How I set up my 2026-2027 Teacher Planner + Logbook

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In this post, I’m sharing how I set up my teacher planner and logbook for our upcoming school year.

If you’ve been around the Charlotte Mason world for a bit, you’ve probably heard about the logbook. But if not, I’ll briefly explain the process here.

As we are finishing up this school year, I’m busy prepping for the next! If I don’t get this jumpstart, I will never be able to pre-read and properly plan out for my older children’s work. I like to take the summer months to leisurely pre-read, gather supplies, and lesson prep.

So, what is a logbook?

A Charlotte Mason logbook is essentially a record of what your child has learned and experienced, rather than a planner of what you intend to do. It’s rooted in the philosophy of Charlotte Mason, who emphasized reflection and living ideas over rigid schedules.

Think of it kind of like reverse planning. Instead of pre-planning out a rigid schedule, you record what you’ve accomplished each day. And you also make simple notes of how well the student accomplished things like narration, dictation, copywork, arithmetic, etc.

In this logbook, you would also make note of any deviation from the timetable. This is helpful for tracking patterns in your day and if your timetable is set up properly for your family.

In the past, I’ve had a separate planner and logbook. Last year, I combined them into a Circa disc bound system from Levenger. And this year, I expanded on this disc bound system while using some planner page templates that I found on Etsy.

I will leave links below for all of these sources for anyone who is interested.

Charlotte Mason teacher planner + logbook Setup

Here I will share a few snap shots and brief descriptions of the layout of my planner and logbook pages.

This first picture shows the cover image that I use in my planner along side the divider tabs on the right hand side. Side note, swans have a special place in my heart right now. 🦢

YEAR AT A GLANCE – contains calendar at a glance pages for 26/27, year at a glance spread, pages for field trip notes. I use these pages to plan out our homeschool year, term dates + exam week, break weeks, etc.

MONTHLY – Calendar pages from August 2026-July 2027.

PRE-READING LOG – this section is where I’m planning on keeping my pre-reading notes for ease during lesson prep. Saying goodbye to a series of separate notebooks for my pre-reading notes, as in years past! 

TERM PLANS – Using the form programs from The CMEC, I paced each form by term. Here I made out plans for each form and term. My children will be in forms 1, 2, and 3 this next year.

I schedule out for 10 weeks of work, have a backup week 11 for any catch up work, and exams in week 12.

LOGBOOK PAGES – Created for each week of each term, including exam weeks. I use this spread for my logbook pages each week.

These logbook pages are used in the method that I described above.

MOTHER’S SCHOLÉ – Various pages for my personal education, notes for courses, mother culture, etc. I have a separate commonplace notebook, but it is nice to keep these pages here, too. If I find a quote that I need to briefly jot down, or the page number, etc, I can transfer or write it out in a beautiful hand in my notebook later on.

NOTES – Extra blank note pages at the end of the planner. 

Charlotte Mason Teacher Planner and Logbook supply List

Here are my favorite supplies that I use for building out my planner and logbook. Everything that I used is in the “Letter Size” format.

🦢Levenger Circa Premium Leather Foldover Discbound Notebook with Pockets (really good quality— I’ve used these for several years and they are still going strong!) I have them in colors: tan, pine, and black.

🦢 Homeschool Planner | Charlotte Mason-Inspired | Canva Pro Templates — I just discovered these templates this year and I was really happy with the overall design and layout. Totally customizable in Canva Pro, which is exactly how I made it work for my needs this year.

🦢 Circa Discs — I set my planner up with 1 1/2″ discs. And I personally like the aluminum discs.

🦢 Levenger Circa Wafer Tab Page Dividers Inserts for Discbound Notebook — this was really helpful for organizing the planner.

I also used this label maker for easily organizing and marking the tabs. This is another favorite tool that I have in my homeschool!

The really good thing about this setup is that it is super customizable and can be easily changed and moved around without too much hassle.