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The short answer

A homeschool planner spreadsheet works when you set it up once, log a little every day, and let the spreadsheet do the counting. You enter the attendance, the hours, and the grades. It adds up the days, totals the hours, works out the GPA, and shows you each month whether you are on track. The three worries in the paragraph above are exactly what it is built to answer, and this article shows you how, step by step.

The three worries it answers

The first worry is attendance and hours. At the end of the year, someone may ask how many days your child was in school and how many hours they studied. If you kept it in your head, or on scraps of paper, you will spend a weekend reconstructing it, and you will not be sure it is right. A planner records it as you go, one small entry a day, so the answer is already there when it is asked for.

The second worry is the GPA. A gradebook that adds wrong, or a GPA worked out by hand from the wrong courses, is the kind of mistake that only shows up when it matters most, on a transcript. A planner that calculates the GPA from the grades you enter removes the arithmetic from the job entirely.

The third worry is the state requirements. Every state has its own rules, and they are not the same. A planner with a State Requirements tab keeps those rules next to your records, so you check them before the year starts, not after it ends.

Our spreadsheet, Homeschool Planning 365, is built around those three worries. It covers up to six children in one workbook, with tabs for attendance, hours, the gradebook, a monthly summary, and state requirements. The sample year in it has 183 school days and 25 courses, and its worked example GPA is 3.20, so you can see the method working before you put your own children in.

Step 1: Set up the school year

Start on the Start Here page. Set the school year start and end dates, your target number of school days, and how many days a week you teach. Then add your children and their courses. This is the only part that takes any real time, and it takes it once.

Setting the target number of days first matters, because everything else is measured against it. The attendance tab counts your days toward that target, and the monthly summary shows you whether you are ahead or behind. Without a target, you are counting without knowing what you are counting toward.

Step 2: Log attendance every day, in two minutes

Attendance is the habit that makes the whole planner work, and it takes about two minutes a day. Each day, mark who was there and who was not, and note the reason when a child is absent or sick. Do it at the end of the school day, while you still remember it. Do not save it for the weekend, and never save it for the end of the term, because that is when the gaps appear.

The attendance tab adds the days up for you, per child, so you always know where each child stands against the target. If a child is behind, you see it in October, when there is still time to catch up, not in May, when there is not.

Step 3: Log hours as you go

Hours are the second daily habit. When a subject is taught, log the time in the Hours Log. Log it the same day, while it is fresh. Hours that are logged late are hours that are guessed, and guessed hours are the ones that do not add up when they are checked.

The Hours Log totals the hours by subject and by child, so you can see at a glance how the year is balanced. If one subject is getting all the hours and another is getting none, the log shows it while there is still time to rebalance.

Step 4: Enter grades, and let the gradebook work out the GPA

When a course is finished, or when a grading period ends, enter the grade in the gradebook. The gradebook works out the GPA from the grades you entered, so the arithmetic is not yours to get wrong.

That is the whole point of a gradebook in a spreadsheet. A GPA worked out by hand is a GPA that can be worked out wrong. A GPA worked out by the spreadsheet is the same every time, and it is built from the same grades that appear on the transcript. In the sample year, 25 courses work out to a GPA of 3.20, and you can follow every step of that calculation in the sample before you enter your own grades.

Step 5: Check the monthly summary

Once a month, open the Monthly Summary. It shows you the attendance, the hours, and the progress for the month, per child, in one place. This is the check that keeps a small problem small. A child who is two days behind in October is a child you can catch up. A child who is twenty days behind in May is a child you cannot.

The monthly check takes ten minutes. It is the most useful ten minutes in the homeschool month, because it is the moment when you find out whether the plan is working while there is still time to change it.

Step 6: Check the state requirements before you need them

Before the school year starts, open the State Requirements tab and read what your state asks for. States differ in what they require: some set a number of school days or hours, some ask for certain subjects, some ask for records or assessments. The rules are yours to check, and the tab is where you keep them next to your records.

If you need more detail than the tab gives, the Complete Kit adds a 50-state guide, so you can look up your own state’s rules in full. Either way, check the rules first. A requirement discovered in June is a requirement you cannot meet in June.

What to do next

If you want a planner that works the way this article describes, you can see Homeschool Planning 365 in the shop at homeschoolplanner365.com. The Starter version, at $12, is the spreadsheet on its own. The Complete Kit, at a launch price of $24.99 (regular price $29), adds extra planning tabs and four guide PDFs, including the 50-state guide. The Everything Bundle, at $69, includes everything in the Complete Kit plus the regional versions. Start with the sample year, change one child to your own, and you have already begun.

FAQ

Do I have to log attendance and hours every day?
Yes, and it takes about two minutes. Log them at the end of each school day, while you still remember them. Entries made late are entries that get guessed, and guessed entries are the ones that do not add up when they are checked.

What if I forget to log for a whole week?
Fill in what you can remember, mark the rest honestly as missed, and start again the next day. A planner with one missed week is still far better than no record at all. The monthly summary will show you the gap, and you can plan around it.

How is the GPA calculated?
The gradebook works it out from the grades you enter, course by course, so the arithmetic is done by the spreadsheet, not by hand. In the sample year, 25 courses work out to a GPA of 3.20, and you can follow every step of that calculation in the sample.

Does the planner work for more than one child?
Yes. One workbook covers up to six children, each with their own attendance, hours, and grades, and the monthly summary shows each child separately, so you can see who is on track and who needs help.

The short answer

Plan your homeschool year backwards. Start with what finished looks like, for each child and each subject. Then check your state’s rules, because they set the frame. Then map the subjects across the months, break the months into weeks, and leave a few buffer weeks empty. A year planned this way is a year that can survive a sick week, a bad week, and a week when life simply gets in the way, because the plan has room in it.

Start with the end

Before you choose a single book, write down what finished looks like. For each child, for each subject, what should they be able to do by the end of the year? Not a list of chapters. A short sentence per subject: what they will have learned, what they will have made, what they will be able to do.

That sentence is the plan. Everything else is logistics. A curriculum chosen without that sentence is a pile of books. A curriculum chosen with it is a year with a direction, and when you have to choose between two books, or drop something in a busy month, the sentence tells you what matters and what can wait.

Write one sentence per child per subject. If you cannot write the sentence, you do not yet know what the subject is for, and no book will fix that.

Check your state’s rules first

Before the plan goes any further, check what your state requires. States differ in what they ask for: some set a number of school days or hours, some ask for certain subjects, some ask for records or assessments. The rules are not the same from one state to the next, and they are not something to discover in June.

Our planner keeps a State Requirements tab next to your records for exactly this reason, and the Complete Kit adds a 50-state guide so you can look up your own state’s rules in full. Read the rules first, write down what they ask for, and build the plan inside them. A plan that meets the rules is a plan you do not have to rebuild later.

Map the year, then the months, then the weeks

With the end in mind and the rules checked, map the year. Divide it into months first, not weeks. For each month, decide which subjects get the most time and which get less. Some subjects need steady time all year. Some can be concentrated into a few months. The month map is where those choices are made.

Then break each month into weeks. A week is the unit a homeschool year is actually lived in. For each week, decide what each child will do in each subject, in broad terms: which chapters, which project, which skill. Do not plan every day in detail. A week planned in detail is a week that breaks on Tuesday. A week planned in broad terms is a week that bends.

Then leave a few buffer weeks empty, spread through the year. A buffer week is not a wasted week. It is the week that absorbs the sick week, the family visit, and the subject that took longer than expected. A year with no buffer is a year that falls behind at the first disruption and never catches up.

Put the plan in the planner, and check it monthly

A plan on paper is a wish. A plan in the planner is a record. Put the subjects and the courses into the spreadsheet, log the attendance and the hours as the year goes on, and enter the grades as courses finish. The monthly summary will show you whether the plan is working: which subjects are on track, which are behind, and which child needs help.

The sample year in Homeschool Planning 365 has 183 school days and 25 courses, and its worked example GPA is 3.20. Those are the sample’s figures, not a prescription for your year. Your year will have its own days and its own courses. The point of the sample is to show you the method working, so you can see how a planned year adds up before you plan your own.

When to plan

If you are planning now, you are planning at the right time. July and August, the back-to-school season, are the year’s peak for homeschool planning, and most families do this work then. Within the school year, January to June is a steady plateau, a good time to review and adjust the plan you made. December and late June are the quiet valleys, when planning pauses and the year winds down.

Do not wait for the perfect moment to plan. The perfect moment is the one before the year starts, whenever that is for your family. A plan made in August and adjusted in January is better than a plan never made at all.

What to do next

Start with the sentences: one per child per subject, describing what finished looks like. Then check your state’s rules. Then map the months, break them into weeks, and leave buffer weeks empty. Put the plan into the planner, and check the monthly summary once a month.

You can see Homeschool Planning 365 in the shop at homeschoolplanner365.com. The Starter version, at $12, is the spreadsheet on its own. The Complete Kit, at a launch price of $24.99 (regular price $29), adds extra planning tabs and four guide PDFs, including the 50-state guide. The Everything Bundle, at $69, includes everything in the Complete Kit plus the regional versions.

FAQ

When should I start planning my homeschool year?
Before the year starts, whenever that is for your family. July and August are the peak planning season, and most families do this work then, but a plan made a month before you start is better than a plan made the week you start.

How many subjects should I plan for each child?
As many as your state’s rules ask for, plus the subjects that matter to your child. Write one sentence per subject describing what finished looks like, and if you cannot write the sentence, the subject does not yet have a purpose. The sample year in our planner has 25 courses across the family, which shows how a full year can be organised, not how many subjects your child must take.

What if we fall behind the plan?
Use the buffer weeks. That is what they are for. Check the monthly summary to see how far behind you are, and move the missing work into the next buffer week instead of trying to double up the following week. A plan that absorbs a bad week is a plan that survives the year.

Do I need a separate plan for each child?
Yes, but not a separate system. Each child needs their own subjects and their own pace, and the planner keeps each child’s attendance, hours, and grades separately, in one workbook that covers up to six children, so you plan once and track each child on their own.

The short answer

A weekly schedule that works is built in blocks, not in minutes. Anchor the hard subjects first, in the part of the day when focus is best. Give each block a job, not a clock time. Leave buffer in the day and a catch-up slot in the week. Then review it once a week, for ten minutes, and change what is not working. A schedule built this way bends instead of breaking, and a schedule that bends is a schedule that is still there on Friday.

Why schedules fail

Most homeschool schedules fail for the same three reasons.

The first is that they are copied from school. A school day is built for thirty children and one teacher. Your home is not a school, and a schedule that pretends it is will not survive contact with a real family.

The second is that they are too full. Every minute is assigned, every subject has a slot, and there is no room for a slow morning, a hard lesson, or a child who needs an extra hour. A schedule with no slack breaks at the first disruption, and there is always a disruption.

The third is that they are too rigid. A schedule that says a subject happens at a precise minute, every day, is a schedule that fails the first time the morning runs late. A schedule should say what happens in each part of the day, not what happens at each minute of it.

If your schedule has failed every week, the schedule is wrong, not you. Build a different one.

Anchor the hard subjects first

Start with the subjects that need the most focus, and put them in the part of the day when your children focus best. For most families, that is the morning. Maths and language arts, the subjects that need a fresh mind, go first. The subjects that need less focus, reading, projects, art, and outdoor time, go later in the day, when energy is lower.

Do not start with the easy subjects. A morning spent on easy work is a morning when the hard work never happens, because by the time the easy work is done, the focus is gone. Anchor the hard subjects first, and the rest of the day arranges itself around them.

One anchor per child is enough. Each child has one subject that matters most that day, and that subject gets the best part of the day. Everything else fits around it.

Use blocks, not minutes

Divide the day into blocks, and give each block a job. A block is a stretch of time with one purpose: focused work, reading, projects, or a break. A block does not need a clock time. It needs a job and an order.

A day built in blocks looks like this, as one example. The first block is for the hardest subjects, when focus is best. The next block is for the second subject, or for a child who needs more time on the first. Then a break, and lunch. The afternoon block is for reading, projects, and the subjects that need less focus. The last block is for finishing, tidying up, and anything that was missed.

That is one example, not a prescription. Your blocks will look different, and they should, because your children are different. The point is the shape: hard work first, breaks between blocks, and the day ending with finishing, not with starting something new.

One schedule per child, one family rhythm

Children in one family do not need the same schedule. A younger child and an older child need different subjects, different amounts of time, and different kinds of work. Give each child their own schedule, built from the same blocks, and let the blocks line up where they can.

The family rhythm is what lines up. Lunch happens together. The afternoon project happens together. The morning is when each child does their own hard subject, at their own pace. A family rhythm with individual schedules is a schedule that serves the children, not a schedule the children serve.

For subjects the children share, use a loop instead of a fixed slot. A loop means the subjects take turns: history on Monday, science on Tuesday, art on Wednesday, and back to history on Thursday. A loop bends where a fixed slot breaks, because a missed day does not lose a subject, it only moves it to the next day in the loop.

Leave buffer, and review weekly

Leave buffer in the day and a catch-up slot in the week. Buffer in the day is the gap between blocks, for the lesson that runs long or the morning that starts late. A catch-up slot in the week is a block set aside for whatever was missed, and it should be used most weeks, because something is missed most weeks.

Then review the schedule once a week, for ten minutes. Ask three questions. What worked? What did not? What will we change next week? Change one thing, not the whole schedule. A schedule that changes one thing a week becomes a good schedule in a month. A schedule that is rewritten every week never becomes anything.

The planner helps here. The weekly schedule tab holds the plan, the Hours Log records what actually happened, and the monthly summary shows whether the schedule is working. When the hours show one subject getting all the time and another getting none, the schedule is telling you what to change, and the weekly review is when you change it.

What to do next

Throw away the schedule that fails by Wednesday, and build one in blocks. Anchor the hard subjects first, give each block a job, leave buffer in the day, and review it once a week. Change one thing at a time, and give each change a week to work.

You can see Homeschool Planning 365 in the shop at homeschoolplanner365.com. The Starter version, at $12, is the spreadsheet on its own. The Complete Kit, at a launch price of $24.99 (regular price $29), adds extra planning tabs and four guide PDFs, including the 50-state guide. The Everything Bundle, at $69, includes everything in the Complete Kit plus the regional versions.

FAQ

How many hours a day should we homeschool?
It depends on the child and on your state. Some states set a number of school days or hours, and the rules differ from one state to the next, so check your own state’s requirements first. The planner’s Hours Log records the hours you actually teach, so you can see them against whatever your state asks for, instead of guessing.

What if one child finishes early and another is still working?
Let the early finisher move on. A child who finishes early does not need more of the same work to fill the time. Give them reading, a project, or free time, and let the other child finish without being rushed. The schedule serves the children, not the other way around.

How do I schedule several children at different ages?
Give each child their own schedule, built from the same blocks, and line the blocks up where they can. Mornings are for each child’s own hard subject. Lunch and the afternoon project happen together. The planner keeps each child’s attendance, hours, and grades separately, in one workbook that covers up to six children.

What if the schedule falls apart by Wednesday anyway?
Then it is too full or too rigid, and the fix is to make it simpler, not stricter. Cut one subject from the week, widen the blocks, and add a catch-up slot. A schedule that survives the week is better than a schedule that looks perfect on Monday and is gone by Wednesday.