Using a Bullet Journal in Your Homeschooling

{Affiliate links used.}

I have been homeschooling for close to fifteen years. It has been quite the journey...one that changes with each semester and child. One of the most important aspects in getting homeschooling done is to be organized and to make sure I plan out our weeks. When there is no plan, not much will get done. Over the years I have used all kinds of homeschool planners. They have been good, but I have noticed that they mostly go unused. That isn't to say that I don't plan out each week, but rather that planners tend to have more pages than I would use. This year I wanted to customize my planner and have only pages I would really utilize. So instead of using a planner I have decided to create a bullet journal to keep us on task.

What is a bullet journal? It is a hand-written way of keeping everything organized. Here is probably the best post on the internet on how to set up a bullet journal. Keep in mind that in this post the author is showing you how to set up a bullet journal to replace your calendar or daytimer. Here I am going to show you how I set up a bullet journal just for our homeschool planning...

To create a bullet journal, you need a few items...a journal, some pens, and a ruler. You can get fancier with decorating it, but remember, that beautiful is not necessarily the goal...functionality is. I do add a little color to my homeschool bullet journal with Prismacolor pencils, but that is about it. As far as the journal goes, this one is my favorite, the Moleskine Squared Notebook (Extra Large), because it has tons of space and the paper in it is like graph paper which makes it easy to set up pages.

Here's a quick look at my set-up:

I start with an index page (actually I give my index about three pages). These pages are vital to any bullet journal as this is where you record where things are in your journal. As I write on another page, I make sure I number the page down at the bottom and then record in the index what is on that page.

The next page in my journal is a "Year-at-a-Glance" page. I start it in July and finish it in June since that works better for the school year. This page is great as you plan throughout the year. You don't have to go looking for another calendar as you setting up your months and weeks.

I then created a page that will list the classes or subjects my son will be doing. It will include space to list the curriculum I will be using for each class.

 After that page, I have a page for grades for the fall semester and another page for the spring. Because my son is high school I have to be more diligent about recording how he is doing. Even so, the only thing I really do is create a row for the class and then record the individual grades in that row. When I need an official grade I will average the numbers for that class.

When we start a new month I will create an overview page for the month. On this page I will write overall goals for the month, days when won't do school, and any special events. I will also include tasks I will need to do for the month in regards to our schooling...like, for example, in July, I will write a list of curricula that I still need to order.

The weekly pages will be the heart of my homeschool bullet journal. Across the side, I list the days of the week; at the top of each column I write the classes (one class per column) and then I can fill out each square on what we need to accomplish in each subject. The weekly spread can be formatted differently if you are homeschooling more than one child or you can create separate weekly spreads for each child. Do what works for you!

So those are some examples of what my bullet journal looks like, but the beauty of a bullet journal is that you can create pages for almost anything! Maybe you need a list of books you are going to read. Or you need a field trip schedule. Maybe you need to have planning pages for a unit study. You can create any type of page you could possibly need!