In total, this takes about 25 minutes for two kids! Success! I print it out and it goes into a binder we keep with our "homeschool stuff". I can put in any special events and field trips we have planned or tweak activities if there has been a change. I can look at what each kid accomplished in their books and know if we need to do more of a subject, slow down, or even change something more drastic.
If you don’t like using your computer, you could just fill in the subjects and print a few blank copies to hand write on the pages. I also don’t have to re-write the subjects because they are already there too! All I have to do is pop in either the amount of time they should work on something (like “20 minutes of reading”) or the tasks (like number of pages in a book or finish a small project) to complete. I don’t have to re-write things that happen weekly because they are already there (lessons, library trips, etc.). Sometime between Friday afternoon and Monday morning, I open up the previous week’s sheet and create a new one for the upcoming week. So, from there, I developed my own system! Option 3: Weekly (and Digital) Planning Either the subject like “Story of the World” for three different days in the same week or something we did the same day every week like “Swim lessons” or “Trip to Library”. This left little flexibility as sometimes math or phonics would get too hard and then I would have to change everything, which was very annoying! I also hated writing the same things over and over again. I had bought my daughter a simple planner and I would just pop in the work for each day for the upcoming month-long period, occassionally going even longer than that when I had some extra time. We meet with a teacher from our charter school about every four weeks so our school year is broken down into roughly 9 months of time.
Call me a slacker, but I needed a break after bedtime. At the end of the day when I’m tired, I quite honestly couldn’t also decide if someone should do 2 pages of math or 6 the next day. There may be a time in the future where I go back to this method but right now it was leading to decision fatigue for me. (Oh ya, and I also broke my hand which made that really annoying.) I didn’t like that I had to open every single book we use twice a day (once with my kids to actually do the work and then again at night to plan for the next day). However, I stopped doing it because even with just two kids, it was too much to keep up with. I liked that it was so interactive since you were basically writing notes and tasks for your kids daily. The pros here are that it is cheap and you can really customize it since you are reviewing your child’s work daily. I adore everything from Sarah Mackenzie (have you read this book? And this one? If not, go read them now… seriously) and this method is what she recommends in detail and with some examples here. The simple explanation is that you write on a single sheet of notebook paper (in a spiral bound notebook) all the assignments for the day. However, as you’ll see - I like option three the best so keep reading! Option 1: Daily Planning Here are the three different main options I’ve tried for those who like to plan their homeschool assignments for the day. They can always go find their work and begin even if they will need help from me. When you sit down for “school time”, how do you decide what to do first? For all of these options, I like that I am teaching my kids some appropriate level of independence. You can read our full disclosure policy here. Some links in this post are affiliate links. If you’ve even thought about homeschooling or done it for any amount of time, you know exactly what I’m talking about. It is always changing based on adding new kids, seeing how your kids learn best, current activities and scheduling, family goals, and about twenty other factors. I have been doing it for three years and have learned so much. I do not claim to be a homeschooling expert. I’ve heard from readers that it is helpful to check out if you’re looking for both a sample but also some things you haven’t thought of and might want to change up! I have also changed up quite a bit so I will post a new schedule soon with our daily routine for my three year old, kindergartener, and second grader. You can find a typical schedule for our day here from last year when my kids were 2 years old, in Pre-Kindergarten, and First Grade. There are so many options for how to do every last thing - curriculum, theory, planning, extracurricular activities. But sometimes that freedom can feel overwhelming. One of the things I love about homeschooling is the amount of freedom it gives us.