Planning Strategies for the School Year // Back To School Week
This blog post is part of a series on getting our families and homes ready for the Back To School Season! You can start at the beginning by clicking here.
Whether you’re a teacher, a mom of kids in school, or a homeschool mom, there’s some form of planning that you need to get done before the school year starts. Today we’re going to dive into each of those types of planning (plus planning strategies for your students!), and give you some planning tips for each one!
Planning the school year as a TEACHER
As a teacher, there’s so much planning to do over the summer! And if you need a great resource to help, you’ll love our BRAND NEW Teacher Planner!!
Our best Teacher Planning Tips:
- Before you start thinking about the next school year, reflect on the last one. What went well? What didn’t go well? What is within your control to change in the next year? (The teacher version of our guided Reflect + Refresh Process is inside our Teacher Planner, and super helpful for this!)
- Choose some goals for the next year. We suggest using categories like Professional Development, Student Development, Classroom Management, Classroom Setup + Function, and Curriculum, just to name a few!
- Jot down any important dates for the year ahead, so you can start planning around those!
- Consider outlining your monthly, weekly, and daily routines – think about what matters MOST, and make sure to make time for those!
You’ll find help for all of this and more inside our new Teacher Planner! Shop here during our Back To School Sale! >>>
Planning the school year as a MOM
As a mom, there are always lots of things to juggle during the school year! From school calendars to extracurricular activities, plus church and dental appointments, and more – you need a resource that’s going to keep you completely organized. We love our S.O.S. Planner for that!
Our best Mom-Life Planning Tips:
- Get all the school calendars in one place, and transfer them over to your main family calendar. I try to put these on our shared iCalendars FIRST, and then move them to our Family Calendar System before each month begins. But getting these all put onto the same calendar (especially if you have kids in different schools) is really helpful to have an accurate view of your time commitments!
- Decide on a meal planning strategy to start out the school year. It will likely change as the year goes on, but having a solid plan to start with is really helpful!
- Create new chore charts to outline your kids responsibilities for the school year. Often things change between summer and the school year, so these will need to be updated!
You’ll find help for all of this and more inside our S.O.S. Planner! Shop here during our Back To School Sale! >>>
Planning the school year as a HOMESCHOOL MOM
Alright homeschool moms – you genuinely have so much on your plate. You’re planning all the same things as a mom AND a teacher, plus you’re likely juggling multiple grades! You might like our free Homeschool Planning Workshop for this!
Our best Homeschool Mom Planning Tips:
- Before you start thinking about the next school year, reflect on the last one. What went well? What didn’t go well? What is within your control to change in the next year?
- Set some routines for your days. When will you start school? Do you have a specific day that you’ll be out of the house? What extracurricular activities do your kids have?
- Consider each child individually – what are their strengths and weaknesses? What do they need to focus on in the upcoming year?
- Decide on a meal planning strategy to start out the school year. It will likely change as the year goes on, but having a solid plan to start with is really helpful!
- Create new chore charts to outline your kids responsibilities for the school year. Often things change between summer and the school year, so these will need to be updated!
You’ll find help for all of this and more inside our Homeschool Lesson Planner! Shop here during our Back To School Sale! >>>
Planning the school year as a STUDENT
Yep – we need to help our KIDS get organized, too! Honestly, I think this is one of the most important – and most overlooked – strategies of planning for the school year. We need to start training our kids on how to plan their own days, so that they have these skills as they get older!
We’ve got a few different resources for this – for our younger students, The Anchored Kids Planners are a GREAT introduction to planning! And for our older students (think middle school and up!), our brand new Student Planner is perfect for this!!!
Our best Student Planning Tips:
- Start with one monthly calendar – fill in the important dates! They might not need all the same events/appointments as you need on your calendar, but these should include the things they are involved in!
- For younger students, take just one week at a time. They can learn to transfer the important events over to their weekly schedule, and also write out their daily responsibilities!
- For older students, we can go a little deeper into monthly planning. Jot down a few events, projects, goals, and a priority for the month.
- Older students can also dive into more detailed weekly planning, creating routines and rhythms that fit their personalities and help them to create good habits!
You’ll find help for all of this and more inside our two planners for students – both the Anchored Kids Planners and the NEW Student Planner! Shop both here during our Back To School Sale! >>>
We hope this helps give you a great starting place for all your Back To School planning needs!! Be sure to check out the Back To School Sale before it’s gone – time is running out!
Kayse Pratt serves Christian women as a writer + designer, creating home + life management resources that help those women plan their days around what matters most. She’s created the most unique planner on the market, helped over 400 women create custom home management plans, and works with hundreds of women each month inside her membership, teaching them how to plan their days around what matters most. When she’s not designing printables or writing essays, you’ll find Kayse homeschooling her kids, reading a cheesy novel with a giant cup of tea in hand, or watching an old show from the 90’s with her husband, who is her very best friend.