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With each new school year and as our family continues to grow, I feel like I need to get more organized in order to keep my sanity. ;) There are so many good systems out there but none seem to fit our family just right. Maybe my brain works a little different than others but I had to come up with a system that works for us. So I made these templates to help me out and they turned out so cute that I decided to make them editable so that more homeschool moms (or teachers) could also benefit from them!
Side Note: Let me tell you it wasn't easy making them fully editable as I had to add a separate text box for each section. I haven't figured out how to copy and paste text boxes in Adobe Reader without them duplicating whatever someone writes in one box (and I want them to be able to write something different in each text box). If anyone knows how to do that please let me know!
I came up with my homeschool planner a few years ago and I have been loving it! We used to use My Father's World curriculum which already has everything written out so I didn't really "lesson plan" per say, but would just record everything we'd done in my planner. This way I could keep a record of our work with all the subject areas in one place. I didn't always follow the plans that were written out for me exactly like they suggest either. I would often combine two days of activities into one so we could have more time on Fridays to do household chores. So most Fridays my kids only had independent work to do (that they don't need my help with as much) and then they had chores like laundry and more free time to go outside and explore the beauty of God's creation.
I print these planner pages double-sided and keep them in a three-ring binder. This is also where I can keep goals, grades, calendars, and any other important documents for the year. By the way, I love to use the yearly calendar (template 17) from calendarpedia.com. I love all the bright cheerful colors (see below)! They have a million different calendars available in PDF, Word, or Excel formats to choose from and they are all free to download (YAY!!).
I also included a simple one page homeschool planner that I used when my kids were younger and we weren't doing as many subjects. Note: The binder cover is not included in this printable pack, you can find it here.
I have never used a schedule in my homeschooling before, but last year it felt like my kids were taking the whole day to get their school work done so I decided we had to try something different. I came up with this beautiful (I must say) homeschool schedule with matching checklist. We are only three weeks into starting this new system but so far it's been working great! We try to always start on time each morning so that Daddy can do Bible study with us before he leaves for work. We might not follow the schedule strictly each day as some subjects might not take as long as we have planned. However, I have found that it really helps my kids see how much time each subject should take so they don't waste time. It's also nice for them to see how much they have left to go or when a scheduled break time is coming up which motivates them to work harder to get their work done on time.
Update: I found this to be a little much for some of my kids so we adjusted it to a block schedule with a looping system. This has been so freeing! If you aren't familiar with the looping system it is basically where you pick several subjects and rotate through them during the week. So for example, one loop we do is science and social studies. So day 1 we would do science, day 2 social studies, day 3 science, day 4 social studies, and so on. That way we hit each subject 2-3x per week. In another loop we do five subjects: nature study, handicrafts, creative writing, poetry teatime, and math facts. So for this loop we hit each subject once a week. I've added this new block schedule option
to the printable pack as well!
If you're interested in the giant calendar you can find it here. I love this calendar but the lines were not dark enough so I had to trace over them.
For the matching checklist, I printed and laminated a copy for each of my kids to keep on a clipboard with a dry-erase marker. They keep these in their book bins with all their other books and materials (also something new we are trying this year). Side Note: I'm loving the book bins as each child has their own space to keep their things together. I also bought each of them a pencil box from the dollar store that fits in their book bin.
You can attach a pom-pom to the top of the marker to use as an eraser or just keep an old sock handy which works great as an eraser too!
The last thing I've included in this editable printable pack is a weekly meal planner which I also made super colorful, fun, and bright! This planner allows you to plan your weekly meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even a snack. I've also included a section for a grocery list at the bottom of the page. Since it's fully editable you can type up your whole meal plan and have a really neat and organized list. Another option would be to print it out, laminate it, and keep it on your fridge for your family to see. You can use a dry erase marker so that you can erase it and use it again the following week. You could even have your children add to the grocery list if they notice you are getting low on something like milk.
Tip: If your refrigerator is not magnetic just attach the meal plan with some poster putty like I did below. Make sure you "heat up" your poster putty first by stretching it out over and over with your hands so that it gets nice and sticky! I made the mistake of not doing this my first year teaching and spent a whole day putting up posters all over my classroom wall only to find them all on the floor the next morning!
Click the button below to grab the printable homeschool organizational charts!
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