Do you use reverse planning? Do you know what it is?

I know that we can’t see one another across the channels of the internet, but if are a homeschool parent, and have felt like you have no clue what you are doing—raise your hand. I’m over here raising mine!

We are about to enter into our 4th year of homeschooling (and I still feel like an absolute newbie), but on the other hand, I have found some systems and tools that work (and don’t work) for our us.

At the beginning of our homeschool journey, I made a lot of plans. I wrote them down, organized them, and then, well, got frustrated when they didn’t quite work the way I had envisioned. Even though I often knew that we should shift gears with a plan that wasn’t working, I was determined to check it off the list. To be honest, I chucked planning every detail pretty quickly. But then I was left feeling like we aimless and I would often wonder if I was doing enough.

I’m pretty sure the question: Am I doing enough? is an age-old parenting and homeschooling question.

You can raise your hand across the internet if you’ve felt that too!

Then, someone introduced me to reverse or back planning. And it truly made all the difference. For the last few years, I’ve purchased a simple calendar and just jotted down notes about our day and what we did. Doing this gave me more freedom to shift gears (instead of dogged determination to follow my plan), keep track of what we’ve done during the day, and visually see that our day was made up of all kinds of learning and together moments. I also used it to keep notes about attitudes and what seemed to be working (or not working!). I write down everything from library visits, to baking together, impromptu science experiments, math lessons, games we’ve played together, trips to the store, outdoor adventures, reading lessons, and everything in between :)

This year, I’ll be homeschooling two kids instead of one, so I went on the hunt for a planner that could better keep track of what we’ve done. I wanted something that could separate the subjects a bit to get a feel for our rhythms with those areas. I also wanted a planner with a way to jot down some tasks and priorities that I want do during the week (as I do like to make a few loose plans ahead of time).

Goodness. I found a lot of amazing homeschool planners and even teacher planners. They were filled to the brim with so many wonderful pages of goals, subject leaning, mini-unit plans, etc.

But at the end of the day, I was looking for something that could mainly be used to plan ahead a little bit and also back or reverse plan. As much as those homeschool planners looked awesome, I knew that I didn’t need all the extra tools they included.

So, what’s a girl to do? Well, I made my own. It’s simple and has just what I need. It has a weekly planning page, a weekly spread with blank subject and weekday spots (which I plan to use to write down what we did), some encouraging verses and quotes, and a section to keep track of books we’ve read, places we’ve gone, memories we’ve made, and other notes. Plus, I added some full calendar pages to help me get monthly overviews and keep track of weeks off, holidays, special events, etc.

It’s more of a memory-keeper than a plan aheader ;)

I thought that maybe someone else would like something simple and straight-forward too. I enjoyed making some pretty covers, and it was hard to choose which one I liked best. But, the interior pages are all black and white (to help you save on printing costs!) and easy to get printed and bound.

So, if you’ve been on the hunt for a tool to simply keep track of learning or plan ahead, this may work for you. I’m looking forward to using it this year and then tucking it away with our school items at the end of the year.

I’d love to know: Do you like all the planning tools or do you like to just jot down the basics? Have you tried reverse or back planning?

Have a good one!

Nicole