Our Homeschool Planner: A Free Printable

*Update* Click here for an updated version for the 14-15 school year.

I can't wait for this new school year to begin. I have so many fun things planned. We are starting July 15th with a unit study on medieval times. Since this is our real first year with 3 students and we have two 2 year olds on top of that, I have become super organized. I have most of our year already planned out. I spent just about an entire day recently searching for a good, free planner online and found nothing that suited my needs. So, of course, I made my own. I thought I would share it with all of you. Maybe it will fit your needs as well.

Please note: In each pdf there is a color version and a black and white version. When you go to print the sheets make sure you select what page number you want or you will have multiples of everything.

click here to download planner cover page

You have two options for the quarterly planner, one with labels to fill in or a blank one. I use the quarterly planer to keep track of unit studies, classes, and books that we plan on using through the year. It says quarterly planning but I added room for those of us who school year round.

 

click here to download quarterly planner

There are a couple different color options for the weekly schedule. To make it easier to recognize I use a different color for each child. We started using these last year and it worked very well for us. On Monday morning each child found their sheet for the week. My oldest worked on hers independently and I would look over it at the end of the week (unless she needed help). Of course, this only worked because she was trustworthy and would do her work honestly. Each child is different and my son needs constant reminders.

click here to download weekly schedule

If you need more of a break down of your day here is an hourly schedule. You can use the five rows for the five days of the week or for multiple people.

click here to download hourly schedule

 Our calender follows the official dates for the school year, July through June.

click here to download 13-14 calender

And last, but definitely not least, is a log sheet for your child's hours. Here in the state of Missouri we are required to log 1,000 hours of school work, broken down to 600 of core subjects and 400 of non-core subjects. It is important to keep a record of these hours. I have used a sheet similar to this, handed down to me from my mom, from the start. I decided that it was time to revamp it a little. The numbers on the left side are for the day of the month. Say on the first day of the month your child did a math lesson, 2 language art lessons, science, and had a music class. In that first row you would mark a 1 in the math column, a 2 in the L.A. column, a 1 in the science column, and a 1 in the extra column. At the bottom you add up the total. YTD is for marking the totals from the months before. I hope that makes sense.

click here to download hours log

I hope these work well for you!

The End of Another Year

We are unofficially done for the school year. We have accomplished everything that we needed to accomplish but we still need to get a few more hours in. It's been a long school year. Annie was really good at doing most of her work alone but Noah and Clair needed a lot more help. That was challenging, to say the least, with two little ones running around. We had to try and fit a lot of work in when they were napping. Another challenge was that we had so many extra classes outside of the house this year. I think we will be cutting those down this next school year. Running here and there nearly every day was too much.
That being said, I am looking forward to next year. The twins will be 2 1/2 and I am hoping for a little more cooperation from them. I hope that is not just wishful thinking, because honestly, it seems a little like it is. We are looking to join a new co-op in our homeschool group. I think it will be really good for Annie and Noah to have someone else teaching them. Grammar is not my favorite and I notice that I do not push them as much as I should because I don't enjoy it myself.
Annie will be in 6th grade. She has done very well in 5th grade and will be skipping 6th grade math altogether and moving on to 7th grade math. She whizzed through the placement test I gave her earlier this spring. She really loves nature and wants to have a career in either conservation or state parks when she gets older. Now that we are approaching middle school and high school we will be focusing a lot on science.
Noah will be in 3rd grade. I think that 3rd grade is always the year that the work gets a little harder. It's gonna be tough for him because we are adding a lot more work and he will have to be more structured. He has done really well in his reading this last year though and I think he will be able to handle it. He took an art class this year and we really saw him shine in something that was just his.
Clair will be in kindergarten/1st grade. She has been doing kindergarten work here and there all year and has even started reading. She understood the concept immediately. I gave her a placement test earlier this spring and she placed average on math and above average in English for a child going into 1st grade. When we start the school year she will only be 4 but will be doing 1st grade work. We will still be calling it kindergarten. In church classes and other things I don't want her to be out of place. If she went to public school she wouldn't even be starting kindergarten until next year. This is just one of the many things I love about homeschooling. If Clair was in the public school system she would either be stifled or out of place. Here at home she can just be Clair, with no labels or levels stamped on her.
We are going to start some subjects in July. Every year, when the regular schools get out for the summer, I become a mean old woman. I love being able to take my children somewhere and it not be crowded by a bunch of unruly children. By starting in July I hope to be able to finish in April, giving us all spring to go places and have fun without the crowd. Also, if we get behind, we have plenty of time to finish before the school year is over.

Valentine's Day

Every year our homeschool group has a bowling Valentine's Day party. We haven't made it for a couple years because of the twins but I decided to brave it this year. It went pretty well, hectic, but well. Clair had a really good day. She was the only one to get a strike and her valentine box won a prize for creativity.

The twins found the opportunity to perform a dance for us. Everything is a stage for my children.

Violet decided this was a good place for a nap.

An Epidemic of Cabin Fever

Sickness has hit our house. Thank God it's not the flu, yet, but we are still feeling icky. My littlest one caught RSV (or respiratory syncytial virus. Yeah, I googled it). She is old enough that she is outside of the danger zone but it has still been hard on her. It caused her to also get a double ear infection, which has been very painful for her. She is normally my wild child but she has mostly been wanting to lie on the couch. If you know anything about RSV you know that it is extremely contagious. All seven of us currently have some form of it. None of us feel like doing anything and we don't want to go out and spread our germs so we have been stuck in the house for several days. We don't have a tiny house but it is starting to shrink on us. The craziness has started to set in. The fact that it is cold, windy, and very cloudy doesn't help. Today I decided that enough was enough. I gave them a project. Now my children would like you to know that I am the coolest. I'm sure it won't last but, hey! I can enjoy it while it does last.