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homeschoolplanning

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

July 24, 2015 | 9 Comments
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|

9 CommentsFiled Under: 2. My FREE Organizing Printables {Any topic}, Curriculum Planner Tagged With: homeschoolplanner, homeschoolplanning

Planning Homeschool When Drowning in a Sea of Ideas

December 28, 2014 | 9 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Sitting in my living room and deciding what we wanted to do for school next, I realized that planning homeschool when drowning in a sea of ideas can be daunting and energy zapping.

Like you though, ideas, projects, and lists are all made because we want to problem solve or craft ideas into projects.

However, my to-do list and ideas for everything from homeschool to personal goals to my blog was growing more detailed by the moment.
Impatient person that I am to meet some of these goals, I realized it can make you feel defeated before you even start planning.

Do you find that you just pull back and don’t do anything because you can’t find a starting point? Organized or not, this can happen to anybody and it has happened to me more times than I care to admit.

One top of that, a problem with most people who love organization is that we have our noses so buried in the details of homeschool planning we can’t see the big picture.

I focused on things that inspire me to find a starting point. Don’t let your brilliant or creative flashes harness you.

Look at these 4 steps for a starting point as you plan your new homeschool year.

STEP 1. Clearly Identify

Start by just writing all that you want to do, but don’t worry about organizing your ideas just yet.

I want to finish a book on homeschooling that I have started, get my youngest son caught up with where I want him to be, help my next highschooler finish and graduate this next year, lose more weight, blog more passionately, help new homeschoolers with more detailed articles, create more unit studies, spend more time with the Mr. now that we live in beautiful South America and . . .  and . . .

Pen your ideas and identify them as clearly as you can, but don’t separate them into categories just yet because that will stifle what is on your mind for now.

STEP 2. Slice And Dice

After you have mounds of ideas and things that you want to do, take your list and prioritize what is most important to you.

What I have found in this step of the thought process is that some ideas are not worthy of my time after I weigh them against other things I have on my list.

You need to either shelf or shave ideas that you can’t get to this next year.

I have been ask, but how do you know how many to delete or shave off and how many to keep? I have found that a simple way to accomplish more is to use the 12 calendar months or physical year as a strainer.

In my mental process, I limit myself to 12 ideas or things that I want to get done for a new year.  Some ideas or things will only take a few days or few weeks and other ideas may take longer.  Too, some things like my goal of spending time with the Mr. can be grouped with another goal.

I find that a base of 12 ideas is a good starting point because it allows one idea or project per month.

It’s a natural way to plan, but most of the time we over plan with no filter in place. The physical year is my filter.

Don’t give up any of the ideas you have if you see in looking over your list that there are more worthwhile projects to pursue right now.

Just put them back for now and save your list because you never know during the year when you have time to reach into your treasure trove of thoughts and get one more project done.

At this point too, I can see a clear picture of how many are homeschool related, personal related, and business related and I group them together now.

STEP 3. Arrange In Importance to YOU

We both know that clearly our homeschool planning takes a prominent place.  But so should your health and spiritual welfare.

If you have been homeschooling at all costs and sacrificing either your physical or spiritual health, your homeschooling journey may not survive.

Some years, I have added in workbooks for the kids or hired a tutor because I needed the break.  Balance has always been hard for strong-willed homeschooling mamas.  I’m right there with you too.

The homeschooling survivors are ones that are willing to change when something needs to be done instead of heading straight to burnout.

Too, sometimes you have to decide what is a want versus a need.  For example, I am so over the top giddy on wanting to finish my homeschooling book, but I won’t do it at the expense of sacrificing Tiny along the way.

Will there still be homeschoolers the next year or the next?  For sure. But my son’s homeschool years are fleeting so it maintains priority for me.

Priority is uniquely different to each of us and we need to not only dig deep to determine them, but be honest on what is something we need to do versus something that we desire to do.

Now the challenge – number each one from the most important to the least.

Can you see the plan emerging? Remember, you should have only 12 numbered.

You can have more on your list, but only 12 numbered. Remember, this is about getting them done, not dreaming about them.

Too, some things which are long term projects, like my homeschool book, can be worked on throughout the year as I accomplish my 12 tasks.

So leave one or two long-term projects on your list that can simmer on the backburner while you meet your other goals.

STEP 4. Make A Visible Plan of Action

The fourth step is the most critical and it is to write it all down.  Did you know this is where a lot of people stumble or just give up?

After going through the grueling process of planning, they fail to make it cement or concrete.

Get it off your mind and onto something that you can see and physically check off.  Put the plan into action by writing it down.

See the big picture by assigning it to a calendar month. If you shriek at paper planning (can’t imagine, just saying) then put it down in your digital planner.

It is not a plan – well until it is.

Sounds easy enough, but a major reason we feel trapped before we start is that if it is not put down in some action form, our ideas might stay as pie in the sky goals.

In an upcoming post, l will show you how I finally solved my problem and got my nose out of those details that I love to wallow in.

Keeping this process of how I arrived at homeschool planning for the year does me no good to keep it in my head and so I hope this 4 step process simplifies the planning process for you.

Follow the four easy steps of homeschool planning which are clearly identifying all that you want to do for the year, organize ideas by category and slim your ideas down to just 12 with a few extra long-term projects, arrange them in importance by using the cruel (you cannot start them all at once, I tried that one time. Stay sane, don’t try it) number system because you have to have a Number 1 starting point and then avoid using invisible ink by writing it ALL down.

I guarantee you will have success in planning for a new year if you try faithfully to follow those four easy peazy steps.

What about you? Do you see a new plan of action or are you using one that works for you?

You’ll love these other tips!:

Over Scheduling + Over Planning = Over Load

3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine

How To Create a Homeschool Schedule That You Can Stick To    

Hugs and love ya,

9 CommentsFiled Under: Plan For & School Year Around, Schedule/Balance Home & School Tagged With: homeschoolplanning

5 days of Homeschooling Mid-Year and Thriving. Day 3 Forward Looking–Planning!

November 22, 2014 | 3 Comments
This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Planning is nothing more than forward-looking and then penning those thoughts to paper.  Planning can be painless and pleasant.  It can also become painful or a burden when we don’t know the basics or lose the simplicity of how to do it.

In our determination to be conscientious homeschoolers, we may clutter up our day with multiple subjects.  Stress sets in because we may feel all subjects are equally important. Then the hours don’t equal to the number of subjects we determine that needs to be covered.

Getting started planning or taking time to review your present lesson planning method mid-year can be broken down into simple steps.

Are You Making This Mistake?

1. Know Your Subject and Subjects.  It is an easy mistake to make.  Take your children out of the grade they are in at public/private school and put them in the next grade up in homeschool.

Grade matters very little in homeschooling because it does not always correspond to mastery. Knowing your child or subject takes time. But because you may want to have curriculum in hand to start school, you have to take other steps.

If you live in a state or country where you are not held to burdensome laws then take your time using very basic workbook style pages to see which subjects your child is struggling in and which ones he is bored with.
Many curriculum providers provide free on line testing and this will help you to make a better fit grade wise regardless of your child’s age.

Take time to know your subject or child before you spend dollars on curriculum for a whole year.

Another mistake made by many homeschoolers is to pile subject on top of subject to our children’s day.  If one is good, then surely ten subjects would be enrichment or so we may think.

How do you determine what the essentials are so that your subject load stays streamlined?   You may not be a seasoned educator but you know more than you realize.

Take a lesson from the past. One room schoolhouses focused on the 3 R’s. That is the secret. It is not very glamorous sounding but reading, writing and arithmetic are the solid mainstays of a well educated child.

If you are struggling with when and how long these subjects are to be covered, I get more specific in a 3 part series I covered named: What Subjects to Teach and When to Teach Them.

What Subjects to Teach and When to Teach Them.

What subjects to teach and when to teach them? Part 1 of 3

What subjects to teach and when to teach them? Part 2 of 3

What subjects to teach and when to teach them? Part 3 of 3

The other subjects are enrichment and make learning a delight. However, if a child is struggling with any of the 3 R’s, then all of the subjects can become contemptible to say the least.

For example, your child may love to learn about the animals of the rainforest. However, when it’s time to write a few sentences about them, he shrieks in terror and almost passes out at the thought of it. Tears normally follow because children don’t know how to articulate that something is not right.

Maybe he is struggling with fine motor skills and your expectations are too high. You may want to work on composition but he may not have the basics of penmanship down yet.

If you are a creative writer and your child is not, does he live with the fear of disappointing you? Children can have black and white standards. They are either all on board or not at all when it comes to homeschooling.

If they are not on board, then all subjects can be considered wearisome, boring and mundane.

2. Determine an approach. There are 5 basic approaches to homeschooling. Traditional, Charlotte Mason, Classical, Unit Studies and Relaxed or Unschoolers.

Avoid painful planning by sticking to the approach that works best for your family at the moment. It doesn’t mean you don’t investigate the others as you have time. It does mean that you focus on learning all you can about the approach that works best for your family.
I hear all the time that some homeschoolers are so overwhelmed by curriculum choices. But if you will remember to categorize them by these approaches, and investigate only the curriculum that works fits the approach you are using now, you only have 1/5 of the curriculum to review.
Why try to educate yourself on what is working for everybody’s children? You will be a much better teacher if you just focus on the 3,4,5, or 6 children you have.

3. Assign a time. Pen it. Now that you are more acquainted with your subject or your children and the subjects to consider in school, you have to “assign it all a place”.

By penning the subjects, which children you will be working with and how long you will be doing this, it becomes realistic. We avoid having more subjects in our day than we have hours to school. Pretty looking subject lists with no time slots in our day are stress inducers and turn ugly looking quickly.

Whether you use a phone, iPad, computer or printed curriculum planner to organize your lesson plans, you need to assign it all a place.

I have always said that lesson planning for me is better done the old fashion way with paper and pen.

Taking time to pen and assign hours in my day to the subjects helps it to stick in my mind.

It also creates balance in my day because one subject is not covered more than another or completely overlooked. If the schedule is not working, it allows me to go back and see where I need to adjust time slots.

Homeschool Class Schedule

Over-planning and no planning both bring pain. I provide free forms to help you keep it real and get it all done.

Click here to go to STEP 5b. Form 13 named Class Schedule/Teacher Schedule to create your class schedule. It’s EDITABLE.

These three basic steps have to be reviewed each year, whether you are a new or seasoned educator.

Planning can be rewarding because it rejuvenates our love for learning and creates homeschool harmony and balance.

Hugs and love ya,

 

Did you miss the first two days in 5 days of Homeschooling Mid-Year and Thriving?

5 days of Homeschooling Mid-Year and Thriving. Day 1 Mind-set Matters

5 days of Homeschooling Mid-Year and Thriving. Day 2 Mission Accomplished

 

Grab some other tips here for planning!

Divide And Conquer The Ever Growing List of Homeschool Subjects

Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 1

Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 2

Gauging Homeschool Progress – Masters of their Material?

Lesson Plan or Lesson Journal?

Homeschool Lesson Planning Backwards Part 2 of 2.

 

3 CommentsFiled Under: A Fresh Start Homeschooling Mid-Year & Thriving, Lesson Plan Tagged With: homeschoolmultiplechildren, homeschoolplanning, multiple children

3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine

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

Because our living location is temporary right now and our homeschool routine not so routine because of our recent move to South America, I thought I would share 3 easy fixes to recharge your homeschool routine.

These are things that I keep in mind when I have a big change in my life.

Recharge Your Homeschool Routine

Too, it doesn’t take such a huge thing as a move overseas to feel defeated.  Some days when the boys were all very young, just a move from their bed to the living room was enough for chaos to follow and my well planned routine go out the window.  

You hope as they get to the teen years that it gets better.  Okay, you do get a break, but even as teens they need a recharge for their routine.

If you are feeling a bit defeated in your new routine, try these easy fixes to bring some peace back into your day.

The Challenge

Easy Fix 1.
Try a new location. 

If there is anything that can breathe life into your day, it is changing where you and your kids do school. 

The old kitchen table has stood the test of time, but sometimes we just need to pull back from it. 

Maybe you’re a rocking chair and porch type of girl. 

Give yourself some room to enjoy spending part of the day where you like to be.  Especially this time of the year when the weather is a bit cooler, you can start part of your school day outside. 

Then, when you do come inside to the kitchen table, everybody will be much more relaxed. 

If you have teens, you know they want to be in their room for part of the day.  But if you have homeschooled them from the beginning or as you do, you will find that teens still look forward to spending some of their day with you.  When Mr. Senior 2013 had those moments, we would move to the living room to read together. 

Here is our new and temporary location until we find a home.  It is just a small space in our apartment that I set up to suit them.  Tiny loves sitting on the floor to do his school anyway so he thinks this set up is just perfect..

Our makeshift school room

And then moving a few tables around in the apartment, I have set up a place for Mr. Awesome do some of his online classes.  The key is we are together and embracing a new change.

Push Back When Your Routine Gets Crowded

Easy Fix 2.
Stick with a Set Time To Begin Your School Day. 

Though I thrive with having a set time to start school, I have a lot of fellow feeling for those that feel jailed when they hear the words “time management”. 

My simple advice is this: There is nothing more important in your day than your children. 

Though I love all my family and homeschool friends, I try to remember that my children’s education has to be first in the day and not the musings of my family or friends. 

And guess what? Instead of thinking that your not a close friend or “be there for them daughter”, your family and friends, whether they support your homeschool decision or not, will respect the priority placed on time with your children.

Easy Fix 3.
Stop and Reorganize. 

Without adding homeschooling to our day, this world is enough to make us think that if we stop one moment to plan or reorganize that we will waste a time.  It is kind of funny in a way though we may not see it at the time. 

I think about all the focus we put on curriculum and not enough on the help we will get with supper, clothes washing or bill paying.

One of my back to school chores includes emptying my pantry or kitchen cabinets

One year, somehow I had hoarded collected 9 pie plates.  Not in any dinner I make would I ever make 9 pies to go with it. 

But the fact, they were taking up room in my cabinets was taking up space in my mind and weighing me down. 

It was completely stressful and a waste of time in making dinner when I would have to reshuffle those 9 pie pans each time to get the pans I needed to actually start supper with. 

Why do we do put up with tiny time zappers that turn huge over time?

You may have another room bothering you. For me, it’s always the kitchen that I make time to organize so that I save time.

A homeschool routine is not about scheduling every block or minute, but only the important ones.  Not everything on your list for the day is urgent.  It’s important, but there is a difference.

Whether you have temporary circumstances like me right now or you are feeling a bit defeated, push back when your routine gets crowded. 

Instead of planning your whole day, plan to get started.  It is so worthwhile.

  • Should You Switch to a 4-Day Homeschool Schedule?
  • Homeschool Organization – Preschool/Kindergarten Free Morning Routine Flip Cards

Hugs and love ya,

3 Easy Fixes to Recharge Your Homeschool Routine


2 CommentsFiled Under: Schedule/Balance Home & School Tagged With: homeschool, homeschool challenges, homeschool lifestyle, homeschool schedules, homeschoolchallenges, homeschoolplanning, schedules

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