If you are anything like me, planning for school (or anything really) is a highlight! Nothing brings me more satisfaction than filling in boxes and writing in my plans for school and for our year. I LOVE PLANNING!

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Simple Homeschool Planner

I just love the simplicity of this planner. I created this to include the basics of what a homeschooling mama would need to keep organized as she homeschools her children. Print it up and organize it in a way that suits you.

What is included in this freebie:

Front Cover
Page 2: Planning out your Educational Purpose and Mission
Page 4: Growing in your knowledge as a homeschool mom
Page 5: Child Information page. Use this to help your child achieve their educational and
personal goals, encourage habits, etc. Keep track of their curriculums as well.
Page 6: Blank Chore Chart
Page 7: Blank Assignment Chart
Page 8: Blank monthly planner. Print multiple copies of these.
Pages 9-10: These pages are your weekly lesson plans for your homeschooling and I think the
most important. Print up the corresponding number of weeks that you will be homeschooling.
You may want to print these up separately and print them Front and back so that they lay
nicely in your planning book.
Page 11: This is a Monthly planning page for all subjects. Having this on one sheet, allows you
to see how your subjects coincide for the month.
Page 12 : Lesson Planning Page. Use this page when you have your own lessons you want to
plan out and teach your child.
Page 13: Master Read Aloud book list to help you keep track of the books that you are
reading
Page 14: List your favorite websites here
Page 15 : Note taking page

Supplies to Help You Plan For Your Homeschool Year

I love having nice pens and paperclips to help me plan and organize for my year. Here are my amazon choices.

HP Paper Printer | 8.5 x 11 Paper | Premium 32 lb | 1 Ream – 500 Sheets | 100 Bright | Made in USA – FSC Certified | 113100R

SHARPIE Felt Tip Pens, Fine Point (0.4mm), Black, 4 Count

Samsill Earth’s Choice, 1-Inch Durable D-Ring View Binder 4 Pack, USDA Certified Biobased, Eco-Friendly, Boho Assortment

Avery 8-Tab Binder Dividers, Write & Erase White Big Tabs, 1 Set (23078)

Swingline 3 Hole Punch, 20 Sheet Capacity Three Hole Puncher 3 Ring, Paper Punch, SmartTouch Low Effort, Black & Silver (74133)

Some Suggestions for your Minimalist Planner:

I suggest printing up this planner on a high quality paper and binding it or placing it in a 3-ring binder with tabs to separate sections.

The Perfect Minimalist Homeschool Planner was designed with the busy homeschool mom in mind. I know what it is like to worry about all the tasks of home, a small business, and homeschooling. It helps to have a simple way to plan out the curriculum you are using and lessons needed for your child.

Looking for a more detailed planner?

Get the free Charlotte Mason Inspired Planner by subscribing today.

Looking for a Unit Study Planner?

If you are a homeschool mom that enjoys digging deep into subjects with your kiddos, you may find that this Unit Study Planner is just what you need to keep your unit study focused planned and organized. This Homeschool Unit Study Planner is available for Purchase in my TeachersPayTeachers and Etsy Stores.

NOW…. For your Free Minimalist Homeschool Planner. Simply Subscribe today and receive your FREE PDF Download.

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It is a new year, try keeping your homeschool year planned with this Perfect minimalist Homeschool Planner.

Why should I use a planner?

Using a planner in your homeschooling helps you to keep focused and on track. While we don’t always complete everything that we write down in our planners, it still helps us meet both short term and long term goals.

Join my mailing list for this limited time offer for the Perfect Minimalist Homeschool Planner.

14 amazing pages to keep you organized in 2023 and it is FREE!

How do you keep organized and ready for teaching at home? Do you have any tips or recommendations for other homeschool families?

Are there any suggestions that you have to make this minimalist planner even better?

Thanks again for stopping by!

IF you are new to homeschooling you may enjoy this post about the best books for homeschool moms!

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You Can Design a Science Curriculum Tailored to your Elementary School Age Child

Keep in mind that science in the younger years should be focused on exploration and excitement. This is an essential component of the Charlotte Mason philosophy. Children are naturally curious about the world so you need to provide abundant learning opportunities for them. A great way to do that is to have access to beautiful living science books that cover a variety of topics. Also, be willing to go outside and explore. This will allow your children to fall in love with the natural world around them!

How do I Design My Own Science Curriculum Based on My Child’s Interests?

If you are anything like me, you struggle to fit your kids into a box of pre-packaged science curriculum. I have decided to be the creator of my children’s science education. Now I know that not everyone wants to take the time to do this, but for those of you homeschool moms who are able, you first need to be open minded and flexible. You can put together a fun science curriculum that works with your child’s interests.

You can put together a FUN science curriculum that works with your child’s interests.

What Made Me Change My Mind-from textbook to Living Picture Books:

When I started homeschooling my kids, I was a firm believer in the need to use textbooks to teach science to my kids (I was coming from a career as a public School educator). It didn’t go so well, though. Trying to get my young children to sit still while I read from the science textbook was nearly impossible.

Thankfully, I had the opportunity to start teaching classes once a week at a learning center. The purpose of these classes was to provide enriching learning opportunities-not what I was used to as a public school teacher. Using my background in curriculum instruction, I designed a buffet-style class around unique and rare animals as well as mysterious places. I called it “Mysteries and Marvels in Our World.”

The class introduced newly discovered creatures, unique creatures, and mysterious places to the children. For example, we learned about the Crooked Forest in Poland, the Cone Snail, Bombardier Beetle, and so many other amazing places and animals. The kids (and me too) were in awe of what we were learning about. It quickly became super popular and I was able to teach it 3 semesters in a row and each semester it was full. I loved that class for so many reasons. One of the main reasons I loved it was because it taught me that I could teach about so many subjects and content areas using these fun creatures and interesting places. Kids learn best when they fall in love with what they are learning. Who doesn’t love the adorable Blobfish?

The Blobfish was one of the first unique animals that we learned about. I had never even heard about this animal until I did the research for the class curriculum. It quickly fascinated me. Using this creature as a “learning base” we covered habitat, density, depth, geography (where it lives using maps), food chain, art (we had to draw it :-), classification, and so much more.

So I figured I could plan out my science curriculum for my own children in that same way. And that is just what I did and you can too.

Now I organize and plan out my own children’s science curriculum (as well as history- but that is another post and I integrate other subjects that they are learning. I even enjoy occasionally creating worksheets and activities that better suit my children’s interests. I am working on a tutorial that teaches other moms how to do that and will update a link to this post once I finish it (this will be especially for my fellow creative mamas!)

What is great about this strategy is that it also saves time in my homeschooling day. I don’t have to teach each subject separately. I can integrate reading, phonics, writing and so much more with core subjects like science and history. It also works for multiple ages.

Children LOVE Animals- Especially Unique and Interesting Ones- You Can Use that as a Hook!

This is a coloring book that I put together for my kids to go with the unique creatures we were learning about.

Creative Science- Learning about unusual creatures to cover a variety of science standards as well as other content areas.

Like I mentioned earlier, rather than teaching about animal habitats and adaptations as their own separate lessons. You can use content your child will be interested in and build their learning around that. First, go over the science topics and standards you want to teach over the year or semester for your child, then choose something that your child is super interested in. For example, you can choose an animal that your kids love. Use this animal as the “learning base” and make their education connected to what they enjoy.

Here are a couple of books that I used to teach about unique and creative creatures

Planning Out Your Year

When I plan for science for the year, I choose a couple of topics. I first talk to my kids and get an idea of what they are interested in. I take that into account, but I also know that there are some topics I will choose for them and I know that once they are exposed to the new topics and we learn about them in a creative and fun way, that they will fall in love with them. I use this planner to help guide what I teach my kids and make all the subjects connect as best as I can. It also helps me to focus on why I teach the way I teach.

You can also use this book by Rebecca Rupp called “Home Learning Year by Year”. It is a fantastic resource to help you organize and plan out your years of homeschooling.

Connected and Cohesive Learning

While what I am about to cover is often more work for the parent or teacher, it is important that your child’s learning be connected and cohesive. Connected and cohesive learning is when cross-curriculum learning goes on. Allowing subjects to cross in your child’s learning such as history, science, reading, phonics, and even math. When learning is disjointed, it not only takes longer to complete your school day, your child is left with thinking that each subject is separate. This is unfortunate because in learning science, you can teach writing, phonics, grammar, history, etc.

I have created a Homeschool Unit Study Planner where you can plan your own unit studies based on your kids interest. See the post and access your Planner by clicking here.

But Shouldn’t I use a textbook?

I do not use textbooks to teach my kids science. I will leave that for Middle School and High School. However, I do purchase science textbooks to help guide me when necessary, such as a when we are learning about human anatomy. I believe it is important to use beautifully illustrated living picture books to teach science to young children, however. Either going to the local library or investing in new and used books online or at the thrift store is essential to exposing amazing content to your kids. Here is a youtube video where I explain the five ways to build your homeschool library on a budget.

Textbooks in my opinion shouldn’t be used as your primary teaching tool. They are often dull and dry and lack beautiful engaging content (not always, but usually that is the case). Quality picture books and other living books that teach science content are much more appropriate for younger children.

Here are just a couple of science picture book that I like, however you can check out a more complete list here or scroll down to see picture book lists by subject area.

I am a BIOLOGY NUT!!!! I could study biology every year with my kids. Last year I designed a biology curriculum for my kindergartner and second grader. While I used the textbook personally, how I taught each topic to my children was through living picture books. I followed a set of topics that I wanted to cover over the year, however I tried to engage my child’s interests whenever possible. And we slowed down when they came to a topic they were fascinated by.

We purchased a high powered microscope and began to learn about the microscopic world. We went on field trips that connected our learning even further. Opportunities for digging deeper into subjects will come often. For us it came when we arrived at the Kingdom Protista during our learning about the classification of living things. We purchased amoebas, paramecium, and euglena. We watched them move around under our microscope. Then we sketched them into our nature journals. Now that was memorable learning!

I created this printable for my kids to record their microscope observations. It is available on TeachersPayTeachers.com

Side note: Nature journaling can be done with the microscopic world too. Things unseen are fascinating!!!

If you are able and interested, investing in a high quality microscope is a great way to get your children interested in the microscopic world around them. I use an Amscope microscope, which is an amazing brand.

Some Microscope Essentials if you are interested:

Quality Living Picture Books are a GREAT Way to Teach Science Content to Your Child

This year we are continuing our life science learning. My kids who are now first and third will be delving into anatomy and physiology. I have a textbook for my own reference. A textbook allows me to have a better understanding of what I want to basically cover even some of the technical words we may come across. The textbook is NOT for my kids, however. The goal of my science instruction is to provide a buffet style education. I offer the content and we slow down and explore when their is a high interest. We checkout or purchase books that correlate to the topics we are covering and then do hands-on activities and labs.

We are also going to do a brief overview of Chemistry this year (my daughter asked for this because to her chemistry means experiments). I have planned it into our school year, but I may be a bit over zealous. I was able to find a basic chemistry textbook to guide me as I plan out my children’s lessons, however, we will be using living science picture books to learn the concepts as well as LOTS of hands-on learning. I will let you know how it goes

Use Real and Technical Words When you Teach or Talk About Science

It is always tempting to simplify the vocabulary from science. I admit, some words are tough. We wonder if our child can even understand them. While at first your child may look at you puzzled when you say a difficult science word. With repetition in context, your child will begin to pick these more difficult words up. I have been using the scientific technical words since the beginning.

I have a funny memory of being in the hospital after having my son and my daughter, who was two at the time pointing at the doctor and saying “stethoscope”. It left the doctor shocked and he even asked her to repeat what she had said. I just thought it was so cute to hear her cute little voice saying it.

From the beginning I used real technical words to interact with my children about our surroundings. I don’t do it so they sound smart (remember Charlotte Mason encourages a humility in learning :-). Rather, I firmly believe that they are capable of using the real words that we all use daily.

Here Are Some of My Favorite Homeschool Planning Books

Get Creative

When teaching science get creative! Make lapbooks or fun books so that your child can document their learning. Check out this list of ways to get creative with science:

• dioramas
• stories
• newspapers
• news report for TV
• lapbook
• book
• art piece
• stop motion video
• song
• making their own board game or card game
• blog

You will notice that with each of these activities you can integrate your writing standards, reading standards, art, History, and so much more. At the end you will have an amazing contribution to your child’s learning portfolio. Let your child help pick out the best way to show their learning and allow some time for creativity.

SLOW DOWN and Let Children Take Their Time

Often textbooks chunk subjects into separate time blocks: 6 weeks for plants, 6 weeks for weather, etc. This is not how children’s minds learn. They need to be given their own time to explore and dive deeper into subjects that they find interesting. The goal is to make them fall in love with learning!

Where Do I Find Activities and Labs That Go With My Science Curriculum?

I like to research activities that I think my kids will enjoy. Pinterest is a great resource for homeschool science activities. It can be overwhelming however. Check out my Pinterest Board.

I am currently putting my Mysteries and Marvels Curriculum together so that I can share it with the world- well at least for those who love animals:-). Once that is ready I will post it.

Great Websites With More Fun and Creative Science Ideas

Creative Educator This site is full of fun ideas that you can integrate into your science teaching.

Home Science Tools is a fantastic resource for science activities. They are all about hands-on learning.

Check out these tips to build your homeschooling library on a budget:

How do you teach your children Science?

Have you found a curriculum that fits your kids? Have you found a textbook that your kids enjoy or that is useful to you as the educator?

Do you design your own science curriculum? What tips can you offer a homeschooling mom to help with teaching science to her children?

“This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using this link. Please see my disclosure for more details.”

The post Homeschool Science Curriculum- How do I Teach Elementary Science at Home and Make it Fun? appeared first on .

Do you encourage creativity in your children? Do you focus only on the core subjects but leave out time for your children to be creative, artistic, and passionate about what they are learning? Follow these 5 simple tips to add creativity to your homeschooling day.

• After I started homeschooling my daughter, I quickly realized that she was naturally so imaginative and full of wonder. She had so much excitement and passion about learning, but the way I was homeschooling her wasn’t reflecting this knowledge of my child. I was following my curriculum manuals, we were completing the worksheets, she was learning appropriately, but much of our homeschooling day was dull and lacking the passion that I knew could be there.
• As I continued homeschooling, I knew that I needed to do more than worksheets and textbooks. I needed to provide my child with the opportunity to get excited with what we were learning and do what she loved best…Create.

5 Simple Tips to Add Creativity to your Homeschooling Day

• Tip 1: Listen to your Child When they are sharing With You

  When children are creating and using their imagination, it is essential that they have an audience. As parents, we have a great responsibility and privilege to be the number one fan of our children. By truly listening, we reinforce our child’s value. In today’s society, there are so many distractions, so actively listening takes real work. Taking the time to actively listen to your child encourages them to be creative with complete acceptance from you.

• Tip 2: Allow Art Time

  While art isn’t the only way to be creative, children love to create using a variety of art mediums. Have a ready supply of materials that your child can try out and create with. For example, high quality colored pencils like Prismacolor Pencils, water colors, high quality papers, markers such as Ohuhu markers, and don’t forget a variety of books for inspiration.

• Tip 3: Encourage Your Child

  Remember to encourage your child and their creations. Don’t always focus on the end product, yet encourage their persistence, their hard work, their creative process, and their imagination. Praising your child for their hard work will encourage them to keep going and not give up.

• Tip 4: Provide Time to be Creative

  Give Your Child Freedom to Be Creative by giving them large chunks of time. By giving them ample time, you allow your child to complete the creative process. When your child is doing something creative, don’t put a time limit on them. “Okay, you have 15 minutes to finish your art project” This does not support their creative growth. Yes, teaching math and reading are essential and you need to take the appropriate amount of time to teach your children those subjects. But make sure to also set aside time for your child to be creative. Children need to be given time to create. Scheduling a creative time period for your child might be necessary if you are a busy family on the go.

Tip 5: Go Outside Together

Encourage your child to go outside and go out with them. Being in nature often awakens a child’s imagination. They feel freedom and joy being in the outdoors. I know that my kids love to act out the things that we are learning about outside. It is funny to hear them pretending to be eagles flying through the sky and watching them build their nests and sit on their eggs. They are making what we have learned earlier in the day a part of their creative play. When you go outside with them, you are enjoying their creativity with them.

You can even give your child an art notebook and allow them to draw what they see in nature.

The Last Thing You Need to Know about Encouraging Creativity in Your Child…

While not every subject of every day can be an amazing creative adventure, you can take little steps to encourage creativity in your child throughout your homeschooling. Creative time is fun and exciting and should be apart of every child’s schooling. See this fun and creative art project. You will see your sweet child light up when they have created something. Don’t forget to tell them how much you love their creativity.

What do you do to add creativity to your Homeschooling day? Share below in the comments.

“This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using this link. Please see my disclosure for more details.”

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