Planning the homeschool days for multiple children can be overwhelming. Especially when teaching kindergarten, second grade, sixth grade (middle school!) and two high schoolers. This year, however, I have a wonderful tool…
~ I was given a Well Planned Day Family Homeschool Planner in exchange for my honest review. I was not compensated in any other way. All opinions are my own and I am excited to share this with you today! Please see our disclosure policy.
Plenty of Blank Space for Homeschool Planning
Just look at that! Two whole pages for one week. I can open this up and plan for all my children in one spot. And there are wide spaces for each subject. We have that weekly homeschool meeting on Sunday afternoon or Monday morning. I have my family planner and each of the older three children (6th, 9th and 10th grades) have their own planners. Planning is such a big part of our homeschool. These planning tools help me teach the gift of using our time wisely. And the week just goes so much better with our priorities in order.
We should make plans – counting on God to direct us. Proverbs 16:9
Spiral bound – reminds me of a favorite spiral notebook. I love that I can open it wide or fold it in half to have close by. Pencil kept close by for filling in and jotting reminders.
Plus, I love that there are tabs to find each month!
No need to flip through the whole planner to find your current month. Simply turn your planner on its side and find what you need.
Inspirational Planning “Frame”
Inspirational Planning “Frame”- Bible verse
- month at a glance
- quote
- weekly priorities – isn’t it smart to think on that!
- dinner menu – yes!
- weekly catechism
One Stop Family Household Planning Too
One Stop Family Household Planning Too- Tear out shopping lists!
- household duties and finance keeping for mom and tear out ‘chore cards’ for children
- contact list
- weekend activities – because there’s always something to look forward to on the weekend!
More Homeschool Record Keeping Resources
More Homeschool Record Keeping Resources- monthly inspirational articles
- ready-made monthly attendance reports
- grade reporting forms
The Well Planned Day Family Homeschool planner is a tool complimentary to all we are doing! More reviews coming up on the Four Year High School Planner, the High School Planner my 9th and 10th graders are using and the Student Planner my 6th grader is using.
As mothers we sometimes live in the urgent. This hungry child, that weepy one, another needing a push on the swing…However, it’s beneficial to step out of the urgent into the quiet, out of our regular spot and look to our source of strength. Jesus set the example. (Luke 4: 42-43)
More Homeschool Planning Tips:
- When Do You Plan for School and How Long Does it Take?
- Annual Planning and Goal Setting
- Return of the Routine: Six Steps to Success (my free ebook)
Now for the giveaway!
One Hodgepodge reader will win a Well Planned Day Family Homeschool Planner. Just follow the instructions in the rafflecopter widget below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Be sure to check out all the Well Planned Day planners at Home Educating Family.
I have tried it all–planning weekly, monthly, by the semester, the whole year, No matter what I do, I need a good planner.
I plan weekly. I have a general gist of where we are going and order books from the library for up to three weeks of plans, but the details are planned weekly. Although I tried planning the whole year this year, it totally backfired on me.
I am a new homeschool mom and I an looking for all the advice I can get
I sounds like a very good planner almost all the homeschool moms use it and they love it. I would love to win the planner I think it would help me because this is my first year homeschooling.
I plan weekly…less overwhelming for you, especially if we get off-track, which we are sure to do! 🙂 My best organizing strategy is to keep my planner open & on the counter during the school day…that helps me stay on track. Also, getting up early before the kids. Holly
I usually plan day-by-day. I generally use curriculum that have teachers guides to make it easier for me to plan for my three kids lessons. Would love to win the planner 🙂
I at least plan by the week but love it if I have the month planned out.
I try to plan at the end of the week (Friday) which frees up the weekend.
I figure out where we need to be half way through the school year in each subject (our mid year goal and our end year goal), how many pages per day / week, etc . But I don’t actually write in the planner more than a month at a time. This makes it easier for me to plan any catching up we need to do more easily. And it allows me to also plan when we are moving ahead faster than planned, without having to cross out, erase, and make a mess in my planner!
This year, I planned for the first month and a half on our family lessons. My goal, because long term planning is new for me, is to prepare the details of the lessons the week before so that all of my materials are together for each day. Once we get into a groove with all of our work, then planning in advance should run smoothly for the year. Each of my four children will have their independent studies and then we will have several family lessons this year.
Planning is my weak point. And I don’t want to pass that on to my kids! I have a rough weekly plan but with 2 middle schoolers now, it’s time to get serious and teach them to manage their time!
For me I have to look everything over for a few weeks before the start, write some basic supply lists up (which Inormally lose) wouldn’t this help me not lose them? then look it over again once a wk.
I like to look over all of the curriculum and make a general plan at the beginning of the year and print out everything that needs printed (so that it is one less thing I have to do day-to-day). Then, I like to look over the weeks schedule over the weekend. This planner looks like it could really help overall to keep everything in one place!
I plan weekly. have used the well planned day planner in the past and would LOVE to win it!
Oh! This looks awesome. I could totally use this with my 4! Even if I don’t win, I am going to get this!!
I would love one of these! TWO actually 😉 One for myself as this’ll be our 1st year homeschooling (we’re all SO excited!) and one for my good friend and pastor’s wife, who homeschools her 5. Sounds like a great purchase!
This sounds wonderful and I’m glad it works with teaching a number of children. I will be teaching the same grades as you except throw a 4th grader in there as well. Organizing and planning are very challenging areas for me.
I do a “hodgepodge” of a little bit of all of them. I have big chunk generally planned out then I have a general weekly plan and then still work on the daily plans each day as the plans always seem to change!
This looks awesome! This is my first year homeschooling! I have no idea what to plan or schedule. Praying that God will give me wisdom and patience throughout it all!
This is our 2nd year homeschooling. Last year we used a curriculum already planned out for us. This year I am doing all of the planning as we are using lots of different things. I plan weekly, but haven’t ever bought a planner. Would love to win this one!
I’ve never used a planner before. Would love to win this and try it out 🙂
I would love to have one of these! I currently just print off a calendar from the Internet, which works fine, but I would love to have extra space and additional bonus pages too. This year I will have two to home school, second grade and Kindergarten along with their younger siblings that are 2 1/2 and 2 months!
Sounds like a wonderful planner!
I try to plan in three month increments because things always change.
Ugh. Planning is a weakness of mine. I tend to plan last minute, usually just a week ahead. I want to start planning at least a month ahead, and this planner looks like a tool that could help me with that 🙂
I make weekly plans but I leave Fridays mostly free for things that we missed or didn’t finish. I learned that I over-plan everything, and this gives me a cushion so I don’t feel like a failure at the end of the week.
I plan weekly, but am still flexible and will change plans according to my children’s interest. But I am wanting to start planning ahead monthly… just need a good planner to use
I like to plan ahead, but it seems I get off track. My plan is to stick with it this new school year. Need some thing to help me !! Thanks y’all!!
Gosh! Which way HAVEN’T I tried planning! I just love planning and have found my planning techniques evolving over the years. Our curriculum has it all planned out for me already – which is nice, but I do all the planning for our nature study, art appreciation, music, field trips etc for an entire term. I also keep lists of things that I want to cover during the year although I may not have all the details worked out at the start of our school year. So I guess I am in perpetual planning mode – LOVE IT! :o)
This looks like a great product for our family – with 4 students to keep track of, I love the wide pages and space for planning! Thank you for your blog as well! I am always checking in with your family for helpful ideas and inspiration with our homeschooling adventure.
I’ve been trying to keep track of everything on my phone. It’s great because it will send me alerts to remind me of things I have to get done or places I need to go, but it’s not always practical. I need a book that the whole family can refer to, so everyone knows what is going on, especially when I’m not home. This planner looks perfect!
Well I tried serveral things over the years.
A good planner is a must. Some years I made my own.
Right now I plan a few subjects for the whole year – like Math and English and Science; TOG I kind of trying to get into it – our first year with TOG – so I try to plan partly weekly, some unit wise.
My hardest struggle is not to planning the work – but working the plan!!! : ) Anybody?
SO easy to get sidetracked (like quickly checking my email or read this post ? ) = )
But Hodgepodge always has a lot of good ideas …
This fall will be our first time to homeschool. I intended to plan out at least the first couple of months. However, we learned at the first of August that we’d be moving by the first of September which has thrown a wrench into all of my plans. So now I intend to sit down (at some point amidst all the packing) to plan out a couple of weeks and then I’ll just have to go from there. Not how I wanted to start, but life happens. Would love to try out this planner! For now I’ve been making my own. Thanks for the review and the giveaway.
Frankly, I’ve tried so many methods & I am terribly frustrated. Life just gets in the way…..caring for 96 year old grandmother in my home with AZH, recent death of my husband after 20+year illness, grieving 13 year old hormonal daughter with ADHD & learning disabilities & my own ADD makes it more difficult. Hoping to win this planner & maybe it will help. Somedays I just want to pull the covers up over my head!
I make up student binders for both of my kiddos to help them with becoming independent learners.
I am in my second year homeschooling & struggling to find a planning tool that works for our family. Help!
That looks like a great one!!! I really need one. I hope to win it!
My best tip: I always do best if I get my planning done two weeks ahead of time. If I do too much ahead life ends up shifting things and I do a lot of erasing, or if I wait till the last minute things get forgotten.
I try to plan as much as I can but I also try to be flexible!
This is my first year planning for our home school. Kindergarten last year didn’t require much prep. 😉 I’m working on a few weeks out at a time. Working so far! I’d love this planner though!
I’ve been a fly by the seat of my pants homeschooler. However, as the kids get older, it’s evident we need to buckle down. Hoping I can start weekly so as not to get overwhelmed 🙂
I’m probably not as good at planning as I Should be.
I plan a few days at a time.
I so need to learn to plan for longer amounts of time
and stick to it.
Sure could use a planner.
Weekly is the best, but I am a planner so I have to have things written out way in advance:)
I use Excel to make a year calendar and planner. I mark what weeks we’ll be in school first, then I plan each week till the year is complete. I have to be organized or I can’t function lol!
Love that planner!
What a great planner!
I’ve been looking at this planner for a while now. I have to have a plan or else we’ll never get anything done. I’ve been struggling trying to find the perfect planner, and finally made a printable that works ok for us…but when I run out of ink for the printer, we’re in trouble. lol
I plan weekly for 2 months out. I write what must be done that entire week for each subject on the Monday of each week abs I’d it takes 2 days or 7 days to get done I don’t care as long as it gets done. My preference would be for it to get done in 4 days so that we can do something fun on the 5th day!
I would love this Planner, right now our planning is not planning, and its taking its toll on us.
Planning weeklly
I plan in big chunks, then review each week to see what’s working.
I plan on a weekly basis, for the most part. One thing that I had to get into a habit of doing, is writing down new appointment into my planner right away. I keep it handy, so that I can write new appointments down immediately. I used to forget to write things in my planner, or I would write my appointment on a post-it note and it would never make it to my planner. Now I write everything in my planner right way!
I plan the year all at once, but often find I need to adjust several times throughout the school year. *shrug* Life Happens.
I have to say that I am not that all organize with all the planning .. just down those important dates but other smaller ones, usually I try to remember them in my head 🙂 Looking forward to be able to win this and perhaps will help me to be more organized mama! Thank you for the chance.
Awesome. Thanks for sharing! …and for the opportunity to win!! 🙂
Planning tip – I usually take time at the beginning of the year and plan the big things of what we need to do.
Generally, I do more of a “record as you go” method, but this year I have to be more organized. I now have two kids homeschooling and I need to be more efficient and keep better tabs on our overalll goals. I think I’ll do a bit of both – do a overall plan, and then record as we go. I like writing down what we accomplished…it makes ME feel like I’ve accomplished something. 🙂
Plan? What plan? 🙂 Seriously, I use Sonlight so somethings are already laid out for me, otherwise I just have a general idea in the back of my head what I want us to do on a daily basis, then I just write down what we actually get done, instead of what I hope we’ll get done.
I plan one day at a time. You never know what the day will bring and adjustments will need to be made.
I plan in bigger chunks like a few weeks at a time usually. Would love to win this!
I am falling for this planner more and more everyday! I go on the website and look at the pages…having everything in one place is SOOOO appealing!
I have looked at this planner but not been able to afford it. Looks amazing!!
Have never used a planner like this…it might be time to try one.
Hi, thanks for the review, I’ve been eyeing this planner for a while now. I usually do a weekly plan, however I plan lesson themes in quarters or 9 week rotation. Weekly seems to do well with our family so if we need changes I don’t have to erase lots of info that I put in my planner.
Best tip… I take a look at my planner every morning before school and every evening be going to bed.
I usually plan 6 weeks at a time. When 1 week is left, I plan for the next 6 weeks. This enables me to get what supplies/books I may need before they’re needed. Plus, since it is only 6 weeks, I am familiar enough with the material to guide my children (especially my high schoolers).
Planning tip: have a plan, but plan to be flexible. Some days are not math days, etc.
This planner looks amazing, thanks for the giveaway opportunity!
I usually plan the six children’s plans in one big chunk but need to change the way I am planning the lessons now.
I try to plan everything one week at a time. I do allow some flexibility for the “unexpected” things that seem to happen on our busiest days. A good planner is a necessity for both myself and my busy high school students. Thanks for the opportunity to receive a “Well Planned Day Planner”.
I plan definitely with 4 kids in school. Would love to get this planner!!
This is awesome! Love all of the pictures illustrating the planner. I am officially loving this planner now! Awesome! 🙂 Thanks for your Review
I have 4 kids. THis would be heaven sent
I plan in 4-6 week increments. I also make a spreadsheet at the beginning of the year with my “ideal” timeline for everything. As we complete lessons, I highlight them on my spreadsheet, alternating between colors each planning period. Then when I go to plan my next 4-6 weeks, I know exactly what we have done, what is left to do, and where we are in the big picture year-wise.
Would love to have one – thanks!
Be flexible…I plan 1 week in advance 🙂
Weekly!
I try to keep my plans from the year before to reapply. For instance, we sing a couple of choruses each morning and I write them down. Then the next year I fill in the titles on the corresponding days (have to shift some) so I don’t have to think of them on the tired days.
I tried their beta version online software for planning and it just isn’t ready yet. I have been told that they are about to release a new version and I will be watching! In the mean time, I would love to win this planner to get me through until their software is ready. I have never really used a planner but I think it is a must now!
love this planner. Trying to plan 1st half of our school year. Would be helpful to use all that space provided in this planner!
I love this planner. I think this is exactly what I need to start traditional homeschooling (we have been doing virtual school.)
Wow! The idea of this planner is enough to make my OCD do a happy dance. What a way to make lists and lessons.
I am new to homeschooling this year. I will try just planning a week at a time.
I have general plan for at least 12 weeks if not more and then weekly I sit down and write out specific plans.
I am sooo new to planning, but this looks wonderful, especially for multiple ages and grade levels.
I dont plan 🙁 I hope this will be a tool that I could use to help learn to plan and to have much more productive days.
I am a natural planner! This looks like a great tool. Thanks for the giveaway!
I try to put an overall plan in place at the beginning and then tweak it weekly as we move along. My best tip is to date file folders according to the number of weeks you’ll be teaching (1.e. 1-36) . As you find great things to add, just drop it into the appropriate folder and it’s there when you get to it!
I love planners and pre-children carried one all the time. However, I have been overwhelmed when it comes to planning for school. I’m going to check into this planner and see if it will be the help that I need to get on the right track. Of course, if I could win it that would be a big plus! 🙂
Plan a little, but be flexible!
This looks like something I would like to try.
This will be our first year homeschooling but I really like the idea of planning a week at a time. 🙂
These planners are fantastic! What a great giveaway!
I like to plan at the beginning of the school year, I find that it keeps me focused on where I need to be and what I need to complete each day. However, I like to add the “extras” into the book as we do them. (When we go to the library and one of the boys asks for a Bach CD so then we have a mini series or even just a lesson on Bach)
I am new to homeschool and would love to win this!! Thank you for posting a great review!
I’ve been debating whether or not to give this planner a try. I’d love to win!
Just had this conversation with a friend the other day.
I do not have a “well planned day” or a well planned week, or month or semester.
Need something! : )
Just what I need!
My best planning tip is to use a three ring binder to keep all my records together. Plus, the protective sleeves for items I may want to pull out frequently.
I’d love to win this planner ~ first year homeschooling! 🙂
I’ve used these before – they are great!
I try to plan weekly, but would love to be able to do it monthly.
The planner looks nice. Thank you for offering it as a giveaway 😉
Best planning tip……I would say to stay organized and write everything down. I plan month to month for flexibility. 🙂
I used this planner last year! It is great!!! Thank you for the great giveaway!
I have just started homeschooling and am looking for the perfect planner. I would love to give this one a try!
My son starts his home school in a week and I would really love to win this. He will be starting Kindergarten.
I like to have a yearly plan just to have an idea of where I am going, then I make a weekly plan every month.
During some seasons of life I have planned weekly and just let everything that we did not finish roll over to the next week. I’ve done this monthly as well. Sometimes just getting a plan together is about as far as I can go and it at least gives me something to aim for.
The best tip I have is to write in pencil! Life changes all the time so the ability to erase things is good!
I could really really use this !
This planner would be perfect for homeschooling and for keeping my life in order. What a great giveaway!
I do all three – big chunks overall, then a weekly plan, and daily adjustments. I’ve learned I like to take 2-3 month chunks instead of trying to plan out a whole year’s worth of curriculum. There are a few things that will continue all year, but we really enjoy the flexibility of being able to change course throughout the year. For my high schooler, I do keep track of what she’s doing, and might connect a series of “chunks” for a year’s credit.
To actually write it down! 🙂 Seriously, it’s that simple. No computer…WRITE it down!
I loved this planner last year!
I made the mistake of planning out my entire school year with three kids. That didn’t last long. Then I planned by the month. Didn’t work either. Weekly schedules only work if I very loosely schedule it. We just rabbit trail way too much. Is there really too much rabbit trails?
Forgot to mention that now I have 5 kids. Still loosely plan weekly, but I keep the overall plan for the year. The end goals. 🙂