Homeschool Planning Archives - Page 4 of 4

Forever Blog Planner Review

February 21, 2014 by Selena Robinson 8 Comments

I received a copy of this product in exchange for this review. This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy for details.

Hi everyone! You know that we love giveaways here at Look! We’re Learning! In fact, we’re currently giving away two free history books for kids. *wink, wink* But we’re ending this week with a super fantastic giveaway for all you homeschool bloggers out there!

Today’s giveaway is being sponsored by Tina Robertson of Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus and it’s all to announce the release of Tina’s incredible “Forever Blog Planner”! I got the opportunity to review this printable blog planner and I can tell you that it definitely has the right name, because it is the one and only blog planner you’ll ever need!

Okay – now for the good stuff. What’s in the Forever Blog Planner? Over 360 printable blog planning pages, including templates for:

Undated weekly and monthly post calendars
Reviews and giveaways notes
Guest post planning sheets
Washi notes and monthly dividers
Month-end tips and goals
Yearly traffic, income, and advertising tracking
Editable tabs and divider sheets – so you can fill it with whatever you like!

I loved just about everything about the Forever Blog Planner, but what really won me over was its flexibility. I’ve used several different blog planners in the past, but I’ve never found one that is spacious enough for all the writing I like to do.

The Forever Blog Planner, though, is different. Instead of trying to keep up with my social media and last minute notes in a tiny little space for each post, I have a two-page spread for each week where I can list individual ideas and reminders about my posts with plenty of room.

Aren’t those note spaces adorable?

I absolutely love the yearly tracking pages. I can keep up with my blog stats, social media followers, and product reviews easily by using the tracking sheets. There are even tracking sheets for guest posts I have scheduled during the year.

Plus, there’s a sheet for keeping up with my yearly income and expenses. This will be a huge help at tax time.

Initially, I was tempted to use my handy dandy coil binder to bind the planner into a notebook. But in the extensive planner instructions, Tina encourages using a three-ring binder instead. I’m glad I followed that advice. Now I can just print more pages and switch them out as I need to during the year.

Since the weekly and monthly calendars are undated, I can reprint them for additional years without having to buy a new planner ever again! What’s more, Tina provides several different color schemes and styles, so I can use a completely new planner style for next year. She also includes free updates to the pack for every customer who purchases the Forever Blog Planner!

To add a little room for notes and tips I come across this year, I printed several of the included note templates and put them in their own “Notes” section at the back of the binder.

Along with her well-organized printable blog templates, Tina offers a super helpful sheet of Pinterest tips for bloggers inside the Forever Blog Planner. On it, she offers great suggestions for creating noteworthy pins and improving Pinterest reach. And since Tina has over 24,000 followers on Pinterest, she definitely knows what she’s talking about! 🙂

If you’d like to pick up a copy of the Forever Blog Planner for yourself, you can buy it from Tina’s website by clicking the image below!

Now, for the really good stuff! One of my readers will win a free download of the Forever Blog Planner, courtesy of Tina’s Dynamic Homeschool Plus! To enter the giveaway, simply use the following giveaway widget!

Entry -Form

Cyber Monday Homeschool Deals!

November 29, 2013 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy here.

Hey everyone! Hope you’re having a great long weekend! I’ll be taking the next few days off because next week is FINALS WEEK! Eeeeeek! But I did want to let you all know about some great Cyber Monday deals for homeschoolers that are coming up. Some are available this weekend and some are available on Monday only, so be sure to check the effective dates below.

November 28-30: Family Time Fitness

Get the Core 1 package for just $37 or the Platinum Fitness package for just $87, plus get a free gift card with your purchase!

November 29-December 2: Mama’s Learning Corner

Get 3 free months of access to Mama’s Learning Corner printables when you buy an annual membership for just $15!

December 2-9: Currclick

A tablet giveaway, half-price classes, and up to 85% off all products!

November 29 – December 2: Educents

Use the coupon code EDUCENTS20 to get an extra 20 percent off your order!

Have a great time shopping for deals and I’ll be back next Thursday with a look at our Living History figure for December!

Tips for Organizing Your Homeschool

October 8, 2013 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Good morning everyone! This week, the ladies of iHN will be holding a live G+ iHN Weekly Homeschool Hangout on the topic Organizing Your Homeschool. As I’m sure you all know, homeschool organization is always a hot topic.Keep Reading…

Must Have Supplies for Homeschooling Several Kids

September 26, 2013 by Selena Robinson 7 Comments

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by to see us again! Today we’re sharing some of our must-have homeschooling items for teaching several children.

As you well know, we have four kids – three of whom are homeschooling now. To make lesson planning and teaching easier, we make charts for key concepts in a specific grade level and then we use those as the basis for our lessons.

Since Tigger is dealing with ADHD, we’ve found that using anchor charts helps her to pay attention, grasp key concepts, and remember them.

Homeschool Must Haves: Anchor Charts

One of the best advantages of using anchor charts is that they are very economical for teaching several children. We can make a series of anchor charts for Tigger’s grade level and then save them for our younger kids as they get older. That way, we can just reuse the same charts again and save lots of time on lesson planning!

(We’ve shared our experiences in using anchor charts for multiplication and rounding previously.)

Here are a few of the anchor charts we’ve used or plan to use with our kids:

Must Have Homeschooling Items for Teaching Several Children: Look! We're Learning!

Before you heap praise on me for these, I have to tell you that I got all of these ideas from anchor charts I saw on Pinterest. If you’d like to see some of the charts we’ve especially liked, follow our Anchor Chart Ideas board!

To learn more about why we like anchor charts and how we use them in our homeschool, check out our YouTube video below!

You can grab the same chart tablet and markers we use from Amazon.com:

Pacon 74733 Colored Chart Tablets, Ruled, Spiralbound, 24″ x 32″, Assorted Colors

Sanford Mr. Sketch Assorted Scent Markers 12 Pack

This post is part of the Must Have Homeschooling Items linkup from iHomeschoolNetwork! Click on over to read about the must have homeschooling items of our fellow bloggers!

Solving the Socialization Dilemma

September 12, 2013 by Selena Robinson 9 Comments

If you’ve ever mentioned the word homeschooling in public, you’ve probably heard at least one person express concern about “socialization”. True, these well-meaning individuals may not use the actual word, but they probably say things like this:

“Don’t they need to be around some other children their own age?”

“They need to get away from Mommy and Daddy and see what it’s really like out there.”

“If you don’t let them to get used to other kids, they’re not going to know how to talk to people.”

“You’re sheltering them from the real world by keeping them at home with you.”

It can be tempting to respond to these concerns with a snarky answer. Maybe something like “You spent time around other children and you clearly don’t know how to talk to people yet.” (Okay, that might be just MY personal fantasy response.) But there’s a hint of truth behind those statements.

All children need socialization, including homeschoolers. Interestingly, the definition of the word “socialize” is “to make social; especially, to fit or train for a social environment”. The difference for homeschooling families is in how we choose to provide training that for them.

Yes, Homeschoolers Need Socialization

I’ve heard some homeschooling parents argue that children don’t need socialization with other children at all. They might say that kids get plenty of socialization by talking to their neighbors and acquaintances through the course of the day. Speaking as a homeschooling graduate, I have to respectfully disagree with that sentiment.

I was taught at home from the age of 11 until graduation and I spent quite a bit of time talking with adults on a regular basis. In fact, I eventually became more comfortable with adults than I was with my peers. That’s fine in itself. The problem came, though, when I attended the first day of college. I took one step into the Student Lounge and nearly had a panic attack. I hadn’t been around a large group of people my own age in years and it was a terrifying experience. So I do believe that homeschooled children need socialization with all kinds of people: adults, older kids, younger kids, and their peers. Talking to the cashier at the grocery store just isn’t going to cut it.

Creating Socialization Opportunities Outside the Home

How do we find ways to get our children out and around during the course of homeschooling? Simple. Make it part of the school day. Check out the activity calendar for any local attractions in your area and make it a point to visit on days that are set aside for children or homeschoolers. We’ve gotten to attend museum days and public storytelling events around our area and our kids have enjoyed being out and around others. We also belong to an active homeschooling group that arranges park days, support meet-ups, and field trips.

During these activities, the kids have learned some valuable things they can’t at home – how to stand in line, how to sit quietly in a group (even when others are talking), how to speak up to ask for assistance when needed, and how to listen despite distractions. These are important skills that they’ll need throughout life.

Encouraging Socialization Inside the Family

Of course, all this time training our children to interact with other people won’t be worth a thing if they can’t interact well with each other. Good socialization habits begin in the home and, as parents, it’s our job to help our kids learn how to treat one another with respect, settle disputes, and show concern. Our two oldest children, Tigger and Pooh, have gotten into several spats over the years. He looks up to her, but doesn’t really want her to know it. She wants his approval, but tries to keep that a secret. It’s a never-ending saga.

Jay caught on to the pattern between the two of them early on and he’s worked with them constantly, trying to help them speak to each other honestly and with kindness. As a result, the daily squabbles have dwindled down to a couple times a week. We’re confident that, with time and training based on Bible principles, their relationship will become stronger. (We fully expect a similar dynamic between Roo and Piglet in the future, though.)

Solving the socialization dilemma doesn’t mean separating our kids from society and it doesn’t mean dropping them off into a group of their peers without preparation. We can do it by making opportunities to train them for social activities. And all that takes is being an involved homeschooling parent.

This post is part of the “Homeschooling and the S-Word (Socialization)” linkup at iHomesc hool Network! Click over to read great posts about homeschooling and socialization from our fellow bloggers!

Our 2013-14 Homeschool Schedule

August 26, 2013 by Selena Robinson 9 Comments

Earlier this month, I shared some pictures of my favorite homeschool planner. In that post, I mentioned that I have to write my schedule in pencil, because I change it so frequently. Well, it’s two weeks later and I’ve already overhauled it once. 🙂 I go through this every year, because it’s one thing to put a schedule down on paper and another to actually try it.

So…without further ado, here’s our homeschool schedule for 2013-14 (for now):

Monday

8:00 am – P.E.

8:30 am – Breakfast

9:00 am – Math

9:30 am – Reading

10:00 am – Language

10:30 am – History

11:30 am – Geography

12:00 pm – Break for lunch and play

2:00 pm – Homework and unfinished projects

Tuesday

8:00 am – P.E.

8:30 am – Breakfast

9:00 am – Math

9:30 am – Reading

10:00 am – Spelling/Handwriting

10:30 am – Science

11:30 am – Art

12:00 pm – Break for lunch and play

2:00 pm – Homework and unfinished projects

*By the way, my husband drew this on the board. I can’t draw like this to save my life.*

Thursday

8:00 am – P.E.

8:30 am – Breakfast

9:00 am – Math

9:30 am – Reading

10:00 am – Language

10:30 am – History

11:30 am – Spanish

12:00 pm – Break for lunch and play

2:00 pm – Homework and unfinished projects

Friday

8:00 am – P.E.

8:30 am – Breakfast

9:00 am – Math

9:30 am – Reading

10:00 am – Spelling/Handwriting

10:30 am – Science

11:30 am – American Sign Language

12:00 pm – Break for lunch and play

2:00 pm – Homework and unfinished projects

As you can see, we have the same basic routine on Monday/Thursday and Tuesday/Friday. The only change is the 11:30 am topic. We only have “school” four days a week, because we use a loose year-round schedule. By the time noon comes around, our kids are pretty wired and it’s best to get as much as we can done before lunchtime.

After the 11:30 am class, the boys are finished for the day. Tigger gets a break to give her some time to move around and relax. If we have any work from the morning that’s still in progress or if she has homework to complete, we’ll begin working on those at 2:00.

How do you schedule your homeschooling days? Do you have to make adjustments to your schedule during the year? Do you even bother with a schedule at all? Let us know in the comments!

This post is part of the iHomeschool Network “Not Back to School” Blog Hop! Visit our fellow bloggers and link up your own posts by clicking the image below!

Our 2013-14 Student Photos

August 19, 2013 by Selena Robinson 5 Comments

Back to school means first day of school pictures! I still find it hard to believe that these kids are big enough for 3rd grade, kindergarten, and pre-K, but they are!

We printed these adorable First Day of School Printable Cards from Three Dinosaurs.

Roo’s first year of school! He’s so excited about learning to read!

Pooh’s first year of actual schoolwork. He’s more excited about looking like he’s “doing school” than anything else.

Tigger’s an old pro by now. She’s excited about learning American history and science this year.

Every year, we try to get the kids something new. We were superbly broke this year, so they just got new notebooks. The great thing about kids, though, is that they love just about anything as long as it’s new. The boys were thrilled to have real notebooks, instead of tot writing paper. Tigger got her very first binder with a few Lisa Frank folders.

And one final shot with their backpacks. As you can see, Pooh is really into this “I’m cool” phase. I’d like to say it’ll pass soon, but I think we may have another 10 years or so of that stage.

This post is part of the iHomeschool Network “Not Back to School” Blog Hop! Visit our fellow bloggers and link up your own posts by clicking the image below!

Our 2013-14 Homeschool Room

August 12, 2013 by Selena Robinson 14 Comments

Good morning! It’s another new week here at Look! We’re Learning! and we’re ready to get started!

I’m fully engulfed in the “back to school” spirit and I’ve been sharing our homeschool plans for this year recently. Last week, we featured our homeschool curriculum choices for 3rd, K, and PK. Today we’re sharing pictures of our homeschool room for this year.