free 2014 Year Around Homeschool Planning Schedule

November 30, 2013 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

I have been enjoying my week visiting with some friends from out of town that are traveling ministers. But, knowing that we want to move sooner than later to South America, there is no rest for me. I probably won’t settle down until we actually land in South America.

It has not been easy keeping that secret until all of our friends know because my house looks like one big giant flea market right now.

I don’t know exactly when we will move because I can only move so fast with the Mr.

What I do know is that for sure I will keep you posted as we get closer to the date. I know it’s probably a bad time of the year to be packing/moving, but focusing on how good the move will be for the Mr.’s health, I am excited at the same time.

Free 2014 Year Around Homeschool Planning Schedule

Talking about keeping you posted, I do want to give you the heads up on a deal with Family Time Fitness because their Black Friday Sale ends today. Yikes, I wanted to give this to you earlier, but with all the company and packing, I’m just now getting this to you.Today, I have the year around homeschool schedule for 2014. Many of you homeschool in other countries that start their school year with the beginning of the physical year, you may pulling your kids out of school just now or you want a new look for your planner, so I went ahead and put together a 2014 year around homeschooling schedule.

Download here 2014 Physical Year Around Homeschool Planning Schedule.

Remember, I updated this form earlier this year and added the comprehensive key at the bottom. If you don’t remember how to utilize that area, go here to Step 5: Choose Unique Forms because I explain how to use it on that page.

I am going to try to school as best we can with packing too. Sounds like an adventure to me. Do you think I can do it? I hope to stay sane when we arrive in South America so for sure I will go slow.

Now you know why I spent so long on our South America Unit Study. I will share our next unit study soon.

Hugs and love ya,

Did you miss one of my printables?

Homeschool Co-op Schedule Free Form @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus featured — Homeschool Co-op Schedule Free Form

Scope and Sequence Divider Page feature — Scope and Sequence Divider Page

Grab these Splash and Sassy and Classy covers to begin building your UNIQUE 7 Step Homeschool Planner 300x — Splash and Sassy and Classy Planner Covers

Homeschool Quarter Planning Form - Build Your UNIQUE 7 Step Planner 300x @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus — Homeschool Quarter Planning Form

grab-this-beautiful-page-for-the-inside-of-your-free-7-step-homeschool-planner-the-color-choice-is-miss-you-300x — Miss Ya Homeschool Planner Inside Title Page

free-rolling-to-do-list-for-your-homeschool-or-blog-planner300x — Free Rolling To-Do List for Your Planner

undated-monthly-diy-calendars-300x — Undated Monthly DIY Calendars

4 PRE-Homeschool Year Planning Pages 350xx — 4 PRE-Homeschool Year Planning Pages

How to Grow Pinterest From a Few Hundred Loyal Followers to Thousands

November 25, 2013 | 4 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Growing my Pinterest account from a few hundred followers to 22K followers, I didn’t have it all figured out in the beginning and I continue to learn as my followers grow.

Because there are so many subjects to cover from pin worthy images to algorithms about Pinterest, I hope to share something here that will help you grow your loyal Pinterest followers from hundreds to thousands too.

Before I share those tips, indulge me a second because I want you to know how excited I am to have a book coming out soon where I am a contributing author on some advanced Pinterest strategies. I will keep you updated on the release date.

Tips to Grow a LOYAL Pinterest Audience

1.) Understand Your Audience. Did you know that the Pinterest market is predominantly women? Not just any women, but savvy, seasoned women. Sure they are woman from all different backgrounds. They are mothers with very young children, mothers still raising older children, single working women and grandmothers. What does this mean?

It means that a lot of them make the buying decisions in their homes and they know when they are being sold to. Sure they will buy your products, but not when you pin ONLY your products. That is a huge deal breaker and they may never return to your page again.

The biggest no-no for a small or large company after signing up on Pinterest is to start pinning only their products. Understand this: we know you already have a website or blog for that. We can go there and look at all of your products.

This doesn’t mean you can’t pin your products, but give them a reason to buy them or love them. Show them how your products or services are used by other women just like them. Give them worthy content from other people that fits your niche. Grow loyal followers by giving them content, not just products.

I homeschool so I don’t pin just my know how articles, but I pin articles by other homeschool bloggers who have experience with the topic I am sharing. Give them a reason to love you and be loyal and they will.

2.) Pinterest Personality Please. Whether you are a great big company with lots of assistants, managers and professionals or you are a sole blogger like me, and the only assistant is just me, add some personality to your page. Is your page personable? Look at these things.

Have a personal picture in your profile. People relate to people, not products or logos. Then they will look at your product when they establish a personal connection. A lot of companies and bloggers like using their logo. Save that for your website and add a personal picture.
Choose board covers carefully by choosing ones in your niche and refresh them from time to time.
Use all the space to tell about yourself and try to include a tag line. “Selling products for x” is not inspirational, but sharing products your family will love on (insert your niche) is personable.

3.) Verify what? When you take time to verify your site, fill in twitter or facebook or both, you give a followers a place to go. More importantly, your pins and boards can now be searched on Pinterest.

I know I always like to look at the location of where a company or blogger are from. Even if you do not want to publicly broadcast where you are from, something more personable to put there as an example is “Southern United States” or just “United States” than nothing at all. Try to add a personal touch wherever you can.

4.) Pin, pin for your life. In the beginning, you have to pin a lot more than you do later and when you have more followers.

It is not easy to find the balance when you are new between pinning too much and not being found in your followers’ stream. It’s true that followers do not want their stream flooded by your pins, but in the beginning some of that is going to happen. Just try to not flood your stream on a daily basis. In the beginning, choose a time when you notice a lot of your niche specific followers are pinning and do what I call a “pin run”. Pin a lot, then back off.

Followers wants varied content too. For example, one thing that screams run the other way is when a follower sees the recipe of a crockpot meal or any pin for that matter, pinned across all 100 boards you have at the same time. Okay, slight exaggeration here but the point is to pin that same pin to just a few boards at one time.

My rule of thumb is that I do not pin to more than 3 boards at the same time for that one pin. If those pins need to go on other boards, pin them a week or so later so your stream stays fresh, inspirational and updated.

5.) Just do it. Another problem with new pinners in the beginning is to not pin on a consistent basis. You can’t pin one day and come back even two or three days later, much less weeks and expect your following to grow. Set aside a time to pin regularly. When I first started, I only had a little bit of time in the evening to pin, but I pinned each day. Just 4 or 5 pins is better than nothing for weeks at a time.

Slow Mo Equals Go Go

Consistently pin each day and you will grow, but you will grow with the kind of following we all want and that is loyal. I value my Pinterest followers and the power of Pinterest has changed the reach of my blog.

Love your followers by following a few basic steps, and they will loyally follow.

If you are a blogger and want to grow your blog as a business, then check out iBlog Pro for more of my Pinterest tips and other must read chapters and tips.

Hugs and love ya,

50 Keep Me Homeschooling Activities During the Long Cold Winter Days

November 23, 2013 | 6 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I have 50 winter activities for homeschooling. Grab more ideas on my page winter season unit study.

Hoping to have a few activities to pull of out my bag when the kids are bored and the days are long and cold, I rounded up some activities to keep us learning.