Homeschool Planner | The Ultimate Flexible Homeschool Planner

How many homeschool planners have you bought that are gathering dust? They never made it more than a couple of months into the school year. That was me too until I figured out that instead of buying a planner, I needed to print one instead. So I’m here today with five reasons why it’s better to print your own planner than it is to buy one.

You may be wondering, why would I want to print a planner when I could just have it on my phone or an iPad or a computer? The fewer distractions for me during school time, the better! If I pick up my phone and use it to access a planner, I’m probably going to get distracted (hello, Instagram!) and get off track.

Why I print my own homeschool planner

The thing that’s really worked for me is printing my own planner. Why? First, I don’t have to use any pages that I don’t want. So often when I buy a premade homeschool planner, there are a ton of pages in there that I just don’t need or don’t really fit with my style of planning. So by printing my own, I’m able to print out and only use the pages that I need and put them in the order that I want as well.

I use pages that go exactly with how I like to plan. Many homeschool planners lay it out the week in grids, and I don’t plan that way. Using grids make me break out in hives because I know what’s going to happen.

I’m going to reach a point where I have all of these x’s and circles and arrows and things marked off. It will be a mess. That kind of planning just doesn’t work for me. I use a different kind of planner where I get to plan in lists instead of grids, and I can do that by printing out my own.

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Another reason why I like to use my own printed planner is that sometimes I need fewer or more spaces than what a printed planner provides. This is especially a big problem for larger families than it is specifically for me with my three kids. Typically we can fit in a preprinted planner — but then we have extra pages or extra spaces because I don’t have that many kids.

I know a lot of large families who struggle with this, though. because they need to have more space for six, seven or even eight to 10 kids. By printing my their own planner, they are able to print out multiple copies of the forms they need and have enough space for every kid in the family.

Another reason why I love to print my own planner is I actually like to type my planner pages. When I type I feel like I’m able to think more quickly, and I love the way the planner pages look in my planner when they’re typed out.

Also, I save my pages on the computer to use from child to child or year to year. This actually saves me quite a bit of work. If you have a number of kids who are working on the same subjects, you can make a master template and just use the same template over and over again for each child. Or it is time-saving to be able to type, save, and keep lesson plans for future kids as well. When the next one reaches grade five just open up and start editing instead of starting fresh.

The last reason I like to print my planner instead of buying one is that it can be economical. I can buy a set of planner pages one time and then I’m able to print those out and use those, again and again, year after year without having to go make a new purchase.

Sure. It costs me a little bit of printer ink and a little bit of paper, but I don’t have to go out and buy a new planner every single year. It was basically a one time purchase.

How I set up my homeschool planner

Once the pages are printed out, there’s any number of ways that you can use to bind those pages together. I like to just three hole punch it and pop it inside a regular old binder notebook. I have a pretty pink one that I use.

Some of the moms in our community actually get their planner spiral bound once they have made it exactly how they want it, and other moms use a disc bound system, which is like a Happy Planner where they get the special punch and punch it and bind the pages with discs.

Those are my five reasons why I like to print out my homeschool planner and assemble it myself as opposed to buying one already made. So I would love to hear which homeschool planner you use in the comments.

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Pam

Pam is the author of The Your Morning Basket Guide and Plan Your Year: Homeschool Planning for Purpose and Peace. She also is the host of three popular podcasts -- The Homeschool Snapshots Podcast, Your Morning Basket, and The Homeschool Solutions Show. She lives in the Deep South with her husband and three kids, where she is the go-to lady for great curriculum recommendations or a just a pep talk on a rough day.