Do You Need a Planner

Do You Need a Planner?

Unless you must keep certain records (see right for description of records), you do not have to make a homeschool planner. Although I recommend being prepared in some way for the day, it isn't my purpose to tell homeschoolers that they must use a homeschool planner, my purpose is to provide resources for those who prefer to use a planner book.

A planner is supposed to be a helpful tool for the homeschool teacher. I've spoken with homeschoolers and while many find their choice of homeschool planner useful, it is not true across the board. This makes sense because everyone is different. I did a lot of planner adjustments during my first two years of homeschooling. If you find yourself annoyed with your planner, try a different planner method or make your forms with a word processor to your exact specifications.

My Homeschool Planners

My homeschool planners were incredibly useful to me but in addition to my planners, I wish I had kept a detailed journal. We did a lot of free-lance homeschooling that would have been worth sharing with everyone. During my children's high school years, I did not always use a complete homeschool planner. Instead of keeping the schedules in my planner, I taped or glued completed subject planners in a few of the children's books. The older my children became, the more responsibility I gave them. For my daughter's sophomore and junior years, she had a homeschool planner as well as a few subject notebooks. For her last year, she only had subject notebooks.

If I tracked my homeschool planner book style over the years, it was like this:
Early to Middle Years - Weekly Homeschool Planner
Middle Years - A combined subject and weekly planner
Middle Years to beginning High School Years - Subject Planner
Remaining High School Years - Subject planner forms given to teens, little to no planner use for mom

The change in our homeschool that prompted me to switch from a weekly planner to a subject planner is when my children no longer shared some classes. As your children grow older, your methods may need to be adjusted.