by Beverley Paine
It’s that time of year again – next year is looming fast and we’re itching to get organised before the holiday season starts in earnest. We’re addicted to home educating our children! Or perhaps it’s easier to relax knowing we have made some plans or taken some simple steps to make the transition from holiday to homeschool easier next year.
On my Homeschool
Australia Facebook group people have been asking for links to homeschool
planners, journals and calendars. There are some excellent ones available, some
even as free downloads.
Years ago I thought carefully about
creating a planner for home educating families. I created my own and found they
changed from year to year –or even more frequently! I found that what we did
and how we did it morphed too often to stick to any one particular format. In
my book Getting Started with Homeschooling Practical Considerations I've
included examples of how we recorded and planned our home educating journey,
and my daughter April also sells copies of my Learning Naturally and Weekly
Homeschooling Diaries, as well as my Home Education Report Folders. At present
they are only available in printed versions from Always Learning Books.
A lot of the planners available are way
to school for me! I ordered one in the early nineties and was promptly daunted
by all the recording options and started to feel very insecure about home educating
my children. Do my own, starting simple by creating checklists using contents
and chapter headings from student workbooks and text books, plus creating daily
and weekly ‘contracts’ suited our learning centre styled approach to home
education in those early years. I found that if there were too many pages to
complete I felt overwhelmed. Since then I’ve recognised the value of having an
attendance sheet or roll book, but I like the idea a friend said to me a few years
ago – simply initial the wall calendar, the same calendar on which you record
all the excursions and outings and appointments.
Keep it simple, keep it tailored to your needs. Make recording a breeze by thinking carefully about what you need and want to remember and why.
Keep it simple, keep it tailored to your needs. Make recording a breeze by thinking carefully about what you need and want to remember and why.
If you are looking to buy or download a
planner, have a look at these ones created by very experienced home educating
mothers!
First the Aussie creators of homeschool
planners!
Michelle from Homeschool Downunder is a
personal friend – we’ve met many times and I love how she keeps putting it out
there, like me, helping other families build confidence teaching their children
from home. She produces many resources, not only homeschool planners. Check out
her article How
to Make Your Own Homeschool Planner, or purchase her downloadable planner: http://www.homeschoolingdownunder.com/Notebooking_homeschool_resources/pretty_homeschool_planner.html
Design –Your-Homeschool is another great
Aussie site with lots of information to help you get started. They are running
a ‘give away’ of their planner in exchange for filling out a survey: http://www.design-your-homeschool.com/homeschool-freebies.html#.UMw8taynQnj
Not quite Australian, but almost... I met Stephanie in Auckland when we
visited that lovely country a few years ago. She hosted an information evening
about home education with myself as main speaker and Robin and I stayed with
her lovely family. Like me, Stephanie has older children and is now officially ‘retired’
–about as retired as passionate people like us can be! Stephanie’s Homeschool
Family Life website is awesome. She is a huge fan of the approach Charlotte
Mason took to education and her CM resources and courses are well worth
considering. I particularly like her Homeschool Planner and am setting it up so
April can sell them through Always Learning Books, but don't wait, but it from
Stephanie! Here is the link to the homeschool planner. http://www.hfl-store.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=62.
Heading overseas, mainly to the USA, we have a plethora of planners from which to choose:
Money Saving Mom is offering a free
customizable homeschool planner too. It looks a little generic to me – pretty basic
stuff but great for saving time because you don’t have to create something yourself.
And it is a useful starting point for modifying something that will suit your
needs better: http://moneysavingmom.com/2011/07/free-downloadable-homeschool-planners.html
The Home Educating Family Association
has a selection of planners for 2013 that look quite attractive: available from
http://betashop.homeeducatingfamily.com/productlist.cfm?category=1.
Donna Young has been producing downloads
for home educators for over a decade, maybe longer! If you are looking at
planners then there are some great ones on her site: http://donnayoung.org/forms/. It’s an
USA site so some pages might not be relevant, but I’m sure there will be plenty
there to not only use but give you ideas as to how you can set up your own to
suit your particular homeschooling needs. Donna includes helpful articles on
her site too.
Notebooking
Nook offers a large download file with
lots of Homeschool Planning Pages
Olly
Homeschool produces the Organised Life and Learning Yearbook. This looks rather
interesting… The blurb on their page makes this look like THE comprehensive
recording regime for home educating families. And in an online format! If you
decide to purchase this one, I’d love to know what you think of it and how
effective and appropriate it was in meeting your needs. http://www.ollyhomeschool.com/
There
are other planners out there – just Google ‘homeschool planners’ and scroll
through the pages. There is plenty of choice. Many look very similar, some look
outstanding. I guess as with most things you get what you pay for, but even if
money isn’t tight, definitely take a look at the free downloadable planners.
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