Extras always seem to weigh me down. They require work, rob me of my energy, and breed unnecessary guilt. As a busy, work-at-home, homeschooling mom, I don't have time for that. I'd rather focus my effort on things that bring me joy and add to, not detract from, my day. And so I purge all the extras guilt-free. I prune away any non-essentials...of my time, of my home, of my school.
Some time ago, I decided to paper purge. For years, I used a popular homeschool planner. And while I was happy with the planner's basic set-up, I always felt a wee bit burdened by the pages and pages of extras that I never really used. FOMO sometimes guilt-drove me to fill in the blanks. But all the time spent logging unnecessaries seemed like such a waste.
Then, I stumbled upon another popular planner. It was a bare-bones, basic planner—everything I thought I needed. It was sensible and functional—workaday, you might say, like orthopedic shoes and brown paper lunch sacks. But just like those, the planner could not inspire or excite me. It did the job, mind you, but it was so aggressively average-looking that I may as well have been using a spiral notebook to schedule our days.
(This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for full details.)
(This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for full details.)
I was at an impasse. It seemed I had two choices: flashy and overwhelming or prudent and blah.
It became glaringly obvious that I needed to break up with my underwhelming planners and forge a new relationship.
When I looked around for a planner that could fit the bill—one that combined the appeal of my first planner with the simplicity of the second—I came away empty-handed. So, as with most of life, necessity became the mother of invention.
I needed a planner that would give me the bravery to chart a unique course for me and mine.
I needed a planner that would fit my life, not one that forced its way in.
I needed a planner that would adapt to the unique needs of homeschooling.
Enter the planner inspired by my book Homeschool Bravely and its scheduling companion, The Quick-Start Guide to Brave Homeschool Schedules: The Brave Homeschool Planner!
It became glaringly obvious that I needed to break up with my underwhelming planners and forge a new relationship.
When I looked around for a planner that could fit the bill—one that combined the appeal of my first planner with the simplicity of the second—I came away empty-handed. So, as with most of life, necessity became the mother of invention.
I needed a planner that would give me the bravery to chart a unique course for me and mine.
I needed a planner that would fit my life, not one that forced its way in.
I needed a planner that would adapt to the unique needs of homeschooling.
Enter the planner inspired by my book Homeschool Bravely and its scheduling companion, The Quick-Start Guide to Brave Homeschool Schedules: The Brave Homeschool Planner!
What Makes the Brave Homeschool Planner Better
It's made by a homeschool mom for a homeschool mom.
Early on in my homeschooling journey, I learned that no run-of-the-mill planner would do for a homeschooler's schedule. A traditional classroom-style planner falls short too: the calendar grids don't align with a homeschool lifestyle, the lesson plan space only accommodates one grade level, and the emphasis is on grades and rubrics. The Brave Homeschool Planner, on the other hand, was designed by a homeschool mom with the specific needs of a homeschool mom in mind.
It's the perfect blend of pretty and practical.
As I mentioned, The Brave Homeschool Planner does NOT include a lot of superfluous extras that those expensive homeschool planners add on, like menu sheets, budget planning pages, and Christmas gift lists...not because those types of lists aren't important, but because most homeschool moms prefer not to muddy the planning waters with all of those things. All those extra home-keeping pages end up distracting from the work at hand. There's no fluff in the Brave Homeschool Planner. There are only homeschool-specific planning pages that help to create a homeschool focus.
It's a basic homeschool portfolio.
Because the Brave Homeschool Planner provides space for keeping accurate records of attendance, curriculum choices, field trips, book lists, daily schedules, and lesson plans, it acts as a basic homeschool portfolio. At the end of the year, it can be stashed away with work samples and projects to complete a comprehensive paper trail for the entire year.
It's firm but flexible.
In the past, when you used homeschool planners, you were probably faced with two scenarios. You could write down the lessons you hoped to accomplish on a particular date and then work yourself into a tizzy to complete all those lessons on that date to not get behind your plan OR worse yet, you could write down the lessons, not complete all of them on the date you had hoped you would, and then spend the rest of the year feeling a few days ahead in some subjects and a few days behind in others.
But, with the Brave Homeschool Planner, there's Door Number Three. Unlike most planners, the Brave Homeschool Planner provides days, not dates. At the top of each weekly scheduling page is a small month-at-a-glance calendar to provide a bird's eye view of the month. However, each scheduling column on the page only includes the day of the week, not a hard-and-fast date. That means before the school year even starts, you can write down the lessons you hope to accomplish in a dateless column, and then later, during the school year, you can write in the date when the lessons were actually accomplished. It's a slight mind shift that eliminates any unnecessary mom guilt.
Days are suggestions that help keep momentum during the school week. Dates are bullies that chain a homeschool mom to feelings of failure.
It provides room for the unplanned.
The "Notes" space that runs along the bottom of each 2-page scheduling spread provides space for jotting down any "unplanned" ideas you might have throughout the week, such as books you'd like to check out from the library for an upcoming unit study, words that you've found your kids consistently misspelling, or potential projects you need to buy supplies for. "Notes" leaves room for the detours of the week—the unplanned ideas that need space too.
What's Included in The Brave Homeschool Planner
In this 170-page digital download, you will receive a printable homeschool planner that includes the following pages:
- Emergency Contact Info
- Potential Field Trips
- What We're All About
- Daily Schedule Template
- Year-at-a-Glance Calendar
- Attendance Sheets (for 4 students)
- Curriculum/Book Planning Sheets (for 4 students)
- 2-Page Monthly Calendar Spreads (July 2024-August 2025)
- Weekly Planning Pages (August 2024-June 2025) for 4 students
For your printing convenience, there are two versions to choose from: Full-Color and Black & White with Colored Accents.
Time is the currency of life. Don't waste another moment wondering what to do next in the homeschool day. Form a plan. Write it down. And enjoy your homeschool again!
