Choosing to homeschool your children can be one of the hardest decisions to make. Our Homeschool Binder helps you and your students gather everything together in one binder to stay organized this year.
To those that choose to homeschool, kudos to you and your dedication. Making the hard decision to choose a curriculum and teach/guide your student through their academic path can be rewarding and exhausting – all at once!
Although we didn’t choose to homeschool our son, we did have him in online school for the last five years of his academic career. We also surrounded ourselves with a lot of homeschooling friends through our military life. Staying on track and organized is what kept us sane and on task. Creating this Homeschool Planner was done with all of my homeschool friends in mind, along with our readers who are making this extremely difficult choice this fall.
The Decision to Homeschool is Hard
I saw this FANTASTIC meme floating around (there is no author or credit given on it. If someone finds out, please let me know as I would love to give them a shout out!!) I wish this was out and about when we made the hard decision to do online school. Our non-traditional choice wasn’t met with a lot of support at the time. So here’s to all you awesome families out there making those hard decisions, this year and every year. This one’s for you!
Let’s begin practicing this now:
When a friend says they are sending their kids back to school….
“Man, I’m so proud of you, I know it wasn’t easy to make that decision.”
When a friend says they are going to do virtual learning…..
“Man, I’m so proud of you, I know it wasn’t easy to make that decision.”
When a friend says they are homeschooling their kids…..
“Man, I’m so proud of you, I know it wasn’t easy to make that decision.”
🏫 Homeschool Planner (9 Pages)
Included in this homeschool planner is everything you need to get yourself organized this year. Keep these documents as records of your accomplishments and guide your path going forward. You can use one page or all nine pages. Either way, let’s get organized this year!
Homeschool Goals
First and foremost, it’s important for you and your family to set out some goals as to what you want to accomplish by homeschooling. That might seem like a “duh” statement but many of my homeschooling friends did not set up goals and just dove in without a lot of planning. That led to disorganization and frustration. Sit down and figure out what you want, and what your children need.
Vision Board
It’s an awesome idea to start kids out working on a vision board early on. Have them draw pictures or cut out photos from magazines and stick on there on their vision of what their homeschooling life will look like. Encourage them to keep adjusting it as time goes on. They will learn and grow and some of their expectations may change, which is great.
Homeschool Schedule
Once you’ve got the goals down, set out a schedule and keep to it. Kids do better with a consistent routine and as parents, it’s in our own best interest to offer that stability. Set it up together. You’ll probably need to retain veto power, but it is important for your kids to be involved in setting it up. My son was a late-morning kid. He did much better if he could sleep in a little bit. My husband focuses much better first thing in the morning. Find times that work best for you and your kids. Set it to action and evaluate if it works. It’s not a “hit and stick” situation. Try stuff out and see what works best for your family.
Homework Chart
This is a great tool for older students. They should learn the art of planning their days to accomplish their homework. Work with your student to develop a plan for them to complete homework after hours. While this helps reinforce what they learned with you, it also helps them manage their own schedules and balance sports, friends, entertainment and school work. Many brick and mortar schools expect students to do homework everyday and they will need to manage their time effectively in college. Help them learn this skill early.
Reading Log
All little ones need to keep track of what and how much they are reading. It is important to log those minutes and pages. Keep these pages stored in your binder so you can reference them later. Have your student fill in the remarks area with what they liked, didn’t like, if they would recommend it to others and why. Critical thinking is just as important as logging time and/or pages.
Grade Tracker
This is vital to keep track of grades so you can create transcripts. Maintaining a one-stop shop for grades with this binder will eliminate your stress. As an added benefit, it sets a great example for your students on the importance of organization.
Idea Board
This one is set up differently than the Vision Board in that both the parent and the student can use it differently. The kids can use it to come up with ideas to complete assignments, topics they want to dig deeper into, books or series they want to read and more. The parents should use it to record thoughts and ideas of how to get concepts across, topics to study deeper or keep it near the computer to jot ideas from the online homeschool groups.
Activity Calendar
Homeschool kids are busy! They have very active lives with functions on most days and it is hard to keep track of all of the activities. This calendar can be used for each kiddo to help guide a flow for the family so everyone can coordinate activities.
Cleaning Chart
This one is not always used but it is so important to have the kids become part of the cleaning crew in your family. We all make the messes, we all need to clean them up.
Coming Soon: First Day of School Signs for Virtual, Distance Learning and Hybrid
🖨️ How to Print
Step One: We’ll email you the file.
Please note that this is for personal use only.
Step Two: Open the file in your pdf software and choose FILE and then PRINT.
Step Three: Select the Portrait Orientation and Full Page. Choose the pages you would like to use and print them.
Step Four: Use a Three Hole Punch to add them to your binder.
Hi!
Ginny Collins is a passionate foodie and recipe creator of Savor and Savvy and Kitchenlaughter. Indoors she focuses on easy, quick recipes for busy families and kitchen basics. Outdoors, she focuses on backyard grilling and smoking to bring family and friends together. She is a lifelong learner who is always taking cooking classes on her travels overseas and stateside. Her work has been featured on MSN, Parade, Fox News, Yahoo, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and many local news outlets. She lives in Florida where you will find her outside on the water in her kayak, riding her bike on trails, and planning her next overseas adventure.
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