calendar

Once you learn the differences between a homeschool planning calendar and regular calendar there is no going back. When creating my Homeschool Planner, my planning calendar is one of the first things I print.

It’s ready way before my year starts or I print my planner.

What exactly is a planning calendar?

It is a calendar which communicates the dates you and your children will count as official school days; it’s a visual of which dates you plan to have off during the year.

In addition, your family can see your in-teacher dates, (yes I have them) vacation times, and end of the school year date. Noting winter breaks and summer breaks are equally important.

Additionally, if you live in a state where you have record keeping, you notate reporting periods. If you must report to a proctor, you add report card dates.

Planning Your Year Homeschool

As you can see, it’s VERY different than just a regular calendar. A regular calendar is not for planning, it’s just for reference.

By using a schedule you are getting these benefits:

• freedom because you see a plan for how to fit in learning
• setting the pace of the year to suit your family
• planning for rest periods which suit your family
• keeping family time a priority by planning vacations
• making time for you the teacher by shading in your workdays
• seeing a visual of the year keeps your goals realistic and within reach

From this list, you see that making school fit you and your family is what is important.

Although some feel that planning like this is confining, they miss the point.

It has quite the opposite effect. Freedom comes from controlling what you can and letting go when you can’t.

After all, it’s not the schedule or plan that is a mistake. It’s the part where some think a schedule can’t be changed or moved around.

There is no doubt about it — this quote may be overused and I whole heartedly agree. It’s timeless for a reason.

“If You Fail to Plan, You Are Planning to Fail” — Benjamin Franklin

It’s that simple. There are many reasons that I’ve homeschooled, worked, and been able to run a site/ blog.

The best one is no secret and that is I planned every year.

Everything has a place. Oh, don’t think by any stretch that I maintained everything in stone. I didn’t and still don’t. I have many days where I’m frazzled, but I have way more where I’m fulfilled.

However, I never allowed a planning schedule to make me feel like I was hemmed in.

Tracking Your Homeschool Year

Next, there is another feature on the homeschool schedule which I add and is important. The feature is a part to help you track your days and weeks you homeschool.

Even if you don’t need to record keep, tracking days and weeks is an extremely visual way to track your success.

Hear my heart when I say you can be constantly barraged either by self-doubt or from others if you’re doing enough. That was my initial mindset when I started creating these forms more than 10 years ago.

How to Plan Your Homeschool Year

Little did I know the feature of tracking days and weeks would keep me positive. You don’t worry if you’re doing enough because you see your progress daily and weekly.

So, look exactly at how I planned and use the form every year. I’m using one of my schedules from a previous year.

First, look at how my form is set up. By the way, after I update it each year, I keep the updated version at Step 5a. Choose Unique Forms JUST for You.

Further, here are the flexible ways you can use it:

• Because there are 12 months, you can begin and end with the months you want. If you don’t school year-round, no problem. Again, just pick up at the month you’re starting and plan to when you want stop. The point is the form is very flexible.
• After the month where you kept track (look at picture below) of the days you homeschooled, note them on the line provided. Add the days as you go along so you have the total at the end.
• Use the key at the bottom of the form to use different color highlighters or symbols for dates you want to track.
• In addition, highlight holidays you celebrate. Everyone does not celebrate the same holidays, so I don’t include U.S. holidays. The form is there for you to note the important days to your family.

Now, look below at how my hardworking and highly useful no fluff schedule works.

Notice these 5 important points in how to use it.

1. Use one color to shade or outline the days you plan to school.
2. Then use another to plan the days you won’t school.
3. Also circle or add in teacher days for you. I didn’t include any here because I wanted to focus on showing you how to track school days.
4. Count the days cumulatively. This way you know EXACTLY where you are at in your school year. For example, 180 days is a typical school year. Some schools follow 130 or 160. Knowing how many days you school in a 12-month period is empowering.
5. Likewise, seeing my flex days or days not planned shows me how much time I have to move around.

Also, if you’ll notice on my form, I took off almost the whole month of April. Here in Texas, it’s plain insane to try to do too much during the hot summer months.

More Homeschooling Year Around Tips

• What is Year Around Homeschooling? Part 1
• What is Year Around Homeschooling? Part 2
• Homeschooling Year Round – Chaos Or Calm?
• How a Homeschool Planning Calendar is Superior to a Regular Calendar
• 4 Benefits to Planning Early for the Next Homeschool Year

Instead, we enjoy the cooler days of spring and finish up my year in the summer; I still have time in June to flex with.

Don’t homeschool another year without this awesome form.

What do you think? Can you use this form?

Look at these other planning topics:

• Also check out my Planner page on my Amazon Shop for gorgeous accessory options.
• 3 Beautiful and Free Homeschool Planner Covers
• How to Choose the Perfect Homeschool Planner for Multiple Students
• 31 Popular and Free Homeschool Planner Printables
• Homeschool Weekly Planner vs Homeschool Daily Planner: Which Is Really Better?
• A Unique Flexible and Beautiful Preschool Homeschool Planner
• How to Create A Homeschool Lesson Plan in 7 Easy Steps