Planning a homeschool year involves balancing subjects, scheduling breaks, meeting state hour requirements, and leaving room for the unexpected. A curriculum planner helps you see the whole year at once: when each subject starts and ends, how many hours per week each needs, where your holidays fall, and whether you are on track for your state's attendance minimum.
Most homeschool families plan in one of three ways. Some follow the traditional school calendar (180 days, September through June, matching public school breaks). Others spread instruction year-round with shorter, more frequent breaks. And some plan by hours rather than days, allowing for intensive study weeks and lighter weeks depending on family schedules.
This planner supports all three approaches. Set your school year dates, target days or hours, and add courses with their weekly time commitment. The tool calculates whether your schedule meets your target and shows where you have flexibility. Add holidays, vacations, and breaks to see how they affect your calendar.
Your plan saves to your browser automatically. Adjust it throughout the year as your family's needs change. The planner connects with the Attendance Tracker so you can compare planned days against actual logged days.
Add subjects with their weekly hours to see your annual plan.
Curriculum planning starts with your state requirements and works backward. If your state requires 180 days, count the available weeks in your planned school year, subtract vacation weeks, and calculate the minimum days per week. Most families plan 4 or 5 school days per week for 36 to 40 weeks.
Hours planning works similarly. If your state requires 900 hours annually, divide by your planned weeks to get weekly hours needed. A 36-week year needs 25 hours per week; a 40-week year needs 22.5 hours per week. Distribute these across subjects according to your priorities and state requirements.
Back-to-school preparation is the primary use: most families plan in July or August before the school year begins. Mid-year adjustments are the second most common use, as real life often diverges from the plan. State reporting preparation benefits from having a documented plan to compare against actual attendance. And families transitioning into homeschooling for the first time use the planner to structure their first year with confidence.