A Quick Look At Your Planner Pages
Thank you for purchasing my Homeschool Planner. Let's take a look at some of the unique page layouts included in your planner and discuss how to use them.
Year Ahead
At first glance, the Year Ahead page might look confusing, but trust me, it's a game-changer.
Before I started making planners, I used to draw this out in a notebook at the beginning of each school year. It made it so much easier for me to nail which days were my school days, which days were my vacation days, and which days were term breaks.
The Year Ahead page divides your year into quarters, so you'll work on one quarter per page. Start by labeling your months. Each row is numbered to 31, so black out the bottom row of any months with fewer than 31 days. Then, label your first day of school and start blocking out your school weeks. You can do this however you like; in the sample image, I've highlighted school weeks in yellow and vacation weeks in blue. Important dates like holidays and birthdays can be marked for quick reference. Having your entire school year laid out like this makes curriculum planning a breeze.
One technique I love is using sticky notes (the small ones fit this layout perfectly). I jot down specific topics on sticky notes and place them on the weeks I think we’ll cover them. As I fill in the school year, I can easily shuffle things around, ensuring a perfect schedule. This flexibility allows for mid-year adjustments without any hassle. Sticky notes also add an extra layer of labeling, providing more space for notes on each week.
Another helpful tip is labeling each week of the school year. It's easy to spot the first few weeks, but what about week 27? Instead of counting each week, you can label them as you block off your Year Ahead pages. This is especially useful if your curriculum assigns topics for each week. You can plan ahead for any changes or see what time of year certain lessons fall and adjust accordingly. For instance, if a unit on plants with seed sprouting experiments falls in the middle of winter, you can spot this ahead of time and rearrange it for spring.
This layout is incredibly versatile, whether you’re creating a basic school calendar, scheduling unit studies, or designing topic timelines. I've homeschooled in many styles over my 11 years of homeschooling—from eclectic to electronic, books to unit studies—and this layout has been invaluable with every curriculum style we’ve explored.
Term Goals
Another fantastic layout is the Term Goals page. There are 6 six-week term periods of school. This spread splits them up into 3 terms per page for more detailed forward planning of your curriculum topics. You can use a page to plan 3 terms for 1 child, or 3 terms for 1 subject for that child. It's up to you: how much detail you want to go into when planning, and how much space you'll need as a result.
If you’re planning unit studies, this layout makes it a breeze. Simply write out each unit study you want to cover during each six-week period and how long each will take to complete. Like the Year Ahead page, this helps you pinpoint the best timeframe for each topic. However, with Term Goals, you can delve deeper into your planning, organizing your curriculum by term periods.
Reading Lists
While you could just write down your children's reading goals on a sheet of paper as a boring list, that wouldn't be much fun would it? This reading list page (as well as the other 2 styles included) make is fun for kids to get though all their books each school year. With the wreath design, you can write all the books in advance, then have your child color in the circle each time they finish the book. You can do the same with the bookshelf design by having them decorate the book each time they finish. And for the older kids, the book review spread let's them leave a review of the book after they finish.
Transcript Tracker
The transcript tracker came out of my own need to start one when my oldest started high school Eventually we will be making their transcripts when they graduate but to make that job a little less overwhelming, it helps to start logging important information from the start. Keep this with you through their high school years along with copies of any testing scores and when it comes time to put that transcript together at the end, you'll already have eveything you need. It closely resembles the real thing so you'll just copy that info over into a nice professional transcript template and you're done!
Most of the other page layouts are self explainatory but if there is any other layout you'd like me to go into more detail with, just let me know and I can add something here. If you are on instagram, I do have a video on there where I do a flip through of the book version of these planners and verbally explain how to use each page so check that out if you think you'll find it helpful.