Planning and scheduling are both tough when you are super busy. Just keeping up with your family’s needs is a full-time job. When you choose home educating, you are adding another full-time job. We recently had the opportunity to review two of the My Homeschool Planner flexible planners. A great organizational necessity for homeschool families.

The My Homeschool Planner – Blue Bicycle planner has such a beautiful, sturdy floral cover, and the My Homeschool Planner – Military Homeschool one has a sturdy, bright camouflage cover that shouldn’t get lost on your teacher’s desk.

There is a spot for the name of your student on the front cover, each planner is meant for use for one student’s plans. The planner is date specific, meaning that this planner is meant to be used for the 2018-2019 school year. It can be used for all grade levels, preschool through high school grade levels.

The very beginning pages briefly speak to you about how to use this planner.There is even a sample planner page completed as reference for any newbies to homeschool planning. I have a more relaxed approach to setting goals, which is not always a great thing for when teaching kids with ADHD/ADD. There are pages that encourages parents to set short term and you can also include longer-term goals with your child for the year. Space is also included for setting a strategy on possible ways to accomplish those goals.

If you are in a state that requires attendance records/hours, pages are provided for this information. The calendar is set for July 2018 to June 2019. So, you can track your hours easily and keep the information in one place when it’s time to finish your year-end paperwork.

Once you complete these pages as you want, then it’s time to get into the actual lesson planning pages. Each page has room for student name, date information, and there is also room for tracking school days on the actual lesson page, if you are required by the state. Each page has room for six subjects over a five-day work week. As a parent-teacher you can easily fill in your child’s assignment, and there is a check-box that they can mark as they finish each assignment.

I was unsure how the girls would handle this at first. I filled in the boxes with pencil, so that I could adjust easily. Sometimes the girls struggle a bit with math lessons, and I would make frequent adjustments with extra practice work. I marked subjects in all but the bottom row on each page. I left this as a floating column. In this column, I would add items like piano or drum practice, and projects for different educational fairs like history and geography fair. This row was good for subjects and projects that were not daily routine.

At the very back of My Homeschool Planner, there are a few blank pages. I used these to make a page for a reading log, and to jot down subjects that the girls wanted to study (so that I would not forget). This allowed me to keep that information neatly in one place.

Using the My Homeschooler Planner has been very smooth in our household. I normally print off lists that I create in a word processing program. But the papers get lost or I end up with a corrupted file. It can be a real pain. Using the My Homeschool Planner has been a snap. I have a basic outline that I input. I keep the subjects on the same line on every page. It helps with both girls’ eye tracking as she is reading the page of assignments each day.

You can use the My Homeschool Planner as a student assignment book also.Lydia was able to follow and have her assignments, without wasting more paper on student to-do lists.She and I basically shared her planner. She simply marked off her assignments as she completed them.

As I’m getting each bag ready with their assignments on Sunday each week, it helps that I also have materials written down that I need to collect for that week. I even look ahead and make sure to have the library books on order that we will need.

Using the format of the My Homeschool Planner has helped keep me more organized. Planning is made much easier since I can simply copy page numbers and make brief notes for several weeks at a time looking at one subject at a time. I currently do 6-8 weeks in advance, since sometimes we advance quicker in some subjects than others, but we could delay ourselves in others with extra studies. By only do a few weeks at a time, we can easily adjust as needed.

There are several cute My Homeschool Planner covers available from Peachy Keen Homeschool Products. You can choose a cover that is a perfect personality match for your child. I highly encourage you to check out the My Homeschool Planner’s easy to use, and highly effective way to get your more organized in your homeschool.

-Product review by Renita Kuehner, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, December 2018