Printables Archives - Page 14 of 44

Middle and High School Planner Printables for Homeschool

Mar242015

March 24, 2015 by Jolanthe 40 Comments

Now I don’t know about you, but despite my best intentions, I seem to always forget something that has already been purchased, curriculum ideas for upcoming years, or what may already be on our bookshelves to use for our younger children. Sticky notes and random sheets of paper just don’t cut it, so the Middle and High School Planner pages were put together to make life a little easier for myself overall. (And let’s face it, these are a lot prettier than the random sheets of notebook paper that were accumulating in my binder).

I’m printing off a copy for each of our children and it gives me a central location to jot down notes, ideas, and what we’re doing as we go along. Overall, there are sixteen pages in the Middle and High School Planner pages (plus one that you don’t have to print at the end), and two different versions – a blue/green color-themed set and a rainbow color-themed set. Laurianna saw me working on them and said she thought hers should have more color, so I had to readjust them. (grins)

If you’d like to see what we’ve been planning for homeschool high school so far, don’t miss our Homeschool High School Plan post that was shared earlier. In addition to walking through our overall plans I share how overwhelmed I was to begin with and some tips on laying the foundation for the upcoming years. There is also a link to a simple overview printable that you may prefer to this more in-depth one.

A Quick Look & Overview Planning

Use the first two pages to plan out subjects and curriculum for each year. In the left side column there is room to track the subjects and then plan out what you will use from 6th grade through 12th grade. Be sure to keep track of what you already have on hand – and don’t need to purchase!

High School Outline, Requirements, and Schedules

This section allows you to plug in all the information that your state may require for graduation, AP placement, decide your grading scale, and brainstorm elective ideas for your child. There is also a sheet that can be printed off yearly to create a weekly schedule for your child.

Tracking High School Credits

Keep track of the credits your child is earning, books read, extra curricular activities and other important information you might need for high school transcripts. There are five pages for this section: one for early credits (prior to 9th grade if your state allows it) and four pages, one for each year of high school.

Course Descriptions

This section allows you write a short course description of each class that your child takes for credit (may come in handy for college admission later).

–> Download the Middle School and High School Class Planning (blue/green) <–

–> Download the Middle and High School Planning Pages (rainbow) <–

Questions about Homeschooling in High School?

There’s nothing that can strike fear in the heart of a veteran homeschooling parent like the thought of homeschooling high school. Despite what may be years of successful homeschooling, thinking of high school can bring all the fears and doubts of the early years resurging in a homeschool parent’s heart. Read the post Homeschooling in High School for tips and resources from a veteran homeschool mom who has homeschooled and graduated a high schooler.

Have a Student in Need of Organization Help?

If you have a child in middle or high school that needs some organizational help, be sure to check out our Weekly Student Planner! The planner is undated and can be used year after year and has plenty of room for writing down daily assignments, goals, and accomplishments. Learn more HERE.

If you would like to share, please share a link to my blog or to the page that hosts these files. Please do not link directly to just the PDF files, but directly to this post. Please feel free to print this pdf file for your own personal use. They were created for private and non-profit use. Please do not sell or host these files anywhere else.

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Filed Under: High School, Homeschooling Tools, Middle School, Planning Forms, Printables 40 Comments

FREE Preschool Chore Charts – Subscriber Freebie

Mar102015

March 10, 2015 by Jolanthe 61 Comments

Younger children can have a hard time reading from a chore list. Picture cards can be a huge help at the preschool age so kids can see what needs to be done each day – and actually work on their daily chores (grins).

Our kids have learned personal and financial responsibility in the process as they are taught how to save, give, and put money in their wallet for spending too!

While I’ve shared a version of our preschool chore charts in the past, I recently found some wonderful clip art that included a few bonus chores and was also cute – a win-win!

These charts have been some of the most popular downloads here and I’ve received many emails with requests for extra chores, so I put together a FREE Preschool Chore Chart printable especially for my email subscribers – yay!!

Are you already an email subscriber? Please go to this private page and enter the NEW password. You can find the password in your most current email at the very bottom. Become a subscriber HERE and receive instant access.

When Kaleb was younger, this is the chore chart that we used for him and it worked wonderfully. (And to tell you the truth – he still prefers this visual chore chart over our chore charts for the older kids!) We broke his chore chart into three parts: morning chores, afternoon chores, and chores that he could earn money on.

He earned minimal money, but our point in paying for a few chores is to help our kids understand the concept of giving, saving, and spending. Pennies were excitement to our kids at that age (they think they are rich!), so it was a great way to learn.

The chore charts and chore cards can be printed off on to cardstock and laminated to make them sturdier. Place velcro dots in the center of each square and on the back of each chore cards to make them stick to the chore chart. (See below for additional ways to use the printables).

Using the Chore Charts

Each morning I added chore cards to his chart. When a chore was completed, he would remove it and put it in a little box nearby. Chores he completed to earn money were tracked on the back of the chart by writing with a Sharpie (the Sharpie comes off easily with nail polish remover or you can use a vis-à-vis marker as well).

The cards are the same size as my workbox activity cards, so if you want to mix and match those cards with this grid, they will work together.

Daily Chores for Preschool

We kept it pretty simple for our preschool chores. Above is a peek at some of the things that we had on Kaleb’s chore chart. Many of the chores rotated throughout the week, but there were several that were consistent on a daily basis.

Daily chores: make bed, clean room, brush teeth, pick-up clothes, pick up shoes/hang up jacket, set table, wash table, devotions.
Extra {paid} chores: trash, vacuum, laundry, wash windows, dust, sweep, water plants, weed garden.

If you need help coming up with chore ideas, here is a great list from Money Saving Mom to help you out.

Tips for an Effective Chore System

Make sure chores are age appropriate. Children can be taught to complete household tasks, but there are some things that are definitely more difficult for younger children to work on vs. older children. Be sure that the chores you are asking your very young children are appropriate for their age. Younger children can help sweep, push a vacuum cleaner, pick up toys, match socks, etc… but may not be ready for other chores. Just because a chore card is listed, doesn’t mean it has to be used. (grins)
Keep the chore charts handy – and where they can be seen. Hang your charts somewhere where they will be seen daily – the front of the fridge, near the bedroom door. Where ever they are, be sure to keep them handy so both you and your child remember to work on them.
Walk through how the charts work with your kids. Be sure to show your kids how the chore chart will work each day. Do they need to check in with you when they are done and have you go over their work? Have the system in place
Know what works best as incentives for your kids. Some children may work for treats from the Dollar Tree, while others may work for small monetary prizes. The incentives are up to you – and you know what works best for your children!
Be consistent in payout of incentives. It is so easy to let things slide, but if you are working with your kids in understanding that no work = no pay, remember that it goes the same the other way too. When you work, your boss pays you, so pick a ‘payday’ and take care of it each week or whenever you set up your payday.

Washing dishes is always fun….

And making beds…

Additional Ways to Use the Chore Charts

Rather than using a large chart, there are a few alternate ways that the chore charts can be used.

Use a jump ring: The cards can be printed off on cardstock, laminated, and then put onto a jump ring so children can carry them around while working. The printable includes a few alternative cards that can be placed on the jump ring as well: morning chores, afternoon chores, paid, chores, etc…

Use magnetic sheets: If you have a magnetic refrigerator, consider printing the chore cards off onto magnetic sheets, cutting them out, and placing chores on your fridge. Store finished or extra chores in a magnetic pencil bin nearby. We have friends that do this and it is so handy!

Download the Preschool Chore Charts

The chore chart file has five different colored charts: blue, green, pink, purple and white {so you can print on colored cardstock if you would like} and also includes chore cards. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. :)

If you aren’t on the paid chore bandwagon, there is a white chart with an alternate text of morning, afternoon, and evening.

This is a FREE download for subscribers – and it is really easy to subscribe by simply clicking HERE, or by entering your email in the box at the bottom of this post.

After you subscribe by email, you will receive a confirmation. Once you confirm your subscription, you will be redirected to a page with a link, password, and directions to get your FREEBIE!! You can always email me if you have any questions and I’d be happy to help you out.

In case you missed them before, you can also download a copy of our Chore Chart Printables for our older kids and see how we’re implementing that system in our house. There may also be extra cards for you to use in the workbox activity cards.

Hope this helps you out and feel free to ask any questions below!

Chore Chart Supplies

The following products are ones that we use and recommend for putting your chore charts together – the Scotch laminator ROCKS!! I’ve had mine for years and it is still going!

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Filed Under: Chores, Kindergarten, Organizing, PreK and K Community, Preschool Corner, Preschool Printables, Printables 61 Comments

Free Printable ~ March Personal Planner Pages

Feb232015

February 23, 2015 by Jolanthe 2 Comments

Last month I shared a few pages from my yearly personal planner with you all, and I would love to share more this month too. If you want to have a central place to keep track of your goings-on in March, feel free to share and download the March planning pages below.

My personal planner has been such a huge help for me and a central place to keep all of our appointments, notes, to-do’s, and so on. I hope it will be a blessing to many of you as well!

How I’m Using My Daily Planner

If you’d like to take a look at how I’ve set up my yearly planner, I’ve explained it more in this post here, as well as given links to my favorite binder and colorful tabs (because pretty makes life fun too, right?).

Download the March Personal Planner Pages

You can download the March 2016 Personal Planner Pages by clicking here. Each month I’ll be offering a free download for that month’s planning pages, so you can check back and download them as they become available.

If you like the layout and want to start planning out the rest of your year now (and next year too), purchase the full 2015 Daily Planner for $3.99. The calendar runs from January 2015 thru June 2016. It includes 15 month-at-a-glance pages and dated weekly pages through June 2016.

Enjoy!

Sponsor Thanks

We really appreciate the following companies. Many of these have been long time sponsors of Homeschool Creations and we are SO thankful for them – be sure to stop by their sites and check them out!

Teach Them Diligently Conventions are now open for registration! Speakers for 2015 include James Dobson, Barbara Rainey, and many others. Locations include Nashville, TN; Atlanta, GA; Sandusky, OH; and Dallas, TX. Hope to see you at one of them!

Red Wagon Tutorials offers upper level science help for homeschool families worldwide. They specialize in downloadable, online live-feed, and online recorded science classes as well as digital e-Notebooks and Flash Drive presentations. Learn more about their 2014-2015 programs. Does your child have a need to fidget or chew?

Norm’s Farm features a line of farm-fresh elderberry products to help energize and support a healthy immune system. They are your one-stop shop for all things elderberry!

Apologia offers a Christian worldview curriculum that kids will love. Featuring engaging stories, creative notebooking, and fun activities, this four-part series is presented in a conversational style that makes the study of God’s Word exciting and memorable.

Pipsticks provides sticker club subscriptions for kids, teachers, crafters, gift givers and kids at heart. Subscribe or give our gift sticker packs today.

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Filed Under: Organizing, Printables 2 Comments

February Daily Planning Pages – Free Printable

Jan272015

January 27, 2015 by Jolanthe 3 Comments

Last year I started working on something for myself, and because I loved it so much, it turned into something that I wanted to share with you all!

Enter my daily planner.

Life gets busy and truthfully my brain just can’t remember it all. I’m a paper and pen kind of girl, and seeing my week laid out in front of me is so helpful in keeping things straight. Appointments in one place. Goals and reminders of ‘to-do’ stuff. I can pull it out, open it up to the week on hand, and get a great picture of what is happening.

Each week has its own two-page spread that lays flat. There is room to keep track of our daily appointments, weekly (or overall goals), make a weekly to-do list, list things I want to remember (maybe funny things the kids have said or done), and write down a short shopping list.

The Month-at-a-Glance

The daily planning pages also includes a two page month-at-a-glance spread. These are the pages that I use to write down any major stuff first (trips, big events, etc…) and then do a rough meal plan (before I plug meals into my monthly meal planner).

Just for fun, I added quotes that I love to the month-at-a-glance pages too. It’s something little, but I love reading them!

The pages are all 8.5” x 11” in size, so they fit great in any standard binder. Personally I’m in love with this Martha Stewart binder and dividers – which is why you’ll notice the rainbow colors along the bottom of the calendar. Those are the primary colors in her collection. (Originally I made this into a half-sized binder, but really wanted more space to write and add to).

How I’m Using My Daily Planner

Here’s a peek at my planner so you can see how I’m using it.

The above is part of my January week – which is still missing a few things. I’ll admit that a huge lack of sleep (hello, puppy) is contributing to some fuzzy thoughts. Especially the time I need this as my ‘brain’.

My weekly to do list is just the running list of overall things that need to get done (I keep a longer list on a sheet of notebook paper in another section – until I finish up a cute printable for that!). My goals are broken down from my yearly overall goals. During January I’m trying to finish up a few books (need to get some of that book list knocked out).

There is always a list of things to do (I also have a list of projects that can be finished in 20 minutes or less). Every day I try to focus on THREE main things that need to be done and then work on other things. Those three are the ones that really need to be worked on at that point.

And pretty always helps out too. The (pretty) tabbed dividers are great for sectioning out different things that I want to keep handy: my cleaning schedule, meal planning, essential oil info, recipes, finances, and other important information.

Do you like it? I’m loving all the space and already have the entire year printed and ready to go – no excuses! I’m excited to have lots of planning space and the dividers give me room to add in some other areas later: finances, overall goals, recipes, essential oil learning, and more.

Download the February Daily Planning Pages

You can download the February Daily Planning Pages by clicking here. Each month I’ll be offering a free download for that month’s planning pages, so you can check back and download them as they become available.

If you like them and want to start planning out the rest of your year now, purchase the full 2015 Daily Planner for $3.99. The calendar runs from January 2015 thru February 2016. It includes 14 month-at-a-glance pages and dated weekly pages through February 2016.

Enjoy!

Sponsor Thanks

We really appreciate the following companies. Many of these have been long time sponsors of Homeschool Creations and we are SO thankful for them – be sure to stop by their sites and check them out!

Does your child have a need to fidget or chew? Chewigem has the discreet, FUNky solution to soothe these needs. Use code ‘gem10’ to save 10% during checkout!

Pipsticks provides sticker club subscriptions for kids, teachers, crafters, gift givers and kids at heart. Subscribe or give our gift sticker packs today.

Norm’s Farm features a line of farm-fresh elderberry products to help energize and support a healthy immune system. They are your one-stop shop for all things elderberry!

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Filed Under: Organizing, Printables 3 Comments

Freezer Cooking Labels Printable – Round 2 of Freezer Cooking (22 Meals!)

Nov102014

November 10, 2014 by Jolanthe 8 Comments

Over the last few months, our family has taken serious advantage of our first round of freezer meals. On busy days and nights, it has been such a HUGE help to be able to throw something into the crock pot and return home to a meal that is ready to go! Maybe you are wondering how this applies to homeschooling? Some days we are home all day, but other days our lives can be just as hectic as every other mom on the planet – co-op time, sports practices, etc. If it makes life easier, I’m game for trying it!

Since we are dwindling down to our last few freezer meals, it was time for another round of freezer cooking – our goal was twenty-one meals, and we each finished with twenty-two (a total of 44 meals between the both of us!) – not too shabby!

The freezer is now well stocked and super happy to have job security. (grins)

FREE Freezer Cooking Labels

Before I share all of the meals that we worked on (a few were repeats from our last freezer cooking session), you might be interested in the freezer cooking labels that we used. To make life a little easier for myself, I put together some simple labels to stick on the front of each of our freezer bags and containers, and you can download them for FREE!

The freezer cooking labels give an area to write the recipe, the date the meal was made, directions for cooking/thawing, and serving suggestions. For my labels, I added side dishes that are also in the freezer (rice, buns, mashed potatoes, etc…). Once the labels are filled out, use packing tape to stick them on Ziploc bags. For aluminum containers, wrap the container in tinfoil and put the label under a layer of saran wrap (rather than taping them to the package). These labels are editable as well! You can either print them off as they are and write out your recipes, or you can type them in to save some time!

Freezer Cooking Recipes We Used

Some of the many meals we made!!

There were a few recipes we used last time that we loved, so we included them in this round of freezer cooking. After some more digging in our cookbooks, recipes, and online, we found additional recipes to add to rotation. Several of the meals in this freezer cooking session are casseroles that we froze in metal pans, a few can be simply cooked or reheated in the frying pan, and the bulk will be cooked in our crock pot. All in all – a total of 22 meals went to the freezer, and we had Sloppy Joes for dinner.

Lots of food to prep – not including all the meat and fridge stuff!

Our main goal was to have meals that were ready to go when we pulled them out of the oven, crock pot, or pan – not just a main dish that needed boatloads of additional sides. It needed to be filling and require little additional work. The only thing that we both did ahead of time was cook 2 pounds of pork for the pork bbq – otherwise, all the cooking was done day of the freezer cooking session.

Overall, I think we did great on time, especially since we had to prep several of the meals separately because of a gluten allergy for my friend’s son. That meant washing dishes between cooking/prep, creating a few special gluten-free sauces, and just general goofing off. Pulling the 23 meals per person (46 meals total) took us a little over 6 hours, and that included most of the clean-up and packing/storing of meals, as well as taking care of a nursing baby.

Pork and Apple Curry
Mini Meatloaves (I freeze them in silicone cupcake liners – works great)
Sausage with Peppers and Onions (doubled) <— love this one!!
Chicken and Beef Fajitas
Stuffed Pepper Casserole
Cilantro Lime Chicken <—- great over rice or in tortillas
Beef Stroganoff
Southwestern Rice Casserole
Stuffed Pepper Casserole
Slow Cooker Tamale Casserole
Chicken Pumpkin Chili
Chicken Tater Tot Bake (aluminum pan)
Chicken Cordon Bleu (aluminum pan)
Chicken Pot Pie (makes 2 recipes) <—- my favorite recipe!
Sloppy Joe Mix (doubled)
Cranberry Dijon Pork
Tater Tot Casserole (aluminum pan)
Pork BBQ Casserole <—- another family favorite (aluminum pan)
Coconut Lentil Curry
Sweet Potato Chili
also made: 12 cups of cooked rice

Note: several of the recipes called for cream of…. soup, so we created a cream base using chicken stock, heavy whipping cream, a mix of spices (a.k.a we threw in what tasted good), and thickened it with arrowroot powder – worked great!)

A Few More Quick Freezer Cooking Tips

Freezer cooking is more fun with friends!

After sharing five freezer tips (and the 17 recipes we used last month), there were a few additional things we did this month that helped us this go-round.

Create a spreadsheet of recipes and links that you love. While many of the recipes we use are on my Pinterest Freezer Cooking board, this time my friend and I created a Google Spreadsheet to track the recipes that we were using. We divided them up into categories (beef, chicken, etc…) and were able to put a link to the recipe and make additional notes. It streamlined it for us since we were working together on the meals. She can edit/make changes to it as well, and it was a huge help for both of us.

Label bags and containers before you start! All of the cooking directions and serving suggestions were written ahead of time, taped to the bags, and ready to go. Made it so much easier!! While it would have been great to have them all stacked in prep order, our order changed a few times during the process – such is life!

Know your prep order when you start. We had a general idea of recipe order, so we were able to prep food as we went along. We tried to group similar meats and/or recipes together. Chilis were made in one batch. Simple to assemble was another. One of us worked primarily on assembling the meals, while the other diced, sliced, and peeled (I am ever-so-grateful for a friend who handles onions and smiles – while crying onion-tears).

Work with a friend. I can’t say that our cooking sessions have necessarily been faster (we may get distracted talking…ahem), but it really does make the day go by so much more quickly – and it’s a much more fun.

Wear an apron. Unless you are incredibly un-messy (I am not), you will be covered in many things throughout the day. Splashed with bacon grease or chicken juice (shudder to the chicken). You can’t quite see it above, but I L.O.V.E. my Flirty Apron (affiliate link) – it’s cute and has saved many an outfit.

See the Last Freezer Cooking Session Post

A few months ago I shared five freezer cooking tips and the seventeen freezer cooking recipes we used. Hopefully it will be help to you!

You may also be interested in my 25 Freezer Meal Recipes post where I share many newer recipes and a few more tips on freezer cooking!

Have you tried freezer cooking yet? (I promise, it’s worth it!) Share a link to a favorite recipe – I’d love to hear!

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Filed Under: Mom Helps, Organizing, Printables 8 Comments

Print and Cursive Alphabet Flashcards and Posters – UPDATED!

Nov62014

November 6, 2014 by Jolanthe 3 Comments

Although it’s just a minor update, I wanted to let you know that there are a few new flashcard and poster images for both the Alphabet Flashcards and the Alphabet Posters, both print and cursive versions.

After a few readers emailed asking for an x-ray image for the letter Xx in place of a xylophone, I did a little digging and found a few images to use in the files.

FREE Alphabet Printables

You may be familiar with the ABC Bible Verse Flashcards, but these flashcards are some of my other favorites! I love the colors, clip art, and photos on these cards and posters (and hope you will too!).

The alphabet flashcards each print off around 2” x 3”, about the size of a deck of cards. We printed our cards off onto cardstock, laminated them to make them more sturdy, hole-punched them and then put them on a jump ring. {Note: This is how we laminate more inexpensively}.

These posters are 8 1/2” x 11” in size and one set features real images {they match the Beginning Sounds Poster and several of the other Preschool Alphabet printables} while the second set has clip art images ~ both are cute!