A Homeschool Planner (A REVIEW)

I have always been a paper and pen kind of person. I have always had my life down in a paper calendar/planner, and like having the physical copy to carry around with me. But, there is something to be said in not having to lug around a big book of calendar pages. I decided to try an online/electronic calendar from Homeschool Buyers Co-op especially for homeschoolers. Homeschool Planet has convenient tools for planning everything for homeschool and life, including specific daily lesson plans.

Homeschool Planet is a completely online planner. I received a one-year subscription along with a free lesson plan for a curriculum, which I will talk about a bit later. Also, I had to become a member of the Homeschool Buyers Co-op, which is free and very easy to do (there are a lot of great curriculum offers through the Co-op too! Just a perk!)

To access my calendar which looks similar to the one picture below, I log in to homeschool planet, and it brings up the daily, weekly, or monthly view (I can easily switch between all 3 of those choices). There are also links (to the left of the calendar) for each family member to look at just their schedule for the day, and some various lists (to the right) to help keep track of things. Specific daily assignments can be laid out, and checked off as completed. Everything is color coded to specific category, so you can easily know there are a lot of "church activities" in one week if there are a lot of green boxes. It does take a little bit of time to get set up, but once you get all the basic assignments and activities and people in, it's easy to keep going and takes less time later.

Lesson plans:

Homeschool Planet is offering a free lesson plan schedule, until the end of June, for a curriculum of choice from a list of selected names in the Lesson Plan Marketplace. I chose The Magic School Bus Science Club lesson plans because I have thought about using that for some curriculum next school year, and wanted to see what the lesson plans were like. Basically, all the daily specific lessons are loaded right onto your calendar! I can choose which units to put where, and it's so easy to do with just a few clicks. It even includes links to videos and websites that might be helpful to the lesson, and of course a check box to show it's completed.

Some of my favorite features of the Homeschool Planet are:

• The ability to move an assignment forward, or delete it if it is missed
• Being able to easily add events on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis, and not have to keep putting them in.
• I can specify who an assignment or event is for, and even if it's for several different people
• The lesson plans! These are so convenient. I would definitely buy more.
• The daily email reminders about what is coming up.
• It's easy to add daily assignments or activities, and easy to figure out and navigate through.

Overall, I found Homeschool Planet to be very user friendly, and making the switch from paper to electronic has truly been enjoyable and easy. I like that I can access it anywhere, even mobile, and that I don't have to keep writing things over and over again! I can easily plan many assignments for multiple children with only a few clicks, and keep track with only a check mark, or move things forward if needed. I feel like I still have a lot to explore with this planner, but if you want to find out more you can read what the other crew members had to say by clicking on the banner below.