I keep homeschool planning calendars for reference, appointment keepers or two pages per month calendars and the holiday reference pages on this step.
STEP 2. Choose Calendar/Appointment Keepers
On this step I keep 2 of the 3 calendars here which I create each year.
You need ALL 3 different types of calendars in your 7 Step Homeschool Planner.
Important Update: All of my forms begin July to June..
The first set of calendars here on STEP 2 are regular calendars (reference calendars) for reference purposes.
The second set of calendars here on STEP 2 are the 2 pages per month Appointment Keepers which have bigger boxes for writing dates.
The third set of calendars are on STEP 5A which are the calendars for planning your school year.
Curriculum Pages for Planner
When finished here on STEP 2, click on the graphic to go to the next STEP 3.
If you print now, remember to print double sided or front/back. There are special instructions for printing the 1 month per 2 page spread Appointment Calendar.
4 Options. Choose one or more!
Option 1A. Reference Calendar. Academic Year.
Important Note: ALL of my academic calendars begin in July and end in June.
This doesn’t mean you have to school that way or that you begin and end your year then either. It does mean that you can pick up on my forms at anytime you begin your year. Please see my post 7 Step Free Homeschool Planner – Top 5 Questions Asked Are Answeredabout questions you may have.
Option 2A. Two-Page Per Month Calendar. Academic Year.
Purpose: More room For Tracking Important Dates.
I use classical fonts on the calendar. Too, if I am going to use a calendar for the year, I want a calendar that inspires me each day, i.e. I have to have color. If you do not track school weeks, {which is real easy record keeping even for states or countries that don’t require it} then use those areas to either write notes, special events for that month or a to-do list.
Tracking weeks that you are in school is the easiest or the very basics of record keeping. Though I don’t have to do anything here in Texas, I feel it’s important to be accountable because as your children grow and enter high school, it becomes important. So I went ahead and added a box for that because I want to reflect my experience in my forms which helps you to be better organized.
Important All of my forms for the academic calendar begin July and end June.So this is a full 12 year.
July, 2023 to June, 2024 – Two pages Per Month Calendar. Dawn Color.
July, 2023 to June, 2024 – Two pages Per Month Calendar. Orchid Color.
Option 2B. Two-Page Monthly Calendar. PHYSICAL Year
*Note physical year calendar, and at the top of January, it has a place for noting when you start school and end school.
Purpose: To note future studies, objectives, important dates, purchase of products, upcoming events, etc. Provides a place to check off as done.
*Note: This page can be used on one of your blank pages that you may have if you used the two page monthly calendar spread. This is also a black and white document if you want to not use your color ink.
Another version of long range planning is to plan by the year. This is for you if are a color lover and prefer a two page spread for the year.
Subscriber freebie.
Option 4. Major U.S. Holidays 5 Year on One Reference Page
Purpose: To help you fill out your calendars and notate holidays you wish to observe or to note for planning purposes. Two color choices!
5 Years on ONE reference page. Years 2022 to 2025
*Note: This is not all of the holidays but I have listed major ones. Also, this page can be used on one of the blank pages you may have if you used the two page monthly calendar spread.
Since multiple years are listed in column forms on one page, this is also a great reference tool for long-range planning.
You may want to print one of each color and put at the back and front inside covers for easy reference.
How to Get the Free Regular Calendars, Long Range Planning, and Holiday Reference Pages
Its a subscriber freebie.
That means when you sign up to follow me, you get access my subscribers library and this freebie.
However, not all of 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, some freebies you must sign up again on the form below even if you are already a follower.
Its the only way I have of freely delivering them to you.
You can get access quickly. ► 1)Sign up on my list. ► 2) Go to your inbox and confirm your email from the automatic reply I sent you. ►3) Look for my reply AFTER you confirm your email with the freebie access.
When finished, click on the graphic to go to the next STEP.
Curriculum Pages for Planner
You are at the right place if you want a homeschool planner that is unique.
If you want to see all my pages that are for purchase, then go the MAIN STORE PAGE HERE.
Pre-Homeschool Year Planning
Purpose: I print this page to go in the front of my planner for this year and a blank one at the end to get ready for the next year. You don’t need to bind this in your planner to start using it. I use it to help me get ready for the new year. I then bind in my planner. If you want to read more details about how I use it, go here to 4 Pre-Homeschool Planning Pages.
Editable for Family Name – Curriculum Planner Cover
Note: Please read the description carefully for each cover. As I create each one, I will specify the character limitation on each one. Please be sure your family name falls within that character limitation. Too, I have noted which free fonts need to be downloaded and installed on your computer. If you don’t install the font I recommend, then a default font will be used on your computer and your name may or may not fit on the line. Because I can’t give a refund after you have been given access to my printables, though I want you one happy jumping customer, please read the details carefully.
Here is a sample so you can see the free font I paired with a classic or paid font.
1 page Curriculum Planner cover Coral Inklings. Editable box for 9 characters for your family name.
Some of you wanted an inside title page, instead of going right to your planner. Okay, I did too.
This page is a place write down your school name, or your beautiful name, the school year and some favorite quotes.
Can you say how AWESOME it is to mix and match pages and have a smokin’ hot planner?
Choose a Homeschool Planner Back Cover
How to Get the 32 Pages of Free Planner Covers, Inside Pages, and Back Covers
Grab the free 32 page freebie. It’s a subscriber freebie.
That means when you sign up to follow me, you get access my subscribers library and this freebie.
However, not all of 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, some freebies you must sign up again on the form below even if you are already a follower.
It’s the only way I have of freely delivering them to you. If you’re a new follower, just follow the steps below.
You can get access quickly. ► 1)Sign up on my list. ► 2) Go to your inbox and confirm your email from the automatic reply I sent you. ►3) Look for my reply AFTER you confirm your email with the freebie access.
We just had our year end co-op. How do you choose a few pictures from all of the hard work of each child? As each family shared what delighted them, I have tried to scatter as many pictures as I could throughout this review.
Over the years I have shared my passion for history that is both hands-on and interactive because it breathes life into lifeless events of the past. So when planning our year end history co-op, I decided to use theGreat Empires Activity Study, which is an activity study by Home School in the Woods. I have to say a fair amount of swooning was involved because of the scope of empires that the Great Empires Activity Study covers.
Great Empires Activity Study by Home School in the Woods covers fourteen empires: Ancient China, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Arab-Muslims, English Empire, French Empire, German Empire, Japanese Empire, Mongols, Russian Empire, Spanish Empire, United States and Viking. Not wanting to make a choice using the eeeny, meeny, miny and moe method between any of these swoon worthy civilizations for our history loving co-op, I decided to cover a little about each of these empires through hands-on projects.
Organizing and assigning hands-on projects for our Great Empires co-op was easy and enjoyable because of how the information is laid out. After reviewing the download of the material I received, I noticed the files are organized by master, texts and projects. The projects page for each empire, I found extremely useful in wading through all of the excellent material. The project page is like your weekly lesson plan at a glance page and the master is your lesson plan for the day. The master pages include a helpful teacher’s key reference, which is a map marked with key areas, boundaries and other helpful features for each region covered by that empire. Glancing at the project page, we could select all the hands-on activities that we wanted to do and find them among the 107 master pages.
Too, background information on each empire is vital in covering the topics like we did because we wanted to savor a morsel of each empire. The text pages for each empire are 2-3 pages. However, one gem about the text pages is that they cover the empire at its height. Non-history loving folks don’t like history because they can get caught up in a quagmire of details that can drain the life out of a history lesson. Unsure of which invention, event or key point to highlight, a budding history buff may come away more confused. However, the text pages by Home School in the Woods shaves off non-essential details for the elementary age child but builds appreciation by covering key events that are significant for each civilization. If you are a give-me-the-facts-only type of person, you will enjoy reading about each empire in the condensed text because you won’t come away feeling overwhelmed. Beyond covering key events for each empire or covering significant inventions, the text unifies the past to the present. Your child comes away with a better understanding of the impact previous civilizations made in today’s world. Keeping it simple without being boring makes the text a nifty feature.
However, if you already have a basic framework of history knowledge and want to explore beyond that foundation, you will enjoy the additional reading suggestions in each projects page and the extensive links found in the text which directs you to a website page at Home School in the Woods. Easily, you could spend a week on each empire.
Because the Great Empires Activity Study is about exploring, discovering and hands-on learning, you will find plenty of activities for each empire from making scones when learning about the English empire to making an Egyptian cartouche. Activities vary with each empire from learning about history through cooking, painting pottery like the Greeks and printing minibooks about famous people to Japanese kiragami.
You will not find cheesy analogies of history clip art in this product. All of the clipart, projects and pictures have amazing detail. If you are a non-artsy person you will enjoy assembling the easy to do projects because a lot of them are printable. You decide if you want to color or not.
Here is what I find most appealing about this product:
The scope of empires covered. If you have been lagging behind in covering history topics or are trying to follow the 4 year cycle used by a lot of homeschoolers and it is going slower than you would like to, using Great Empires Activity Study would be a useful tool if you want a bird’s-eye view.
It can be used as a stand-alone history curriculum because you have the option with additional reading material listed in the projects pages and links provided by Home School in the Woods to extend each empire. With the abundance of reading recommendations and because we love history, I personally would take two weeks to cover each empire if I were using this as a stand-alone curriculum. Doing one hands-on activity per week would not be overly time consuming and you could easily end up with a year’s worth of history. What a bargain for the price and you are using it for all of your children.
If you are using a history text and would like the flexibility of adding in an activity to enrich your reading, then Great Empires Activity Study would be a nice fit.
Great Empires Activity Study allowed a lot of room for flexibility in our co-op setting because it allowed each family to focus on the topic that interested them.
History clip art matters to me because pictures are important in history. The fine detail and high quality pictures can be used for a timeline, history notebook or to add to a lapbook.
Many of the creative activities can be printed and do not involve a lot of teacher supervision or tons of crafty artsy items on hand to do them.
The constant in all the empires is the beautiful teacher’s key map. Providing a key map for each empire is like having a mini geography curriculum as a bonus.
I feel that persons can vary tremendously on what each one thinks is a disadvantage in a product. I prefer using the word considerations because it gives you pause for thought to see if your circumstances fit that product.
Considerations for this product would be:
There is not a lesson planning guide or checklist for each day’s activities. For some homeschoolers that may feel like freedom to explore and breathe but for others having a to-do checklist each day may feel a bit more secure.
Some of these activities are ones that history lovers may have already done if they have been homeschooling for a while or find them easy but again the product is aimed at the elementary aged child.
You know I have to organize most products I get and this one was no different. I have created a printable for you to use as cover page for your binder when covering these empires.
{Tiny had a wonderful time at the co-op. I’ll share with you soon how we made his easy, easy Roman costume,helmet and shield.}
{A huge dose of thanks and love to Cynthia and Kelley. Cynthia did the beautiful Egyptian pillars. Would you like to know how she made them? I’ll share that in an upcoming post too. Thank you to Kelley for the beautiful Great Empires Co-op banner with those smokin’ hot wooden letters.}
Home School in the Woods is an excellent example of showing how history does not have to involve a textbook or always acquiring random uninteresting facts. With background information on each past civilization and several creative activities to choose from on each empire, you will not be disappointed with Great Empires Activity Study. Whether you are studying about the legends of Crete or are exploring the adventures of Captain John Smith, adding in hands-on history along with a huge dose of field trips and a history co-op or two is a sure way to making learning about the past meaningful.
List Price: Download Version $18.95; CD Version $19.95
Grades/Ages to use it for: Elementary grades. I see though that with the links and additional reading, that you could use this with multiple ages.
Type of Product: CD or Download.
Customer Service: My download was emailed to me in a timely manner as promised.
{There are so many games to go along with these empires. A variety of games from each empire would be: Knucklebones, Roman Ball, Disc, Rota, Ephedrismo, Abarisa, Balonmano, Cinco Marias, Blind Man, Catch the Dragon and Chinese Ball to name a few.
Above: The kids are playing Catch the Dragon.You have to love homeschooling when even the older kids don’t mind teaching the younger ones how to play the game.}
{Mummy Wrap game. Okay, not so ancient, but fun!}
Hugs and love ya,
All product information is correct and accurate as of the date of this review.
Do you know how much time I spend thinking about changing my blog description? My ideal description, I think anyway, would be happy homeschool girl who hearts homeschooling and everything about it, but also hankers to organize any time of the year and dabble in a little decorating too.
How do you say “I am a girl who loves lapbooking, notebooking, history, doing anything hands-on when it comes to learning, organizing all I can anytime whether it’s school, my home, or one drawer, creating my own printables, leading workshops and talking about every possible and conceivable subject that has to do with homeschooling and let’s not forget while I am at that I have a soft place in my heart for new homeschoolers and in between that I conjure up new color schemes and projects for decorating that one day I may be able to use in my home“?
It is has never been easy for me to reduce all the ideas and projects that are reeling around in my head to a few eloquent sounding sentences. Instead of worrying about all that, I would rather tell you about what else I have been doing. I get on maniac missions and it’s hard for me to unhinge myself from them until I complete them.
Right now, I am in a re-organizing part decorating state of mind. Maybe you have seen my pantry in some of my pictures but I am a girl in love, love, love with it.
This pantry is new and it is actually my “second pantry”. I will have to show you my first pantry too but that is another project. I fell in love with this pretty thing because I heart turquoise but also love the look of wrought iron. It is kind of old world charm mixed with traditional things. The wrought iron look is the same design I have on my breakfast table and I have loved that look for years.
So for my spring decorating project, I have been trying to decide on what containers or bins to use in my pantry because as you can see it is open to the rest of my house, so that detail matters to me.
I have been taking my time on organizing. These turquoise containers I already had, so I put them in the pantry to see if I liked them. Well I love the bins but I think I really need a pop of some other color. Also, I need to declutter the utensil containers here that are my extras. So I have more work to do to it. I think a keeper though are the clear containers.
Don’t get in a rush about labeling your baskets and containers until you decide if they will work for you. I have to use the pantry for a while before I decide what I want to keep and get rid of. After deciding that I would keep only the clear containers, I have been on a hunt for different baskets ever since.
I have been looking for days and had to show you some of my favorite places to get baskets and if you visit the places regularly enough and watch the prices, you may hit a sale like I did today.
These bins or baskets come from Target and it is a good stand by, but Target is not always my first stop because sometimes a basket I like will have a tag indicating that it is an “in store” only purchase. I prefer to have exactly the number I need so I may look longer to buy online so I don’t have to hunt and peck at the store.
Another favorite place of mine to shop for baskets is World Market. I can’t stay out of that place and they vary what they have throughout each season.
Land of Nod has to be right up there for one of my top two places that I love to buy baskets at too. I guess people think they are just for kids room but baskets are baskets and can be used anywhere.
I just go crazy over their color selection because I can match any color scheme usually.
So if Land of Nod is one of my top runners, then Hobby Lobby has to be my other choice for a great place to look for bins and baskets. I just can’t stay away from that place either and I finally found the bins I had to have.I just fell in love with these and the polka dots and will be changing out my pantry soon. I really couldn’t contain myself either when the baskets were marked 30% off too. I just knew I had to have them.
They have so many styles and colors too. I have ones similar to these in my bathroom.
The long hunt is over and I can’t wait for them to get here. Next, I will start working on labels. You know I will make my own labels too. But now that I picked out the baskets, I have some time to create labels. When it’s complete, I’ll share those pictures with you too and of course the labels.
Just remember, if you buy organizational bins to measure first or use baskets you already have for a while until you decide exactly what you want. Do you have a project that needs some updated and fresh storage bins?
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Today I have some Ancient Maya unit study ideas, free lapbook, and notebooking pages. Also, here is my page Meso-America for more ideas.
This week was a little busier for us as we try to get back into the swing of things. It was busier partly because I have now switched back to following the public school schedule of starting school in August. It has been a longgg time since I followed it.
For the last four or five years, I have started my school year in January and really liked it because I have a break from workshops during the winter. It was just natural for our family to start a new year and new school year.
Now, I feel like a new kid starting my school year in August. Where is my book? Where is my pen? Where is my planner? Because we are still in the middle of our books, like math, it has made the transition easier this week. On top of that, hubby had more tests this week and some more scheduled next week, but all is good so far.
Slowly each day as we begin a new school year I add a little more to the day. Because we don’t completely stop schooling in the summer, it really is just a matter of getting the kids to school longer for the day. You can see how excited my middle guy is who so looks forward {not} to math.
It is nice when you have homeschooled long enough that the oldest son “tutors’ the next one. {love it}
A fruit smoothie for the fruit smoothie-holic and a few days later in the week got better as we started our unit study of the Mesoamerica world. This would include some of the countries of Belize, Guatemala, Mexico and the area of the Yucatan Peninsula. I explained in an early post about our how unit study unfolds. This one is no different. LOTS of information on the surface. We have three cultures we are reviewing: Maya, Aztec and Incas.
But before I go on though, I wanted to share a little bit from my heart because this unit study has sentimental meaning for me. In my pre LBK {life before kids} I was am an adventurous soul. This area is one of the areas I visited and stayed for a while in. Here are just a few pictures of some of the gorgeous rainforest, that the natives call “bush”. You think my sons would recognize me in this picture? The jungles of Belize.
The bird of paradise flower just grew all around and the friends I stayed with would even chop it down to get it out of our way as we trekked through the jungle.
My friends even kept a toucan as a “pet”.
But it was the monkey that I enjoyed each day while I was there.
Taking pictures of the native surroundings that were off the “tourism” beat is where I spent my time. I wanted to get to know the people and culture not make the tourist rounds.
Just the “normal” every day things like the lady coming down to the river to wash fascinated me.
I still like to travel and hope to make a connection of what I learned about some of these countries and make it special to my sons now. Maybe I should dig out the rest of the pictures.
The countries we are studying about are yes, very hot and humid with lots of insects but the culture, people, wild flowers, blue waters, lush rainforest and history of the area are full of life.
{reproduction of a Maya Codex – brilliant at math and astronomy}
{Chichen Inza on the Yucatan peninsula.} This is a beautiful place to visit. I will have to share more pictures of my visit to these pyramids too some time later.
Because I don’t put time limits on how long we learn or what we want to learn, we just roll with it until we are satisfied. There are three cultures to study here so I like to start off with some general comparisons and then narrow it down somewhat. We focused on the ancient Maya this week. Guess what that means for you? You know I love ya. I have some notebooking pages for you that we worked on and are still working on. I think this unit just feels like it may need a lapbook too.
My notebooking pages for you today are about Hernan Cortes, one about the general comparisons of the three cultures, one about John Lloyd Stephens – the Father of Maya archaeology, and a geography page and one page that you could print off two copies of on the Ancient World of Maya to tell what your child finds interesting.
Also, I want to point out one thing about the culture of the Aztec and Maya and that is their religion included human sacrifices and well — lots of blood. I have one notebooking sheet that talks about that but I have my teens compare the valuelessness of shedding that human blood and the valuable blood of Jesus Christ.
This certainly could be overlooked with a younger set of kids. Because I have two teens I wanted them to understand or at least be introduced to that culture’s world views. My youngest guy was sensitive to their brutality and I wanted you to know. So with him I will focus just on the sacrifice of Jesus. Just giving you the heads up.
I was inspired by this poetry today as we delight in the study of the Mesoamerica.
“And then they said as they left, “We are going there to the sunrise, Whence our fathers came…”
From Popol Vuh, the most famous of the Maya Chronicles
How to Get the Free Maya Lapbook Free Notebooking Pages
Now, how to grab the free maya lapbook. 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, some freebies you must sign up again on the form below even if you are already a follower.
And it’s the only way I have of freely delivering them to you. Just follow the steps below.
► 1)Sign up on my list. ► 2) Go to your inbox and confirm your email from the automatic reply I sent you. If you’re already a confirmed subscriber, you will not have to do this. You’ll receive the freebie instantly. ►3) Last step. look for my reply AFTER you’ve confirmed your email.