How I Plan for Homeschool + Free Printables!

When it comes to homeschool planners, everybody does them a little differently because, well, everyone homeschools a little differently.

When I began homeschooling for my son at the beginning of the school year, I had little comparison or knowledge of exactly what I was looking for. In fact, it took a couple of months to really nail down a solution for planning for my homeschool. After many hours researching blogs and watching videos of how other homeschoolers are doing it, I finally came up with my own personal solution.

I created some printable, deconstructed a Big Happy Planner and stuck them all together to create, what is now, a workhorse of a homeschool planner.

Here’s how I plan for homeschool, and this is my homeschool planner setup.

Why I Built My Own Homeschool Planner

Quite frankly, there are tons of resources out there for anyone looking for a teacher/homeschool planner. Between the planners you can find at your local craft store to the printable options on Pinterest, but I just could not find the “perfect fit” for me.

So, I made my own, and I love it!

How I Have My Homeschool Planner Set Up

My homeschool planner is basically set up in 3 main sections.

The Necessities
Lesson Planning Pages
Subject Guides

1. The Necessities

My homeschool planner begins with the basics, the necessities if you will. In this first, and rather small, section of my planner lives a 2-page year-at-a-glance spread, year-round attendance log (which i have color-coded for full days, sick days, holidays, etc.) and a pocket for the unpunchables and any other spare curriculum pages.

2. Lesson Planning Pages

My lesson planning pages are the most used pages in the entire planner, for good reason. This is where all of the actual planning happens and where lessons are written for each day. Let’s dive a little deeper into what’s included in my lesson planning pages.

Monthly Calendar View | At-a-Glance

I have created a single page monthly calendar to record attendance completion, monthly holidays, fields trips, and any other events/notes that may effect the scheduling of our homeschool days.

Learning Goals Page

I love this page at the beginning of every month! The Learning (Unit) Goals page outlines my student’s strengths, areas for improvement, goals and a section to outline subject focus areas. This page is a great page to reflect on throughout the entire month to see my son’s continued progress, as well as to incorporate his trouble areas over the course of the month into lesson plans.

Weekly Lesson Planning Pages

I created my weekly lesson planning pages to take full advantage of the entire space of the pages. i categorize each column by subject and each row resembles the days of the week (Monday-Friday). I like having space to write, so the boxes are big, and the entire format is blank in case we need to change things up. I love having that flexibility!

Future Planning

I have also included a Future Planning page to the back of the planning pages to jot down any notes or reminders that I may need to carry into the following month of curriculum planning.

3. Subject Guides

Using Big Happy Planner dividers, the third, and final section of my homeschool planner is dedicated to subject-focused tabs. Within each tab (categorized by subject area), I keep curriculum guides, record-keeping logs, important documentation, password trackers, and blank note pages.

My dividers are labeled with these subjects:

Mom Stuff: Schedules, passwords, reports, curriculum receipts, etc.
Character Development: Values & Virtues, Manners, Service Learning
Keyboarding
English: Grammar, Spelling, Handwriting, Writing
Math
Social Studies: Geography & History
Science
Notes

Lesson Planning OTG (On the Go)

Since filming my homeschool planner flip through and setup (see below), I have since added a more portable option to my on-the-go planning. Annie Plans Printables has an option to purchase a lesson planner as well. I love this option because it makes my homeschool plans more portable when I need them to be. I use this printable insert strictly as an overview planner, only writing in the name of the lesson with no additional details. I leave all the detailed planning for my actual homeschool planner!

I keep this printable insert in my Traveler’s Notebook, so if we are out and about, I have a quick reference of what was planned for the day and what has/has not yet been completed. I also track weekly vocabulary and books that my son is currently reading in this planner insert.

Curriculum I Use

I have been asked several times what curriculum I use. Please keep in mind that everyone homeschools differently, and the needs for each child may differ as well. My son is 9-years old (equivalent to a student in 3rd grade) and uses the following curriculum.