Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

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Glam It Up Package

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

 

Why offer just these pages?

My purpose in making this Glam It Up package is to give you just a few pages that are matching and that will jump start you to create the perfect planner.

It is not my intention to make every page you may want because then the power to create what you need each year leaves you.

The Cover Page

Glam It Up Homeschool Planner Cover @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusThe Inside Title Page

The strongest feature of the 7 Step Homeschool Planner is to empower you to choose exactly what you need and to avoid one download of only matchy matchy pages that are both boring when not mixed and match with other pages and that are possibly useless.

Inside title page glam it up packageLike me, you want your planner to stay unique and to build it with the needs of your children in mind.

With a basic framework, like the Glam It Up package, you can still add both free pages and forms you purchase at each step to create an awesome planner.

The Unique One of Kind Tab Top Dividers

With this purchase, you get both photos, which are blank, and prefilled tab top dividers (first photo below). You decide whether you want to use the ones I created or make your own following my instructions below.

The premade tabs are filled in with these subjects; Calendars, Goals, Lesson Plans and Notes.

Why just those sections? Because they are the most general.

For example, both calendars and my two page spread appointment keepers can go in the Calendar section along with my free planning your school year forms. Under Goals can be a scope and sequence, teacher’s or student’s schedules, or even grade keepers. Under Notes, you can journal, keep field trip plans or even curriculum resources.

However, with the blank photo pages that come with this download (second photo below) and following my instructions on my blog post where I teach you how to type over photos, you can create your own sections AND make as many sections as you want by printing the tabs over and over again.

Few Extra Tips on Printing, Cutting and Binding the tabs.

In your download, you will notice that I say to cut away the white area at the top only. Then place the tab tops in your binder in the correct location.

The important thing to remember when you bind it is to be sure you pull the tabs up and that they stay sticking out at the top.

It doesn’t matter that the tab top page is not full length when you go to bind it. They coil bind just  fine.

It makes it a bit more time consuming for the person doing the binding, but if you ask them to mind that detail, it doesn’t take long at all. Besides you will have the exact sections you want and that is a perk worth taking time to do.

Glam It Up Top Tabs Collage

Glam It Up Top Tabs Blank-1

Two Attendance Charts

Why two? Because everybody starts their year differently. One form has the semesters filled in beginning in my usual style of year round like all of my forms here, which is from July to June.

The other form is blank in case you start school in a different month. Then you can fill in the semester that is your first, second and summer semester.

In addition, you get a photo copy of each page so that if you want to edit them following my same instructions above where I show you how to do that on my blog post, you can choose that option too.

Attendance Chart dated Glam It Up180 UNDATED Lesson Planning Pages

These pages are my signature style pages meaning they have stood the test of time and now have been redesigned to be updated and modern.

Look at the fine differences I have made between them and my free ones:

Besides the fact the lesson planning pages are in hot colors now;

  • Each 5 days, the lesson planning number changes color so that you can easily track when you have homeschooled a week;
  • Each page now has a 4 box section at the top so that anything you need to remember, want to track or just list can be noted at the top;
  • Each page now has a notes section at the bottom for more info you need to keep up with;
  • The dotted lines used for writing have been dimmed a bit;
  • Each page has been basically redesigned at the top to allow a small place for the date; and
  • Each page now has content subjects clearly labeled at the bottom so that you understand the difference in prioritizing your day by keeping the skill subjects at the top and planning the content subjects at the the bottom.

Glam It Up Homeschool Lesson Planning Pages @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusIMPORTANT: How to make the pages editable for you?

I thought long and hard when I created this package and wanted to give you the ability to edit as much as you could.

So that is why your download includes photos of the cover, inside title page, attendance sheets and the tabs.

Teaching you how to edit those pages for your exact needs by following the instructions on my blog post here where I show you how to put text over a photo, you can TRULY make your planner unique.

The lesson planning pages do not have photos, are only .pdf and are not editable in order to maintain the integrity of my creation and document.

Again, though the subjects listed and form is time tested because it includes the 4 general subjects for language arts, which are grammar, reading, writing and spelling and then math is a separate listing.

Grab this Glam Package, add some of my free forms, some appointment keepers, mix and match and make the Ultimate Homeschool Planner!

And don’t forget the pretties to go in it!! Look at some of my favorites;

Homeschool Planning Form – Free 2015 to 2016 Year Around School Planning Form

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

2015 to 2016 Year Around School Planning Breeze @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

The glam package is almost ready and I wanted to create a new choice for the year around school planning form to kind of match my new planner.

Today, I have the new form and I am calling it breezes.

Curriculum Pages for Planner

I have the other two color choices for the year round school planning, which can be found on Step 5a of the 7 Step Homeschool Planner.

One reason that I don’t use plain calendars for planning my school is because I prefer to use the 2 Page Appointment Keeper.

The 2 Page Appointment Keeper is a 2 page spread and has bigger boxes for noting dates and appointments.

The form I have today is for you to track and plan your homeschooling weeks and days.

Though you don’t have to use it this way, I made it year round because a lot of us do homeschool year round.

At the end of the form, it has a comprehensive key so that you can calculate your actual days and weeks of homeschooling.

I love doing this each year because it helps me to see how much more I am doing than I actually think I am doing.

I hope you enjoy the newest color choice. You can download it below.

Download breezes here.

Hugs and love ya,

Tina Signature 2015c

If you have used my 7 Step Homeschool Planner before, then for your quick reference I have listed each page or step below!

7 Easy Steps – “Tons of Options & Pretty Color”

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!

Linking up @ these awesome places:

Thoughtful Spot|Motivation Monday|The Art of Home Making Mondays|Making Your Home Sing Monday|Good Morning Mondays|Inspiration Monday|Mommy Monday|Mom’s Library|Laugh & Learn|Good Tips Tuesday|Tuesday Talk|Thoughtful Thursday|A Little Bird Told Me|Pintastic Pinteresting|Think Tank Thursday|Making a Home – Homemaking Linky|Hearts for Home|Family Fun Friday|Hip Homeschool Hop|Home Matters|Favorite Things Friday|Kitchen Fun and Crafty Friday|Frugal Friday|Sharing Time|Titus 2 Tuesdays|So Much At Home|Think Tank Thursday|TGIF|From House to Home|

Blurring the Line Between Living and Learning When Homeschooling

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

I remember the year I gave up boxed curriculum because it was not only terrifying, but I felt overwhelmed.

Giving up a boxed curriculum was a relief though because it helped me to understand the difference between teaching a child and teaching a curriculum.

On the flip side, it brought on greater responsibility as a mentor, which is the part that is overwhelming because I didn’t have a teaching background.

From Homeschool Fear to Focus

Fear of our children being left behind can paralyze the best homeschool mom, and I think it’s a justified fear. Nobody wants to feel they have invested 15 years or more of homeschooling only to feel like a failure.

However, I also believe that fear can be turned to focus. Focus gives you a direction and clarity in your school.

Up until the time I let go of the boxed curriculum, the line between living and learning was not blurred.

School was my focus and not learning. I was curriculum driven instead of family-focused.Blurring the Line Between Living and Learning When Homeschooling @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool PlusFocusing on testing, schedules and the approval of my in-laws did not allow me to discover how unique my children are.

Since we all want to succeed, blurring the line between living and learning has to be viewed as a positive.

Belief comes from your heart and from the desire to do the best with the precious children God has given you. I struggle too with not falling victim to this world’s institutionalized way of thinking.

3 Ways to Blur the Line Between Living and Learning

1.Schooling only from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. has to be abandoned and it is a heart wrenching struggle.

Somehow we think that if we keep the exact school hours of public school that we will meet our  goals. The longer you homeschool, you come to appreciate it’s important to have consistency, but it is quality that really matters.

For example, a twenty minute interactive grammar lesson each day is of more value than endless hours of worksheets with no purpose.

From struggles throughout the years though can come conviction.

2. Looking back, it wasn’t the boxed curriculum I needed to let go of, but it was my own view that boxed me in.

Curriculum laid out can save lots of teacher time prep. Don’t take an all or nothing view to curriculum like I did. I thought I either had to lesson plan or use a boxed curriculum.

I soon learned that if I used only part of a boxed curriculum and put together some of my own lesson plans that it was still a good value for my money.

Do a unit study, but follow a textbook if you are more comfortable. Try a hands on math project like a lapbook.

Read your history textbook but allow your boys to draw cartoons illustrating the history. For your girls who dream about fashion, let them draw costumes for that time period.

For science start a bug zoo jar collection with your little ones.

Surprise your teens who need a social outlet by going to a movie theater first thing in the morning and feel homeschool freedom.

Pack a lunch and drag all your art supplies to the park. Lay out there on a blanket and enjoy your nature journal as you praise the Creator along with your children.

It doesn’t have to be about wild abandonment of tests, schedules or textbooks if you want them.


3. Blurring the line means we are keenly aware of allowing our everyday life and experiences to train our children.

Day to day meaningful conversations become a normal part of teaching your children.

The longer I homeschool the harder it becomes to describe in my lesson planner what was parenting and was what homeschooling. Some days there is just no difference between the two.

It is about getting to actually know your son or daughter that you thought you knew so well before.

Allowing your children to hear your expressions each day of your deep love for Godly things and His creation becomes more parenting than homeschooling.

Each year as I homeschool I am humbled about things I have learned. Sharing what I have learned hopefully helps you to blur the line between living and learning.

Blurring the line between living and learning – how do you do it?

You’ll love reading a few other tips:

Hugs and love ya,

 

Also, check out:
Top 5 Mistakes of New Homeschoolers
From Struggling Homeschooler to Empowered Educator
How to Fake Homeschooling

Get Organized – Rev Up for the New Homeschool Year

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

The secret to getting organized for the new homeschool year in next to no time is preparation.

Thinking now about long and short term storage options, you can set up a simple system that will save you precious time during the hectic pace of the new homeschool year.

Get Organized - Rev Up for the New Homeschool Year @Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Long Term Homeschool Storage Options

1. Free cloud storage and portable devices.

You may think it goes without saying, but storing as much as possible on free cloud storage or portable storage devices is a great reminder.

Print off the list of your e books or what is in the cloud and keep it in your planner. Having the list of your materials at your finger tips will help you avoid constantly accessing on line free storage or plugging in your portable devices when lesson planning.

If you have been homeschooling for a while, it may take some time to scan paperwork onto your computer. However, it is well worth the time instead of digging through boxes.

You are the only one to know whether you want to save an original piece of artwork or that creative essay that you thought would never happen.

2. Tubby mom.

Whether you are new to homeschooling or in my case last year when I was getting ready for a big move overseas and didn’t know my storage options, huge plastic tubs or totes are perfectly acceptable for storage.

If you are new to homeschooling, it is hard to know what you want to save and what to pitch in the beginning.

Keep all the paperwork and pieces of arts and crafts in large tubs and when you have a system, then pitch what you don’t want.

Try to avoid throwing all the school work together in the tub in the beginning.

A simple system for organizing within a tub like using notebooks, binders or even small boxes does not create mounds of work to sort later if you change your storage system.

3. Over sized 3 Ring Binders. (5 inch)

If you have the space for it, over sized 3 ring binders are one of my favorite organizing tools.

Though they can be expensive, the binders I purchased have held up well through the years.

Using 3 ring binders to organize for homeschool @ Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

I have not only used them to store paperwork long term, but I use them for my huge recipe book.

Adding page protectors to the binder to keep precious keep sake paperwork in prevents it from being dog eared and over handled.

It takes time to add the page protectors, but I also like to be able to flip through the pages when I want without handling the kids school work too much through the years.

4. In the box options.

Depending on how much you have to store, you may be able to use shoe boxes and huge diaper boxes that were meant for the trash.

It doesn’t take much work to make the boxes pop with some color by covering them with beautiful bright colored fabric and you have some swoon worthy storage.

If you are not feeling too crafty then store bought options overflow too.

Short Term Homeschool Storage Options

Teaching your children from the beginning to put away their books and paperwork each day will not only lighten your workload, but it is an important organizing skill to teach your kids.

1. Humble Plastic Drawer  – Not So Humble

Plastic drawers are some of my favorite ways for the boys to be sure they put away their supplies.

Each year, I measure my biggest or longest book, which normally is a high school book and make sure the drawers fit.

I have had good success with well made drawers at the Container Store though they are more expensive.

2. Slim 3 Ring Binders & Folders.

Slim color coordinating binders or folders for each kid or color coordinating by subject gives them a tool that is not too hard to handle.

Having tools that are handy and within arm’s reach will help your child to be organized on a daily basis.

3. Hanging Up Storage.

Take advantage of walls, closets and doors to add more hanging store.

I used hanging storage for games, flashcards, crafts and things used on a daily like supplies and headsets.

I love the beginning of the new school year because it means I can hoard get all new organizing tools that I am excited about and that are swoon worthy too. It makes me feel like I can justify the cost too because I normally can use the organizing tools longer than a year.

Do you have anything new you are adding to your learning space this year?

Hugs and love ya,

Want some more organized homeschooling ideas to drool over? Check out:
DIY Homeschool Organizing with Duct Tape
Homeschool Organization – {Storage, Spaces, & Learning Places}

 

How Far Out to Homeschool Lesson Plan

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

There are a few tips and tricks to know how far out to homeschool lesson plan. Also, look at my page The Dynamics of How to Homeschool Easily and Smarter.

Whether you use boxed curriculum or put together your own homeschool lesson plans, there is some level of planning involved.

After I started putting together most of my own curriculum, I realized soon enough that I had to lesson plan.

Wanting to be prepared for the what if something happened scenario, I jumped and planned for the whole year.

How Far Out to Homeschool Lesson Plan @ Tiina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Yes, I spent hours and hours poring over all my curriculum and plotting my course. I had written my plans for the whole year.

Homeschool Lesson Planning

I was prepared, feeling super competent and I kicked off my homeschool year with a tenacity that I won’t easily forget.

Then, 10 days into my smokin’ hot full homeschoool year scheduled plan all of my kids got sick.

We took off one week and then two weeks from school. And the other thing I won’t easily forget was how utterly stressed and defeated I felt a few short weeks into the year. I was already behind and stressed out.

The worst thing was I brought it all on myself.

My lesson planning journal looked like one great big huge mess as I started marking off and changing dates. (Btw, this is how my idea of an undated planner was born.)

How Far Out to Lesson Plan Is Too Much?

I learned a very valuable lesson that I want you to learn from and that is planning for the year was too far out.

Because I did not have a classroom and have to produce lesson plans for year, I learned that lesson planning should stay in sync with my family’s need.

Public school teachers are going to have class regardless if a child is sick or absent, but that is not the case with learning at home.

Again, I had failed to step back and think what would work best not only for my family, but for me as the teacher.

I was still modeling public school thinking when I had plan for the whole year.

How Far Out to Lesson Plan is Too Little?

After I learned that valuable lesson, the next thing I did was to rewrite my lesson plans for the week.

Failure again.

Though I had good intentions to plan for the next week, the week simply got away from me and before I knew it, it was Sunday and the next school week was upon me with no plan.

If you have been attempting lesson planning, you know that it can be downright exhausting exploring a system that will work for you.

Though it may seem like you have prepared for the year well by lesson planning for a year, I would never encourage you to do that.

Another very important point that I didn’t even grasp until I was a few more years into homeschooling was how fast kids can move up in levels.

They can quickly grasp one point and how slow they can be to comprehend another.

When Homeschool Lesson Planning is Just Right

So it brought me full circle back to one of the reasons I started homeschooling, which is to go at my child’s pace.

After I weighed all of this, I realized that I had to plan far out enough so that when life happens, I still have a plan, but not so far ahead that I can’t change my plans or toss them all together if my children were behind or if they jumped ahead.

I found a comfortable pace which is to plan about 2 weeks to one month ahead.

I stuck closer to a 30 day schedule.  Like my menu planning, I found a comfortable pace of 30 days gave me the whole month to plan for the next month.

I didn’t feel so pressured knowing I could take my time planning for the next month.

Too, if one week or so was hectic or I simply wasn’t in the mood to be the teacher, I still had several more weeks to plan for the next month.

Also, it was easier to change on a dime when my kids were ready to move ahead a level because I didn’t have months and months planned.

With a 30 day lesson plan, my mood not only changed about lesson planning but about teaching.

Homeschool Lesson Planning Just Right

I wasn’t constantly panting trying to keep up, but I could easily prepare my materials for the next month and gather hands-on supplies.

Another tip to planning is to realize that planning generally is not the same thing as planning each day.

I do encourage you to generally plug in themes or topics you want to cover each month for the year because this gives you a framework to start building your daily lesson plans on.

Don’t follow the methods used by public school teachers, who have to have lesson plans for a year.

Don’t plan for 30 kids, but just for your kids.

Take advantage of the flexibility of homeschooling by planning only 2 weeks to 30 days ahead so that you change when you need to, but have a fall back plan when life happens.

How far out have you been lesson planning?

Look at these other helps and tips!

Hugs and love ya,