Starting Out: Homeschool Planning

Those who are new to homeschooling may find the entire process a little overwhelming at first. That includes homeschool planning. Many homeschoolers design their homeschool planning around their local school system’s calendar consisting of school weeks that run for approximately nine months. However, homeschoolers don’t always have to follow this rule. After all, homeschooling allows you to have more control and flexibility in managing your family’s time. You can plan longer or shorter school weeks, depending on your preference.
What are some things you should consider when homeschool planning?

Consider the number of days/time you need to fulfill your state’s requirements. Most parents prefer homeschooling from Mondays to Fridays. Some like to school in the morning, others homeschool in the afternoon and evenings. If you like, you can schedule your homeschool on different days and even longer – it’s entirely up to you.

Once you have decided on the timing and length of your homeschooling, then start creating your homeschool calendar. When will your year start? When will it end? Will you follow the local school schedule in regards to days off, teacher work days, and holiday breaks? Thanksgiving? Christmas? Winter break? Spring break? Those decisions are all up to you!

The number of hours for any given school day can depend on the curriculum you need to cover that day. Some days may be shorter while others may also be longer. You could also vary your homeschool days depending upon the age of your children. The daily schedule for early learners may start out shorter and gradually increase as your children get older and the curriculum topics increase in complexity and number.

Homeschool laws in most states lay out a minimum number of teaching hours per school day, usually a minimum of three hours. Some schools, however, hold more than three hours of teaching for each school day. Homeschooling gives you the flexibility to maximize the time needed for teaching your child. You may actually find that your child will learn more in just a few hours of teaching at home than he/she would have in a full day in a traditional school setting.

When done properly, homeschool planning is can be extremely helpful in having a successful homeschool year. The key, though, is to keep a consistent pace and follow what you have carefully laid out in your homeschool plan so that you can achieve the best possible results.
Kelly Ling is a work-at-home, homeschooling mother of five. She has mentored many homeschooling and work-at-home moms over the past eighteen years. Kelly also owes a home-based web design business. When not doing web design, she is constantly updating some of her homeschooling/work-at-home websites – Homeschool-Articles, Homeschool Top Sites, and others.

Source: http://www.homeschool-articles.com/starting-out-homeschool-planning/

Tags: new homeschoolers, new to homeschooling, starting homeschool

One concern new homeschoolers often face is how to finance their children’s education now that they have decided to homeschool their children. There are many choices facing the homeschool family and some may feel that they must pay a fortune for curriculum packages. Although it is an option for some, the cost of a great curriculum package may be just too overwhelming for others. So how can you provide a great curriculum and low and practically no cost? There are several ways
The first thing you have to do is seek out what your state standards are. Typically, if you type “state standards for (your state), you will get a list of what your child needs like phonics, multiplication, or world history, that will help you when you go shopping for school books. Make sure that you keep a list of what type of book you will need so you do not forget some ones or over buy for another. This works particularly well when you are seeking your curriculum for multiple grades. The library not only lends out books but they quite often have sales and they sell great stuff for super cheap. Also, if you let them know you are a teacher, you get a teacher’s card which entitles you to get more books and keep them longer.
Then you need to go shopping: One way to beat the cost of an expensive curriculum is to seek curriculum at yard sales, thrift and antique stores or used book stores. You can find all kinds of fun and interesting books for kids of all ages. Sometimes you will find old science books tossed away from the schools because the school system deems the book obsolete. I have some great science books geared for fourth grade and it is a great book. Science is science and grammar is grammar so if you find a grammar book from the 50’s through the 80’s, you found a gold mine. Remember, the books in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s were not as liberal as they are today so you do not have to worry about your children being indoctrinated with the scary stuff out there today. In the days of old, kids did not write in the books. They copied from book to paper. So make sure that your class is supplied with plenty of paper and pencils.
Another way to finance a low cost curriculum is to keep your eyes peeled for used curriculum sales. Many homeschool groups ban together and create a sale of their old or unused stuff. These sales are held at churches, private schools, people’s homes, coffee shops and even the park. Most of the times the curriculum is either untouched or softly used and is found at bargain pricing.
The best way to find a budget curriculum is on the internet. When I started this adventure over 18 years ago, there was not nearly the amount of options we have today. Back when I started, you really needed to have some sort of work book or curriculum based material or you basically had no school. Today, the homeschool movement is changing and growing at such a rapid pace that it is fun to find new, interesting and challenging ways to educate your kids. It’s easy to find and grab your curriculum right off the net. I love that much of what you find is absolutely free. In fact, much of my curriculum comes from the computer and goes straight to the printer printing out teachers keys as well. You could literally grab an entire year of curriculum for free and all you pay is to print. The internet provides all sorts of free interactive games, puzzles and virtual learning that make it fun for kids to do school. Don’t forget that the internet also provides interactive help for parents through Facebook and homeschool groups. Amazingly, there are also free curriculum based sites that have a complete curriculum following the state standards for each grade level. Your child goes through this online school completing each assignment some on the computer and some get printed out. The free program makes it easy to track your child’s progress. There are also a few pay sites on the internet that teach the subjects you are unsure of. Many of them are reasonably priced and they not only teach your students but they keep track of the testing and grading making it easier for you to concentrate on other areas of your schooling. This is a great way of supplementing your free or budget curriculum to give you the most out of your money.
As you can see, there are many alternatives to paying high prices for curriculum. So, if you are on a budget and you are wondering how in the heck you’re going to afford to pay for curriculum, now you will know you doesn’t have to.
I am Lisa Dingman and I hope I have encouraged, inspired and enlightened you to all the possibilities homeschooling has to offer. Need more tips and advice? Visit me at Lisadingman.com and click the homeschooling link for my favorite free schooling links and homeschooling help designed to help you!

What an amazing call this was! In honor of the LOVE holiday Valentines Day February 14, we decided to show you 14 ways to develop a love for homeschooling. Now I love homeschooling and if you asked my kids they would say they love to home school as well. What a beautiful thing! Not only do my kids just love homeschooling but they just love to learn. How wonderful is that?

Well we wanted to make sure you and your children love to homeschool as well. If you or your kids are not loving your homeschool, I hope that these tips help you and your kids learn how to absolutely love homeschooling.

Enjoy!


Coffee Club Call for February

See some great footage of children mimicking parents

Are you looking for a great support group?

A.V_Christian_ Homeschooling has a great group of ladies located in the Antelope Valley. Focusing on Co-ops and Christ centered learning this group of ladies really know how to get things going. Field trips, outings, Friends and Fun Fridays and more. Come meet some new friends in the AV.

Homeschool Explorers of Santa Clarita is an energetic group of moms dedicated to encouraging and uplifting their fellow homeschooing friends. Outings with Tracker Rob and fun parties put on by the moms makes this a great group to get involved in. This group has great Co-op opportunities and plenty of support and encouragement.

Tags: coffee club, coffee club call, encouragement, family, home school, homeschool, kids, parents looking for help, resources, school help, school tips, teaching, teaching methods, training

Welcome to a new year!

We wanted to start this year helping you stay on track and get focused in the New Year. Sometimes having focus and remaining on track can be a difficult challenge. Especially when we have distractions like the holidays.

But for some, the holiday’s only bring more distraction to an already distracted homeschool. If you are having difficulties getting schooling done and assignments finished or you find you are constantly distracted by one thing or another, you want to get on this call! I will share with you 5 simple tricks you can do that will help keep your homeschool on track, keep you focused and show you how to stop distractions cold.

Enjoy the Call!


Coffee Club for Jan

Are you looking for a great support group?

A.V_Christian_ Homeschooling has a great group of ladies located in the Antelope Valley. Focusing on Co-ops and Christ centered learning this group of ladies really know how to get things going. Field trips, outings, Friends and Fun Fridays and more. Come meet some new friends in the AV.

Homeschool Explorers of Santa Clarita is an energetic group of moms dedicated to encouraging and uplifting their fellow homeschooing friends. Outings with Tracker Rob and fun parties put on by the moms makes this a great group to get involved in. This group has great Co-op opportunities and plenty of support and encouragement.

Tags: coffee club, coffee club call, encouragement, home school, homeschool, homeshcool, kids, resources, school help, teaching, teaching methods

Hello everyone!

Unfortunately we had some hick-ups this morning and we lost about the first 4 minutes of the call. The first four minutes are a bit garbled but the call is clear after that. We had an awesome Q and A session afterwards so make sure you stay tuned through the end of the call.

I am so excited to share this call with you today. If you are someone who homeschools with babies, toddlers or multiple aged children, this call is intended for you. Thank you to the moms who were on the call and who shared their stories with you in hopes that they may encourage, inspire and empower YOU!

We many resources to share with you today so sit back enjoy the call and come back here to pick up your list of resources.

Don’t forget to leave a reply to let me know what you think about the call.

Coffee Club Call for November

Finally, Lisa C from the Antelope Valley shared a wealth of information with us. In fact, too much to cover on the call! Although we skimmed the surface of what she had to say, she had a lot more to share. This is her unedited list of suggestions. Please keep in mind that she wrote this up all very quickly for YOU and it may have some spelling and grammar mistakes because she did not have time to edit. We will see if we can do that at a later date but I felt the information was far to valuable to wait. Enjoy!

Lisa began her homeschool journey with a 4 month old, an 18 month old, 5 year old and 7 year old, but they had just moved across the country to a new town with no local support And she was brand new to homeschooling. This lady is going to offer you so many tips that you are surly going to come away from this call feeling, empowered, inspired and encouraged.

I truly hope these ideas will be an encouragement~

STAY HOME

I found that we cannot homeschool if we are away from home too much. Yes outtings can be a break for mom and kids, but I have found real learning happens mostly at home.

If you are going on outings to avoid a discipline problem with a toddler or school aged child, deal with it. Keep working on the issue ( we have had to for weeks some times and seem to also revisit them more than I would like). But keep working on it. Your consistency at home will make home life much more enjoyable.

And if you are going on outings because you do not like to stay at home for several days in a row, work on that muscle much like building up your strength. It is hard at first, but if you slowly cut out unnecessary outings little by little and dive into the fun areas of schooling that you like, maybe crafts, reading fun literature, nature study in your back yard, or cooking different foods with your kids, you will find a new love for being at home with your children.

STAY CONNECTED

Stay connected with your extended family, homeschool group, church. We move lots so I have many long distance relationships with other military wives who I can send a “need your prayer” email or just ask for advice. It is so important to take the time to just send short notes to these and other friends so that you keep in touch. (this was also sooooo very important for me when my husband was deployed in the past)

SPEND A LITTLE TIME RESEARCHING

I have found researching what we are learning and differings ways to homeschool (via books or the internet) is such an immeasurable source of encouragement for me. My favorites for daily encouragement is www.aholyexperience.com and www.generationcedar.com Both of these mothers have great info about homeschooling but more importantly I love their honesty and encouragement in dealing with the daily struggles in raising children for the Lord.

JOYFUL HOME ATMOSPHERE

Keeping my mind focused on depending on His quiet strength has been so important when you are sleep deprived or just plain exhausted from so many demands of schooling, a young baby and many home needs – like laundry, meals and just getting everyone tubbed and in bed without losing your mind. I love to focus on one verse or words of a hymn that have touched my heart. I find that if I repeat them and keep them close to me, I will live them and not allow the complaining spirit into my mouth which will bring more problems into our home. I also love to listen to lots of instrumental music, like David Nevue, Instrumental Hymnns, even sweet lullabies. They are great for background music for homeschooling your older kids and keeping soft soothing music for your baby. I highly recommend Pandora Radio at www.pandora.com . There is a free 15? hour trial membership but I highly highly recommend purchasing Pandora One, think it costs $30 for one year. We play it ALL DAY on our computer in the living/school room which I can also hear in my kitchen. An amazing variety of music can be found on this site.

TAKE POWER NAPS

A 15 minute nap is like hitting the reset button for me. A must almost everyday right after lunch and then I am good to go for the rest of the day. Sometimes I have taken the nap whilst rocking a baby in a rocking chair to put down for their nap. To keep older kids occupied, I used to put on a short video, but now mostly have them read in our school room and for ones who are not obedient I will have them play in their room for a short time.

AFTERNOON HOMESCHOOL

Feel free to just school after lunch (and your power nap). I found with a 4 month old and an 18 month old we really could get very little done in the am. So I just decided we would only school in the pm hours. I would read the bible and other literature with my older kids in the evenings after babies had gone to bed. Precious quiet hours – use them wisely. We sometimes also did some school on the weekend when Dad was home to help with the babies.

JUST TAKE ABOUT 3 MONTHS of GOALS OUT of the School Calendar

If you plan out your entire year and like to finish all the chapters of a certain curriculum or subject, I highly recommend just ripping out March through May and just spread what you had planned for Sept through February over the entire year. I did not do this at the beginning of our year last year, but sort of learned this as we went through the year realizing that there were so many other pressing priorities and that finishing every curriculum really was not the top priority for that year. Some days it felt like we were just trying to survive the year, but looking back the top priority was growing closer together as a family in the Lord and learning to rely on His strength for our needs. My kids still learned a lot. The summer months are a great time to catch up on some of it. But I am learning that our homeschool is really not about what the curriculum says my child should learn, but how and in what direction the Lord is growing us that year.

Also it is quite helpful to leave one week open each month for “catch up” in material that you simply did not get to but really thought your kids would love. This could be a special extra project in geography or just time to reading to children. It is also breathing time that you do not have to “feel guilty” that you are not homeschooling full time. YOU ARE and do not doubt it.

I also only plan my weeks and not my days. I have an outline sketch of when I would like to do each subject during the week, but find that every week is different and responding to the needs of the entire family causes me to really re-work that puzzle each week. Sure we sometimes do not get to all of our curriculum that I wanted to do because we did not stick to “schedule”, but Saturdays are a wonderful catchup day with Dad home and also will be able to utilize your “catch up” week at the end of the month.

NEVER NEVER COMPARE YOUR FAMILY TO ANOTHER

No matter how much you love what another family is doing and even if they have the same age children as you do, never compare what your family is doing for homeschooling to another. Remember that every family is different and that what the Lord may be teaching your family during this current school year may be different from what another family may be learning. If you see a great idea and think I want to do that, just jot it down on your list of ideas, pray about it and give yourself the freedom to school as you and your husband feel led this year. For me, it is so hard to remember that our homeschool is not about the academics but building and growing our family with the word of the Lord and how it applies to our family this year.

MEMORY WORK IDEA

Another idea that I sort of garnered from reading how children learn and could be a combination of Classical Christian style and Charlotte Mason is the use of Memory Work. This is actually not new material or curriculum. Since children learn material and ideas more quickly from shorter lessons with more repetition/review on the lesson topics, I decided to create what I call our Memory Work page. It is listed by subject with space to write what I want to go over for each subject that week. It may have our current scripture memory verse for bible, a current character trait/habit focus for character, Latin vowel sounds and current vocabulary for our Latin, the planet mnenomics and current vocabulary for our science curriculum and skip counting by 2′s for Math. I also put each weekday’s letter symbols of |M|T|W|Th|F| under each subject so that I could circle the days I reviewed that topic. I aim to review each topic about 3 times a week, but even one review is great for adding these facts to their long term memory. And I don’t sit down with the full curriculum and workbooks or do any worksheets when we go over Memory Work. It can be done at any time of the day, like during lunch, while feeding a baby, in the car or preparing dinner. I usually fill this worksheet out once a week and add to it as we go over new topics and other items that I feel would be better learned with a review. And we usually spend less than 5 minutes some times reviewing a topic. It is only for review and not mastery. And the next time we do “sit down” to actually work on that subject, it has not been a week since we discussed the curriculum.

Another great benefit from our memory work reviews is it gives my children and “instant win”. A homeschooling mom shared with me several years ago to make sure your children “win at something” everyday. Something that they can feel proud about and know that they got it and were successful at. I have found my children’s confidence and excitement for learning has grown tremendously because of our applauding learning a new scripture or poem or just “getting” the correct answer on their Latin flashcards. And of course, with two children trying to guess the correct answer before the other one does, it becomes a fun game.

Lastly, I viewed these infant years as an opportunity for our family to grow closer together. (babies are really only infants for one year and only a toddler for a year! so short a time) Sure you may miss out on activities that are happening in your neighborhood or even homeschool group, but when you look for new ways to learn and have fun as a family in your back yard or even living room, there are amazing blessings for you and your family.

Tags: coffee club, coffee club call, encouragement, family, home school, homeschool, parents looking for help, resources, school help, school tips, teaching, teaching methods, training

Welcome to the coffee club call for Thursday October 7th 2010.

We had a bit of difficulty getting the call done today because I ended up sick, out of town and without my notes. Talk about needing to get more organized!

This is a slightly shorter call today, it is only about 30 minutes long but the information we have to share is invaluable. I sure hope you find the information you are looking for.

If you have any questions about todays call please feel free to email me at schoolonthefarm@msn.com and put Coffee Club Call in the subject area and I will get back to you asap.

Don’t forget to come back for your resources.

Enjoy the call!

Coffee Club September 2nd 2010

Here are your resources:

find the forms or planners for free.
Donna young

Chart Jungle

Organized Home

A to Z Home’s Cool Homeschool

For Transcript softwear you can go to:
Capterra/ the smart way to find softwear

Tea Script/The easiest way to build transcripts

For Web based planners:
Home School Inc

Homeschool Skedtrack

Homeschool Tracker

Boy, that is a ton of links for you to find what you are looking for!
Enjoy!

Tags: coffee club, coffee club call, encouragement, home school, home school record keeping, home school resources, homeschool, homeschool record keeping, homeschool resources, parents looking for help, record keeping for home school, record keeping for homeschool, resources, teaching, teaching methods

Every now and again I find that I have to do some cleaning up around here. I had added so many links that it was difficult to navigate around to find what I was looking for. So, I decided to get the links in a better order. I sure hope it makes it easier for you to find what you are looking for.

With all the different choices, you are sure to find something that helps you on your homeschooling journey. I have mostly free links for you but I have also included some really great programs that you can purchase for your curriculum.

Enjoy!

Wow, what a great on line tool I have found for you. Head of the Class is a free web program designed for homeschoolers. Their mission; to create and provide curriculum-based instruction on the Web, which enhances and improves the way PreK-8 students learn.

To provide parents and teachers with the Web-based interactive tools and resources they need to accelerate learning and improve educational performance in the 21st century.

First, each grade level has a downloadable book in PDF form. These details what the student needs to have mastered for their grade level. This is a very good resource for seeing all of the areas of instruction for the parents to follow.

Next, you will find that the website is easy to navigate, which makes finding what you need simple and fun.

Then, you will want to start of browsing through the pages. Tell Me More will give you an overview of the program. It will have a short video explaining what Head of the Class is and what their mission is. Then you will want to navigate to getting started. This short video will tell you what you should do get started. Once you know what to do, you will go straight to Create Your Free Account. If you just want to get started, click on the Instant Access Button. You will notice so many options it may be a bit confusing to you. Don’t worry; you can clear up the confusion by creating an account.

Log in to your account if you created a free one. Free accounts are a benefit because you have quick links of your favorite sites. You have the ability to add your students and keep track of what they are doing in each of their subjects. You can see your recent activity as well as upcoming events to keep you on track of your game. Additionally, you are able to create certificates and customize curriculum to fit your needs and the needs of your student. Not to mention, they have a grand array of Learning Resources to compliment and complete your curriculum.

When we started homeschooling 16 years ago, we had nothing like this. Boy, things sure have come a long way. I recommend Head of the Class.

Do you sometimes get frustrated teaching your children how to spell? Spelling skills are important for your children, even though many people rely on spell check. This program is fun and easy to use. It is just one more thing to have in your arsenal of teaching supplies.

Enjoy!
Spelling City

Wow, what a great call we just had. Great tidbits of information. Check it out!

Coffee Club September 2nd 2010

Here are your resources:

AV Christian Homeschooling

Homeschooling Explorers

Tags: coffee club call