My personal goals for the 2026-2027 school year

Later this month, we’ll start our third year of homeschooling (but also kind of our fifth year, because I homeschooled Ella part-time in kindergarten and full-time in first grade).

It kind of feels like a million years ago that my children all went to school full-time and Bart and I were home alone all day.

I’m still working on finalizing all our curriculum for this year (I’ll definitely share when I do!) and I’m excited for a new year ahead!

This has been a wildly chaotic summer for many reasons and I’m looking forward to settling into a more normal routine.

Here are some of my goals for the 2026-2027 school year:

My goals for school year 2026-2027

1. Set up my DIY phone brick to lock at 8 a.m. When my kids all went to public school, my goal was not to use my phone until everyone left (it was insane how much better this made my mornings!). But that stopped working as well when my kids weren’t leaving. This year, I’m setting up my DIY brick system to automatically lock my distracting phone apps (social media mainly) at 8 a.m. Otherwise, I get sucked into working (or scrolling) too long and then I don’t get my workout done in time and then I’m not ready for the day at a reasonable time and it sets my whole day back. Having this on auto-pilot will be a game changer – I just need to not have to decide every day! (And, of course, if I urgently need access to those apps, I can always run down to my basement laundry room and unlock it, but the hassle means I’ll only do it if I REALLY need to).
2. Read 3-4 picture books every day with my younger girls. I love that my little girls still love to read picture books (they are 11 and 9) and I want for part of our morning school routine this year to be reading a few picture books to kick off our school day (bonus points for me because it’ll mean I’m not scrambling to finish my annual 100 picture books list come June!).
3. Catch up on my reading goal. I’m so far behind (like 40+ books!) that I think there is no chance I hit my reading goal for the year. But I’m hoping to lessen the gap. Our 30 minutes of family reading as part of homeschool will definitely help! I’m also hoping to read more in bed and listen to more audiobooks as we get back on a normal schedule. I’ve read SO LITTLE this summer and I’m not a fan.
4. Prep well for Q4. The holiday season is BY FAR the busiest of my year and my goal in August, September and October is to do everything I can to make the end of the year go more smoothly so I’m not feeling wildly overworked during the most magical time of the year.
5. Do more one-on-one family hosting. Last week, we had some friends over for dinner and after they left, Bart and I both said “we need to have just ONE family over more often!” We do a good job having big groups pretty often, but there’s something special about getting to focus on just one family or couple at a time. We’re hoping to do a lot more of that this fall.
6. Figure out a good library routine. This was one of my goals last year and . . . here I am again admitting that we never got one nailed down. Trying again this year! (I asked for ideas and shared a bunch of suggestions for library routines here!).

What is the school year going to look like for you? What are some of the things you’re focusing on this coming year? I’d love to hear!

If you liked this post about my goals for the upcoming school year, you might also like these other posts:

• How Ella did Hybrid Homeschooling
• A Simple School Paper Organizer
• 25 Fun Back to School Traditions