Homeschool Planning for Next Year (Free Planning Pages)

Homeschool Vision Planner

(This 50+ page pdf is FREE to download!)

For many of us the school year is coming to a close and we’re thinking about next year.  We’re tossing around ideas and trying to determine just what subjects and units we’ll be covering next fall.

I thought I would share the process I go through… and also will share the planning pages that I’ve been using the past few years. I like having colorful planning pages to work on. 🙂

I tend to do a lot of my planning on paper. I find it easier to keep these pages in a 3-ring notebook and take out the page I need as I browse through the various resources I’ve purchased and take notes.

This is how I try figure out the bigger picture of our homeschool. This isn’t really a weekly/monthly planner, but rather a homeschool vision planner.

As I plan, I take a look at the past (year/s), the present (year), and brainstorm about the future.  Then, even as the year progresses I add things in as they come up.

Past: One of my first steps when I’m planning for next year is to get a handle on what we’ve covered over the past few years.

Since I have three kids (and we tend to do our units together), I need to know what grades the kids were in when we covered a specific unit.  The printables in this packet have room either for 3 kids or another with just 2.

I jot down the topics we covered, what category it falls under, and the grade of each of my kids… and any notes I might need for later. Maybe one unit was too hard for my youngest or was a review for my oldest, but not in much depth.

How do I know what science or history topics/units to cover?  I have a general checklist of topics I hope to cover K-8 that I shared on the blog some years back like this  Science Checklist for Elementary and Middle School and the Homeschool History Checklist. These are both free.

In the packet below there are blank pages you can print out.  I included some of the things our family has covered — partly because this is my working file, partly because it might be useful to see what another family has done.  🙂

Brainstorm about the Future: One of the most important part of the process for me is spending time brainstorming about the holes I see. I use pages like these to think about what units we haven’t done… or the units we’ve done but that my youngest needs to do again… or the units my older kids need to cover again (but in more depth).

Planning for Next Year: Once I’m ready to start writing down more specific units or books, I use planning pages like these to keep track of my thoughts.  As you can see there are a number of different styles – colored pages, pages with subjects written in, blank pages, etc.  I just print out whatever I’m in the mood for. 🙂

Then there are some weekly planner pages once I’m ready for that step:

This is how I plan for the next year (in a general way).  So, you can see it’s different than  a traditional homeschool planner where you might be keeping track of assignments, attendance, field trips, and so forth.

If this was at all helpful, I’d love to hear from you. 🙂 ~Liesl

These are currently free to download. Enjoy!! 🙂

This is a free 50+ page Homeschool Planning Resource Guide:

If you are interested in joining our Homeschool Den Newsletter, feel free to subscribe here:

Homeschool Planner and Discovery Journal

If you are looking for daily or weekly planning pages, you might want to look at our new Homeschool Planner and Discovery Journal! This unique homeschool planning packet is currently FREE to download! It is nearly 100 pages! Not only does this packet include daily and weekly planning pages, checklists and record keeping pages, but it also includes various homeschool journaling pages… think gratitude journal meets homeschool goal setting! (This is different than the Homeschool Vision Planner that I shared above.)

You can check it out here. Hope it’s helpful!! ~Liesl

FREE Printable 2019-2020 School Year Calendar

I have been making our own calendar for years. I include various holidays, day light saving time and things like that.  I print out calendar pages to include in my homeschool planner. (Printing both full pages and 4 to a page.) You will find our latest free printable calendar here. It goes through August of 2020:

Creating Your Own Homeschool Curriculum: These are some resources I made that might be helpful as you create your own homeschool plans.  These are somewhere between 30 and 50 pages and are FREE to download:

• Creating a Homeschool Curriculum: Kindergarten – Grade 1

• Creating Your Homeschool Curriculum: Grades 2-3, Resource Guide

• Creating Your Homeschool Curriculum Grade 4-5 — Free Resource Guide

• Creating a Homeschool Curriculum for Grades 6-8 – Free Resource Guide

Of course, you’ll want to check out the History, Science and Language Arts resource pages as well:

• You’ll find some longer units like the Civics & Government Packet, Feudalism, Age of Exploration, American Revolution, Slavery and the Civil War packet in Our Store.  We also have *tons* of free resources such as the pages you see below on Ancient China, world religions, US Presidents Activities, the Civil Rights Movement, India and Africa learning packets… plus much more, so you’ll want to check out the more complete resource lists here: History and World Cultures Resource Page.

• Here’s the link to the Science Resource Page. We absolutely ♥ love hands-on science activities. We do a lot of science experiments as we do our science units.  You might find something useful here:

How do I know what science or history topics/units to cover?  I have a general checklist of topics I hope to cover K-8 that I shared on the blog some years back: Science Checklist for Elementary and Middle School

• Homeschool History Checklist

• Language Arts Homeschool Checklist

• Foreign Language: Topics and Units for Beginning Language Learners

See you again soon here or over at our Homeschool Den Facebook Page! Don’t forget to Subscribe to our Homeschool Den Newsletter. You might also want to check out some of our resources pages above (such as our Science, Language Arts, or History Units Resource Pages) which have links to dozens of posts.  Don’t forget to check out Our Store as well. ~Liesl

P.S. Our store is getting a bit of a make-over. Hooray!  I can’t tell you how many people have asked me if there was a way to purchase more than one item at a time.  Since I run this blog on my own and always super busy juggling our homeschooling (and homeschool planning), outside activities, and work on the website/business… it has taken a long time to get to this! (Sheepish grin here!)

You can pop over to check out our store here. I have the science and history units done and hope to have the rest done in the next week or so. Thank you all *so* much for your support! My dear readers totally rock! ~Liesl

Our packets are pdf downloads. 🙂

A few of our packets include:

• Civics and Government Packet

• Multiplication BUNDLE (with 15 pdfs – 250+ Pages!) Colorful, fun worksheets, games, skip counting activities and more for learning the multiplication tables 2s through 9s!

• FREE Planets of the Solar System Worksheets

• Age of Exploration Packet

Chemistry Packet

Earth Science Packet

Layers of the Atmosphere Packet

  Simple Machines Packet

Rainforest Unit: 50+ Page Packet

World Facts & Geographical Features Packet

Do your kids know the 4 largest countries? Which countries have the most people? The longest river? This packet covers basic world and U.S. facts. It also has a section on geographical features and landform words (both the basics like island, lake, peninsula, but also words like atoll, archipelago and so forth).  This packet also goes over some of the famous World Landmarks, world deserts and more!

I’ve chosen not to use pop-up boxes at this point, but you can click here to Subscribe to our Homeschool Den Newsletter!  ~Liesl