Printable Freebies

I’ve found tons of printable freebies that other homeschooling moms have made up and shared. As much as I’ve benefitted from those forms and worksheets and interesting pages, I thought I’d share some of my forms as well. If you snag one, I’d love to see how you’re using it, or if you’re inspired by one of my forms, I’d love a comment with link to your blog or flicker stream to see how you’ve modified it.

Homeschool Lesson Planner for Mom:

As a secular homeschooling mom, I’ve found it challenging to locate a lesson planner that ‘fits’, both in terms of size and features and content/design. I’ve found several lesson plan books that are designed for the classroom, which are fine, especially when you’re starting out and aren’t sure what you want in a planner, but they aren’t really designed for homeschool use. You end up with unnecessary pages and unused or unusable forms and bits. I also find that there is a lot of ‘fluff’ to them, like  seating charts and other forms that are necessary in the classroom but irrelevant in homeschool.

I have found several planning books marketed to homeschooling mothers; CurrClick.com is a good place to find them, but most have scriptures or bible verses sprinkled throughout and aren’t really appealing if you’re not church-y. I found it easier and more satisfying to create my own version of a lesson planner. This way, I have what I want and nothing that I don’t. I looked at many different kinds of planners and styles and came up with a unique mish-mosh of features and pages that I like. I have used the same basic planner pages since 2004. I’ve updated the look and added pages, but the layout has been the same since I first ever thought about homeschooling my boys.

Below are some generic forms that you can either print out and add your info to, or see what is there and use that to make your own. In any case, I do hope that you’ll let me know what you like and are using, and link back to this page if you feel that these have helped you!

8.5 x 11 sized Lesson Planner Pages

LessonPlanP1_ThisAdventureLife

LessonPlanP2_ThisAdventureLife

CurricRefSheet_ThisAdventureLife

EvaluationPage_ThisAdventureLife

Materials Reference List

AdditionalPlannerPages_ThisAdventureLife

CalendarTemplate1_ThisAdventureLife

CalendarTemplate2_ThisAdventureLife

2011CalendarCover

Some notes on printing: I find it easiest to print each page out, then take them all to a print shop and have the pages copied there. Some pages, you will want printed front and back so that the book opens flat with a month or week in view. I’ll update this post with a print map once I have my 2011 book bound.

For 2011, I am using a year-round schedule, beginning in January. We’ll have 4 weeks of school then a one week break, then 4 more weeks of school and a one-week break. Those 10 weeks count as one grading period. Then, the cycle  starts again through November, leaving 5 grading periods, 40 weeks of school, 9 weeks off during the year and an additional 3 weeks off in December before the beginning of the next school year. That schedule means some tricky layouts, but worth it when the end product comes together!

In October 2011, we started using workboxes. I created a workbox planning sheet that I used, but it required additional storage; I really wanted it built in to my planner, so I re-did the layout. This is a blank version of my planner for 2012.

TAL_WBLessonPlanner2012_page1BLANK

TAL_WBLessonPlanner2012_page2BLANK

  

Half sheet Lesson Planners & Calendar:

I know that the regular page sized planners are big and bulky, so I also made a few half-sheet sized planners in different colors. The layout is essentially the same, only smaller.

LessonPlannerhalfsheetTan_ThisAdventureLife

LessonPlannerhalfsheet_green_ThisAdventureLife

LessonPlannerhalfsheet_orange_ThisAdventureLife

Student Planner:

After we started homeschooling, I began looking for ways to help my boys be accountable for their own work. We’re trying a student planner in 2011 for the first time. When my boys were in school, their teachers had ‘TIGER” and “BEAR” binders that they sent home to keep track of parent communications and homework. Borrowing that idea, I created STARS books. You can use them in a binder format or print them and have them spiral bound at a print shop. I prefer the spiral-binding method, with plastic covers on the front and back.

8.5 x 11 sized Student Planners

STARSPlannerPg1_ThisAdventureLife

STARSPlannerPg2_ThisAdventureLife

STARS_AdditionalPages_ThisAdventureLife

STARSPlannerReadLog_ThisAdventureLife

Additional Pages:

I’ve also made some worksheets and other pages that we use.

BLANK_Workbox_Planning_Worksheet

Weekly Research Project worksheet

If you don’t see

 what you’re looking for here, I recommend checking out Donna Young‘s site. If you make homeschooling forms, please comment with a link to your site.

I also have a bunch of my household master bossy book pages (household management journal/control journal/home notebook – whatever you want to call it)

in this post. The pictures are from my binder and the pages are linked below most of the pictures. Some of the pages are .pdf and others are in MSWord so you can edit them.

If you’re looking for something specific, let me know. I can’t promise a form, but if it’s an  interesting page, I may try to make one.

Warmly,

~h