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This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for more information.
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 – 2012, Tara Ziegmont. All rights reserved.
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{ 61 comments… read them below or add one }
To have even more fun than we did last year, more relaxed learning and more field trips! Thanks for the chance to win an awesome planner too.
bamagv at aol dot com
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bamagv at aol dot com
For the upcoming school year, my daughter has been accepted into a Dual Immersion program learning Chinese. She’ll have 2 teachers, and I’m praying that it will go well. My son will be starting preschool.
But additionally the idea of Homeschooling has been on my heart. I’m terrified that I won’t follow through or fail them somehow.
So my husband and I decided to supplement their learning this year with additional educational activities starting before they go back to school in August. If we feel that they respond well to it, we may do full time or part time homeschooling. It’s all up in the air.
Thanks for the chance to win! I’d love to get a good look at this!
I am working on daily plans right now. I have a semester overview done. I have been looking for a daily planner so this is very exciting!
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My plans are to homeschool my oldest fro preschool! I hope we do great!
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I subscribed Jennifer-d-fox@comcast.net
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Ahhhhhh, I have no idea what I’m doing for September. We have yet to decide if we’ll start homeschooling my oldest…such a tough decision when we’re leaving our other 2 in school. How do we set up a great environment that works for everyone without anyone feeling left out from either the home schooling or the school schooling? It’ll be a scramble come September and I’m grateful that there are so many great resources out there such as these.
We’re going to be homeschooling our preschooler this year. I’m working on getting websites bookmarked, printables printed and laminated if they need to be…all on top of getting my older boys ready for school (they’ll stay in public school, for now)
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I’m an email subscriber mjtsmami at gmail dot com
My plan for the coming year is to implement French into our studies. I pray that I can do this.
My plans are to change things up this year. My kids are in 4th, 3rd and 1st grade this year and last year was kind of monotonous. Mostly because I was pregnant (gave birth in March) and was so tired. I’m planning to change some stuff and get them more excited about school this year.
I’m am researching many options to homeschool my three kids. Also buying up different meson plans to try. Organizing is not one of my strongest traits. But I love the kids and want the best and I think that this will be it.
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This year I am planning on being more organized. We just started home schooling last February (2011) so it is all new to me. My son is 10 years old and we are so excited about continuing to learn new things together. I attended a Home School Expo yesterday and got so much new information to get me more organized and prepared for the challenges that await me this year. The “Weekly Home School Planner” from Homeschool Creations looks like an excellent way to help with my organization tasks. Thanks for sharing it!!
Amy
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I tweeted your contest
For the upcoming school year ( I have a 2.5 year old and 3.5 year old), we will be using the Mother Goose Time Curriculum as well as their new experience Pre-K literacy program. And with my son, I will be using Handwriting Without Tears, and Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.
oh man…I’m a planner, so what haven’t I done? I have: ordered, received, sorted and organized all the curriculum for this coming school year; figured out how many days/hours each subject will require and planned out a basic daily schedule to complete each one; applied to and paid for our co-op…there’s more but that’s all I can come up with right now! :)
I just liked you on facebook! :)
We’ve already started our homeschool year, so our plan is to continue, taking off the week of Thanksgiving through the new year!!
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We are currently cleaning up where our classroom will be and picking out goals. This will be our first year HS!
We have bought our curriculum and I have given it a quick overview. I am going to look at it more carefully the 1st week of August and then we will start school mid-August. I am not the best at planning either to be honest.
We have bought our curriculum and I have given it a quick overview. I am going to look at it more carefully the 1st week of August and then we will start school mid-August. I am not the best at planning either to be honest.
We’re going to be adding a preschooler and a 2 year old who thinks she’s a preschooler into the mix this year, so my “plans” are just a little bit iffy right now. I’ve never done multiple levels before. I know what kinds of things we’re going to be doing, but I have yet to figure out how it’s going to actually all fit in a day. A well-designed planner would be great to have!
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We have planned out the curriculum that we are using for next year for the major subjects! Fortunately, in our state, we don’t have many record keeping requirements. Since our oldest will be in 1st grade, I need to keep track of what we are doing better!
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So far I have picked out all the subjects and curriculum for my 3 children. I’m waiting for all the books to come in before I sit down and finish planning out what our school days will look like.
I follow Feels Like Home on facebook.
I’m new to your site but love it! I am starting my first year of homeschooling! I’ve got all of my curriculum and next week I’m cleaning out and organizing the closet that will house our homeschool shelf!
I have most of my curriculum picked out, now in the planning stages!
Year 2, here we go! Still feel like a newbie at this.. (3rd grader, 3 year old and 20 month old)
Your site is great! I also liked you on FB.
I am new at this homeschooling thing. I am a full time working mom that come September will start homeschooling my kindergartener. I could use any help I can get. I am now a fan on FB.
Curriculum for all 3 boys have been purchased.
Decluttering the School Room this week.
I NEED to get organized because my boys thrive with structure.
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I subscribe.
I have been homeschooling for many years and I still am looking for a good planner. This seems to be it!!
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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Subscribed to you site.
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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We are going to learn about space this year! My boys are very excited!
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