Homeschool Planet Online Homeschool Planner {2023 review}
Looking for your ideal homeschool planner? Homeschool Planet Online Homeschool Planner is a great place to start for so many reasons! Read more about how I’ve been using it, the benefits, and how to put it to use in your own homeschool.
Homeschool Planning
I have a love/hate relationship with homeschool planning. The overachiever in me likes planning, making a list of my goals and checking things off as I go along. I always have since I was a student myself.
I also love homeschooling. I love following my daughters’ interests as they learn. Somehow I’ve never managed to merge the love of planning with the love of flexible homeschooling, though. I’ve just ended up frustrated.
Part of the problem is that I’ve always used a pencil and paper system to plan. I can’t tell you how many erasers I’ve worn through until my planner becomes an unsightly mess of scribbles that I don’t even want to try to decipher.
I decided I needed a digital planner that could be easily customized (read: changed frequently) and simple enough to use that I wouldn’t dread logging in just to update it. Fortunately I’ve had the chance to review Homeschool Planet Online Homeschool Planner. It is working like a charm for me!
What is the Homeschool Planet Online Homeschool Planner?
It’s a multi-featured, versatile online planner for home and homeschool. Here are just a few of the features:
- Calendars for the whole family which can be synced with Google calendars.
- Planner that includes simple lists as well as lesson planning, grade tracking, and due dates.
- Resource database where you can keep track of all the books, DVDs, and websites for your lessons.
- Separate logins for each child so they can independently view assignments and check them off when completed.
- Transcript creation.
- To-do lists and shopping lists.
- Email reminders.
The set-up is designed to be as simple as possible, which I appreciate. I just don’t have the time or patience to learn another new complicated system. I want to spend that valuable time planning and accomplishing those plans, not figuring out software.
I started with the helpful tutorial video. I found the navigation to be pretty intuitive. Within just a few minutes, I was setting up enough information to start our first week.
You can get a no-obligation, no credit card required 30-day free trial to give it a test run. If you decide to continue your subscription after the month is up, all of your information will be saved so there will be no interruption in your planning. I really like the fact that you don’t have to enter your credit card information and get automatically charged so it truly is a free trial.
Homeschool Planet Lesson Plans
Homeschool Planet has a handy feature that includes built-in lesson plans for many of the most popular curriculum choices out there. I was able to import the lesson plans with just a click for Abraham Lincoln’s World by Genevieve Foster, Learning Language Arts through Literature Gold Book, and Notgrass History.
Homeschool Planet plugs the lesson plans right into the schedule for you, based on your preferences for school days and how you set up your calendar year. So easy and convenient! (There is an extra charge for lesson plans to be added on, but I think the feature is definitely worth it in the time it saves.)
I’m able to look at each child’s assignments individually, all at once, in calendar view, and as a checklist. If color coding and checklists make your heart go pitter-pat, you’ll be very happy with this.
Why I Like the Homeschool Planet Online Homeschool Planner
Flexibility ~ Assignments can be easily rearranged and rescheduled without having to redo everything. I love this flexibility!
Simplicity ~ As I set up my planner, I really felt that it was working for me, not the other way around. I could use the features I wanted to, with as much or as little detail as I wanted, and put the planner into action right away.
Variety ~ This planner doesn’t just help me with homeschool planning, but with household planning as well. I can schedule our appointments, make my to-do lists, keep track of our homeschool resources like library books and due dates, and make a grocery list all within Homeschool Planet.
Accessibility ~ I can log in from any computer and everything is stored online, rather than having to carry around a paper planner (which can and does get lost). There is a mobile interface, but I haven’t used that because my middle-aged eyes don’t appreciate squinting at a little screen.
It also makes it simple for me to “reverse plan” as I call it. That means recording what we’ve done after we’ve done it. Homeschool Planet is great for record keeping this way! Honestly, we’re so relaxed and unschooly that I can hardly imagine strictly sticking to a plan anymore. I do like to have a general framework, a place to record thoughts and ideas for additional rabbit trails to follow in the future, and an overview of how we’re doing with all of it, which I can have with Homeschool Planet.
You can even make transcripts with Homeschool Planet! That’s getting more and more important as my daughters get older. It’s so nice to have everything centralized in one location so you can create transcripts with just a few clicks. That’s a time saver! If you give grades or need to create report cards, Homeschool Planet can handle that, too.
I was afraid that a digital planner would feel too artificial and limiting to me, but that has not been the case. It really comes down to getting used to a new way of record-keeping. I keep Homeschool Planet open on my desktop computer and write down notes as we go along. This will make putting together our annual homeschool portfolio assessment so much easier!
So what don’t I like about it? Well, for me the issue of having a monthly or yearly subscription fee (depending on which plan you select) is hard on the budget. My paper planner is cheap. My budget is small. For those who don’t have to worry about budgeting, that won’t be an issue. I will say that I think it’s worth the investment if you can make it. The fee is not outrageous, especially considering the flexibility and convenience you get with it. Homeschool Planet is more versatile than a paper planner, too.
The feeling of being organized and having a central place to store everything I need for my daily planning is worth a lot to me. My daughters (13 and 15) also like being able to log in to their own schedules and see all of their assignments at once. They also like being able to customize the desktop background to make it pretty. 🙂
Overall, I would recommend the Homeschool Planet online homeschool planner to my homeschooling friends. I think they’ve really thought of everything a homeschool family needs to stay organized and keep records all in one central location. I can’t think of any details they missed.
Don’t forget the free trial! There’s no risk and no credit card required. You can start today and get organized right away with Homeschool Planet!
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