I’ve been messing around with some ideas for this free homeschool planner. I put together a new look, and I thought I’d share it with you. Right now, it has a cover, a weekly planner page, and 4 unit planning pages. I may add to it as I get time, so if there’s anything you’d like to see, email me or leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.
Click here to download the free homeschool planner. Feel free to share, but I’d appreciate if you link to my blog as the source. Thanks, and enjoy!
I love getting a glimpse behind the scenes of someone else’s household, not just for curiosity-sake but for ideas. So, I’m offering up the same privilege. Here’s the behind the scenes look at our schedule for mornings and homeschool. Yours doesn’t need to match mine; but if you’re wondering how to “fit it all in,” here’s my routine for some ideas.
begins at 5:30 a.m. with a cup of coffee and the Lord. This is my hour of power, my time to meet with God for those new mercies He’s promised to give each morning. I spend time studying the Word (I’m in Romans, currently) and praying.
At 6:30, my ipod alarm sounds for me to jump in the shower. I have thirty minutes here to make myself presentable, and another 15 minutes or so to get breakfast for everyone. Then, at 7:15-ish I wake the kids and have them dress and make their beds before coming down for breakfast. Their “chores” are simple: brush their teeth and hair, make bed and put pajamas away, sweep crumbs under the table or wipe the bathroom counters.
Our school “bell” goes off at 8 a.m., and everyone is expected to be on time.
starts with prayer and our calendar time in our upstairs space. Then, we bring our boxes downstairs to the table for “Memory Period.” This is my time to go over our memory work: Bible, Latin, and History. Most of this is set to music, so in essence, we sing different songs and chants for about 15-20 minutes.
Bible: Teach them the Faith catechism songs and their AWANA work
Latin: Song School Latin songs
History: some flashcard facts (using an ipod app) and our timeline chant (Veritas Press timeline facts from a youtube video)
We end this period with any particular announcements that I need to make to both of them about their work.
Oldest goes off to do his independent work and his Reflex math game (for math facts review). Middlest begins her time with me. We start with her math and finish with phonics, reading, and cursive. I also assign an art project or motor skills activity for her to complete during my time with Oldest.
Middlest begins her project/activity while Oldest begins his time with me. (When Middlest finishes, she has the rest of the hour for recess up in her room.) We go over his work pages that he did during his independent time and cover new concepts. Then, we move on to his language arts—phonics, spelling, and grammar on alternating days. We’ll finish with some reading if we have time, if not we save his reading for a break later in the day or after lunch.
Sometimes Oldest’s time takes a little longer, so I keep this time a little flexible from day-to-day. During this time, we’re back together. And it’s time for some hot cocoa! We go over some very basic map work (from Story of the World [SOTW]), and I start their SOTW audio lesson. Usually, we’ll do a coloring page or other activity during the story or after it is finished. I’ll also ask some review questions after the story to highlight what I want them to remember (and to make sure they listened).
Following the audio, we’ll do a read-aloud from the Tapestry curriculum. This is either classic literature (i.e. King Arthur) or Church History (biography of Martin Luther). Sometimes I will read, and sometimes Oldest will do some of the reading.
It’s time for our extras. This alternates on different days of the week. Two days are devoted to science, two days to Latin, and one day to art/music.
On a good day, we’re done! On other days, we’ll wrap up anything left after a lunch recess. But by noon, it’s definitely time for a break.
And what’s the Littlest been up to all this time? He’s either napping or playing with an activity. I try to find at least one special activity for him daily, either from pinterest or from the Flowering Baby curriculum that I have for him. And Middlest loves to play with him for me; she’s a big helper. He wanders in and out of our lessons, sits in my lap or on my hip, goes off to play, sits in his high chair for a snack or some “coloring”, and then takes a nap.
I also have certain ipod activities or activity pages for the kids to do if I get interrupted. When the phone rings, when Littlest needs a diaper change or has gotten into trouble, the kids can stay busy for the 3-5 minutes that it takes for me to get everyone settled again.
our schedule varies from day to day. But essentially, the kids play—sometimes with me, sometimes on their own—until about 3 p.m. Then, everyone is down for either naps or quiet time. Most of the time, the older two get quiet time, which is a time to work on projects, play in our art bag, or listen to audio stories. This lasts until 4:30 or 5. It’s my time to get a few things done, or welcome people into our home.
Then, 4:30 begins my dinner prep routine, followed by supper, some family time, and bedtime. That’s my day, roughly. There’s always the unexpected that pops up and throws the day off, but this is our go-to, the ideal we are striving for.
Now, I ask that you pray for us. This is a schedule that works well for us, so please pray that we can maintain it as much as possible, and that I have the wisdom to tweak it when needful.
Thanks! It’s good to have friends on this journey.
Last year, I used these really cool wall-adhesive charts to organize my life. But unfortunately, my WallPops did not survive the move. (They adhered to the wax paper and would not come off.) So I was left scrambling at the last minute before the beginning of school wondering how I was going to organize myself.
Thank the Lord for Target! I actually made the trip to look for toy bins for Middlest’s room and happened upon these terrific magnet dry-erase boards.
Of course, with my aversion for putting holes in walls, I hung them with command hooks and adhesives rather than the actual mounting kit. But so far, they seem to be holding well. And I do love to feel organized.
I actually use the calendar to record our school schedule, placing the subjects in the Sunday box and filling in the rest of the days with assignments for that day. This system works really well for me because it’s up on a wall where I can quickly glance to know what to do next with each child, rather than hunting down yet another notebook or loose piece of paper.
The larger week-in-view allows me to highlight specific events or appointments that we have during the week. I update it each week from our Google calendar so that I don’t overlook those important items. It might seem overkill for some people, but it has been a life-saver for me. While we were moving, I really felt lost without this item.
{sigh} So nice to see my life again, neatly arranged in little boxes with brightly colored markers. It helps me feel that everything is in its rightful place.
Remember just a a few days ago?
This was my school room. But I’m so grateful that I can say (with school set to begin in just a couple of days), that our school space is complete! Voila!
My school space has downsized from a full room to a corner cabinet. But I really love the space, and the lessons the Lord is putting to the test: namely, learning can happen anywhere.
We will be doing a lot of our actual work at the kitchen table. Praise the Lord, I had spent tons of time brainstorming ways to streamline our homeschool to make it ready to move. God knew! Both the kids’ daily lessons and my teacher materials are all ready to go in easy to transport containers.
So, are you ready for the official tour?
Our new home is 2-stories, something the kids were super excited about. Apparently, the stairs are the main attraction at our house. And it just so happens, that this cabinet at the top of the stairs was the perfect spot for homeschooling. Though most of the actual work will happen downstairs, I’m leaving a chair upstairs for when one of them might need just a little more peace and seclusion (i.e. Oldest).
The kids each have their own bin that includes a couple of key workbooks and their week’s worth of lessons. {Read more about how I organized their daily assignments.} The bins are grab-and-go ready; their pencil bags, dry erase boards, and other essentials are stored underneath a handy space saver that I used to use for my dishes. (Totally upcycled!)
On the other side are my teacher files and a basket of books for our year. Again, my file includes daily-use items {read more about my amazing teacher file—I love it!}, and the books we can easily grab out and place back as we need them. But, by storing them in this basket, the books didn’t take nearly as much space as if I’d lined them up library-style.
In the middle is our calendar-time charts. We’ve been using these same charts for about three years now, and the kids still love them. The calendar on the right is an A Beka Book product from their homeschool charts. The chart on the left is totally homemade to teach days of the week, chart the weather and seasons, etc.
Of course, inside the cabinets are manipulatives, curriculums, supplies, flashcards, and other fun activities.
On the wall is my magnet board and a Martha Stewart adhesive pocket. The pocket is where the kids turn in their work to me. We used this system last year, and it worked really well. Plus, it takes up way less space than a paper tray.
We magnetize our mapwork, making our map labels with cut up index cards and adhesive magnet tape. Oldest loved learning his maps this way, so my challenge was finding a magnetic place to put his maps. This was my board last year, but I sacrificed it—for the cause, you know.
Our last feature upstairs is our cork board and posters. Nothing super impressive here, beyond the fact that it is all hung with command hook adhesive. That’s right—no holes.
Oh, and here’s my favorite part of all, folks. This last picture is the view of the upstairs from my couch. Notice what you can see of all of our homeschool stuff.
Nothing! We are totally invisible, flying under the radar. No posters, cork boards, books, nothing. Which means when school is over and stored away for the day, I sink back on my couch with my cup of coffee, look up and say, “Ahhhh.”
The 2013 school year may now happen. I’m ready.
The last stage of my planning process for the new year was organizing the kids’ daily assignments. I used binders and pocket dividers for the weekly assignments last year. These worked fairly well; I liked that the kids could grab the binder and be ready for school on-the-go if necessary. I liked the independence that came from each child knowing what they needed to do without waiting for me. But the pockets did limit me to some extent with what I could put in their notebooks. Certain activities or crafts just didn’t fit.
Then there was the issue of where to keep the rest of their stuff—books, flashcards, charts, rulers, etc. I was totally fed up with wall hanging organizers and was ready for something new.
Here’s my solution. These open file boxes are economical and sturdy (got mine from Staples). Each child has 8 files; five for daily assignments, one for language charts and flashcards, one for math charts and flashcards, and one for completed assignments (until we can cull through them and throw them away). Plus, there’s room for their binders, notebooks, and school paraphernalia.
Inside the daily files (one for each day of our school week), I can distribute the assignments from my weekly file into their daily file. Reading books that I’ve assigned for Oldest can go inside the file for the appropriate day. Crafts for Middlest can fit in her files.
I’ve also provided each child with one pocket divider inside their notebooking binder; that way, they can easily pull assignments from their file and load into their pocket when we have to take school on the road.
{Sigh} It feels great to have my school room under control again. Let’s hope the implementation is as much fun as setting it up has been.
Other posts of interest:
Part 1 of my lesson planning system for the new year was my digital planner Homeschool Helper on my Nook. Part 2 of my system is taking those plans and filing them.
Here’s my filing system, 36 hanging files (one for each week of the year).
Inside each file is the following:
Another aspect to my planning this year has been to make playlists for our memory work. My kids LOVE music, thus much of our memory work is to music. We’re doing Teach Them the Faith catechism songs for Bible this year, Song School Latin, and then the audio stories from Story of the World. I’ve sorted each of these into playlists for the first unit. At the start of each new unit, I’ll make more playlists to accommodate this system. But this way, I don’t have to have it all on my ipod at the same time, just what we need for that week.
What happens from here? Check back. I’ll share the next step in my process soon.
I really liked my system last year of writing each week on my dry-erase wall calendar. But with Middlest starting some real school (K5 here we come!), I’m going to have to add her to my wall, something I did not do last year.
Solution: different colors of wet-erase markers. I chose wet-erase because I could find a finer point marker for a cheaper price than I could dry-erase. I’ve been very pleased with these, and the wet erase has worked fine so far.
But I did want to be a little more structured in my long term planning. I did virtually no long term planning last year, which added more weekly prep time. My solution has two parts to it. I’ll tell you one part of the solution today and keep you in suspense on the second half.
Homeschool HelperI’ve tried several different digital planners in the past and didn’t like any of them in the long run, but this one has enough flexibility that I think it will be a winner. It’s very easy to use and set up, and I can use my Nook Color! What a plus!
I can set up my lesson plans digitally and back it up on their website; I can email and print the lessons and reports to file in the second half of my system; then I’ll take out the plan and write it on my wall each week so that I’ll be sure to look at it.
Homeschool Helper tracks lessons, attendance, field trips, book lists, and grades with customized reports for each of those. The reports are very easily created, emailed, etc.
Of course, if you get behind because someone is sick, well—you’re either behind or you have to reset all of your dates. But the second half of my system should take care of this for me.
I’ve loved being able to use my Nook. I’ve really liked how easy the system has been to use, and I like being able to see it a glance what everything looks like together. Besides, it’s pretty!
As the year progresses, I’ll give you an update on whether it is still working for me. But for right now at the planning stage, I’ve really liked it.
Stay tuned for part 2 when I reveal the second half of my system.
