The Ultimate Homeschool Planner (Orange Edition)

I really am happy with this purchase. I wasn't sure what it had inside and I'm picky. So to help others out I took pictures of what was inside. You do have to date it yourself but I am happy with that since my homeschool days don't match up to July like other books.

This is a great homeschool planner. I was using a regular daily planner before purchasing this planner. I am able to plan in advance and keep track of all their progress in one place. I love that it has a place to keep track of grades and reading lists. I will be purchasing another one in the future.

I have been struggling to find a planner that I enjoy for my homeschool. Online seems the way to go, but it just wasn't working for me. I wanted something more with paper and pen than online. So, I'm very thankful that I got this planner. I have heard some negatives because of the amount of writing that is involved--there are no dates, and this seemed to be a drawback to people. However, for me, this was the reason I bought this planner! I'll explain why in my explanation of this planner.I like the cover, though I will say, the spiral binding was a bit damaged when I got it. I never complained because it was only a crack, and it doesn't stop me from using it at all. The cover itself is a pretty durable plastic and it really protects the planner. Next is the pocket inside. (I don't really use them, but it would be handy if I needed it! LOL) The next couple of pages are a calendar showing you quite a few years. (I have from 2015-2023!) I don't see this as necessary--it's only a one-year planner...and I definitely am not planning that far ahead! But the reason I think they do this is so that these planners are good for quite a few years--I could have used this planner last year if I knew about it, and they don't have to reprint until it gets closer to 2023. So, it is practical for them, not so much for me. :DNext, is the place where you record your information. You place the school year, the name of your school (we always have fun naming our school year by year), and other personal information (email address, kids names/grades, address, etc). The next few pages are filled with lots of information--explaining how to use the planner, a breakdown of ways to use the planner--including yearly, monthly, and weekly. This was a little overwhelming for me. I find I am NOT able to plan this far ahead, and I almost did not get this planner when I saw reviews that mentioned how much planning is involved in this! I don't use the yearly planning guide or even the monthly planning guide! After the instructions, you will find a place to write students' names and their character and academic goals. I really liked this part because it helped me really focus in on what I wanted to teach each child. I like looking at the goals from time to time and really seeing how my teaching is measuring up--both in the classroom and out of it.Next is another section that I did not use--a family priority list and a student resource list. I kinda got this planner last minute, so already had my resources lined out. I would use this section in the future to see how the work is going for my students and making sure I'm not overworking them/underworking them.After this, is a blank set of months, which again, I don't use. I like having my calendar on my computer which integrates all of our schedules together. It just seems redundant to have to put it all on this paper copy as well. For someone who doesn't like digital calendars, this would be a good reminder for them.Now to what I REALLY like about the planner, and why I would probably get this planner again. This is definitely and obviously a planner from a Christian perspective. The weekly planner begins with two pages. The first page has a nice quote--sometimes a prayer, sometimes something inspirational--followed by a Bible Plan, Battle Plan (where you can write a verse to help you fight through the week--do they understand homeschoolers, or what??!!), next a Prayers section, and then one for Hospitality and Outreach. On the other page, is one for "This Week's Memorable Moments" and "Evidences of Grace". Again, the Christian themes run deep which is a huge positive for me. I love filling these sections out, and it helps me to look back and see how things are progressing in the year. After these two pages is the weekly planner itself. There are six columns and six rows spread across two pages. On the right hand side is space to write Notes, Supplies, and Appointments. Again, I usually don't use this section, though I'm seeing where I should sometimes! I use this planner differently than they suggest. I have Monday through Saturday running down the left-hand side (labelling the rows). On the tops, I have our subjects: Bible, Reading, Science/Social Studies/Music, Writing, English, and Math. This has been a life-saver for me, and something I would recommend to anyone who needs a more flexible system. POST-IT NOTES ARE YOUR FRIEND!!! I find the square post-it notes to be perfect to fit inside each square. So, I write what we are PLANNING on doing for a day on the post-it note. Then, after the school day is complete, I take off the post-it note and write what we actually did. Sometimes, most times, things go as planned. But, when that off day happens--kids get sick, mom gets sick, mom needs a mini-vacation--I'm not feeling stressed or like I have to do a lot of erasing/white-outing. I just move the post-it notes around and presto...I'm back on track! This is what makes this planner great for me--this planner and post-it notes really make it worthwhile! However, the squares aren't huge. Many times I need to use abbreviations just to fit everything I'm doing with two kids. Her abbreviations box is in the instructions page, however, and I find inconvenient to have, so I don't use it. I know my abbreviations and don't find it confusing. (My third is a pre-pre-Preschooler at 2 years of age, so I'm not writing her plans out.) If you have a lot of kids, it might be difficult to write everything in these squares, but it works for me at this point. The weekly planner is the majority of this planner--over 200 pages--and the reason I love it. So, I would highly recommend this planner just for that reason. I love my system, and I finally found something that works! This was really difficult for me to do. This is my third year homeschooling and the first year I actually think I have something that I can use!Finally is the records page which, again, I don't use. It's just not necessary, and we are not required to keep grades where I live. So, I don't use that part. I think I wouldn't use it and would rather make my own system when the time comes and my kids are of an age where they need to do more than just complete their work in order to proceed. (Like high school or middle school.)That being said, there is a lot to this planner that I just find superfluous. I understand that they are trying to make this planner work for the majority of homeschoolers. If you are "one of those" kinds of people that like to highly plan a year in advance, this planner will work well for you. If you are looking for a planner that is not religious based, you might find this planner more frustrating to use. On each planner page is an inspirational quote, mostly of a religious nature. So, you might find this over-the-top. Again, I really like the weekly planner aspect of this planner, which is why I would use it in the future, but it isn't perfect--there are a few things I wish they'd change. However, you might be looking for those "extras", and then will find this planner is for you! One thing I wish is that you could have the instructional pages as an option. After you have used this planner, you know how it works for you, and those extra pages are just not necessary. I really like it. I would use it again, for sure!

I am loving this planner so far (one month of use). Last year I used "The Well Planned Day" and. while I was able to make it work for me I will never buy it again.This planner has a sturdy, plastic cover that will stand up to a lot of wear. Both front and back covers have pockets.This planner is undated. So, it takes a few moments each week to jot down the dates. But, this planner will last longer. If we take a break and I don't use the planner for a bit, I won't have wasted pages.The column and row heading are blank. So I can fill them in a way that is useful to me.Each week has a full page spread for planning and recording the joys and struggles of the week.I'm not crazy about the colors and design but it's okay. I wish publishers knew that just because most homeschooling parents are moms that doesn't mean we all love florals.UPDATE: This year I decided to purchase a plain planner from Staples, not a planner designed for a homeschooling parent. I love it so much more and it was much cheaper.

Picking a homeschooling planner for me is like picking a car. I spend SO MUCH time researching and looking. I am an organizer by nature and know that the more organized I am - the more we get done. I homeschool 6 kids and organization is a MUST.With that said....This planner has its strengths and weaknesses.The planner has a thicker vinyl type cover on it and is slightly larger. I find it to be sturdier and easier to access the inner pages than other planners I have had.She includes a users guide in the first few pages. Basically she explains how to come up with a planning system in prioritizing and implementing your courses. She has a yearly planning page, monthly planning page, and a weekly planning page. She shows you how to include breaks, Monday morning tutorials and Friday afternoon reviews.I did like how she showed different ways to fill in the blank pages in the weekly lesson pages. I am actually filling this planner out differently than I have other planners. Meaning that I plan by the week more than the individual day. I do like the blank pages (no dates or subjects). It's good for me b/c it gives me more flexibility. And I know it is good for the company b/c they don't have to keep printing planners for each new year.I would like to have more subject areas. I teach more than 6 subjects to my kids and there really is no way to fit all of them easily on these pages. So I am having to get creative. I think narrowing the columns or taking out the notes, supplies and appointment columns would be a good idea. Why couldn't that be on the previous page with the 2 day spread that I describe below?Before each week there is a 2 day spread of a Bible plan, Battle plan with your fighter verse, Prayers, Hospitality outreach, This week's memorable moments, Achievements, and Evidences of grace.With that said - you can see it is a Christian based planner - as quite a few are. I am Christian but kind of get tired of having planners with so much Christian themes in them. At the bottom of every other page are the words "Evidence of God's grace, God's mercy, God's faithfulness. God's protections and God"s provision." Just a preference. I do like many of the random quotes from Yeats and Proust that she uses.At the end of the planner are a few pages to record your kids names and the scores for anything you want to track, 2.5 pages to record reading lists, 2.5 pages for field trips and outside activities, teaching tips, different learning styles, and year in review pages.All in all - this is probably the best planner I have had and I have had MANY - including those done completely on the computer. I think it is well laid out but would prefer more space to record more subjects and maybe not so much scripture reference. I do highly recommend this.

I bought this HE planner after looking at lots of youtube videos of planners, trying to make my own, use free downloadable HE planners but absolutely love this! I love how it makes suggestions on how it can be used and encourages you to prayerfully plan, get your children involved and to write down weekly memorable moments. I have used it today for the second day and in the space if a morning I have been able to record 3 already, actively helping me to look for my children's good points which will be lovely to read back on difficult days or to talk to your children about, another great way to show them how much I love them!The planner comes undated, so you can start using it at any point in time and the weekly planning grids are empty so you can decide how to best use it. There are only six spaces at the top and down the side which initially I did not think would work for us as we use a Charlotte Mason style education which has lots of subjects. So what I did was I put my children's name at the top including a section 'together' and write Monday to Saturday at the side. This enables me to easily fit in all their work for each day as a lot of subjects we study together but have age appropriate work for each child. After just two days it has made all the difference and I have not got distracted as I did with just using the workbox system.There are two things which I don't like. Firstly the fact that the monthly planners are separated from the weekly planners. I think it makes more sense to have the monthly planner in front of each month's weekly planners. And secondly I think this planner could benefit from tabs. The bottom edges have different colours, purple for the monthly planners and green for the weekly planners etc but to fiddly I think. I have over come my wish for tabs by buying post-it replaceable tabs as you can see on my picture. I still like the planner so much that I cannot score it down on it. If I do ever find a place that can rebind I would rearrange the monthly and weekly planner pages.The planner is Christian in case that is something you wonder about. It has scripture verses and educational/ family / HE quotes dotted througout the planner, little nuggets of inspiration and encouragement.Another handy feature is the front and back pockets.If you like to keep on track but are not very organised by nature this planner is worth all the money!

I really needed something like that! It's just what I was looking for! It helps me a lot! Love it!

Not worth the money. I used it for two weeks and didn't use it again -- no time for journaling frills while Homeschooling. It's pretty and well done, but I just couldn't commit to it and found it visually cluttered and distracting. It would be nice if it wasn't dated, so you could use it at any point.