I was once told I like the planning aspect of homeschooling more than the teaching and while I don’t think that was a compliment there is a little truth to it. There is something refreshing about the blank slate of a new year and the excitement of what’s to come. I have always been a pencil and paper gal as far as planners and to-do list go but that became daunting and produced a ton of paper when I had to start keeping records for homeschooling. So far we have not schooled in a state that requires a portfolio but ya know, just in case. I came across Homeschool Planet and did the trial and instantly fell in love! I’m also not into reinventing the wheel so instead of giving a run down or tutorial I’ll give a review and and an overview of how I use homeschool planet. But if you are looking for a tutorial the help section is AMAZING!
Why I Love Homeschool Planet:
- Easy to navigate: tons of “how-to” videos and great customer service
- Able to use with multiple children
- Email feature: allows older children to take responsibility of there assignments
- Digital record keeping: school days, grades, notes and resources used
- Transcripts: printable for applications or for personal records
- Helpers feature: prompts to add grades or shift missed assignments
My Process of Planning:
- Use the school year feature to decide the weeks I plan to school and add in known vacations or days we already plan to take off. This is always where I tell the schedule what is considered a school day. For example, we take Fridays to catch up, appointments, field trips and give ourselves a little wiggle room.
- Then I number the weeks
- I take one subject at a time and align assignments up with numbered weeks. We will not start all subjects with lesson one because they are “left over” from the previous year. (Bible is written out in the picture at the top). This gives me an idea of when I will need to order the next level or if we need to adjust the schedule.
- Once the lessons are aligned I return to Homeschool planet and put in daily assignments with notes and resources. This eliminates searching for books or supplies or websites etc when it comes times to teach that lesson.
- Friday afternoon when I insert grades and double check individual work, I also look at the next week and make sure I have all supplies and everything printed and prepped. I usually print and prep as much as I can at the beginning of the year but sometimes things slip through.
- Each day the lessons are emailed to Clayton (7th grade) so he can monitor and work at his own pace for the assignments he does on his own. He can mark the assignments off but I can also mark them incomplete if they are not at the correct standard or are incomplete. I have not moved to this with Charlotte, she does a white board checklist that works better for her.
This has been my process of planning for a few years so now I can usually take a week and knock it out, but the first year I was overwhelmed and took it one month at a time rather than a year like I tackled this year.
Army of Readers 