Planning and Organizing your school year
I have been, or can be if you click on a link and make a purchase, compensated via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value for writing this post. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
Just as there are many different approaches to educating your children, there seems to be a lot of options for tracking everything. For the past two years, I have been using Homeschool Tracker. I started with the basic and free download for our first year. I upgraded to the premium one last year after hearing about the lesson planning option. While I have yet to explore all the program has to offer, certain features such as lesson plans have been a good fit for me. The boys get checklists for the week. I’ll either enter grades directly into the program when I grade or else I’ll note them on the checklist to enter at the end of the week.
There are plenty of other choices for those wanting more of a paper planner. Some of them are free, e.g. Donna Young’s site has some, and others are for a fee (Westvon Publishing has their Master Planner on sale right now.)
I recently had the opportunity to review the Schoolhouse Planner from Old Schoolhouse. They advertise the product as being a “complete home and school planner “, and for the most part I would say it is true. In addition to the different forms for homeschool related planning, the planner has forms for household items. I liked the chore chart with pictures for pre-readers and will be implementing it with my youngest. On top of the different forms, the planner has articles, a few recipies to try, and different ” must-know” sheets (e.g. Presidents of the United States and their wives names) for each month with a 2 page monthly calendar to print.
Anyone can see a sample of the Planner on the website. Overall, this is not a product I would personally buy. My choice would not be because the product is inferior to others, but more a matter of already having something I love to organize my homeschool life. One thing that I did like about the planning pages for the Schoolhouse Planner is that they are able to have text typed in and saved if desired. This is a feature that many of the free forms (and possibly other paid products) lack. But, it still doesn’t compare to the comprehensive database that Homeschool Tracker Plus gives me. Now, if I can just find the time to set up weekly chores as assignments!
I’d love to hear your thoughts about organizing your homeschool life and even your home. I know that planning and organizing for both home and school is an area I constantly seek to improve upon.
Hi there TOS Crewmate! Stopping by to say hello and congrat ya on making the crew. Looking forward to working with you and the others on this new adventure.Blessings,Sheri (1 of 100)
I would absolutely LOVE to be entered to win #1!!! Thank you and many BLESSINGS!!!Robin E.Gamomof2x@yahoo.com
Just a quick reminder for anyone who’s left a comment. If you do not have a Blogger icon by your name, please make sure I have an email to contact you.It’s 6:55 a.m. local time, so just another 5 hours until the drawing!By the way, I love the comments I’ve received so far.
I also use Donna Young, but another one I recently became aware of and really like is activeallowance.comCount me in on the giveaway too please! >wink<Thanks.Wilda in TN
I created my own checklists for the children because I haven’t found anything that covers the subjects that we’ve added to our learning adventure (school). That was before discovering Homeschool Tracker, but I haven’t figured it out yet, so we’ll continue to use our homemade ones until I do. The checklists cover one week of work, which they keep in a binder. At the end of the year we scan all of their work, including checklists. We only keep the work in paper form that they desire to keep or that will help them later on. I love binders! We use a lot of them! Almost one for every subject! And with 6 children, that’s a lot of binders! :-)Thanks for the opportunity to have a subscription to Old Schoolhouse Digital (something I’ve desired to have, but couldn’t afford)!Cindy PS, Thanks for all the suggestions! I’ve been able to gleen a few things from them!
I use a printable from Donna Youngs site. I only have two that I am homeschooling and she has a planner that is divided for two children, with a spot for combined studies. In the past I have used the Homeschoolers Journal, which I really like, but the one I am using this year I love. I print out the number of pages I need, and a few extra things, such as a goals page, and notes page, and then I took it to Staples and had it spiral bound.
Hi Laura!I have been using HT for years! I love it! I don’t use half of the applications, but I am trying to add one each year. One thing that I am going to do this year is to use the reading log more fully. Jeanne Zumbrum gave me a great idea last year. She said she keeps the slips from the library as a record of the books her kids have read. I am going to take the slips, highlight them so that I know which books have been read by which boy, and then I can add them to the reading log once a month. I will print out a copy for my review. I have been working in the organizing field for awhile now and I want to begin working with homeschool families. Homeschool tracker is going to be one of the tools that I pass along as invaluable!
My kids are 17, 16 4 and 3. I want to homeschool my 17 yr old – he has learning disabilities that has him in the 1st half of 10th grade still – and my younger 2. I sent my 4 yo to public Pre-K this year to get an understanding maybe? of where he is and what we need to start with. I am clueless and can use all the help I can get!
I so totally agree with you on Homeschool Tracker. I always tell people it was the best money I’ve ever spent on homeschooling my boys. Here’s what I’ve done for chores to be assignments – create a lesson plan. That way I can submit to my hearts content and yet still count it towards “life skills” because to me that’s what chores are….I’ve yet to get the hang of the chores feature in Tracker and because I’m use to the lesson planner, it just works for me.
Free Giveaway count me in!
I use a 3 ring notebook, one of the bigger ones so I can fit all I need in it. I use a lesson planner I found online that has a daily devotional with it. I have to write everything down. I also use plastic dividers in my notebook for each subject so if I have any extra notes I want to write down I have a space for it. For the kids they each have a file crate with ALL their school stuff including paper and pencil. I have all mine in a big basket. That way when the school day is over we can put it all away fairly easy. Whew that’s alot:)