It is about that time of year when I’m starting to pull together my schedule and lists pertaining to the brand new school year. I’ve been trying to decide which planner to use, but, until now, I was not 100% sold on something. I have been a member of Homeschool Buyers Co-op (affiliate link) for years. I was given a one year subscription to Homeschool Planet to review, and I’m so thankful that I have had the opportunity to try it out, because it is the most intuitive and easy-to-use program I’ve seen.
When I discovered that they had a planner, I couldn’t wait to test it out. The planner is used entirely online, though you can certainly print out any calendar, assignment lists, transcripts, or anything else you have inputted as information into the program. You can also access your planner from your mobile device as well.
Homeschool Planet
To get a quick overview of how the program works and how it is set up, this video is super helpful. I have to see how something is done before I can really dive into it, and this explained it to me and had me rearing to get started right away!
As you can see, there are tons of options. Changing, adding, or deleting each item is very simple. One of my favorite features was the calendar. Instead of having to enter in detailed school year information, I just set up our general date range and then went in and put an X on the days we won’t be doing school at all. I love that this is so easy (just one click!), because we will be taking most Wednesdays off during the school year for extracurricular activities. I liked the flexibility of leaving Wednesdays on the school calendar and only removing the ones that we won’t be doing school on.
Adding and changing subjects is easy, too. You can even customize who will be doing the assignments and when.
I love that you can schedule “shared” assignments. For example, my daughter and son both use the same language arts program (on different levels). I was able to schedule the whole school year for both of them with this subject in a few seconds. The great part is that, while it shows as “shared”, meaning they will both have it scheduled on the days I specify all year long, their progress through and completion of the subjects will be tracked separately through their personal accounts.
Yes, you read that right. Each student gets their OWN log in information. Once they log in to their own account, they are able to view what has been assigned to them. You can choose if they are able to edit their calendar or not, and what they are able to see. I chose for my kids to just be able to view their own assignments so that it wouldn’t get cluttered with their siblings’ information. I did not allow the edit option, but I could see how that would be a handy feature for older students.
When scheduling, you are able to input extremely specific information when assigning school work to your students, or you can leave it very vague. For example, if you would prefer to just say, “Hey, do math every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday,” you could do that. Alternatively, you could assign them math each day and write in specific notes for each assignment day, or on a few. You can attach PDF files, schedule reminders for them, and even include a website link for them. I find this helpful so they don’t have to go hunting for the website they’re supposed to visit for online research or assignments.
The calendar is great, at a glance, because on your parent account you can see what everyone is supposed to be doing, or you can view by individual student or just a few students. You have the ability to pick and choose quickly for a detailed look at what is on the calendar. You can also use the calendar to schedule other activities, such as chores, appointments, meal times, or sports activities.
Alternatively, you can choose to use it using a planner view. See what’s happening today at specific times. This is great for families that schedule out particular subjects at specific times, or those who are busy with extracurriculars or appointments. You can even print out what’s happening that day for easy reference when internet access is not available.
Any time you want to add or edit anything on Homeschool Planet, just click on the calendar, and options pop up. This is a very user friendly program that I’ve enjoyed playing with over the past few weeks. I almost have all of our assignments put in there. I keep mulling over what we will be using for each subject during the school year, so I’ve already had to go in and completely change and delete a few things. Luckily, it took no time at all with Homeschool Planet.
Try Homeschool Planet for Free
Now is the perfect time to give Homeschool Planet a try. You can sign up for a FREE 30 day trial to see what you think. This review has only scratched the surface of what is offered on the program. I didn’t even mention the widgets you can add, including shopping lists, daily Bible verses, weather, and more! I also didn’t mention how easy it is to customize the color scheme/template of the program. I’m afraid if I mention everything, this review would have to be split up into multiple posts!
Don’t take my word for it on how great Homeschool Planet is. Sign up for your free trial today. When you decide you can’t live without it, just go back and sign up for Homeschool Planet (affiliate link) for just $65/year or $6.95/month.
Final Thoughts
For the amount of customization available and the extreme ease of use, this is my favorite planning tool yet. It has significantly simplified my homeschool planning and has saved me many hours of scheduling everything out. Last year, it took 3 full evenings to input all of my assignments and the dates we’d be working on them into an online planner. This year, using Homeschool Planet, it only took about 15 minutes!
I love that my kids have the independence to log in and take charge of their own school work. I can add in information for them, including resources they’ll need to complete assignments. I can also add in things we have going on so they can see that we won’t be home from 3-5pm tomorrow because we will be at the pool, for example. They love the visual aspect of this calendar, and I love that it keeps us all on the same page. There are no surprises!
They also have enjoyed being able to see exactly what is expected of them for the school day. Last year was the first year that we used a planner at all, and it worked out really well but the process was tedious. My kids were able to easily navigate through Homeschool Planet without some of the frustrations we experienced last year because this program is so user friendly.
Even my 5 year old has his own login information for his kindergarten assignments! Since you can use color to color code things, he quickly caught on to which color went to which subject and could see, at a glance, what we’d be studying that day.
I’m looking forward to continuing to use this resource during the school year. I’ve already recommended it to countless people when asked how to plan and schedule assignments and more easily and quickly. Homeschool Planet is the answer.
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