Homeschool Planning

As much as I love paper planners, I was running into the issue of fitting everything into traditional weekly spreads. Our homeschool style is a mixture of daily core subjects, along with a healthy dose of loop scheduling and seasonal learning.

Using Google Sheets has been a game-changer for flexibility and long-term planning. Each school year, I create a new sheet that covers the entire year.

Determining Start and Finish Days

Our state requires 180 days per year. I find it helpful to mark out the dates we plan to take off before beginning, such as Christmas break and other holidays. I then round that 180 day requirement up to 200 days. This allows me to break up our year into four quarters, giving five days per quarter to use for breaks as needed without throwing off our plans.

Seasons and Special Days

Seasonal learning is an important part of our homeschool rhythm. I use the Old Farmer’s Almanac to help me remember special days and full moons throughout the year. I also like to add current events, seasonal changes, and anything else I want to remember. These topics often find their way into our nature study or weekly reading.

Subjects

Because we enjoy incorporating a variety of resources into our learning, each subject section includes two columns with a merged cell above for the subject title. This is helpful for including both the lesson title and the curriculum, book, or resource we are using. For subjects we do less frequently, the cells can be merged to reflect how many times per week that topic is covered.

For a curriculum with a set number of lessons, I divide the total number of lessons by the number of school weeks. This tells me how often to schedule that subject each week. For example, a 40 week plan with a 120 lesson math curriculum equals three lessons per week, leaving the remaining days for review or extra practice.

How Does This Work Logistically?

Traditional loop scheduling typically assigns certain subjects to certain days. However, I have found that flexibility within structure has been life-giving in our home. We move through our plan like a list rather than a set schedule. We complete our daily subjects, then work through the remaining subjects as they flow naturally.

Printing

Although staying fully digital could work, I prefer printing my plans monthly. To do this, highlight the portion of your plan you want to print, then download it as a PDF or print directly from the website. This could also be done weekly if you prefer. I personally enjoy preparing homeschool resources monthly, so that is what works best for me.

I use my printed copy to highlight tasks as we complete them, circle days for attendance, and make notes for my personal records.

Using the Template

To create your own plan using my template, make sure you are logged into your Google account. Click the link below and open the template. Save a copy to your Google Drive and begin editing to make it work for you. You can change colors, adjust column widths, and delete anything you do not need.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CrczaF_tKJ0YzzQmXKizTLqS5aky5nH9k-fEitHFx00/template/preview

After you click the link, you will see "Use Template" at the top of the screen. Click that, and you should be good to go!

If you use this plan, I would be so grateful if you shared The Cottage Schoolhouse with your friends!

Thank you for being here!

Kessler