Inside: Homeschool daily checklist 101 – what is it, how to use it, and a free printable!
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UPDATE: Since writing this post year ago, I have released a printable homeschool planner to help simplify your thoughts. You can print the PDF pages as designed OR edit them in Canva to create a fully customized planner. Check it out here:
Sunflower Homeschool Planner | Undated | Digital Download
Make planning simple with our new, undated homeschool planner. With its clean design and carefully curated pages, organizing your thoughts will be a breeze. This is a downloadable product that allows you to either print the pages you want to use, exactly as they were designed OR make edits and customizations to create the perfect planner that fits your needs.
Needing a way to help your child stay on task and become more independent and responsible for their work? Or just wanting to teach them about staying accountable and getting the job done?
Using a homeschool daily checklist helps us organize our week and is preparing my kids to be more responsible as they get older.
What is a homeschool daily checklist?
To put it simply, it’s a list that allows you and your child to see what’s left to accomplish for the homeschool day (and the week). A homeschool daily checklist lists all of your student’s subjects and what they’ll be doing in those subjects for the day. When the lesson or assignment is completed, they simply check it off.
Why Use One?
My kids are still young, but using a checklist every week helps give them a visual representation of the work that we need to get through on a daily and weekly basis. Which means they feel “in the loop” during our school day.
As they get older, it’ll also make them more responsible for their own work. Right now, they have some independent assignments, but for the most part, I’m guiding them or completely doing lessons with them. But when they’re older, our homeschool daily checklist will be a great way to keep them on track and show them what they still need to work on without all of the hand-holding.
It’s also great practice to help your child learn to read charts!
How to Use a Homeschool Daily Checklist
So to do this, you’ll first need to:
- have your plan for the year done and
- have a weekly lesson plan
(Or at least that’s how I organize mine!) For more on planning your homeschool year, check out this post:
And keep an eye out for a post where I share our free lesson planning printable!
Writing Your Weekly Plan
So first, I make our weekly lesson plan based on our yearly plan. Then I take that weekly lesson plan for each subject and write it (in a more simplified form) on each of my kids’ weekly checklists.
For example, I’ll look at my plans for Bible. Let’s say we’re in the book of Exodus that week. My lesson plan would include details for the chapters and ideas we were covering each day. Then on the checklist, I’d just write the theme or chapters of the day. So when we’re talking about Mount Sinai and God giving the ten commandments, I could either write “10 commandments” in the box OR “chapters 19-20.”
Where to Put It
Next, put the daily checklist in a place where your student can easily access it and check it off daily. We have folders where I put their daily independent work, and the front of those folders have a clear pocket — the perfect spot for our checklists!
How Your Child Uses Their Checklist
Every day, your child will then check off their tasks as they’re completed. Like I said, since my children are still young, I guide them through their day. But the checklist is preparing them for going it alone.
So if your child is older, they can look at each task on their list, complete them one-by-one, and check them off as they go.
Right now, as we get each activity done, I’ll give my kids a gentle reminder.
“Okay we’re all finished with your math lesson. What do you get to do now?”
“Check off my list!”
SIDE NOTE: Consider building in some time at the end of the week to have “catch-up time” for any assignments that had to be pushed back or needed some extra work. If there’s ever a time when everything is done, the kids get extra time playing or doing something else they enjoy.
Our Checklist
We do nine different subjects/activities that I wanted to have space for: Bible, language arts, handwriting, reading, math, social studies, science, interest study, and specials (music, art, nature, and library).
UPDATE: Our checklists are a little different now. I do rows for Bible, creative, Science / Social Studies, Language extras (phonics, sight words & spelling), Language Arts, Math, Independent Work, and “Special” (anything extra we may be doing for the day).
In our box for language arts, I also included a breakdown of the different things we do during that time (phonics, sight words, spelling, and our lesson from The Good & the Beautiful). It just helps keep us on track and remember what words they’re supposed to be working on every week.
Download & Print Your free Homeschool Daily Checklist
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The first page of the printable includes the subjects we use, and the second page is blank for you to customize it to your family’s needs.
How to Customize it
No one wants to have to write every subject every time they make a checklist for the week. Instead, I suggest writing your child’s name and your subjects once. Then make color copies of that sheet for however many weeks you’ll be homeschooling this year.
Whatever saves a little time!
Have you ever used a homeschool daily checklist like this? If not, what system did you use to keep lessons and assignments organized in your homeschool? Let me know in the comments!
Until next time,
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