Homeschool Planning 101

Homeschool Planning 101

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Planning for homeschool can feel daunting and overwhelming, especially if you are new to homeschooling or you have multiple children to plan for. There are many methods to homeschool planning. I hope you can glean something from what I share and it can help you settle in to what works for you.

As we enter into the new year, I always like to make some time to refresh our homeschool plans and think ahead for the year.

Here is a glance through when, how, and what I plan.

A couple times a year:

Curriculum Research

A couple of times a year, I do a deep curriculum research for all areas of our homeschool and look forward to the next six months or more. I may download free lessons to look through or go to the local homeschool consignment store to thumb through some books. For most of our subjects, we do family-style learning, meaning that I don’t use something different for each child. For subjects like math, however, we do. I go through each subject for each child and evaluate where they are at and what needs to come next. Do they need to switch curriculums or do I need to add something else? Maybe they just need the next level in a curriculum we’re already using, so I take the time to purchase it. I also think about what other areas of study I want to include in the upcoming year or go deeper in such as learning a musical instrument or foreign language and search for resources for that. I try to narrow in on decisions 1-2 months before beginning anything totally new so that I have plenty of time to gather books, supplies, and get familiar with the curriculum. Even though I set aside time to do this twice a year or so, that doesn’t mean I don’t research new curricula other times throughout the year. I often do, but it’s these couple times a year that I really go deep and do longer term decision making and purchases.

Related: My Homeschool Curriculum Choices for 2nd and 4th Grade

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Calendar Planning and Daily Rhythm Tweaking

I look ahead for the next 6 months or so and pencil in any vacations or school breaks to help me plan around them. I may also rework our daily rhythm at this time to better fit our needs or the seasons.

Related: Our Homeschool Daily Rhythm through the years.

Big Picture Curriculum Scheduling

In our family, we practice year-round schooling and I don’t stick to curriculum schedules very closely. I tailor everything to fit our needs, interests, and to mesh well with everything else we’re choosing to study. We don’t start everything new in August and end in May like a typical brick-and-mortar school. We may finish a resource in 6 months instead of the scheduled 9 or stretch it out for nearly two years. So, once or twice a year I look ahead at the curriculum we are using and think through what timeline will be best to move forward with each one.
Choosing quality homeschool resources is really the foundation to successful homeschool planning. Here are some tips to consider when choosing homeschool curriculum and resources.

  • Start by looking at companies that offer curriculum that resonate with your goals and educational philosophy. If you are unsure about your homeschool style, take this free Homeschool Style Quiz. If you need more direction getting started homeschooling, you may find this blog post helpful- Homeschooling 101: 7 Steps to Get Started
  • Find a curriculum that is truly open-and-go and low-prep, but still hands-on and fun. The less you have to do to get prepared each week, the more successful you will be to actually follow through with lessons.
  • If you have a wide range of ages, try to find a curriculum that offers a family-style approach for as many subjects as possible.
Related: Benefits of Year-Round Homeschooling and More Family-Style Curriculum Choices

Monthly:

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Calendar & Lesson Planning

About once a month I look ahead at our family calendar and all of the curriculum that we are using and plan it out in my Homeschool Planner. I write everything in pencil so that it can easily be edited. I keep this very general for now and add page numbers or details later.

Gather Books and Supplies

I also reserve the next month’s books to be put on hold at the library or make book purchases. I write a master supply list for odds and ends I will need for the coming weeks as well and order supplies or get prepared to pick them up in person.

Printing and Preparing

If any of the curriculum we are using requires me to print, bind, or laminate anything I will do that as well. Sometimes I do this for a full season or year, depending on the curriculum. I like to have everything fully prepped so that each week I can just open the curriculum, glance over the lesson and jump into lessons.

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Weekly:

Calendar & Lesson Planning

Each weekend I take thirty minutes or so to look ahead at the week for each curriculum that we use. I write each lesson that we will be doing each day all in one place for easy reference. I use the Homeschool Planner from our shop. I pencil in page numbers, lesson numbers, or more specifics. Often we won’t make it through everything or go further in a book than I wrote, so I just edit as I go day-to-day. To plan for multiple children, I just write the first letter of their name next to the lesson. for anything individualized. 

Gather Books and Supplies

I gather that week’s books and put them in an easy-to-reach spot near our homeschool table. I double check that we have all of the materials we need for lessons that week and pick anything up that I missed in my monthly planning or that is a perishable item (if we are baking that week, for example). I also like to sharpen pencils and make sure our Bluetooth speaker is charged.

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Prep Morning Menus

We use these menu covers during Morning Time. Once a week I like to wipe them clean really well and insert the new week’s display sheets. Currently we have the Morning Time Bundle and Student Sheets from Treehouse Nature Study in our Morning Menus. All of this covers calendar, time, and weather,  poetry, picture study, folk songs, and hand rhymes. Each of those subjects has a display sheet we refer to.

Related: Our Homeschool Morning Time

File Sheets and Work Away

I pull the display sheets from the previous week’s Morning Time menu out and file them back away for another time that we will circle back to the curriculum. I also take the time to put away any loose work that my children completed over the last week, such as copywork. They each have a binder with dividers for each subject area so I use a three-hole punch and organize them in the appropriate section.

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Why I love our Homeschool Planner

I developed this homeschool planner to meet needs that I have as a busy homeschool mom of multiple children. It can also be used with one child, but there is plenty of space for multiple children. I wanted something simple and beautiful. This homeschool planner works best if you practice Morning Time, as well as a Lesson period of your homeschool day.

Here are the elements I included that I love:

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Attendance Tracker

This simple year-at-a-glance attendance tracker will make it easy to mark off the days your child participates in school. I just color in the days we do lessons for personal record keeping. For multiple children, you could split the square and color code. 

Monthly Calendar & Habit Tracker

Each month from January-December 2023 has its own monthly calendar which I use to mark important dates, holidays, and events when I am long term planning.

We intentionally designed the habit tracker to be open-ended so you can use it to track whichever daily activities or habits you’d like to prioritize each month. I like to use it to track daily reading, chores, hygiene, outdoor time, and more. I have also used it to track my own habits like exercise, water consumption, and reading. You simply write each habit you wish to track on the lines provided then cross off or color in each day of the month that you complete that task.

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Lesson Planner

I fine tuned this through trial and error using it with my own children and love where it has landed. There is a large section for planning Morning Time as well as multiple customizable sections for Lessons. The planner is laid out Monday through Friday so you can plan your week at a glance. Each section has useful checkboxes for marking off activities as you go about your homeschool day. If you purchase the digital version, you can edit any field on this page and it copies to every other week.

Physical, Bound Copies

We now offer planners in hard copy for those mamas who want something easy and ready to go. I personally love this option because printing and binding can be time-consuming and expensive if not done at home. The planners are professionally printed on a commercial-grade printing press on white matte paper. The front and back covers are glossy laminate cardstock so they will hold up over a year of use. The planner is bound with white metal wire-o binding to provide the strongest, highest quality binding. 

I hope you've found this post helpful and informative! If you have any questions about homeschool planning, drop them in the comments below. Shop all of our homeschool planning resources below.

2 comments

Ashley Bricker

Wow! Super inspiring/ and you’re a rockstar mama! I’m trying to decide what two-three takeaways I can begin from all these great tips & ideas. Thanks for being so willing to openly share story and homeschool life!

Haylli Smith

Love this ! Wondering how you come up with topics that you will cover for that year? Thinking for subjects like history , science , health , social studies etc . Thanks for sharing !

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