Plan This School Year's Homeschool Curriculum With This FREE Curriculum Planning Worksheet

When the holidays are over and we’re headed through winter, I begin to think about new homeschool curriculum. Call me crazy, but I love pouring over the curriculum websites and planning what we’ll use for the next school year. Although we do some homeschooling year round, our new school year always officially begins in August. But I typically have all of our curriculum planned out by the spring so that we can begin purchasing things as we’re able.

Thinking and planning out the next year’s curriculum always helps me in several ways.

• I can see what new materials we really need. If one child can use something another child previously used, then I won’t have to buy anything.
• Knowing what we need helps me to budget. I write out all we need for every child in every subject. I price out those things online, and then I total what we’ll need for new curriculum that year.
• When I have all we need written out, I can look for bargains and deals. I never buy right when I first plan out the curriculum needed. Instead I take my completed list and begin looking for how to find the best price. Can I buy it used online or from a friend? Which online store has it for less?
• I like to see the big picture. Having the curriculum planning all written out helps me to make sure that everyone has everything they need. This means that when the first of August rolls around, and I decide it’s time to officially start “a new year”, I’m not taken by surprise or caught waiting on materials I should have already ordered.

I personally like to do my curriculum planning online with a Google spreadsheet. I like that because I can easily make changes and because I can see every child’s needs on one sheet where I have room to record the cost of each child’s materials and add them up to a total cost that we need to budget for. I know some people prefer pen and paper planning because they aren’t dependent on a computer all the time. 

However you personally like to plan, I encourage you to plan. Planning your curriculum needs ahead of time has many benefits. (And if you’re like me and love new curricula, it’s just plain fun.)

I’ve created two FREE resources that can help you plan your curriculum for the coming school year. If you’re an online planner, there is a Google Drive spreadsheet that you can add to and use for up to ten children. If you’re a pen and paper planner, there is a printable Google Drive document for you to use. Print one for each child to record materials needed in all subjects.

Find your Google spreadsheet here. The spreadsheet will open in your Google Drive, but you can only view, not edit, the original. Make a copy of the original, and you will have the ability to edit it and add to it.

Find your Google document here. Once you save this to your Google Drive, you should be able to print as many as needed.

If you’ve never used Google Drive, you can find support information here.

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You can find the book on Amazon here and learn more about it here.