
At a recent homeschool co-op meeting I asked a fellow mom if she was almost done for the year?
I was met with tears!
Folks, this wasn’t a woman prone to hysterics.
This was a strong woman who was raising four amazing children!
Yet, her stress and overwhelm were palpable.
Her tears were out of frustration.
She and her kids had worked hard for months and she had no idea if they had done enough. She had no idea how to determine if they were done.
- Should she pick an arbitrary date?
- Should she just stop?
- Should she test her kids?
- Should she resort to common core standards?
- Did she need to keep pushing through the summer?
Her homeschool planning method left her empty. Without a solid plan of attack she found herself backtracking and guessing at what should come next. Fortunately, I knew a great way to help. I told her (and now, I am telling you) all about Plan Your Year!

Plan Your Year is a Homeschool Planning Method that Works

I love, love Pam Barnhill and her approach to homeschool planning! She makes sure you are the authority of your own homeschool. With “Plan Your Year” I am always able to tell what we need to do next to accomplish our goals for the year and when we have met with success!
As a new homeschool Mom I was crazy blessed to find Pam Barnhill and “Plan Your Year”. She saved me from homeschool schedule overwhelm! Pam made sure I stayed focused on what was most important and flexible enough to adjust the rest!
What about you. friend?
At the end of the homeschool year do you know that you’ve done enough?
Plan Your Year Keeps You On Track While Maintaining Needed Flexibility

Instead of focusing on the entire year as a whole, Pam offers suggestions on how to break the year into chunks of time. Segmenting the year into manageable chunks works well, regardless of which school year calendar you follow: year-round, calendar year, or traditional school calendar.
Pam uses terms, blocks, and loops to allocate the distribution of subjects (both skill and content based). Although, she does offer suggestions and shares her preferences, she empowers you to take ownership of your own schedule. For example, you get to determine the following:
- Do you want to have 6 week terms?
- Would you prefer 10 week terms?
- Do you want to take off the entire months of December and June?
- How about scheduling it based on the local school calendar so they can vacation with relatives?
The choice is yours!
You’re in Charge of Your Homeschool with Plan Your Year

Regardless of the options you choose, make sure to reassess what is working well and what may need tweaking! “Plan Your Year” will make sure you are planning ahead, managing smaller chunks of time, focusing on mastery, and performing a regular re-evaluation of you homeschool.
With Plan Your Year there is no danger of heading into summer wondering when you can stop. You are in charge of your own schedule!
After organizing with Plan Your Year
- You will know what work remains to be done.
- You will know what days and weeks or even months during the school year are off-time.
- You will know when you are done with a term, lesson plan, or year!
With goal sheets and clear action items, Pam puts the focus back on the student and the mastery of skills and content. Imagine, no more trying to accomplish all things in a year without checks and balances! Periodic assessments will help keep you on track and don’t worry, Pam has a planner page for that too!
When I get to the end of my year, I know I’m done. I know that my kids and I have done enough.
What about you?
- Do you ever get to the end of the year and wonder if you’ve done enough?
- Do you look at the half finished books, piles of paperwork, and dried out paints and wonder if you hit the high points?
- What did you miss?
- What did you leave out?
Try Plan Your Year

Pam won’t give you the easy way out or tell you what curriculum to pick. She won’t even tell you what type of schedule to utilize. What she will do is put you back in charge of the curriculum and make sure that you are getting those materials to work for you.
Plan Your Year Offers Solutions
“Plan Your Year” will:
- Provide solutions for budgeting your time in a way that gets things done and minimizes stress.
- Result in clear goals with measurable outcomes that meet your family’s unique needs.
- Create a vision with easy to implement monthly, weekly, and daily planning that gets it done.
- Limit impulse buys and eliminate unused resources with better evaluation and a better, not longer book list.
“Plan Your Year” has ten chapters that are jam packed with information without being wordy. Planning your homeschool year is doable and Pam is here to help! Here are the ten chapter titles:
- Cast a Vision
- Craft Effective Goals
- Determine a Course of Study and Purchase Resources
- Creating Schedules
- Planning Weeks and Days
- Lesson Planning for Homeschoolers
- Planning Your Own Study
- Organize Your Materials
- Putting it All Together
- Planning in Action
How do I know Plan Your Year will work?

Here are just a few ways Pam has transformed how I plan my year!
- A vision board created by the family helps us have an agreed upon visual of the big picture!
- No more decision fatigue, I know where to begin, what to do next, and when we’re done!
- Recognizing what is working increases morale and gives me a tool for other subjects!
- The loop schedule keeps music and art and mindfulness in our homeschool without overwhelm.
- Making it out of the rabbit holes alive after unique studies on horses and car innards is doable.
- Procedure lists give me a clear picture of what I want kids to know and when to move forward.
Plan Your Year with Pam and Her Favorite Homeschool Gurus

Pam didn’t create “Plan Your Year” in a vacuum or with one ideal homeschool mom in mind. Oh no, she thought of every one of us trying to do the best for our children and finding it hard. When Pam comes across unique ideas she doesn’t overlook them or just pretend her way is better. She tries them out and if they work, she uses them and she promotes them! Several such ideas appear throughout “Plan Your Year!”
Here are just a few of the amazing articles you don’t want to miss!!!
- “How To Use A Homeschool Vision Board For Inspiration” by Amy Milic
- “Using A Curriculum Table Of Contents To Create Your Own Study” by Shelly Sangrey
- “How I’m Using Spiral Notebooks To Simplify Homeschooling” by Sarah Mackenzie
Pam also doesn’t assume you already know all the basics of homeschooling. She includes a brief overview of different homeschooling methods and provides outside resources for those who want to know more! “Plan Your Year” can be used with all the methods, no exceptions. She also helps those of us interested in how our personality type impacts our planner needs! As you read, “Plan Your Year,”keep a look out for the article entitled “The Best Homeschool Planner For Your Personality Type” by Mystie Winkler!
Plan Your Year & Focus on Your Child

Pam makes sure my focus is on my children, not a curriculum, and not a planner! She knows your family is unique and you want the very best for your kids! She helps homeschool moms like you and me get out of our own way, so we can get to back to focusing on those amazing miracles we were gifted! Give yourself a helping hand this year and grab “Plan Your Year“! You won’t regret it!
Get Plan Your Year for Yourself
Are you ready to start your homeschool planning with purpose and peace?
Order your printed or digital copy today!
Plan Your Year is available now!
- Download Pam’s FREE Homeschool Planning Pages and get started!
- Plan Your Year is available on Amazon and Pam’s website.
Praying for purpose and peace in your homeschool!

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