DIY Planner

Last Spring in my before-the-baby-is-born spree of preparing all our Fall school stuff, I was re-evaluating how I keep our school records. I was using SkedTrack, which I think is a great tool, but it just wasn't a perfect fit for us since it is based on school hours and our state doesn't require us to track hours, just days. I looked at some pre-made paper planners which all had a LOT of stuff in them that I just don't need, so I ended up making my own. Surprisingly it wasn't too big of a deal. Here's what it looks like...

The first section is calendars, for my own reference to jot down appointments and things. I just printed some pre-made printable calendars online (from here).

Next is the section "School Days." For this I have two school days per page (four per spread) that are labeled as School Day #1, #2, etc. all the way to 180, which is our state requirement. In the little chart for each day I have the top section for our daily subjects: Math, Language Arts (Reading & Writing), and Bible/History/Geography. And the bottom section is for the subjects that rotate, including Science, Literature, Enrichment, Art, and Co-Op. The way I'll use these pages is for record keeping rather than actual planning... I'll jot down jot down what we did each school day, which will serve as the records I keep "just in case" but will probably never need. (Our state is very homeschool-friendly and as long as you aren't called into question you don't really have to turn things in. But, it's still recommended to keep records.) 

At the end of the School Days section, I included Tina's End of the Year Flashback page, which I downloaded from here. I thought it'd be a fun little re-cap to do each year. (We did it last year too.)

Next, I made a section for our Co-Op Classes, which is where I'll write down what we did each time we met at Co-Op. 

Next, I made a section to write down each of the Field Trips we go on.

And the last section is our book log for the year. I included pages to track the books he reads himself as well as the books we read together.

There are tons of free Planner Printables online, but if you're thinking of making your own printable planner, I'd highly recommend checking out Tina's 7 Step Curriculum Planner, which walks you through the process and provides tons of printable pages you can choose from. I also pinned a couple other cute printable pages here.

How do you track your school days? 

UPDATE: Click HERE to view my New & Improved DIY Planner post with downloadable cover art!