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We are new to homeschooling. I just stopped working in the last few months, and we were very loose and child-led this past year.
However. Grace just turned 4, and we are beginning a daily pre-k program (at home) in September.
In short, I need to get organized and start planning.
When Joe and I decided to homeschool the girls, we knew that it would be a lot of work. The work is not daunting. The paperwork and the organization are very, very daunting, though, because I’m not an organized person by nature.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
When I was teaching full time, I had page after page of lesson plans filed in a notebook. I planned by unit, listing out the essential question I wanted the students to be able to answer, the introductory activity, any vocabulary activities, the learning activities, and then the assessment. My system worked really well for my high school classroom, but I wasn’t sure how it would translate into my homeschool classroom.
Over the summer, I have been recording our books read (along with author and # of chapters/minutes) on a simple reading log that I created, but my reading log would not be sufficient for the school year ahead.
I reached out to Jolanthe, whose site, Homeschool Creations, has provided me with tons of activities and printables on themes from Peter Pan to handwriting to the solar system to pirates. It’s all cool stuff that kids like to learn about. 
I knew that Jolanthe had created a homeschool planner that could help me get organized for the coming school year.
Her Weekly Homeschool Planner is awesome. It features all of the following:
- Instructions – a must for a newbie like me
- A page to record your state and school district’s requirements
- Standardized testing results
- Attendance pages with check boxes – one page per kid per school year
- Monthly calendars
- Weekly planning pages that look very similar to the weekly plan book I’m used to (plus 6 boxes per week to record special information like field trips, PE, books read as a family, and more)
- Curriculum pages – broken down by child so that you can see exactly what you’ve purchased, acquired, and used
- Yearly plans and evaluations
- Field trip and special event planning
- Chore charts – these are set up with checkboxes for kids to mark off when they’ve completed the activities you specify for them to do. You can fill in just chores, just school stuff, or a combination. It’s broken down by morning and afternoon, too.
- Menu planner & daily docket to keep mom organized
- Special preschool planning pages
- Additional resources
- Contact info so that it’s handy when you need it
- Several lined pages for notes to yourself
The best part about Jolanthe’s Weekly Homeschool Planner? It’s a fully editable PDF file. You can edit and save your information. The PDF works just like a Word document; you can type in it, save, and come back to work on it again later. You could print the whole thing and have it bound or just work from your computer screen.
To see the editable pages in action, scroll the whole way to the bottom of the Weekly Homeschool Planner page. There’s a link to download sampe pages and sample editable pages.
Win a copy of the Weekly Homeschool Planner!
Jolanthe is giving a copy of her Weekly Homeschool Planner to one lucky Feels Like Home reader. All you have to do to enter is answer this question in a comment:
What plans have you made for the coming school year?
For extra entries:
- Like Feels Like Home on Facebook and leave a comment about it
- Subscribe to Feels Like Home via RSS or email and leave a comment about it
- Follow Feels Like Home on Google Friend Connect and leave a comment about it
- Tweet about this giveaway including @FeelsLikeHome and the link (only once)
Good luck! I’ll choose a winner randomly from the comments after noon on July 16.
I received a copy of the Weekly Homeschool Planner in order to complete this review. This post contains affiliate links. I will receive a small referral fee if you make a purchase through those links; your price for the item remains the same whether you purchase through my link or by going to the site yourself.
© 2011, Feels Like Home Blog™. All rights reserved.
This website uses affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.
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I have 3 boys ages 13, 10, and 4 1/2 with a baby coming late ts fall. My plan is to homeschool my 4 year old sending my big boys to school.
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I am planning on doing Who is God for our Worldview class and got my Skills classes mapped out.
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I tweeted this giveaway.
It sounds like you’re well on your way to an organized homeschool experience! You may also want to check out a program called Homeschool Tracker to keep track of grades. I have been using it for several years now, and I really like it. Their website is homeschooltracker.com.
Jane
frugalfineliving.com
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