Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

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Curriculum Planner

Gorgeous 7 Step Free Homeschool Planner You Build

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Build your gorgeous 7 step free homeschool planner for your homeschool planner. With 7 easy steps you’ll not only be organized, but have a unique hard working tool.

When you create a planner for your homeschool, you’re making it unique to your needs. Planners which are prepared for classroom use are not set up to use for a family.

Plus, when you purchase one giant put together planner, you’re not hand picking the forms you need this year.

For example, your needs change each year. You may have elementary aged students and high school students.

Your needs are different for each student.

So, having an unnecessary form in your planner hinders your organizational efforts. Worst are forms which have tons of useless blanks with no guidance.

My homeschool planner it built by you with my guidance.

Gorgeous 7 Step Free Homeschool Planner You Build Yourself

I’ve been creating and sharing how I put together my planner for 10 years. I can help get you on the road to organization. With my 7 Step DIY Homeschool Planner, I have OVER 600 free pages for you to go through.

However, I do not make it stressful for you. Instead, I guide you STEP BY STEP for each step. You decide what you need and don’t need this year.

After you set up your planner a few times, you can go through this process quickly.

7 Step DIY Free Homeschool Planner

First, look at the 7 steps. Then, I’ll share how to best to grab the homeschool forms you need at each step.

 Step 1. Choose a Pretty Front/Back Cover

Step. 2. Choose Calendars/Appointment Keepers

Step 3. Choose Goals/Objectives

Step 4. Choose Lesson Planning Pages Right For You!

Step 5a. Choose Unique forms JUST for You! 

Step 5b. Choose MORE Unique Forms JUST for You!

Step 5c. Choose MORE MORE Unique Forms Just for You!

Step 6. Personalize It

Step 7. Bind it! Love it!

Next, I have over 30+ free front or back covers. The beauty of choosing the forms is that each year you create what you like.

I don’t encourage matchy-matchy pages. There is nothing striking about a planner where ALL the pages match. Nothing.

Our homeschool journey is a wild one and your finished project should reflect YOUR personality.

Another important section is the calendar section. I create 3 different types of calendars each year. Look at each type of calendar.

  1. One is a colorful reference calendar to place throughout your planner in several places
  2. The second calendar I prepare is a Scheduling or Planning calendar. Read my post How a Homeschool Planning Calendar is Superior to a Regular Calendar to use it.
  3. And the third one is a beautiful 2 page per month calendar which has ample room for writing your appointments.

Custom Homeschool Planner

The next step is 3 and you’ll want a variety of goal setting pages in your homeschool planner. Goals are the very foundation of your homeschool.

Whether you have general goals or specific goals, you’ll find a form on Step 3. Choose Goals/Objectives.

Also, when you can get to Step 4. Choose Lesson Planning Pages Right For You take your time. The lesson planning pages or templates are the largest part of your planner.

Be sure you’re printing both sides of your paper. I use regular all purpose bright white paper.

Do not print using cardstock. There is no way you can bind it because it will be too thick and big.

And I do not use any special printer. I’ve been using my favorite which is a mobile printer for years.

In addition, another section where you’ll spend most of your time is Step 5. You’ll notice I have 3 pages for Step 5.

There are numerous unique forms like attendance, student schedules, reading logs, field trips trackers, high school planning, and readiness checklist to name a very few of the forms.

DIY Homeschool Planner

Lastly, for Steps 6 and 7, I go over the best ways to add extra storage to your planner and how to bind it.

However, there are others solid reasons to build a diy homeschool planner.

  1. It is an undated planner. Dated planners can make you feel behind when you need to skip a day to take care of life. Using an undated planner you simply pick up where you left off and adjust to life. Make the school schedule fit your life.
  2. Another huge advantage is that it can be used for multiple ages. Instead of planners which contain numerous columns, it suits family with multiple kids.
  3. And I mentioned it before, but I’m mentioning it again. It is to be printed on both sides. Do not waste paper.
  4. Finally, one of the most important is to coil bind it. I do not encourage notebooks because the rings get in the way of writing. Too, something else I’ve learned along the way. Some homeschoolers want perfection in their planner.

An unorganized person is one who constantly wants to keep adding to a system instead of utilizing one that is close to what she needs.

Organization is about sticking to a system not constantly adding more work for yourself.

Look at these other homeschool planner products that I know you’ll love!

Gorgeous 7 Step Free Homeschool Planner You Build Yourself

4 PRE-Homeschool Year Planning Pages (and tips to use them)

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Today, I’m share some of my favorite homeschool planning pages for my homeschool planner.

When creating my unique 7 Step Homeschool Planner, I never dreamed that it would be the best tool I’ve used through the years. I’m sharing tips about what I do BEFORE I begin my year and 4 pre-homeschool year planning pages you may have missed.

Tip ONE/ Planning doesn’t begin when your school year begins.
It begins 8 to 6 weeks BEFORE your school year. (Use the PRE-Homeschool Year Checklist.)

It seems like stating the obvious when I say that planning doesn’t begin when your school begins. Knowing that I’ve still found myself short on time for planning our schedule.

You need just as much time to decide which months you’ll school and which months or weeks you’ll take off as you do time to make curriculum choices.

When it’s your first day of school, you want to be ready and rested to teach without having to focus on planning.

One tidbit we can learn from public school is to do like a public school teacher does. She comes back to school a few weeks earlier than the kids.

This allows her quiet time to plan and to set up things in her teacher space. That’s a great tip for us as home educators. Plan while you’re not formally teaching.

Though I make notes all throughout the year on what I want to change, I put pen to paper about 8 to 6 weeks before school on my pre-homeschool year planning page. I find this gives me time to change my mind.

4 PRE-Homeschool Year Planning Pages (and tips to use them)

Curriculum Planner Pages

Here are a few of the things I’ve jotted down on my page.

  • when to throw away or sell old curriculum
  • when to have my mind made up about new curriculum purchases
  • when to check out co-op classes or field trips in my area
  • when to buy supplies to coincide with back to school sales
  • when to choose unit study themes as well as when to finalize my choices
  • if I need to update a study area
  • buy new art, paper supplies or atlases

Just a side note, I also use it and write in it before I bind my planner.

The document I grab to do this is the Pre-Homeschool Planning Checklist.

4 PRE-Homeschool Year Planning Pages (and tips to use them)

Something else I do is to put a clean unused page at the BACK of my current planner.

Then, as I think of what I need to do before the next school year, I jot them down and have it ready to go for the next year.

You’ll love having your thoughts, notes, and ideas of what you need to do weeks leading up to the start of your year. It’s the only way I’ve been able to keep organized too.

Tip TWO/ Plan your year when you’re free of teaching.
(Use the School Year Round Planning Schedule, which I update each year.)

Whether you decide to school year round or have a complete stop in the summer, you need to plan your next school year when you take your longer break.

Too, remember just because you may choose not to homeschool year round doesn’t mean you don’t plan that way. Homeschooling and planning should be two separate tasks that are not necessarily done at the same time.

Sometimes you need to separate the mommy and teacher hat and this is one time when you can. Plus, I enjoy planning and savor it more so when I don’t have to focus on the needs of the kids.

With a clear mind, I can plan our year and not while something may come up during our year.

When originally creating this schedule, I made it for a full 12 months. Begin planning on it where you need to.

I keep it 12 months too because life changes when you’re homeschooling. For example, one year you may actually school year round and other years you may choose not to.

This schedule is flexible for the time you begin planning.

The two documents I grab for this are the 5 years of holiday pages  and the School Year Round Planning Schedule for the current year.

4 PRE-Homeschool Year Planning Pages (and tips to use them)

The holiday reference page helps me to mark them on my schedule.

4 PRE-Homeschool Year Planning Pages (and tips to use them)

I keep the School Year Round Planning Schedule each year on Step 5a.

Actually, I print several copies of this form for many reasons. I use one for a draft and I may scratch up and scratch out a copy until I find a workable homeschool schedule. Then I print out another one and make it all neat, clean, and purd-y for my new planner.

As you can see above, I’ve already started working on this next year’s schedule to determine when I want to start. This year, we’re not taking much time off during summer because we will be moving into a new home at the end of August. I adjusted our schedule and take off time accordingly, but have still kept myself accountable.

Adjust your schedule to your life, but highlight the weeks you want to school. By doing this each year, your keep it real. What I mean by this is that you actually keep yourself accountable to see how much you’re actually learning.

We don’t need any state agency looking over our shoulder as homeschool teachers. Most of the time, we school way longer than a public school year anyway.

Here is another side note, but it matters the type of highlighter you use. I don’t like nasty black smudged prints on my brand new planner.

I have a pen and highlighter addiction which I’ll save for another post, but the one time tested highlighter for me is the Sandford Highlighter Kit – 4 Colors Dry Pencil Non-Bleed.

It’s a dry lead pencil and doesn’t smudge or smear as I highlight. I’ve tried many that claim to be smear or smudge proof by I’ve learned that they are not. The Sandford has been my for-sure-doesn’t-make-a-mess highlighter. It says it’s actually a Bible highlighter. That’s probably why it really works.

Homeschool Planning Means Letting Go!

Tip THREE/ Renew your vision AND release the guilt.

Lastly, it’s not only important to set realistic goals, but to learn from past mistakes.

A mistake we always seem to make is over planning. We tend to think we can do more than what we end up doing. We can be hard on ourselves for that.

Equally important is to learn from past mistakes and to put down what we want to do less of next year as a reminder to not repeat the same mistakes. We need to let go of guilt because we understand that we’re doing more than we realize.

This page I use is about looking at my overall goal for the year. It’s not about planning objectives like my objective planning page. Objectives are measured goals.

4 PRE-Homeschool Year Planning Pages (and tips to use them)

The page I use is my school year goals page. The top of the page is to reinforce what you want more of and the bottom part is what you want do less.

Look at these other homeschool planner products that I know you’ll love!

Getting ready for a new school year can be equally exciting and exhausting. I try to keep it fun by planning when I’m excited about it. Do you?

4 PRE-Homeschool Year Planning Pages (and tips to use them)

I think you’ll love these other tips.

4 PRE-Homeschool Year Planning Pages (and how to use them).You need just as much time to decide which months you’ll school and which months or weeks you’ll take off as you do time to make curriculum choices. When it’s your first day of school, you want to be ready and rested to teach without having to focus on planning. Click here to grab these four AWESOME and free homeschool planning forms!

Hugs and love ya,

Signature T

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6 Ways a Homeschool Daily Planner Beats a Weekly Planner

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Hands-down my preference is a homeschool daily planner when I create my homeschool planner. Although a weekly or even monthly planner have a place, it doesn’t even compare to a daily planner.

In addition, many planners can be overly classroom focused. Some planners make the mistake of having columns for too many students while others seem too minimalist.

Besides flexibility to add forms you like in a daily homeschool planner, it doesn’t need to be complicated.

Today, I’m sharing 6 reasons why I use and create daily planning forms here on my site Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus.

6 Ways a Homeschool Daily Planner Beats a Weekly Planner

First, look at my original l80 daily lesson planning page.

6 Ways a Homeschool Daily Planner Beats a Weekly Planner

As you can see, the top part has room for skill subjects and the bottom part is for content subjects.

The skill subjects are math and language arts. And the content subjects which you can teach your children together are Geography, Science, History, Foreign Language, Bible and Art share

That box at the bottom of the form for content subjects has enough room to write or lesson plan. There is enough room because you do not do content subjects every day.

From this form, came by passion to stick to this kind of planning.

Benefits of a Daily Planner

Look at my 6 other reasons for using such a solid planner.

  1. The best reason is you have ample room for thoughtful legible plans.
  2. When the planner is undated, it can be used for an academic year or to school year-round.
  3. Also, if you prefer to print as you go instead of binding the planner, daily plans can be checklist.
  4. Adding the sections you need for each year matter. For example, you may be in a state which requires attendance. Simply download the attendance record of your choice. If you need high school planning, grab forms for high school planning.
  5. Stress levels can be managed daily. Weekly planning can get out of control, but with a daily planner, you have a pulse on what is going on day to day. I prefer to head things off before they get to a stressful point.
  6. And the last big point for me is that we homeschool to adjust at the moment when our children change. Whether my children need to move ahead or stay a few more days on a subject, I have that luxury with this type of planner.

How to Combine Types of Planners

However, I feel that a section should include glancing at your week.

Although a day to day planner is my preference for my homeschool, there is an advantage to glancing at your week.

Moreover, a glance for the week is a big picture while a daily planner is a smaller one.

Using both in your homeschool can fill both of those needs. My weekly planning form below you can find at Step 5a. Choose Unique Forms JUST for You. I have several color choices.

Even a month at a glance works. Placing those forms either at the beginning of your month or week can give you direction for meeting your goals.

You determine how you choose to plan.

However, planning perfection can be time consuming. It’s best to choose a method and stick to it.

Every now and then I will place weekly glancing pages in my planner, but for the most I prefer a larger daily planner.

If you want a daily planner, you’ll love this one. You can read more too at The Best Colorful Undated Dynamic Daily Homeschool Planner.

What type of planner do you find useful?

6 Ways a Homeschool Daily Planner Beats a Weekly Planner

Look below for more tips:

How to Make Your Own Student Planner Simple and Beautiful

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

There are many benefits in knowing how to make your own student planner. And creating your student’s own homeschool planner gives your student control. Besides, keeping your student organized, it allows children to plan out their day, week, and year.

Too, a student planner has many parts, but not all of them are useful. Creating your own planner allows you to craft it to your child’s unique needs.

In addition, trying to adjust to a planner created for public school students does not equal a homeschooled student’s needs.

Look at some of the parts to include in your child’s homeschool planner:

  • Front cover page.
  • Calendar pages to help them track
  • And lesson planning pages are the biggest part of printing.
  • Finally, all the fun and random pages that make your student’s planner unique.

Free Homeschool Student Planner

How to Make Your Own Student Planner Simple and Beautiful

Besides being a hard-working planner, there are many benefits to training your children to use one.

Getting past the idea that a planner is controlling is just not a mindset kids can have. I hear it all the time – I just want to be spontaneous.

How ever did a planner give the impression that every minute of your life must be planned? Oh sure, I’ve seen some plan like, but that is not how I plan or use a planner.

5 Benefits of Balanced Planning

So, look at 5 benefits.

  1. Teens have a lot they want to do, and a planner can help them to manage their time better
  2. Key to getting a lot stuffed into a day is to prioritize. Do you know how many adults are crippled by not being able to isolate what is and what isn’t important mow? Learn how to prioritize early so it’s less painful to learn as an adult.
  3. Children avoid self-imposed stress. Imagining that your day is busier than it really is way more stressing than actually doing what is on the list. It’s easier to see their schedule laid out in front of them.
  4. Even if you don’t have deadlines for your children’s project, they will eventually have them. Teach your students to have self-imposed deadlines. When children set up their own standards, they normally rise to the occasion. This is a healthy habit for adult hood and self-regulating.
  5. Your student needs to know how to say NO. When he glances at his planner and sees he has a full day planned, he is taking charge of setting limits. This promotes a healthy mental state by not accepting more than he can do.

Also, what I find is that if students can pick and choose not just the planner, but accessories it individualizes their personal planners.

What I’m saying is a student’s planner should be expressive as the student is.

In this way it becomes more than just a scheduling tool, but a way for the student to express what is important to him. Look a few cool things I rounded up below which can make it fun for your children.

Here is a fun Journal Supplies Storage Case because all kids need to journal and doodle. And these paper clips are so cute. It’s the little things that make a planner rock.

Free Printable Homeschool Student Planner

After adding a few fun pages to your child’s planner, look below at how to create your student’s homeschool planner.

Step 1. Choose a Student Planner Cover.

On my DIY Best Student Planner page, I have 12 free planner cover options and I add more as I can.

How to Make Your Own Student Planner Simple and Beautiful

Then, move on to different calendars to help your student.

Remember, I create 3 different types of calendars. Your student may need all 3 just like you. Why? Because each one serves a different purpose.

Step 2. Choose a Type of Calendar.

Depending on the age of your child, you may plan the school year or your child may be old enough to do it. Keep in mind, the first attempts will not come close to what you’re thinking.

However, the purpose of a planner is to train your child to organized habits. That begins here, but it never looks like we think it’s going to look like.

Read at my post How a Homeschool Planning Calendar is Superior to a Regular Calendar if you add a homeschool planning calendar to the planner.

In addition, look at the 3 different types of calendars your child may want to include:

The third part is the largest of any planner and that is the lesson planning pages for your child to note how he wants to lesson plan.

Step 3. Choose a Lesson Planning Template.

And I have 4 free beautiful lesson planning templates at DIY Best Student Planner page which you can choose for your child.

Step 4. Choose Fun Pages.
Like Random Thoughts & Teen Driving Record

Next, is one of the most fun for your student. Selecting random pages like end of year or first of year about me pages are fun. Adding note pages or pictures makes the planner individualized.

Finally, the last step is deciding a way to bind the planner.

Step 5. Bind it.

This last step may not seem important, but it is. I never encouraged my teens to use a notebook because the 3 rings got in the way of comfortable writing.

Encouraging writing in the planner is key, but it needs to be comfortable. Even using disc rings is better and coil binding is my number one preferred way of binding my kids’ planners.

Too, some parents who have a leftie can choose to have it top bound. Flipping from bottom to top is a great idea.

What do you think? Want to start building your child’s planner with my free printables?

How to Make Your Own Student Planner Simple and Beautiful

How a Homeschool Planning Calendar is Superior to a Regular Calendar

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Once you learn the differences between a homeschool planning calendar and regular calendar there is no going back. When creating my Homeschool Planner, my planning calendar is one of the first things I print.

It’s ready way before my year starts or I print my planner.

What exactly is a planning calendar?

How a Homeschool Planning Calendar is Superior to a Regular Calendar

It is a calendar which communicates the dates you and your children will count as official school days; it’s a visual of which dates you plan to have off during the year.

In addition, your family can see your in-teacher dates, (yes I have them) vacation times, and end of the school year date. Noting winter breaks and summer breaks are equally important.

Additionally, if you live in a state where you have record keeping, you notate reporting periods. If you must report to a proctor, you add report card dates.

Planning Your Year Homeschool

As you can see, it’s VERY different than just a regular calendar. A regular calendar is not for planning, it’s just for reference.

By using a schedule you are getting these benefits:

  • freedom because you see a plan for how to fit in learning
  • setting the pace of the year to suit your family
  • planning for rest periods which suit your family
  • keeping family time a priority by planning vacations
  • making time for you the teacher by shading in your workdays
  • seeing a visual of the year keeps your goals realistic and within reach

From this list, you see that making school fit you and your family is what is important.

Although some feel that planning like this is confining, they miss the point.

It has quite the opposite effect. Freedom comes from controlling what you can and letting go when you can’t.

After all, it’s not the schedule or plan that is a mistake. It’s the part where some think a schedule can’t be changed or moved around.

There is no doubt about it — this quote may be overused and I whole heartedly agree. It’s timeless for a reason.

“If You Fail to Plan, You Are Planning to Fail” — Benjamin Franklin

It’s that simple. There are many reasons that I’ve homeschooled, worked, and been able to run a site/ blog.

The best one is no secret and that is I planned every year.

Everything has a place. Oh, don’t think by any stretch that I maintained everything in stone. I didn’t and still don’t. I have many days where I’m frazzled, but I have way more where I’m fulfilled.

However, I never allowed a planning schedule to make me feel like I was hemmed in.

Tracking Your Homeschool Year

Next, there is another feature on the homeschool schedule which I add and is important. The feature is a part to help you track your days and weeks you homeschool.

Even if you don’t need to record keep, tracking days and weeks is an extremely visual way to track your success.

Hear my heart when I say you can be constantly barraged either by self-doubt or from others if you’re doing enough. That was my initial mindset when I started creating these forms more than 10 years ago.

How to Plan Your Homeschool Year

Little did I know the feature of tracking days and weeks would keep me positive. You don’t worry if you’re doing enough because you see your progress daily and weekly.

So, look exactly at how I planned and use the form every year. I’m using one of my schedules from a previous year.

First, look at how my form is set up. By the way, after I update it each year, I keep the updated version at Step 5a. Choose Unique Forms JUST for You.

How a Homeschool Planning Calendar is Superior to a Regular Calendar

Further, here are the flexible ways you can use it:

  • Because there are 12 months, you can begin and end with the months you want. If you don’t school year-round, no problem. Again, just pick up at the month you’re starting and plan to when you want stop. The point is the form is very flexible.
  • After the month where you kept track (look at picture below) of the days you homeschooled, note them on the line provided. Add the days as you go along so you have the total at the end.
  • Use the key at the bottom of the form to use different color highlighters or symbols for dates you want to track.
  • In addition, highlight holidays you celebrate. Everyone does not celebrate the same holidays, so I don’t include U.S. holidays. The form is there for you to note the important days to your family.

Now, look below at how my hardworking and highly useful no fluff schedule works.

How a Homeschool Planning Calendar is Superior to a Regular Calendar

Notice these 5 important points in how to use it.

  1. Use one color to shade or outline the days you plan to school.
  2. Then use another to plan the days you won’t school.
  3. Also circle or add in teacher days for you. I didn’t include any here because I wanted to focus on showing you how to track school days.
  4. Count the days cumulatively. This way you know EXACTLY where you are at in your school year. For example, 180 days is a typical school year. Some schools follow 130 or 160. Knowing how many days you school in a 12-month period is empowering.
  5. Likewise, seeing my flex days or days not planned shows me how much time I have to move around.

Also, if you’ll notice on my form, I took off almost the whole month of April. Here in Texas, it’s plain insane to try to do too much during the hot summer months.

More Homeschooling Year Around Tips

Instead, we enjoy the cooler days of spring and finish up my year in the summer; I still have time in June to flex with.

How a Homeschool Planning Calendar is Superior to a Regular Calendar

Don’t homeschool another year without this awesome form.

What do you think? Can you use this form?

Look at these other planning topics: