Making your own homeschool planner is the perfect way to ensure YOU get the planner YOU want and will utilize! It is a fun process to build it, inexpensive to have bound, and rewarding to use a planner you built from the ground up.
Note: a video of my 2016/2017 planner can be viewed at the end of this post, and the printables I used in my planner are near the bottom of this post for free. Also, poke around my blog and say hi! I share lots about our homeschool journey and offer many free printables.
There are SO MANY printables for creating your own planner – both for the mother and for the students. I have tried to organize these in a helpful way, but there’s still lots of pages available.
You’ll find all the pages and a video of one of my planners below, but first here are some answers I have shared with others who have had questions – consider it a FAQ, minus the questions!
Useful steps to take when considering how to make your own homeschool planner
- Make a list of what you want included in your planner. Consider previous planners you have used – what was useful? What did you feel was missing? Browse homeschool planners that are on the market for ideas you may not consider on your own.
I have always found it useful to include a blank page at the end of every planner I make to collect ideas I think of through the year to make the next years planner even more efficient!
Also, if the planner goes with you everywhere consider adding a printable list of books you need/want for your homeschool collection and just check them off the list as you find them. - Consider your budget and design aesthetic. Before you start designing or collecting pages for your planner decide if you want to print in color or just black and white. Also determine if you want all the pages to be cohesive throughout, or if you’re ok patching it together from various designers.
- Starting collecting free planner pages or purchase them or design your own. (I offer some free ones below!) Pinterest is a great place to start searching for free planner pages. You can see my Free Homeschool Printables collection here.
- Purchase nice paper to print on. This will make a big difference! I have used this 28 lb weight paper and loved it. If you are having it printed elsewhere ask them about using heavier weight paper.
- Consider your binding options. There are many – from spiral binding yourself, to outsourcing it (my preference), to simply compiling in a three ring binder to many in between options – do your research to find what fits in your budget and preference.
Once you have the homeschool planner pages you want for your book (be sure to remember to print double sided!) you can take them in to your local office supply store for them to bind for you. Coil spiral binding is very inexpensive – about $3 a book! While they will provide a cover for you (perhaps at additional charge) I like to print my own front and back cover and laminate it.
Laminating the covers makes the book much sturdier and will save it from any spill disasters that may occur over the year.
I run an Etsy shop that has a variety of 8.5×11 prints that would make great covers for a homeschool planner – I have used many of them for the various books I print and bind (Bible study, kids planners, and my own planners for teaching Sunday School and homeschool planner)
I print my front and back cover in color and then tend to stick to black and white for my inside pages. I generally print pages myself, but I have outsourced to The Homeschool Printing Company and they are WONDERFUL! In fact, I had them create an entire spiral bound book for me (including laminating the front and back cover) and they did an excellent job following my complicated requesting and producing an excellent product! I highly recommend using them.
Options for covers can be found in my etsy shop – Wanted Words.
Free Printable Planner Page Downloads
I have created an assortment of free printable pages to be used in a homeschool planner – all of these can be downloaded as individual pdfs and printed as you need.
Of course there are many free printables to be found around the web, and then there are ones you can purchase (etsy is a good place to check!) and print them yourself, too.
Some of these are hosted right here on this page, and others link you to other pages on my website where you will find the pages. Don’t forget, you can always mix and match if you want!
CALENDAR
2020 large grid printable calendar, with one month per page – click image above or click here to go to the post.
ASSORTED PLANNER PAGES WITH CHARLOTTE MASON QUOTES
Created in 2018, this was designed as a complete planner. Click here to see the post with all of the planner pages! The pages have a floral pattern and quotes from Miss Mason.
STUDENT PLANNER LORD OF THE RINGS THEME
This was created as an entire student planner for my sons – there are lots of pages, making a complete student planner which we utilized in years 5 and 6 of using Ambleside Online, but they aren’t year specific and can be used by any Lord of the Ring fan! Click here to see the full post and all the printables.
Below you will find some of my original planner pages – these are hosted right here on this page and you can click on the text or the image to view the full files.
Blank two page calendar spread pages can be downloaded here
– while this does require you to add the month and dates yourself, I love this layout with the extra space around the sides for jotting down notes.
Lined, dotted, and plain pages with Charlotte Mason quotes across the bottom can be downloaded here
– I keep extra scratch spaces in my planner for whatever may come up – field trip planning, needing to keep a child entertained somewhere – whatever! I also designate one of these blank pages for thoughts on what to add or eliminate from next years planner.
An assortment of homeschool planner schedules can be downloaded here – finding a schedule planner you can make work is, to me, the trickiest! While these likely aren’t going to be helpful printables to you, they may inspire your own idea of how to create your own schedule.
Charlotte Mason held some high ideals for what children should know. The list of what they should know by age 6 and by age 12 can be printed here but ONLY if you promise to use it as a guideline and not make yourself feel bad if your children don’t line up with the checklist. 
Our memory work has changed over the years and I haven’t always saved those files – but I am happy to share the pieces I do have saved! You can get them here. They may serve more as a springboard for ideas that be of any practical use, but you can check that out for yourself!
I try to do a student evaluation at the beginning of each year, and mostly to focus myself on what their strengths are. It can be so easy to see the weaknesses and equate those as failures … but they aren’t! And remembering that is so very helpful to seeing them as persons and encouraging them in their unique development. You can download this form here.
I write about habits elsewhere on here, but just having a focused place to plan out what our habit focus will be each month has been so important and valuable to me. You can download these sheets here.