Are you having trouble with progress? What do you need?
A Checklist!
Grocery run? Checklist!
New workout plan? Checklist!
Gigantic meal, birthday party, errands to run, cleaning craze?
Check Check CHECKLIST!
And guess when else checklists are awesome? That's RIGHT - for Homeschool Planning.
As a mom of five - all of them came within 6.5 years of each other - I knew I needed a plan in order to homeschool well. I was very blessed with LOTS of input! Since I was teaching high school, middle school AND elementary school Spanish classes when our first baby was a toddler, the moms of my students helped me a TON. I tried the calendars, beautiful planners, software programs, binders divided up by days, weeks, months, seasons, even tabs for each kid.
And after SO much trial and error, the thing I kept coming back to was..... CHECKLISTS!
Why do they work so easily and flawlessly? Pretty simple really:
1) Flexibility - Checklists are not bound by time. It doesn't matter WHEN you do it, but THAT you do it.
2) Easy to adapt - didn't get something done? Circle it, add it to the next day.
3) Easy to edit - no scheduled time list to move up or down, just delete and replace. BOOM.
4) All ages can use it - have a non-reader? THEY LOVE to see the icon for their school and CHECK IT OFF.
5) Trains self-teachers from the beginning - checklists give ownership of learning to even the youngest of learners.
6) You can't lose it. It's POSTED on the wall, providing direction AND accountability. Here's our FOUR charts posted on the handy long skinny bulletin board I've used since 2011. This pic is after our eldest graduated in May 2020. So fall 2020 was the first year to have only four pages on the board. (I know, I know! I also LOVE the hymnal holders retrieved from an old church pew!)
7) Record keeping - you only write down and check off what you DID, not what you INTEND to do. No guilt, no shame, only progress and proof.
8) Easy to store. One page per kid per week. Be sure to put the dates at the top! Hole punch those weekly sheets and then pop them in a binder labeled with the year.
9)Fun to embellish. Different learners can show off their spunk or their artistic flair by adding opinions. colors, doodles, or even angry faces based on their experience with a certain lesson or subject.
10) All in one check stop - at 2pm every school day, I had ONE place to go and check the school work - "Are these charts up to date?" And BOOOOOM all the kids rush to check - if the chart isn't complete, we make a plan to get it there, or they know they don't have free time until their school chart shows completion.
This also trains them to document their accomplishments for future jobs - you only get paid what you invoice, and your authority can only trust what you document. As young as four years old, little Liesel LOVED to check off each activity, and see what was next in her world.
So.... struggling with your planning system this year? Need a little help? Try this shift. I have a PDF version for you to look at at here, and one you can edit for your own needs. Zero dollars.
I'm totally always here to help!
Pssst. Was this SUPER helpful to you, and you're all... I'm going to FORGET to come back and look for her blog. No big thing. You can subscribe here and I'll send you the newsletter that has all my pearls of wisdom, complete failboats, and some freebies and sales in it.
PS Here's my sad sad saddity sad bulletin board this year: