This school year is coming to a close and I have been perusing curriculum, thinking of how I want next year to go. This also means I’ve been busy thinking about creating a plan for our homeschool, too. I love having a relaxed homeschool, but this year my plans got a little bit too relaxed. I become too disorganized and let our homeschool vision slide. Next year, I have a plan to put my homeschool planning on Autopilot to keep our vision in check and stay on top of our daily tasks.

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Are you ready to put your Homeschool Planning on Autopilot?

We started out our year with all of our ducks in a row. We had our list of curriculum, we started with goals, then over the months one thing lead to another, now I honestly don’t even remember what books we read at the beginning of the school year any more. I recently picked up a copy of Plan Your Year by Pam Barnhill, and that lead me to Autopilot, her newly revamped planning course.

Taking care of and managing a flock of children, their homeschooling, and all of our other tasks can leave us with our heads spinning. This is why having a great homeschool plan is something that can help us out oh, so much. But, homeschool planning for you may not look the same way it does for me. Homeschool planning doesn’t need to look like lists of tasks on a calendar, waiting to be checked off. Autopilot was a great eye opener that I can be organized and do homeschool planning, but still have a relaxed homeschool at the same time.

Homeschool Planning for the Relaxed Homeschooler

When I think of homeschool planning, I always of rigid, overly structured homeschools, but Autopilot has changed my mind about this. Interest based learning is the heart of our homeschool. We love being able to learn through real books, roadschooling adventures, and just use curriculum as a tool along the way. I always thought that planning can’t really happen with our spontaneity, but it turns out, planning your homeschool year absolutely can still happen in a relaxed homeschool.

Pam does an amazing job explaining how to make a structured framework for your homeschool that still allows for you to be relaxed throughout your year. Friends, this is a total game changer for me. Usually when I hear structure I want to run and hide, but no more. Having a structured framework can still allow me to be flexible in my planning throughout the year, which will keep us on track, but allow us to not feel behind our stressed out.

Procedure Lists are the heart of Homeschool Planning on Autopilot

Procedure lists. It sounds so strict, but listen up. Making a procedure list can actually help keep your homeschool more relaxed. Since we use a lot of books that don’t come with curriculum, or we pick and choose what we want to use out of a curriculum book, but don’t follow it to a T, having a procedure list can actually help me feel more productive and take away the, “Am I doing enough?” worry that we can all get in the back of our minds.

Guys, there’s an entire module just on creating a procedure list in Autopilot. Pam explains how to make it work for your homeschool, how to even begin creating a procedure list, and ideas for what to add to your homeschool planning to make that procedure list come alive. She makes it all into a no brainer process to simplify your work as a homeschool mom. Did I mention that there are free planning pages to put this all into action, too? Because there are, so you can do it all quickly and easily while going through the course.

Personalized Homeschool Planning Tips

Have you ever read a book or listened to a podcast and thought to yourself, “This person must know me because what they’re saying is speaking to me on a personal level!” This happened to me when I read Plan Your Year and also when I was going through the Autopilot course. Now, this is something small that was said in the course, but something that was really big to me. It all had to do with organization (are we seeing a theme here yet? I need to be more organized!)

A tiny little tip added in by Pam was to have kids check their own work. Now, checking my son’s math is a chore for both of us. We are in the school of thought that work isn’t complete until it’s been corrected. He doesn’t look forward to seeing how many he has wrong and doesn’t like going over corrections with me. Now, what if I were to hand that answer book to him, allowing him to check it himself? Mom is no longer there, making him feel like he’s being nagged. He can see the correct answer, find where he went wrong himself, and make the corrections. At a sixth grade level this is totally doable and something I wouldn’t have thought to have him do myself.

I know there are little nuggets of wisdom all throughout this course, and I’m excited to hear which one sticks out to you. I can’t encourage you enough to add Autopilot to your “must have” list of homeschool resources. Whether your year is just starting out, or you’re in the middle of your school year and know you need a change, are you ready to put your Homeschool Planning on Autopilot?

Let me know in the comments (or join my online homeschool community!) and let me know how planning your homeschool with Autopilot will make a difference!