We have been homeschooling for eight years. We started when my oldest was in third grade and the younger two were a preschooler and a toddler. My oldest is now finishing up tenth grade. I have tried several different planners and a couple of different computer based school tracking systems. I find that even though I now use
Homeschool Tracker for keeping our records and printing daily lists, attendance, transcripts, etc., I still need a paper planner to visualize our schedules and various activities and to make notes on the run.
This year I bought
The Well Planned Day and I have been filling it with my schedules and plans for the rest of summer and next school year. I really like the format and that there is plenty of room to write notes and keep track of all the things my kids are involved in. The
only thing I think might be a useful addition would be pockets for loose papers, stamps, etc. I really like the shopping lists, the fact that there is room for four children and the holiday organization section.
I just recently found
The Checklist by Cindy Downes at
Oklahoma Homeschool. It is exactly what the name implies -- a huge checklist of so many things I couldn't possibly list them all here.
I purchased the pdf version and printed it all out and put it into a binder. There is also a printed book format available. I am finding it extremely useful now that I have a high schooler and we are looking ahead to college. This is a handy format for making sure I have covered everything I had planned. Now, of course, no one will cover everything on the list, but it is nice to have a way to see at a glance what still needs to be covered.
All products discussed were purchased by me.
