I love planning. I guess it is part my very type A personality and the former teacher in me. In college I took a semester long class where we planned at great length. It was probably my most loved course.
Now, as a homeschool mom, I still plan. I do it a bit differently. I actually still love a paper planner, so I use both paper and digital. I plan on paper and then I record using my digital planner. Read until the end for a link to my FREE Google Sheets planner!
Check out my favorite paper planner here!It is from Plum Paper but you can also grab a simplified version at Target by Emily Ley. The one great thing about Plum Paper is the ability to customize but the cost is significantly higher.
Then we have my free Google Sheets planner. I created this planner based on what I wanted to keep track of.
I wanted to track days even though my state doesn't require it (I know many do). I still wanted an overall picture of what we were doing and when we were doing it because we tend to homeschool year-round for the most part. I added the COUNTIF function so I could easily see the total number of days for each category:
School Day (x)
Vacation Day (v)
Break (B)
Sick (S)
The next tab is the Year-At-A-Glance tab. I really find this to be important, as I want to plan what our year will most likely look like. This is VERY general. I typically include topics and curriculum (if I have any) or major projects/novels. This is subject to change but it is good for to refer back to throughout the year. It also can be a place where you include goals or your vision for the school year. Note: You may want to edit the months - this is typically how my year is laid out but yours may be different.
The third tab is my curriculum log. Not everyone will find this useful, but I do because I use a wide variety of curriculums. I what I feel are the best units/pieces from a variety of sources and implement them for science and social studies. I do this a little bit for language arts and math as well, but I also have a core curriculum for those areas of study.
The drop down menu under "Content Area" and "Completed" is below!
Next up: Field Trip Log!
This is my favorite tracker because I tend to forget where we go and when. It is a great place to also track parks or outdoor adventures for PE.
Last but not least, our daily planner. You can use this one of two ways.
You can actually plan your day here and open this up each day. Some people may find it useful to save as a favorite on your iPad or Kindle and just click to open daily and view your plans.
You can backlog. I actually plan in my paper planner using pencil and then at the end of each week I log it here. Is this necessary? Not at all but I am a record keeper by nature (aka former public school teacher well versed in keeping all the records).
Want a free copy of my Google Sheets planner? You can grab one below! In order to edit it, you must SAVE A COPY AND RENAME!