Free homeschool planner templates + tips for creating your homeschool schedule

Using free homeschool planner templates and finding a scheduling rhythm that works for your family can be incredibly helpful. It makes the planning process more manageable and can reduce your stress level. Some homeschool parents report that planning is the most important step to creating a thriving and engaging homeschool environment. 

If you are starting to homeschool, you should probably select your curriculum and decide on your approach first. These are two essential pieces that will impact your schedule. Once you have taken these steps, you can begin your schedule and planning process.

How to find your homeschooling schedule rhythm 

One tip as you plan your homeschool schedule is to take notes during several typical days. It will help you understand how long each subject lesson takes and how you spend your time. Then, you can reflect on what worked well and what presented challenges. 

From those observations, adjust your schedule accordingly. It’s okay if it takes some trial and error. While we know each day is unique, and our children show up in different ways, look for the pattern of when they can maintain more focus during the day and when they have “ants in the pants” and are more restless. 

By noticing these trends, we can begin to map out our days to maximize learning and fun. After you take notes and observe for a few days, you’ll start to identify what your optimal schedule might look like. 

You can start to sketch this ideal schedule and test it out with your homeschoolers. Pinterest has lots of fun sample schedules to look at for inspiration. 

Once you have a pretty solid schedule (it can always be updated and changed as things evolve!), you are ready to develop your homeschool planner.

Free customizable homeschool planner templates

Of course, you can use a simple homeschool planner or just write your schedule down in a notebook. But if you want something more dynamic, try our free downloadable planner.

We’re excited to share this planner. It’s a remarkable result of a contest we launched with our partner Canva. The challenge was “Create a Homeschool Planner,” and the responses were incredible. The contest designs are stunning, and you can download or edit them for free. Our winning design from Jolee is downloadable here. Or you can customize the Canva template. We love how it has 5 pages where you can add your weekly and monthly schedules, plus project ideas, learning insights, and more. 

You can download the fantastic runner-up design from Mallie here or tailor the Canva template. This 28-page template includes tons of adorable seasonal elements, cute visuals, and fun monthly schedule options.

These planners are great tools for educators and learners to keep them organized and on schedule. Simply print them out and start planning away.

How do you manage your homeschooling schedule? We hope you’ll share your hard-won tips with our Homeschooling with Outschool Parent Community. 

Jennifer WolfeJennifer leads strategic & DEIB partnerships for Outschool. She's a former The Learning Accelerator partner and advisor to many ed tech companies on the development of high-quality K-12 curriculum.