How I Plan Our Homeschool Week (with a Baby on My Lap)

Homeschooling isn’t always pretty. Our dining table doubles as a classroom, craft station, and snack central. And if you're anything like me, planning your homeschool week has to happen between nap time and snack time. The good news? It doesn’t have to be perfect to work—it just needs to feel doable.

Here’s how I plan our homeschool week with a 5 year old asking 500 questions, a baby on my hip, and grace as my co-pilot.

Step 1: Sunday Night Brain Dump

Once the kids are (finally) asleep, I grab my planner, my phone, and a glass of something comforting (tea, wine, or both—no judgment). I brain-dump everything that’s on my mind: upcoming events, appointments, topics I want to cover, errands, meals, and ideas the kids threw at me during the week (“Can we learn about volcanos again?”).

This is where TickTick, my go-to organizing app, really helps. I use it to categorize my thoughts—homeschool plans, personal tasks, reminders for outings—and tag them by priority. TickTick syncs across all my devices and lets me move things around without the overwhelm of crossing out and rewriting.

Step 2: Choose a Weekly Focus or Theme

I don’t try to do it all each week. Some weeks we dive deep into science and do light math. Other weeks we center around seasonal themes like fall, gratitude, or community helpers. Giving the week a focus helps me stay grounded.

For example:

- Week Theme: “Animals & Habitats”

- Reading: Zoo books + animal poetry

- Math: Sorting/counting animal figurines

- Writing: Create-your-own creature stories

- Science: Animal classification

Step 3: Build Around Rhythms, Not Rigid Schedules

Trying to stick to an exact hourly schedule with littles is a guaranteed way to feel defeated. Instead, I’ve adopted daily rhythms. Here’s what ours loosely looks like:

• Morning Time: Breakfast, Bible story, and our “together work” (reading aloud, calendar, songs)

• Mid-Morning Block: Seatwork or focused learning (math/language)

• Lunch & Reset: I clean, they play or do screen-time learning (like ABC Mouse)

• Afternoon Explorations: Crafts, sensory play, nature walks, or baking

• Evening Wind Down: Storytime, documentaries, quiet journals

TickTick is also where I track repeating tasks like “Read-aloud 3x a week” or “Library return day.” The recurring reminder feature is clutch.

Step 4: Use a Weekly Grid (Not an Hour-by-Hour Plan)

I print a grid each week (you can download mine below!) that lists subjects across the top and days down the side. Then I plug in flexible goals:

• Monday: Read “Charlotte’s Web,” math lesson 1, nature journal entry

• Tuesday: Word family craft, read-aloud, sensory bin play

I don’t stress if something gets bumped. I either move it in TickTick or write it in a different day’s square. The goal is flow, not perfection.

Step 5: Leave Room for Real Life

Sometimes the baby is teething. Sometimes the toddler spills an entire box of cereal on the floor mid-phonics lesson. Some days, we end up at the splash pad because it’s 90 degrees and I can’t.

That’s not failure. That’s learning, too.

I always keep a “backup” folder of printable busy work, audiobooks, and educational shows on standby for these real-life days. And TickTick helps me track what we skipped and want to circle back to later.

Tools That Help Me Stay Sane

• TickTick App: Best digital planner ever. I use it for lesson ideas, appointment reminders, daily to-dos, and repeating homeschool goals. (btw this is not a paid ad, I really love how easy it's made life for us)

• Printable Grid Planner: Visual, no-pressure layout.

• Post-Its & Washi Tape: Sometimes the fun paper stuff is what sparks creativity.

Final Thought

Planning a homeschool week with little ones around isn’t about having a flawless routine. It’s about building something that supports your values, fits your family’s lifestyle, and doesn’t burn you out by Wednesday.

Use the tools that lighten the mental load (TickTick is my fave for a reason), and give yourself permission to shift, skip, or start over. You’re homeschooling in real life—not a Pinterest board. And you’re doing better than you think!