I’ve been homeschooling for eight months now and I feel like for that entire time, I’ve been looking for the best way to plan, prepare, record and report.
I tried creating my own checklists, using store bought diaries and planners, digital, written, photos, videos, I even created a Facebook group to record what we do each day.
As an (undiagnosed) ADHD Mum, I really need something that helps me remember all the things I want to do with the kids each day and week but I also needed something that was super flexible for those days that go a little off track.
I went straight to my favourite unschooling blog – Happiness Is Here. I love that Sara’s approach to unschooling her four daughters is still focused, while being driven and directed by her children. I found a post she had shared about how she manages planning and recording and I was instantly in love with her method, but it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for to help keep me and the kids on track.
So, I got started on designing my own Homeschool Planning & Recording method which also got me thinking about how I want to structure our learning for 2025.
I started by identifying the areas that I was struggling with:
- Remembering what resources we have access to.
This includes paid subscriptions (which are very minimal) but also some of our favourite YouTube channels, podcasts, computer programs, equipment such as sewing machines, Cricut, cameras, ect. - Organising activities and actually having the supplies needed to complete them.
I’m awesome at coming up with fun crafty things to do with the kids – I just forget to actually get the supplies we need to do the things. - Planning outings that are exciting and engaging for the kids.
There’s only so many times my kids will do the Library, I needed to up-my-game with our excursions and plan them ahead of time so I can schedule them in. - Remembering what the kids want to learn about, what they want to know, and what they want to learn how to do.
It’s very easy for me to fall into a rut that doesn’t require a lot of mental load, but that wasn’t really serving my kids. They have so many ideas of things they want to explore and it’s really up to me to support and facilitate that.
The first template I made was definitely inspired by Happiness Is Here with what Sara calls The Wall.
Setting our focus
For each family member, I made a sheet with headings for Projects, Research, Skills & Goals. Hubby and I came up with these headings based off what we want homeschooling to look like for our family.
I sat down with each family member one-on-one and discussed each area with them to identify what they want to focus on over the next 6 weeks which would get us through until Christmas.
Once their sheet was filled in with as much or as little information as they could give me, we stuck it up on the wall in our living room which is where we spend most of our time during the day. Hubby and I also completed one for ourselves because I think too often that we as parents, forget to set goals for new knowledge and skills for ourselves.
Here’s what the kids came up with:
I love the idea of the kids completing a Project that takes them a few weeks. In a world of instant gratification, I can see some really great benefits to taking their time with something and finishing it bit-by-bit. The kids decided to start with a fairy nature art which turned into a diorama. So far they’ve built their boxes, painted the insides and made some air dry clay models for the inside.
Research is for all of those wonderful questions that kids come up with. Miss 4 really want to know why some animals lay eggs, but humans don’t and Mr 7 is totally obsessed with cacti at the moment and wants to learn more about propagating them.
For the Skills section, the kids had to think of a life skill that they want to work on. Miss 4 wants to work on riding her Shetland pony, Frankie, without anyone holding her (she can trot with one hand in the air, she just forgets) and Mr 7 wants to develop his photography and editing skills.
And finally, Goals are anything in general that they want to work towards. Mr 7 very maturely decided her wanted to spend less time on his tablet and Miss 4 told me she wants to make some friends that are girls. Both totally achievable and both so mature haha.
With a clear focus on what we were working on and towards for the next 6(ish) weeks, I got to work on piecing this all together to make it happen.
Finding our rhythm
I absolutely love nothing more than sitting down and writing a detailed time line. Love it. Can’t get enough of it. The schedule, the neat lines, the colour codes. It all excites me.
The only issue I have is actually following it. Without a doubt every single time, I look at it for about a week. Then I lose interest and fall back into my usual chaos.
But somehow, this time, it’s different. We may only be two weeks in, but I’m at the end of my second week and I’m sticking to it which is a record in itself.
Every family is totally different and finding your rhythm I feel comes from just sitting back and observing the natural flow and energy of your family. And keep in mind too that this will change throughout the month (with Mum’s cycle) and throughout the year too with the changes of the seasons. So even though our daily rhythm has changed a lot in the last 8 months, I always keep a record because I’m sure it will be helpful next winter to know roughly how we ran things last winter.
Click here to see our current Daily Routine / Rhythm. But be warned – this will change so make sure you subscribe for an updated version once summer really hits.
Designing The Perfect Planner
I actually cringed uncomfortably while typing that. Because I can’t even tell you how many times I announce proudly to Hubby that I’ve found THE PERFECT planner. He knows the drill now so he listens, gets excited for me, and prepares to do it all over in another 5 weeks time.
But not. this. time.
Because I have a plan that is so solid even I can’t get out of it.
See the thing is, I actually like having the freedom and flexibility to change my planning tools. What I don’t like is having to start all over again and having snippets of hyper-focus information all over the house.
I’m also very picky with my planners, diaries, books, whatever. I will always choose a coil bound book over everything else. I love how stable they feel, how I can fold them back on themselves to view one page or lay them flat to view two. Weird I know.
The Template
But anyway. First I started with the lists that the kids had written for their focus, I also used our Daily Routine / Rhythm and then I designed a template.
One page is for Planning & Preparing for the week ahead, and another page is to Record & Report what we’ve done. Again, this method was very much inspired by Happiness Is Here.
As you can see, it’s pretty simple and there’s plenty of room to make notes throughout the day of what we get up to.
The Plan & Prep page allows me to remember what the kids wants to work towards, and what I need to do to facilitate that. In a perfect world, I would fill this page in on maybe a Wednesday night so I have time to get into town (30 minutes each way) and get anything we need for the following week. At the moment, I do my planning on Sunday during our weekly reset.
The Record & Report page is where I fill in what we’ve actually done. I usually carry my book around the house with me so I can fill it in as the day progresses because it’s surprising what I’m able to forget.
There’s a section for each kid and a section for both so I can keep more detailed notes for each of them.
At the bottom, I have a checklist so I can make sure I’m hitting the key areas with each kid on a daily basis.
* I’ve just realised that it says Miss 3. Clearly I’m not used to having a 4 year old yet.
The Book
Okay when I say I have worked this thing out – I really mean it.
When I looked into binding prices I was floored. The cost of buying a binder and even having a book done as a one-off was insane.
So I toddled into Kmart, found an A4 notebook that had my favourite kind of binding, nice thick pages and a black paper cover for something like $6. I was stoked!
I got home, printed my sheets, trimmed the edges a smidge and glued the pages into the book.
I know this doesn’t sound terribly exciting but IT IS because – if I change the template, it doesn’t matter. For an entire year (maybe more depending on the number of pages) I can have all of my planning and recording in one place because the actual book doesn’t need to change every time the template changes.
You’re welcome.
At the back, I’ve started adding sections for our Resources & Subscriptions, some ideas for 2025, as well as some ideas for Off Grid Mumma.
I’m really looking forward to committing to this new template and Daily Routine / Rhythm. Already there have been days where things don’t go the way I would have planned, but that’s the fun of learning alongside our children and that’s why I’m so glad to have found something that provides us with just the right amount of structure and routine but all the flexibility of bailing to the creek for an entire day when the mood hits.
Want a copy?
I’m so happy with this method that I’m going to offer it as a Free Canva Template so you can choose to use it as is, or tweak it to suit you and your family.
And if you subscribe, you’ll stay up-to-date with any changes to this template as I no doubt tweak it.
