Homeschool Planet Planner Review

The Homeschool Planet planner does more than help you plan homeschool lessons, it’s a life organizer!

If you haven’t checked out this online planning tool or aren’t sure about an online planner, I recommend that you check it out.

I was not paid to write this Homeschool Planet review. You may see some paid advertising from Homeschool Planet on TheHomeschoolScientist.com or our social media, but I was so excited by their online planner, I wanted to share it with you via this review.

I struggle with planning, and being a wife, mom, college student, and business owner, I have got to keep track of activities, assignments, business deadlines, etc. or I will miss something important.  I do use Google Calendar for birthdays and family activities, but it’s hard to create and track class assignments in it.

Paper planners and my own homegrown planners from a lined notebook or journal have always been my go-to, but I just can’t keep up with them. Recording assignments in a paper planner is something I do well for about a week, and then it literally falls apart as our schedule goes in an unexpected direction.

With over 22 years of homeschooling experience, I have tried many planning methods–paper planners, making my own with a notebook, make my own with the Google calendar, no planner at all (that was a disaster), and digital planners. I’ve tried decorating paper planners with stickers and washi tape thinking it would help get me invested in the routine, but to no avail!

My stash of half-way used notebooks and journals that I had every intention of using as planners is pictured below. They are pretty, but they look brand new! Thankfully, they are journals and notebooks, so I can reuse them for my college classes. They are perfect for class and reading notes, which is why they are out on my desk.

While homeschooling we had to care for multiple aging parents, other aging relatives who depended on us, long-term illness, job loss, me working full-time and part-time at the same time, and other major life events. When we were in those seasons, the assignments on the paper planner would REALLY get off track. It was so difficult to reassign.

There were years we had to really get creative with our schedule or take one to two months off. That also made me feel so defeated when I couldn’t stick to a planner. How do I erase the plan and move things around?

Many of us deal with life.just.happening. So, it was the easy organization and total flexibility Homeschool Planet offered, that really drew me to check it out.

 

Homeschool Planet Review – Top Features to Help You Plan Your Homeschool Life

 

There are multiple features in this online planner that truly makes it a game changer for planning the busy life of a homeschooling family.

1. Creating and rearranging a lesson plan is super-simple and flexible. How many times does our week go off course? Sometimes life throws our homeschooling off for a few months as we deal with a family emergency. It just happens, and rather than go through an entire paper planner reworking assignments, this planner has amazing rescheduling features.

I have found that a week might start off smooth and on schedule, but by Tuesday at 4:00 p.m., we may have had sickness, a vehicle repair, and my husband out of town. All these things affect a homeschool schedule. So, it’s such a time saver to be able to move due dates or assignments.

Plus, it helps keep life a little less chaotic for our children. Some of the unexpected life happenings can be stressful, the Homeschool Planet planner does the heavy lifting and keeps everyone moving forward with assignments not having to wonder what’s next.

NOTE: See the screenshot below, do  you see the Show Me! link to the right of the pop-up box? When that is clicked a how-to video pops up to show you how to use that section of the planner.

I also like that you have complete flexibility to assign a task (like studying for a quiz) for every other day, 2 days, or whatever you prefer.

Or

If you just want assignments to be completed by a certain date, you can do that too. So, if it works best for your child to have a weekly list, you can set lesson plans up that way.

When my daughter was in high school, this is how she preferred to work. She had a list of assignments for the week, and it was up to her how she planned her time and work from Monday through Friday. It worked out well because she was interning and in theatre productions too.

It’s a great way to help your teen work more independently and learn to plan their time.

2. Homeschool Planet has pre-packaged lesson plan plugins for a lot of popular homeschool curriculum! This is a brilliant idea! For a super-affordable price, you purchase can the lesson plan plugin (It is NOT the actual curriculum), and the plugin automatically schedules the assignments into the calendar! Of course, you can review and move things around as needed.

Some of the curriculum companies include:

• • Masterbooks
  • Math-U-See
  • Grammar Galaxy
  • Artistic Pursuits
  • Spectrum workbooks
  • Veritas Press
  • Classical Academic Press
  • Fallacy Detective (Love these!)
  • Visual Latin
  • Spanish for You

So, that gives you an idea of the variety. Definitely check out the list here on the Homeschool Planet site.

 

3. The Homeschool Planet planner calendar has some helpful and impressive features and capabilities. I can pull in my Google Calendar, our family Google calendar, and my work Google calendar. YES!

This is why I call it a life organizer. Without leaving the Homeschool Planet portal, I can see things like big test days, field trip days, along with doctor appointments, recitals, rehearsals, vacations, social events, etc. I can also see when my hubby is out of town, which can have an effect on our homeschool and extra-curricular schedules.

I just love the “life at a glance” capability the Homeschool Planet Planner provides

4. Navigation is SIMPLE. If you do struggle with getting up and started on the portal, they have step-by-step instructions and how-to videos. But honestly, it’s so intuitive; I was up and running in a matter of minutes.

I was in systems development and programming in my pre-homeschooling days, so when I use any type of digital tool, I’m always analyzing screens, functionality, ease of use, and intuitiveness.

The Homeschool Planet environment is just so easy to use. When I was managing system development projects, we always said the design phase was 80% of our time, and programming was 20%. If you got the design correct for the end-user, programming was so much easier. But, we had to really talk with the end-users and get to know their needs. The team at Homeschool Planet really did this same type of “homework.” It’s obvious the Homeschool Planet Planner and portal was specifically designed for a busy homeschooling and family life and for all technical skill levels.

5. Accommodates multiple children and their multiple courses. If you have 1,2… 5,6,7…12+ children, no problem. As long as the family members are residing in the same domicile, you are good. You can check out their policy here.

I used to work for a company that sells a homeschool planner, the #1 feature moms looked at was how well the planner accommodated multiple children and their multiple subjects.

Coupled with that is having enough room to write everything.

The Homeschool Planet planner is designed to handle all of the children living in your household and all of the subjects they take.

5. Full visibility for you and your children. The details of each assignment, grades, upcoming assignments, projects, tests, and the calendar can be viewed by all, if you wish. There are options in some areas for not showing pieces of information to everyone.

Have you ever heard, “But I didn’t know that was due today?” or “I didn’t know which book I was supposed to work out of.” Everyone can see the calendar, the assignments, grades, etc.

Our kids need us to model being good stewards of our time…the days, weeks, months, and years. It all starts with having the right tools. The Homeschool Planet planner helps our children learn how to plan, provides visibility of where their time is spent (or wasted), and how to pivot and reschedule when the initial plans change. Being flexible with plans is an important habit to develop; as we know, life doesn’t always go according to OUR plan. So, our children must have experience changing course and not getting completely off track.

 6. I have to mention the calendar plugins. They are on the right side of the calendar, and with two clicks, you can add a Bible verse, a to-do checklist, a grocery list, and my favorite, the weather! I’m always saying, “Let me check the weather.” (It’s a joke in our family .)

The to-do list, the grocery list, the weather forecast–those help you plan your day or week. That is why I call the Homeschool Planet Planner a life organizer because shopping, meal prep, cleaning, getting to appointments–they are all part of our homeschool life too.

7. The reporting is a lifesaver. You know the pain if you’ve ever had to type up a high school transcript from scratch. I had to go back through paper planners and grade books and gather everything for one of our high school transcripts. (Extra tricky because we had gone through two moves in three years.) Homeschool Planet reports include grading, assignments, and transcripts.

And, the assignment list report is full visibility! Everyone knows what’s expected, what was done, and what is left to do. When I used a paper planner and wrote out every assignment on paper, that paper checklist go lost, crumpled, rolled over by an office chair, had chocolate milk spilled on it. LOL…it’s great to be able to pull it right up on a screen!

8. The price is super-reasonable and affordable.  $7.95 a month! Seriously, for the organization, visibility, record keeping, and sanity saving, the Homeschool Planner Planet is a deal!

I have oooh’d and ahhh’d over this planner, so now you may be wondering, “Is it really all that?”

Go check it out for yourself via the free trial. You don’t even need to give a credit card to do the free trial. And anything you set up during the free trial carries over to when you purchase for real.

Hop on over to Homeschool Planet and register for the free trial. Read the FAQs, watch some of the how-to videos, and browse the reviews and GIVE IT A TRY!

You will gain back time, sanity, and have a new tool to help organize your busy homeschool life!

Other Resources You Might Find Helpful

Homeschool Organization Ideas

Homeschool Planet site