Call me a meanie mom. {wink} Our first official day of school was July 29th. Yes, JULY, people.

I heard that collective gasp.

This last week has felt a bit over the top for me. We returned from vacation and it’s taken me almost a week to recoup from that {laundry, cleaning up, etc…}. Add in swim practice every single day, a swim team champs most of the day Saturday, and there was little time to squeeze in the last minute things that I felt needed to be finished for school to be done all good and proper.

Shockingly, we all survived our first day back and we’re off to a good start, despite my feeling behind. Can you believe it?

I’ll be honest and admit that I’ve felt less prepared going into this school year than years prior. BUT I will also say that there is something else that I’ve learned over the years, and it has been on my mind a lot lately.

There is such a thing as over-planning.

Can you believe I just said that? Me. The planner who loves a good color-coded schedule and things to be ‘just so’. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still color-coding and have an overall plan for our school year in place, but one thing I have learned is that it’s okay to ease up a bit on the expectations that I put on myself, relax, and not stress about the tiniest details.

A Few Nuggets of Advice for New Homeschool Moms

For all of you moms out there that are busily planning your first year and worried about how it will all work out, let me offer you a few homeschool planning tips :

1. Planning and organization are both good things. They can help keep your day run smoothly. However, getting caught up in the planning and having everything ‘just so’ can also kill the joy in your homeschool day. Be sure your plan isn’t becoming the end all. You don’t have to have it all together in order to have learning be effective.
2. Flexibility is KEY. There are times during your day that you’ll need to put the schedule aside and just go with the flow. Give yourself the opportunity to be spontaneous, even if your plans say that you should be doing something else.
3. When planning, don’t overextend yourself and your kids. You may be home all day, but that doesn’t mean that you have to help out with everything or participate in the many things that are presented. Sometimes your sanity is worth so much more than what over-commitment can cost you.

For those of you that have been homeschooling for several years, what advice would you offer new homeschool families?

If you are a new homeschooling mom, you may find the Homeschool Basics series helpful as you begin your homeschool journey.

The end of the school year is here and it’s time to begin planning for the upcoming year! To give you a headstart on the 2013 year, the Weekly Homeschool Planner is on sale for $12 {down from the regular price of $20}! Just use the code JUNESALE at checkout. Click the “Add to Cart” button at the end of this post to take advantage of the sale price through June 22, 2013.

An Editable pdf Homeschool Planner!

The Weekly Homeschool Planner is an editable pdf document, meaning each of the pdf pages can be typed in, edited, and saved to your own computer every time you use it. Type lesson plans into the page and print them off or simply save them to your computer ~ the choice is up to you!

Edit plans any time and save the planner to your computer to have a digital copy each year. Organize your school day, record your daily learning, track testing results and more! Personalize it to fit your family! You can also print off a paper copy

The Weekly Homeschool Planner includes daily attendance tracking, 40 weeks of customizable planning and journal sheets, yearly curriculum planning pages, evaluation sheets, field trip planning, standardized testing and assessment result tracking, daily to-do lists, menu planners and more! View a sample peek of the Weekly Homeschool Planner.

Already purchased the Weekly Homeschool Planner? Then become an affiliate so you get a 25% commission using your affiliate link when you share the planner with others! Tweet about it, post about it and share it on Facebook with your friends.

Hurry – the sale ends Saturday, June 22, 2013!

Grab the pdf Weekly Homeschool Planner for $12!

* This is an editable pdf file that you can save to your computer and use year after year. To learn more about the Weekly Homeschool Planner, click HERE.