So, welcome back to my series on planning your best homeschool year yet.

We are about to look at how to stay on track with your homeschooling and get things done. You should by now have a number of things you want to do on your Red, Amber and Green planning sheets – now it is time for scheduling those things 🙂

Firstly, a word about scheduling.

It is ok to do things in a way that suits you. Forget about ‘shoulds’ and ‘oughts’. As I discuss in my book ‘Stick-ability – Why you can’t stick to your homeschool schedule and what to do about it!‘ – some of us are just not designed to follow a day by day timetable. It makes us feel restricted and burnt out. For some people it is actually better to NOT plan a homeschool schedule at all. Just go with the flow. And I will tell you how to stay on track with that in a moment.

For those of you who do like to stick to a schedule, remember to be flexible to suit your family. I get a lot of questions about how many hours a day to homeschool. You really need to tailor this to your family. Some people work well with one hour a day – others find their family likes more structure. YOU decide. It is your family. And if you find something isn’t working for you, then change it. Don’t compare yourself with others. Do what feels right for you. If you need a little help then I outline lots of different options on my homeschool scheduling page.

So, how do I do things?

I very much go with the flow 🙂 But I need a structure in place to help me really do the things I want to do. If you don’t actually do the things you have planned for your best homeschool year yet – then it probably won’t turn out the way you wanted!

But how do you stay accountable?

I have 2 little tricks up my sleeve! Today we will look at the Action Sheet.

If you have bought my workbook and planner there is a printable Action Sheet available for each month. If you are writing your own then make yourself a form that you sit down and fill out every month. It needs space for the following.

1. Actions ready to do this month. ONLY put your Green actions on this list. If you can’t do it in the next ten seconds it isn’t green. These are basically the projects and ideas you will do this month. If some of these activities can (or need to) be scheduled then put them into your calendar as well as on the list. With this list, you will be able to see at a glance what you could be doing this month.
   You don’t need to schedule out every activity. You just need to know what is ready to go.
2. Actions to work on. Make a list of things you would like to have ready to go next month. You need time to move things from the Amber list to the Green list. Having a few items on this list will remind you to be prepared for the following month.
3. Your todo list. There is always other stuff we need to work on – so make sure you have space for this in your planner.
4. My printable action sheet also has room for you to write your Word for the month, skills and attitudes you want to work on that month, and some budgeting information.

When you are sitting down to fill out your Action Sheet each month, also fill out a monthly calendar so you can see what appointments you have, and where you might have time to do some of the activities on your Action Sheet.

What I love about this system is that it gives me an overview of the month – but at the same time I can see how to fill any gaps when we ‘aren’t sure what to do next’. It is a flexible system that helps me adapt homeschooling to our lifestyle.

Try it – I think you will like it 🙂 Leave me a comment on how you get on with it. Did you need to adapt it for yourself?

In my next blog post I will cover my 2nd trick to staying on track. Stay tuned.