Homeschool Hack: Homeschool Student Checklist

Today I’d like to talk about something that has saved me some major sanity: a customizable student checklist! This has to be one of my favorite homeschool hacks.

If you have ever spent your school day:

-reminding your kids to complete tasks, over and over

-answering the same questions, over and over

-trying to mentally calculate, yourself, what you need to achieve on this day

…then this checklist may help you!

Best Homeschool Hack

This year, I implemented a daily/weekly checklist for my kids! I thought about our family schedule, and which subjects I wanted to do on which days. I also considered aspects like preschool drop-off times (for my son, who is four) nap times (for my daughter, who is almost two), extra-curriculars, playdates, co-op, etc.

I planned more of our independent work, and low-maintenance electives like Art History, for the days we were busier. I decided to do the heftier lessons (History, Science, Math, Writing) on the days when my son was at preschool or my toddler was with Grandma!

Here is a sample of a typical week for us:

{The blog version is showing a little fuzzy, but the PDF won’t!}

One thing I will note: these are things that, for my kids, needed to be written down. We do a “4:30 pickup” as a family each day, to tidy the house, and everyone has their own jobs. I didn’t put that on the checklist. For us, what made the most sense is other chores, and schoolwork. You can customize your checklist however you want–that’s the beauty of it!

How the Customized Student Checklist Works

The checklist shown above is one of my kids’ typical homeschool week. On Sunday evenings, I pull up the editable document on my computer and tweak what I need to. For example, if I know we are having Kid Book Club on Friday this upcoming week, I know at least half the day will go towards that purpose. I’ll plan to double up on some of the meatier subjects, earlier in the week.

During the course of the week, I typically jot down our daily family plan on a small whiteboard in the kitchen. Things like–snack break, a trip to the neighborhood park, a visit from a family member, etc when applicable. For my whiteboards, I love getting a giant piece of whiteboard material from Home Depot, and having a staff member cut it down to the size(s) I want! Did you know you can do that?! I’ve done it several times to make class-sets of 12″x12″ personal whiteboards, for the co-op classes that I’ve taught. The cost is a fraction of the price of a standard whiteboard. (The one downside is that the whiteboard isn’t magnetic).

Each day, my kids scan their list, and take care of their chores and independent work as they can. Then, the school subjects that need to be done with me (History, Science, Math) are planned out at specific times. For a fun incentive, we use punch cards! Each time they complete that day’s tasks by 4:00pm, they get a hole-punch. Once a punch card is full, they go on a little snack date with either me or my husband!

My preschooler participates in the punch cards as well, although he doesn’t use a daily checklist just yet. His favorite place to go on dates, for awhile, was O’Reilly Auto Parts–“because they have a gumball machine!” 🙂 Is that not the purest, most quintessential kid thing to say?!

Try it out!

If you think this type of system may help your homeschool day become a little less harried, give it a try! You can find the Customizable Student Checklist here. The product is a PDF format, and it is completely customizable. I made six different versions so that you can choose the border you or your kiddos like best.

Let me know how it works for you!

Cait