Each month includes key planner areas that allow moms to successfully juggle the different departments they manage: teaching, parenting, cooking, cleaning, and even self-care. 

Starting with the monthly calendar, moms can schedule activities and appointments. The weekly spread, the core of the Well Planned Day, has daily lesson planning, attendance, grading, mom’s to-do list, dinner menu, weekend plans, and self-care. Within these two pages, a career homeschool mom can plan for the entire day. 

No need for multiple planners to assign lessons—the Well Planned Day has enough room to manage four students. It also incorporates the flexibility to use a grid section for individual students or the entire family. With a little creativity, I’ve seen moms alternate history and science, giving them more time to spend on the subject and using 2 days of worksheet areas to plan. Bonus: the extra space at the end of each day can be used for a fifth child who only needs to plan for math and phonics (preschool – 1st grade).

Whether you live in a state that requires reporting or you understand that, by logging attendance and progress, you can use the data to evaluate your own efforts as a career homeschool teacher, the Well Planned Day has a simple and effective system. For attendance there is a daily checkbox which can be transferred to the semester attendance reports. For grading, by using the blocks in the weekly assignment area, you can record the average for the week in the semester grade log.

Taking field trips, visiting the library, and reading aloud on the couch have to be some of the best perks for the career homeschool mom. In the Well Planned Day, there is ample space to plan for the field trips, schedule books for your students to read, manage the library books (save on those late fees), and chart your read-alouds. As a bonus, each month I include ideas for books and educational adventures based on the holiday for the month or the season of the year.  

In some cities and towns, good grades on report cards can get your student ice cream, pizza, or a free game of bowling. For other families, it’s critical to show the in-laws the proof that schooling at home works. In either case, I’ve included four heavy stock paper and micro-perforated report cards in different designs! Easy to tear out and easy to fold so you can create a report card in style.

Successfully reaching your goals begins with a schedule. In the Well Planned Day, there are teacher schedule and student schedules (4) to ensure you can create the routine rhythm in your home. Career homeschool moms use the schedule page to get a birds eye view of their week, ensuring they haven’t over-scheduled and helping them understand where they may have a few extra minutes. Included on the schedule are specific times for meals, cleaning, schooling, extra curricular, and community commitments.

Some career moms use the monthly calendar to lay out the menu for the month, then transfer to the weekly layout and use the information to create shopping lists. Other moms, myself included, plan the menu by the week, often based on what’s on sale at the supermarket. With a plan in place, I use the perforated shopping lists to record what I need from the store. With a page of shopping lists each month, I’ve have enough lists to last the year.

Beyond scheduling the daily tasks for cleaning, there are worksheets to create a daily cleaning system and space to log monthly project goals for things like spring cleaning and changing out the seasonal wardrobe. Within each month there are additional home management spaces to assign chores, detail home projects, and determine purchasing needs. 

Bonus: Included in Well Planned Day are perforated chore charts for the little ones. Simply tear out and laminate to turn into dry erase cards to use all year long with the younger members of your family that are not ready for a planner yet.

Between November and December, I’ve included six pages of holiday management. From menus and shopping lists to gift-giving ideas, to-do list, and a place to record traditions, there are pages to plan for everything the holidays bring, including greeting cards and decorating. By organizing your holidays in these pages, you are able to keep everything together and rest in the joy of the season.

As a career homeschool mom, like many careers, continuing education is a must. As your children grow and teaching becomes more complicated, or as your home life grows in busyness and you need to stay on top of organization, the monthly articles I’ve included will help you continue learning how to better yourself as a career homeschool mom. 

I’ve touched on ten areas of the Well Planned Day, but if you open the pages of the planner, you’ll find that I’ve added even more areas to ensure every aspect of your homeschooling journey has a place to plan. As you begin, return, or continue in your homeschooling career, you’ll discover, as other moms have found, that the Well Planned Day is a necessary tool for success.