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 free homeschool planner book. I don't know why anyone would buy one, but I have linked Commercial Planners as well. Back to free- 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

Unlock A Cell
Make Rows Taller
What does Beta Mean regarding the V Planners?
How to Know!


Requested - The diploma pictured here, but without the border. It is a typeable PDF.
New Yellow Stripe handwriting rule papers in 5 rule heights and in horizontal format.

The printable filler paper on this page feature a rule height of approximately 9mm. The rule is blue with pink margin lines and the outside margin line is olive. All but one file feature a small image at the top of the page. Each paper has a header that reads: by: and date:



Word templates that may be used to create paper cubes with pictures. Each template makes a certain sized cube, there are 7 sizes. Use the cubes for education or to make photo cubes.
There are 3 new pre-made gift tag sheets, two are suitable for Christmas. The blank tag template has been redone to make it better. That's a pitiful description.
The Spicy Popcorn page will be new to most of you. Today I updated the instructions to reflect exactly how I make the popcorn; I've been making it for years, and I added a 4x6 recipe card in the Microsoft Word formats of - DOC and DOCX.
Calendar shown here is an example of using the calendars. This is an undated "dated" blank monthly calendar. The blocks that should contain dates are bordered and the month and year is noted on the bottom of each page.
Fantasy Fudge from the Kraft Marshmallow label - Our family's been making this particular fudge for decades. The recipe is online and I added recipe cards, a pdf of 4 small cards and the typical 4x6 recipe card size in doc and docx.
13 Meals is a method of meal planning for a month that I started doing a long time ago. I based this method on the repeating meal. This method is best when a shopping list is also made as this typically saves money at the grocery store.
A menu planner in two colors - black and white, and blue and white. This planner allows you to keep a running record of meals and it has the typical menu planner files to go with it. Part of this menu planner is based on my category method of making meal plans.
Of course calendars continue to occupy work and I can't seem to resist making new calendar styles. This new style is a one-page monthly calendar that has ruled lines, most of which are dated.
I came across a file that I had forgotten about. It is a "Month on a Page" type of calendar. This one is called List Top and I have a non-dated version of it at Calendars > Blank Calendars. Anyway, I made a whole lot of dated "List Top" calendars.
Requested: Blank Calendar in the Blue Calendar style and the Frame Calendar style. These files are placed on the Blank Calendar page at Calendars > Blank
The only dated "wall" calendar that I have was expiring this year (and I just removed it from the page) and I made another wall calendar to take it's place. It's made in the same style as the Colonial Set.
Attendance H - an attendance calendar that can be used for several children. I made 3 versions of this new attendance calendar - one for 2 children (1 page), one for 4 children (2 pages), and one for 7 children (3 pages). I am calling it Attendance H because it prints horizontally.
While working on the page, Prepositional Phrases, I added files for the Thanksgiving song by Lydia Maria Child: Over the River and Through the Wood. The pdf version has a ruled right side for anything that you deem useful.
3-Year Calendar - Someone requested a 3-year per page calendar a few days ago and so I made the calendars and now they are online.
Someone asked for a certain list of prepositions today and that led me down a bunny trail that ended with making preposition lists and a short, maybe very short, preposition bingo game that uses the prepositions from Easy Grammar grades 3 and 4. All files, game and lists, are found at this link.
I was recently updating the files for the 2-page dated attendance form when I realized that I needed to make one more for August - one that included January in both the 1st and 2nd semesters. Our homeschool year typically started in August and the 2nd semester started in January. Once in a while the 1st semester used part of January. So now we have a 2-page attendance calendar with two Januaries.
Oh WOW! Something new in Homeschooling. It's a how-to page that tells you how I made the subcategory and category divider pages for the half-sized nature journal / field book!
At "Game Cards" you will find a whole slew of printable game cards in many sizes, you will even find round ones. To make your cards nice, I've included printable back designs and some cards which have a fancy border.






Bear in a Bag











