Homeschooling

Homeschooling

For a homeschooler who has this big web site full of printable files, I have not written many articles that are direct and personal about homeschooling. Throughout donnayoung.org you will find indirect homeschooling articles that say such things as - here is a file, print it, and you will find some direct ones such as where I show pictures of one of our nature journals and the articles that tell how to make homemade handwriting lessons. Although there are only a few just-about-home-ed articles here (at this time) many of the indirect articles are written to assist you or to inspire you in some small way regarding teaching your children or keeping up with the assorted things that you have to do in and around your home.

Articles

The links below will take you within this section as well as all over my web site. To return to this page, use your back button or if you have been exploring the web site, use the Homeschooling link that is at the top of every page on my web site. The link will not be blue if you are in a different section, but it will still bring you back to this page.

Composition Book Handwriting Lessons - Handwriting
It tells how to set up a composition book for homemade lessons. I did this as a cursive handwriting refresher for my youngest child.

What is Weighing Grades? - Homeschooling » Articles
Just what is that anyway?

Homeschooling Musts for the Kids - Homeschooling » Articles
This is a few pictures of my cat getting ready for his school day and being a good listener and an overall good student.

Why Teach at Home and Who Are Homeschoolers - Homeschooling
Who are we? We could be anyone, that is about all you will learn at the link above.

How to Make a Sticker Book - Homeschooling » Articles
I used sticker books, among other methods, for positive reinforcement when the children were young.

The Doom of A Homeschool Schedule - Homeschooling » Articles
Don't let the title fool you, homeschool schedules are good.

Nature Journal - Homeschooling » Science
Page one of several pages showing pictures of one of our nature journals.

Homemade Handwriting Lessons: Manuscript and Cursive - Handwriting
Those two pages have information that require using a word processor and a font, both can be free, the fonts are, the word process could be one that you already have or one that you download.

Family Boot Camp - Homeschooling » Articles
I wrote about the boot camp I did on occasion and here is a quote- "Family boot camp is a goal oriented event that lasts for 5 days or more. Boot camp must have clear objectives."

An Idea to Study Words and Make a Word Book - English
I wanted my children to understand the tiny differences between words of similar meaning and came up with "The Word Book". This idea is spread over two pages, An Idea to Study Words- the idea behind the book and Make a Word Book- the "How-To" with printable files and instructions.

New to Homeschooling

Are you are a new or somewhat new homeschooler seeking ideas and information about getting organized? If so I will link some of the pages that might be useful to you.

Homeschool Planning

When homeschooling, you will make all sorts of plans. Below is a list of things you might need to plan.

You will decide and organize what your children will study each year, unless you use a boxed curriculum [What is boxed].
Planning is sort of a tiered beast where you will: decide what to study, break it into lessons, decide how often to study it, will it be slotted by time of day or will it be anytime during the day, and then the lessons can be recorded in a planner. This is not as hard as it sounds. In some cases, you will purchase a book with lessons, math is a good example, and simply do the next lesson when it is time for the subject.

You will make lesson plans, unless you buy curriculum that can come with pre-made plans and you buy those too.
Making lesson plans does not have to be a tedious task. I've written several how-to's showing simple plans and expanded plans and they all start on this page: How To Make Simple Lesson Plans for Homeschool

It's a good idea to make menu plans
It really is a good idea, and one that may not happen, but give it a try to see if menu plans will save you time and money. Menu planners can be printed from: Household Planners For the Kitchen

It's a good idea to make chore plans
If you already have the chores divided up between family members, then you are all set in this department. If not try it, make some repeating chore lists for your children to see how that works out. In my case, my children were more likely to do household chores if the chores were written on a list. Household Planner Refills and if you have MS Excel, you might want to try my XLS Chore Chart Maker.

Chances are, you will continue to take care of things that you currently take care of such as appointments.
For that you will need anything from a simple monthly calendar to some complicated electronic gizmo of your choice. I can help with the calendar and household planner

Making a Homeschool Planner Book

From donnayoung.org you can print a homeschool planner book. I have all kinds of homeschool planner forms, after all; I am a genuine homeschooler and I know what I liked having in my planner.

• Commercial Planners - A page of linked commercial planners
• Planner Guide - Several pages describing homeschool planner types
• Lists - Forms for lists of things such as books. According to feedback, I do not have enough of these
• Administrative - Your the administrator, you know what's here, right?
• Lesson Plan Forms - Forms, all types, for your lesson plans
• High School - High school forms, suggestions, and lists
• Extra - Notebooking forms, grids, cover sheets, and forms for your homeschool meetings
• Sets - Be sure to look here before printing a planner. This is where I place matching sets.
• Homeschool V Planner An XLS file

Encouraging Children to Write

The writing activities that I made up for my children may or may not help you with your reluctant writer. My children didn't seem reluctant to write, but on the other hand; I used my home made writing lessons for them when they were young and they always enjoyed doing them. I've put them online and you can read about them at:

Ease Into Writing: Timed Writing - This was a back to school activity that the children did the first few weeks, but it can be used any time.

Who Needs an Illustration, Sentence Building Activity One - We did this activity every year for a while. It seems ridiculously easy, but it incorporates dictionary skills, vocabulary, and grammar. The beginning sentence structure used in activity one is: Subject | Transitive Verb | Direct Object.

Who Needs an Illustration, Sentence Building Activity Two - This is similar to activity one (above) and the difference between them is the sentence structure. Activity two uses this starting sentence structure: Subject | Intransitive Verb