What’s Your Homeschool Planner Style?
Whether you’re a seasoned homeschooling pro or just starting out on this educational journey, having a reliable homeschool planner can make all the difference in keeping your homeschool organized and efficient. But with so many options available, from traditional paper planners to sleek digital alternatives, it can be challenging to find the perfect fit for your homeschooling style.
After 15+ years of homeschooling, I think I’ve tried just about every option there is in the world of homeschool planners. At least it feels that way! Some have been great and some not so great. So let’s take a look at the different homeschool planner options, including digital planners, to help you discover what works best for you.
Online Homeschool Planner
With the advancement of technology, online homeschool planners have become increasingly popular due to their convenience and accessibility. These digital platforms offer a wide range of features, including customizable lesson plans, automated grading, attendance tracking, and integration with other digital tools like Google Calendar or Microsoft Teams. Online homeschool planners are ideal for families who prefer a paperless approach or need the flexibility to access their plans from any device with internet connectivity. Additionally, many online planners offer collaborative features, allowing multiple users, such as parents and students, to interact and stay updated in real-time.
My favorite choice for online homeschool planning? Homeschool Planet, hands-down.
What is Homeschool Planet?
Homeschool Planet is an online planner and organizer designed by homeschoolers, for homeschoolers. It’s a feature-rich platform that offers a wide range of tools and resources to help homeschooling families stay organized, manage their schedules, track assignments, and much more. With its user-friendly interface and customizable features, Homeschool Planet caters to the diverse needs and preferences of homeschooling families, making it a valuable asset for both new and seasoned homeschoolers alike. It goes way beyond “just” a homeschool planner.
Get a FREE 30 Day Trial of Homeschool Planet with NO credit card required!
Homeschool Planet Key Features and Benefits:
- Flexible Scheduling: One of the standout features of Homeschool Planet is its flexible scheduling capabilities. The platform allows you to create customized schedules for each student, with options to adjust lesson plans, assignments, and activities according to your specific requirements. Whether you follow a traditional school year calendar or prefer a more flexible approach, Homeschool Planet makes it easy to adapt your schedule to suit your family’s needs. I’m very relaxed in our homeschool plans, usually doing reverse planning (writing things down after we do them), and I’ve been able to use Homeschool Planet in that style.
- Easy Lesson Planning: Planning lessons has never been easier thanks to Homeschool Planet’s intuitive lesson planning tools. With a vast library of pre-designed lesson plans and the ability to create your own, you can quickly organize your curriculum, assign lessons to individual students, and track their progress with ease. The platform also offers features such as drag-and-drop functionality, automatic rescheduling, and integration with popular homeschooling curricula, streamlining the lesson planning process and saving you valuable time.
- Assignment Tracking and Grading: Keeping track of assignments and grades is essential for monitoring student progress and ensuring accountability. Some states even require that type of tracking and grading for assessment purposes. Homeschool Planet simplifies this task by providing tools to track assignments, record grades, and generate customizable reports. Whether you prefer to grade manually or utilize the platform’s automated grading feature, Homeschool Planet offers the flexibility to manage your grading system according to your preferences.
- Family Collaboration: Homeschooling often involves collaboration among family members, and Homeschool Planet facilitates this by offering multiple user accounts with customizable permissions. Parents can easily manage their children’s schedules, assignments, and progress, while students can access their own dashboards to view their assignments, check off completed tasks, and communicate with their parents as needed. This collaborative approach fosters independence and responsibility in students while providing parents with the support they need to effectively manage their homeschooling journey. My daughters like the ability to work from their own online planners which they can customize themselves inside of Homeschool Planet.
- Integration and Accessibility: Homeschool Planet integrates with other digital tools and platforms, allowing for enhanced productivity and convenience. Whether you use Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, or other popular apps, Homeschool Planet syncs with your existing systems, ensuring that your schedules and tasks are always up to date. The platform is also accessible from any device with an internet connection, making it convenient for homeschooling families on the go. This makes everything so convenient and streamlined!
Want even more details about Homeschool Planet? You can read my full review right here: Homeschool Planet Online Homeschool Planner
Traditional Paper Planner
Paper planners have been around forever and there are tons of options. You can go with a generic academic year planner, a yearly planner, or something specifically designed for homeschooling. These planners come in various layouts, such as daily, weekly, or monthly spreads, allowing you to customize your planning according to your preferences. Some popular features of traditional paper planners include space for lesson plans, attendance tracking, grade recording, and goal setting. They also offer the satisfaction of physically crossing off tasks as you complete them, which can be particularly rewarding for both parents and students. I admit, I’m a checklist kind of girl myself.
A few of my favorite paper planners include:
The Homeschool Planner by Erin Condren is spiral bound, so it can lay flat on your desk. It comes with your choice of customized durable covers and is designed specifically for homeschool moms. It’s undated so it fits your exact schedule, any way you want.
Powersheets Planner by Cultivate What Matters is a very detailed planning system that helps you set goals, focus on what matters the most, and keep your faith and family at the forefront of your life. It’s not specifically a homeschooling planner, but it’s an excellent general life planner for finding your best routines and rhythms.
This basic academic year planner has been my go-to for years. It’s simple, straightforward, and very uncomplicated to use. I find that I take notes in it without worrying about messing up the pretty design, while keeping more permanent records in a more sophisticated planning system like the ones listed above.
I have also used the Plan Your Year planner system in the past, which I wrote all about in this post: How to Plan Your Year with Purpose {Even if You Don’t Enjoy Homeschool Planning}
Bullet Journal for Homeschooling
For those who enjoy a creative and personalized approach to planning, bullet journaling can be an excellent option. Bullet journaling involves using a blank notebook to create custom layouts, trackers, and collections tailored to your homeschooling needs. From weekly spreads to habit trackers and reading logs, bullet journaling allows for unlimited creativity and flexibility. It’s a great way to combine planning with artistic expression and can be particularly appealing to visual learners. It’s a truly custom way of planning!
I also created a goal tracking journal called My Purposeful Plans that I also use as a more narrative way to keep track of our homeschool memories and plans. It’s available in print on Amazon or as a digital download in my shop.
Hybrid Planners
Some homeschooling families find that a combination of traditional paper and digital planners works best for them. Hybrid planners allow you to enjoy the benefits of both worlds by using paper planners for certain aspects, such as lesson planning or jotting down daily schedules, while relying on digital tools for other tasks like grading or collaborative planning. This approach provides the flexibility to choose the most suitable method for each aspect of your homeschooling routine.
I would recommend giving Homeschool Planet a try for digital planning, even if you never thought you’d use an online planner system. It has all the features you could possibly need and then some!
Choosing a Homeschool Planner
When choosing a homeschool planner, consider your family’s unique needs, preferences, and lifestyle. Whether you opt for a traditional paper planner, embrace the convenience of digital tools, or get creative with bullet journaling, or a combination of all of those, finding the right planner can help you stay organized, motivated, and on track with your homeschooling journey. So, what’s your homeschool planner style?
Get a FREE 30 Day Trial of Homeschool Planet with NO credit card required! Give it a test drive and see how it can work for you!
Homeschool Giveaway
Another homeschool year is right around the corner! Many homeschool moms are busy preparing, planning, and finalizing curriculum choices for the upcoming school year. And many are trying to squeeze every last penny out of their homeschool budget, hoping to afford all the books and resources they will need.
Whether you’re living on one income or are buying curriculum for multiple kids, homeschooling can put financial strain and stress on a family. So I’ve gotten together with a great group of homeschool bloggers to give you a chance to win a gift card to a major online homeschool retailer. Our hope is that we can bless a few homeschool families (although we wish we could bless many more) so they can decrease that burden and buy the curriculum and supplies they need.
Three people will win a $250 gift card to either Rainbow Resource Center or Christianbook.com – two great places to shop for homeschool curriculum and resources, with the best prices around!!
To enter for your chance to win, simply use the Rafflecopter form below to enter. Now I know this is quite a few entries, but each of these bloggers has generously chipped in their own money to make this giveaway possible, so I hope you will take the time to do all of the entries. And hey, the more entries you do, the better your odds are of winning!
Giveaway ends July 19, 2024 at 11:59pm. Must be at least 18 years of age. Must be a resident of the U.S. or Canada to enter. Selected winners will have 48 hours to respond to email notification to claim their prizes or another winner will be drawn. By entering this giveaway, you agree to be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers (see the Terms & Conditions on the Rafflecopter form).
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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