Ending The Year Well

This year is fast rushing to a close … Christmas goodies are already filling the shops and December summer holidays seem just around the corner.

It is also the time of the year when we conclude and congratulate ourselves for the work we have covered during our school year.

As I revisit this post from my archives, may I offer some ideas to finish your year well?

We don’t always actually “finish” the curriculum each year because we stretch our curriculum over 2 years.  When we declare official school work closed for the year, it is good to find closure and create some fun activities to enjoy during their holidays.

Here are some of our end-of-year activities:
(not in any particular order … just some of the many ideas that sprang to mind …)

• Finish any year-long hands-on projects.
• Go on outings or field trips.
• Catch up and finish any read alouds.
• Do all outstanding Science experiments.
• Prepare an exhibition of their work and invite family or close friends to see their work.  Children love to explain what they did or present their projects and art work!
• Join other homeschool families or co-ops for an end-of-year party or activity.
• Hold a ‘graduation’ party.  Young children, even teens, love to receive a certificate!  Sonlight builds this aspect into their curriculums.
• We love to make Christmas gifts.
• Listen to the year’s music highlights on a special playlist.
• Watch a historical movie covering the time of your studies.
• Create and act out a play or puppet show for a real audience.

Some administrative activities:

• Rearrange, refresh and decorate the schoolroom.

• My youngest loves to hang mobiles!
• Prepare their new notebook files and stationary.
• Refresh the Theme of the Day poster.
• File away the year’s work and store art and craft projects.
• Review and look through the whole year’s work.  I ask my children to comment, select, highlight and rejoice over work they have done and accomplished.  I ask these basic questions:
  1. What was your favourite activity/ theme/ or topic?  Why?
  2. Show me your top 5 favourite books – read alouds or readers.
  3. What did you least enjoy?  Why?
• I spend these weeks planning, printing and preparing the children’s school work for the new year.  (It is an exciting time , yet slightly scary time for me.  Every. Year.  Even after  +18 years of homeschooling, I’m not always sure what will work, how long it will take and if we will enjoy it.)

Remember that homeschooling is a long journey, and just as travellers love to show their photos and review their trips, an end-of-year program is a wonderful way to rejoice in all the accomplishments and ease into the new year with enthusiasm and motivation.

Blessings in your homeschooling journey!

May you find much grace and rest in this festive season, Nadene

Keeping Record and Attendance

 

Many parents are new at homeschooling and are currently “doing school at home,” and a mom in a homeschooling Facebook group asked, 

“How do you keep attendance? Any ideas or helpful tips?”

Homeschooling is a life-education and children are learning every day, but for the sake of being accountable and keeping track, it is helpful to keep records. Some curriculum providers instruct parents to keep attendance records.  Other parents have had to comply with their child’s school’s regulations during the lockdown.  Many homeschool parents keep attendance record to meet the Department of Education’s requirements.

In my 22-years+ of homeschooling, I kept record purely as part of my own discipline as a former teacher, but I also kept records to be accountable to my husband and family.  I always wanted to have evidence of our schooling should there ever be any query or inspection.  This, thankfully,  has never been required.

Here are some record-keeping tips ~

• Use a simple print-out of a monthly, block calendar to keep a record of attendance and subject topics ~ I jotted notes in daily blocks on issues, successes, and special or unusual activities.  I used coloured highlighters to block out holidays, days for weekly shopping trips etc.

• Google Calendars are the most versatile and effective planning and attendance record-keeping tools I used in our homeschooling.
  

  Google Calendar with school holidays and themes and topics plotted

  • At the end of each school year, I plotted in all the official school holidays for the new year to keep in sync with friends that are not homeschooling or to take advantage of off-season rates for trips.
  • The average yearly schedule comes to about 50 weeks of homeschooling for the year.  This is a very flexible outline. We may take off schooling earlier than government school holidays or continue learning longer in some terms to keep up with our schedule.  My most important tip to any new homeschooler is to give yourselves more time and extend a one-year schedule to 18-months!  This year plan is not a schedule, but a guideline.
  • Created a Google calendar for each child if they are old enough to have their own Gmail account, but it is easy to keep the attendance records of each child all together on a family calendar.
  • Here are the links to my Google Calendar posts ~
    • Practical Tip – Google Calendar
    • Google Calendar Homeschool Planning
    • Google Calendar Planning (follow-up)
• Use Google calendar daily to record the days where we were out on appointments, travelling, when a child was sick, etc. and I recorded when we take off one day every week to travel to town for our shopping.
• Sometimes, when a child “falls behind” for some reason, they continue schooling into a school holiday week.
• Train your children to date all their work every time they start their daily work.
• Parents should initial/sign and write the date when checking their children’s books or notes. This also forms a good record of work.
• Another way of keeping a record is to print out your curriculum year planner and the index page of each child’s textbooks or the contents page of a book or the planner page of a lapbook and sign and date next to each chapter or item when your child completes the work.

You can find all my planning and organization pages here.  I hope that these tips help!  If you have other suggestions or questions, please comment below.

Blessings, Nadene

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25 Smartphone Homeschool Apps

In my early homeschooling days before smart phones existed, I carried a basket full of books, CD’s with CD player, an Atlas and reference books next to me when we studied.  But once I bought my smartphone I reduced the pile of books to mostly just our read alouds.

In 2015 I included a smartphone as one of my 3 Ingredients I would select for homeschooling.  As techno-savy mom, I have added many more homeschool apps for planning, specific subjects and especially for references.  Here are some I used with our middle school and high school children.

1. Kindle – with current Ebooks, downloaded novels, and any pdf files
2. Bible – I use You Version, and enjoy the different Bible versions and reading plans and Bible studies.  Sometimes we follow good Bible plans for teens and family devotions.
3. Dictionary and Thesaurus (download the offline versions)
4. Google Translate for 2nd language studies
5. Duolingo or Babbel for 2nd language practice
6. Wikipedia our go-to favorite!
7. YouTube subscriptions, playlists or general looking up
8. World Atlas especially with flags for Current Affairs and Geography
9. Google Sky Map for Astrology studies
10. Google calendar for all my planning
11. Just plain old Google to look up anything
12. Music playlists containing our Hymns, Geography Songs, as well as current classic musician’s music
13. Radio streaming app such as Spotify with our favorite genres and artists while we do handicrafts and art
14. Timer for Maths drills, arrows games, and revision
15. Audio Recorder to record oral narrations
16. Audible for audio books.  (I download the book for my daughter so that she can listen to her story offline)
17. Camera to capture nature finds
18. Bird, Tree and Plant reference apps for Nature Study
19. Photo editor for art and drawing reference, as well as for sharing art with other family members
20. Podcast app with my favourite homeschool posts such as TEDtalks  for Kids and Family
21. News for our Current Affairs (note – I preview before I share)
22. Khan Academy especially for high school Maths and Physical Science
23. Online games for Phonics and Spelling such as Spell City, Starfall, The Spelling Bee,
24. Shopping list app for mom’s weekly shopping. Add a menu planner and a recipe app and you’ll be completely sorted for all your meals
25. Dropbox which enables everyone to safely store and access documents across different computers.

There are dozens of phone apps for toddlers and kindergarten, but I prefer to encourage real-life interaction and limit screens for young kids.  It is really addictive!  Also, be aware of “fluff” or “candy floss” apps which are simply fun and not really educational.  Nothing replaces time for real play and exploration and time to be creative.

As technology sometimes fails, always save and make physical pencil-on-paper plans, records and notes. I always start here and then look online for educational support.

For families with limited WiFi, opt for offline versions and select and download specific information for subjects. We made the decision to only use free online educational games and not pay for subscriptions even though many were excellent.

What others are sharing:

• I love to read Sonya of Simply Charlotte Mason weekly posts and this week Sonya shared her 10 Smartphone Hacks For Charlotte Mason Homeschoolers.
• Best Educational Apps at  Homeschool Academy.com

What other smartphone apps do you use for homeschool?  Please share in the comments below.

 Blessings, Nadene

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Test your homeschool style

Most new homeschool moms choose a homeschool curriculum based on their children’s learning style, but forget that they are a vital part of the homeschool approach, vision and energy.  Your homeschool style is how you naturally approach homeschooling.

There are 6 main homeschool styles:

1. Traditional
2. Classical
3. Charlotte Mason
4. Unit Studies
5. Unschooling
6. Eclectic

If you choose a style that doesn’t suit you, you may find yourself becoming anxious, stressed, fearful, negative, bored, confused, scattered, or even burnt-out!   When parents follow a homeschool style that is a good fit with their unique attitudes, values, vision and passion, homeschooling becomes an exciting journey with their children.

For example – a mom who loves the idea of project-based learning, but hates a messy house will begin to quench the natural flow of hands-on activities.  A mom who wants her children to learn “naturally” will become utterly frustrated by a curriculum that is highly scheduled with tests, workbooks and exams.  A Unschooling approach may make a mom nervous about not covering all the subjects  and skills she feels need to be covered daily.  Many moms that do not want to be involved in teaching every lesson and prefer independent-type lessons may become exhausted by an approach that requires intensive parent-led involvement.

Parents often choose out of fear!  Some choose a school-at-home-approach with the aim of keeping in line with traditional schooling in case homeschooling “fails” and their child has to return to school.  These parents hardly ever discover the joys of following a homeschooling style that is filled with excitement, involvement, vision  and enthusiasm.  Many new moms chose a detailed, scheduled curriculum designed by professionals because they feel unsure as their child’s educator, but learn through time, that they can build their own curriculum designed for their family that fits perfectly.

Many parents use multiple approaches.  Your homeschooling may shift and change as your children mature and as your experiences redefines what works.  This is normal, so don’t feel guilty about not being a purist!  Find what works for you and each child and  aim to become their facilitator and inspiration while remaining energized, passionate and involved.

By taking a simple quiz, you can discern your dominant homeschool style and these results can help you tweak your approach to be more of what you want. A quiz helps to analyze what is working and what isn’t, to think about your values and goals and if your approach is facilitating that or working against it.

So grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea, and click a quiz and get started ~

• Eclectic Homeschool.com – Homeschool Philosophies Quiz
• Homeschool On – The Homeschool Style Quiz 

Has taking these types of quizzes helped you in your homeschooling?  Please share with the readers in the comments below.

Blessings, Nadene

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Tip ~ Bedtime Moments

I found bedtimes to be a good time to build relationships, deepen our understanding of each other and to even cover some of the reading we had on our homeschool schedule.  Here’s some of our bedtime activities ~

1. Read alouds at bedtime – Often this was with just one child, but in the seasons where my daughters shared a room, they would both listen to the story before sleeping.  I usually read their fiction books in our curriculum at bedtime.  Night-time story time helped me keep our school time shorter in the mornings.   Bedtime stories also sometimes helped me catch up if there were interruptions during the day.  Read alouds are our homeschool glue and often saved our days! We read books when all else failed. We love reading any story.  It didn’t have to be a book from the school schedule.  Regularly reading good stories built a love for reading and a love for books in our family.
2. Reviews and oral narrations – Narrations or telling-back is a very natural way for a child to relate what they understood and remembered from the read alouds.  At bedtime, lying cuddled together in bed, my daughters seemed so relaxed and thoughtful, and they could easily tell me what they learnt from the read aloud.  Charlotte Mason’s narrations are power-packed with skills and narrations are a fabulous way to assess your child’s learning.
3. Best and Worst moments – Nighttime reflection is a wonderful way to connect with your child’s experiences through the day.  It is a good time to listen to their happy moments, their joys, their delights, as well as their fears, hurts and disappointments.  I reflected back what they just told me by saying what they said in my own words, without commenting, e.g. “You really loved playing at the pond today…”  Or I acknowledged their feelings without judgement, saying, “You must have felt really mad when …”  which helped them feel that I hear and understood them.  It is a very important way to validate and empathize with your children., building strong, trusting relationships.
4. Pray together – Night time prayers flow so easily from #3 “Best and Worst Moments“, praising and thanking the Lord for all the best and praying over the worst.  Teach your child to be thankful.  Thankfulness and gratitude are powerful resources to motivation and health.  Teach your child how to forgive others, to ask for forgiveness and to receive forgiveness.  Dealing with challenging circumstances, difficulties, challenges, or repeated failures is very hard for a child.  Praying together over any of these issues helps your child roll the burden onto the Lord, to learn to trust Him and to know that your child is not working through these things alone.
5. Affirm and encourage – Bedtime is one of the best times to affirm and encourage your child.  Focus on building up your child with positive affirmations and genuine, focused acknowledgements of your child’s character, personality and her importance to you and others.  Again, relationships are key, but this is also a good time to acknowledge where your child did something well, accomplished something challenging or coped with some difficulty.  Long after the lights are out, as your child lingers in the dark, falling asleep, these words penetrate deeply and are the final thoughts for the day.
6. Ideas for the next day –  Talk about the upcoming events, or meetings with others,  or dentist appointments, etc. at night gave my child the time to prepare emotionally.  I found this very helpful, especially for my more anxious child. Sometimes we would talk about how a meeting with so-and-so would go, imagining and talking about how to handle the situation. Sometimes using humor made these discussions funny and gave a different perspective to something my child felt anxious about.  It was a good time to gently discuss my expectations about my child’s behaviour, being very positive and encouraging.
7. Bedtime notebooks – Once your child can write, we enjoyed private and very special notebooks which we would slip under each other’s pillows at night.  I treasure their deeply personal letters.  They often shared things we could not speak about.  This is really valuable when children reach their tweens and teen years.

My children really valued these special night-time moments together with me and generally we would be done by 8:30pm, but  I must confess that I did not cope well as a mom after 9:00pm.  By then I was exhausted and I needed time to be alone with my hubby and to have some time by myself.

There were times where dad took over their  bedtime routine  and his bedtimes with the kids was very different from mine.  He often was louder, funnier and their bedtimes activities were often far more physical.  They often spent their time with dad doing tickles, wrestles, pillow fights and jokes. They loved him reading funny stories, usually with sound effects, and they would eventually go to sleep, happy and exhausted, which was a win for me!

What special moments do you have with your children?  Please share with us in the comments below.

Trusting your family has very blessed bedtimes.

In Grace, Nadene

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Find Your Fit

Recently I shared some ideas on how to Tailor-make your curriculum.  Just as when you buy your children’s clothes, you may sometime need to try a size smaller or larger to get the best fit, so, too, it is with finding the right fit for your child’s homeschool curriculum.

Your child’s age is often a starting point, however your child may need to begin at an earlier grade, or stay on a level longer than the professional calculated for the average child. Your child may need to skip over a grade where he finds work too easy in order that he finds the level that stimulates and challenges him.

This individualization should be the practice in every classroom, but the school system usually focuses on the average child and so the more gifted or special-needs child often fall through the cracks.  Because homeschooling is a one-on-one education, it is far easier for a parent to find the perfect fit for their child.

You are tailor-making your child’s learning experience – read more Tailor made and Offer a learning buffet  and Tailor-make your curriculum.

I urge you to customize your curriculum and subjects for each child.

Some of the most challenging subjects that require individualization are
Reading, Writing and Maths.  This post has quite a few links to my archives.  Please bookmark them to read later if you don’t have time today.)

Reading

• Teach your child their phonics so that they know how to sound out every letter in the alphabet and then combination letters called blends.
• Use flashcards, charts and picture games to practice and master phonics.
• Find a series of early readers that are both entertaining and interesting and which contain almost all the words your child can sound out and read.
• Use partnered reading where your child sits on your lap are next to you, and you whisper in their ear as they read and sound out their words.  You can see that we use a ruler or pointer to help with tracking along the sentence.
• Read more about partnered reading technique I used with my youngest child — Partnered Reading Helps Improve Reading and Partnered Reading ~ moments I treasure and Slow learner Joys discovered.
  

Writing 

• Don’t fret/ push/ demand/ panic if your child isn’t ready to write out his own narrations / or write neatly.
• Keep on assisting him and encourage oral dictations, recorded narrations or dictated narrations, or traced over or printed dictated narrations. The vital skill of narration is being practiced and the writing will come later.  Read about being your child’s Narration Scribe. 
• Gently encourage your child to write an opening sentence and then the concluding sentence. Work on developing 3 sentences that form a paragraph.  Before long he will be doing more and more of his own written narrations.
• Use a word bank  or textmapping to help your child remember their ideas.
• Find an alternative activity that your child enjoys instead of the prescribed narration – there are so many options and alternatives!  Purchase my Narration Ideas booklet with over 100 ideas and options instead of just writing!
• Writing is such an important skill that you should find a way for your child to present his thoughts and understanding with narrations because Narrations show you what he knows.

Mathematics

• Mathematics is a very important subject and it is vital to find the right level and pace and approach for each child.
• Swap or add another Maths book if the course your child uses progresses too quickly.  Look for an exercise or book that offers more practice lessons, or one that provides more visual or practical work.
• Use concrete apparatus for as long as is needed.  Work with beads, blocks, number lines, counting fingers or whatever helps your child.  It really doesn’t actually matter how long your child needs these “props”.  If it helps, then use them!  Don’t shame your child or let him believe that he is immature.  Make physical apparatus options available.
• Gently encourage your child to do the same activity again without the physical apparatus and teach him how to picture the blocks or bead in his head.  It may just suddenly ‘click’ and he will be able to continue his work without the objects.
• Encourage Maths drills with games and mental Maths worksheets.
•  Use different approaches as and when needed, for example, use blocks, flashcards, use number lines, and or computer games to teach, practice and master a concept.
• Work for mastery — you want your child to feel a sense of confidence.  Maths is a very emotionally charged subject for some children.  Don’t give up at a point of anxiety or stress.  Look for creative ways of doing the work so that your child feels good about themselves.

Time

• Start by stretching out a one-year curriculum over 18 months to provide a wide margin of time to enjoy themes and topics that your children enjoy, time to take detours or take longer scenic stops.
• Continue working longer on any concepts to practice and fully master a skill.
• Read about my experiences extending time on a curriculum — Re-using Sonlight and doing it differently and Best Homeschooling Decision-More Time .

In every subject, in every grade, adjust your course to suit your child’s interests, ability and pace.  Try find the balance between challenging and mastery, gently increasing the work load and difficulty, but allowing for their sense of “I can do it!”

Blessings as you find your fit, Nadene

 

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Making time for nature study

A homeschool mom wrote to me and said,

“My greatest struggle in doing Nature Study is not being able to find time to do a walk or do a nature journal entry.  I know that we should make the time.  What do you suggest?”

Charlotte Mason’s had a great love of the outdoors and she advocated that children spend healthy doses of time outdoors every day.  She encouraged her students to develop the habit of keen interest, observation, detailed comparisons, and an ever-growing knowledge of plants, seasons, living creatures, and geography.  Her approach was natural, gentle and fun!  She encouraged each child  to keep a nature journal ~

“As soon as he is able to keep it himself, a nature-diary is a source of delight to a child.  Every day’s walk gives him something to enter …” (Vol 1, p.54-55)

Outdoor time is restorative, calming, refreshing and inspiring.  It changes our moods, lifts our spirits and shifts our perspectives.  Young children need the outdoors almost as much as they need food and sleep!  It is vital to their growth and development.  They need to touch, feel, hear, smell, taste and experiment with nature. Let your kids get wet and dirty!  It is an essential way for them to discover the world around them.

Over the years we have used several fun outdoor nature study activities that provided wonderful nature experiences, some which lead to nature journaling and further study or research.  Tea time or just before or after lunchtime every day is a good time to go outside into the garden and to find something on topic.

Here are some really quick, fun nature ideas with free downloads:

• Use the Outdoor Hour Challenges Nature Photo of the Week topics.  Choose one word for the week and let your children grab a camera or smartphone and find and snap photos of their nature word for the week.  Children absolutely love this activity!  If they want, you can print out photos, and let them make a journal entry and possibly research anything that captured their curiosity.  Download the chart here ~ Nature Photo of the Week Chart
• Here’s another quick idea!  Let your children pick out a colour from the pack of colour cards and encourage them to spend a time outdoors finding that specific colour in nature ~ Download ~Color Hunt Cards printable from Handbook of Nature Study
• Ambleside Online’s follows a simple theme for each season and term. Display some reference books, library books, pictures and examples of the theme on a nature display shelf and encourage your children to look for those topics outdoors on their nature walks each week.  Download ~ Ambleside Online Nature Study Schedule
• For quick, fun nature activities, use my Smash This Nature Journals!  These nature walk prompts are simple, unusual, sometimes messy or out-of-the-box ideas.  Boys and young children especially enjoy these fun nature journal activities. Print the Smash Nature Journals out and encourage your kids to complete a page or two each day. 
• Allocate one day in your week for nature study.  We followed our Theme of the Week and Wednesdays were for “Wonderful World” where we did longer nature walks, added Geography lessons and completed an entry in our nature journals.

It doesn’t matter if your kids seem to “play” instead of formally learning.  If you teach them to be curious, observant and inspire them to observe and notice details in nature around them, they will surprise you with their knowledge and passion.

Please don’t kill this natural delight by teaching or making a big deal about knowing everything or looking up everything about things found in nature. During my early homeschooling years almost killed my kids’ enjoyment of our nature walks simply by being overly enthusiastic and teachy. May I suggest that you ditch the idea of formal nature study lessons and do very informal, but regular, fun nature walks instead.

I hope that some of these outdoor prompts inspire you and  I encourage to make time for nature study into your school days!

Blessings, Nadene

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Online Homeschool Curriculum Fair

I’m excited to be part of The Parent Heart’s Online Homeschool Curriculum Fair!

For just R25, you can connect with loads of curriculum providers, ask questions and get the info you need to make informed decisions.   Listen to pre-recorded talks from experts, and then to interact with them in an online question and answer session.  And you can do this from the comfort of your home, all day Saturday 18th November.

I have spent some time figuring out Live Chat on Facebook and I look forward to meeting you there!

Blessings, Nadene

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Work & Homeschool 7 – Independent Work

I run our family business, the Lucerne Tree Farm,  while I homeschool my three daughters, and it has been a stress and a juggle to do both jobs at the same time.  Over the years I have found some simple methods that keep the day running smoothly and keep me fairly sane.

Concluding my series of short posts on Work & Homeschool ~ 1. Start Early &  2. Manage Interruptions & 3. Take Messages  & 4. Office Hours & 5. Simple Systems & 6. Canned Responses, here is another practical tip ~

Independent Work 

Our aim as parents is to prepare our children to work more and more independently.  In the ideal world, children should eventually cease to need us to do everything with or for them.

By junior high, your children will automatically begin to pull back and want to work in their own space and on their own.  When homeschooling more than one child, and especially when also running a business or working from home, children need to have some independent work for successful homeschooling.

Depending on your children’s ages and stages, it helps if you have some independent work for them to continue with if you have to attend to anything urgent. Here is a list of suggested activities for children to do more independently ~

• Busy bags for toddlers
• An older sibling read aloud to the younger children
• worksheets
• workbooks
• puzzles
• online educational games practicing maths, spelling or reading
• computer educational games
• Scrabble or Bananagrams games
• appropriate YouTube videos (make a safe playlist)
• Arts & crafts and handicrafts
• Cooking or baking
• Sketch Tuesday or Nature Journals
• Self-correcting Montessori-type activities
• Hobbies
• Hands-on projects

Independent activities are very helpful for those unavoidable moments where you have to attend to work instead of teaching.  Just watch out that this is not the norm and that the children learn to quickly disappear whenever you are distracted.  It is far easier to keep them going than to stop and start again.

Some subjects should be fairly simple to ease towards independent work such as handwriting, copywork, spelling practice, mental math worksheets, or narrations.

It is important to work diligently and to still be able to celebrate life with family.  We all need to find the balance between work, school and family time.

I hope that these practical tips help you.  If you need any more information or have helpful suggestions, please share in the comments below.

Blessings, Nadene

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Work & Homeschool 6 – Canned Responses

I run our family business, the Lucerne Tree Farm,  while I homeschool my three daughters, and it has been a stress and a juggle to do both jobs at the same time.  Over the years I have found some simple methods that keep the day running smoothly and keep me fairly sane.

If you missed the previous Work & Homeschool posts, pop over to read 1. Start Early &  2. Manage Interruptions & 3. Take Messages  & 4. Office Hours & 5. Simple Systems.

In my post Simple Systems, I wrote that I regularly use canned responses to quickly answer many of our business emails. Here is a Gmail tutorial to help you set up some simple, basic components of your regular emails to help you save time ~

First, create a signature 

1. Open Gmail.  Click the cog-wheel at the top right corner of your Gmail page.
2. Scroll down to Settings.
3. Scroll down to Signature.
4. In the signature box, type in your closing greeting, your name and I recommend you include your website address.  Highlight that web address and click the hyperlink symbol above the box to create a clickable link to your website.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Changes 

Here’s my personal signature:

Now to create canned responses You need to enable this feature in your Gmail settings first:

1. Click the cog at the top right and select Settings.
2. Select labs.
3. Find the Canned Responses option and enable it.
4. Click compose, and type in the message you’d like to save as a canned response.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save Settings

Now you can start creating your canned responses.

How to create new canned responses:

1. Click Compose to open a new email message.
2. Your message box must be absolutely empty so that you only have the words of your new canned response in the message box. Delete your signature if it appears automatically in the new message.
3. Write out the generic styled greeting or salutation leaving space for the person’s name, write the content, or copy and paste the paragraph or information for a specific response from an existing email or word document.  You can include tables, numbered lists, images and hyperlinks.
4. Click the arrow at the bottom right of the page. Select Canned Responses and select New canned response … 
5. A pop-up box will ask for a name for your new canned response.  Give your new canned response a name – just a few keywords.  This name will appear as the subject of a new email if you have not typed in your own subject.
6.  Check that it works by going back to your new message:  Delete everything in the message box.  Click the bottom arrow, select Canned response, scroll down and click the title you just created, and the canned message wording should pop up in your message.
7. Go ahead and create other messages you often need, each time starting with an empty message box and saving each topic with its own title.
8. I have about 12 canned responses, mostly dealing with orders or answering questions, covering topics that clients ask me at very often.
9. You can set it so that your signature will automatically appear under any canned response in your emails when you open a new email, or include your signature in each template.

For example here’s a canned response for a general enquiry, all this with just one click:

Here’s another example of the regular emails I send once I have posted seeds.  I simply insert the client’s name, the full tracking number and the rest of the date:

And another example of a question I often have to answer:

You can insert as many canned responses to any email that you need.  If I have a client that needs several questions answered, I simply insert each answer from my list of canned responses.

You can overwrite a canned response.  If you need to change any canned response, simply follow the same steps and then scroll down the canned responses listed and find the title under Saved and it will pop up a prompt saying, This will overwrite a response.  Are you sure you want to proceed? Click Yes and the new response in your message will replace the one you previously saved.

You can also delete any canned response by repeating the steps above, and scroll to the title below the word Delete.  Follow the prompt and click Yes.

I know this may seem like cheating, but I always personalize my greetings and add specific sentences to special emails.  Generally, I have well-worded, correct, detailed email content ready for me to add to an email and, with these canned responses, I save hours doing repetitive admin every day.

I hope that these practical tips help you.  If you need any more information or have helpful suggestions, please share in the comments below.

Blessings, Nadene

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