How to Make a Meal Plan for Homeschooling Days

Homeschooling is a job. Don’t let your “working” friends act like you just stay home and do nothing! (Or let them think that… you know better!) Since homeschooling is a job, it is necessary to plan out parts of the day, just as if you were going to work at an office. One of the main things I have learned in all my years of homeschooling, is that if I want our school day to be productive and unrushed, is that I needed to learn how to make a meal plan! And let me tell you, it’s a game changer. I used to wake up and try to figure out what was for breakfast, start school, teach 3 kids and then try to figure out what was for lunch at about noon… not a great way to have a smooth day, or keep your rancher husband happy!

But for the past couple of years, I have started making a meal plan, and I’m here to share my method with you today!  It is simple and includes a day to do your shopping and to prep for the things you’ll need prepped during the week.

First Things First

The first thing you need is a blank calendar page, or a list of days. I’ve used both. I currently just trace blocks like a calendar onto a piece of blank paper and tape it into my planner. Here is a free printable one! You can make your meal plan for a week or for a month. I make mine for a month, because I don’t love going to the grocery store weekly, if I can keep from it!

Next, you need to have a good idea of meals that are not labor intensive and that don’t require unique ingredients. We all have those meals that we make on the spur of the moment. You’ll need to expand that recipe category! I keep a Pinterest board of “School Day Recipes” that I can look through if I need inspiration.

Finally, you’ll need to know what ingredients you typically have on hand.

Let’s Get Started

Now you need to determine how many days of the week you need meals for. We do school Tuesday through Friday, and have Sabbath dinner every Saturday night. So, I know that I need breakfast and lunch planned for the school days and a special meal planned for Saturday. Since we don’t do school on Monday, I use that day to prep and plan for the week. For example, if I know that I need shredded roast beef on Wednesday, I’ll cook a roast and shred it on Monday. If I know I’m going to make toast for breakfast on Thursday, I also bake that on Monday, and I use this great recipe! I also use Monday to buy groceries for the week, if I need to.

Now, a really helpful tip: It makes things so much easier if you plan to have a certain kind of food on each day of the week. For example, we have tacos (or something related) on Tuesdays; we have leftovers on Thursdays; and pizza every Friday. That only leaves Wednesdays to come up with something unique. You see how much easier that is?!

Finally, you just fill in your blank calendar or make a list of what you want to have for each day of the week and keep it where you can reference it regularly. This is the most important part, because in order for your meal plan to be successful it has to be accessible. I tape mine inside of my planner so it can be integrated into the rest of my plan for the day.

Here is a picture of mine for a month! Nothing fancy and often revised to fit the week!

Further Thoughts and Tips

Don’t get overwhelmed with trying to make your meal plan perfect, just make one and adjust it if you need to. Our life is very driven by seasons, therefore some months I make a plan and never hardly look at it, because no one is home at mealtime! The key is to just pick back up when you can.

Another reason to make a meal plan is that it saves a fortune on groceries. It saves all those last-minute trips to the grocery store to buy a few ingredients for each meal. And let’s face it, who doesn’t want to save money on groceries?!

Let me know in the comments your tips for meal planning on homeschool days, I’d love to hear from you!