Have you ever struggled with finding the right homeschool planner fit for you? Are you new to homeschooling and overwhelmed where to start with a planner? Look no further. Today I'm going to give you a view of four planners (plus a bonus) that I have used for homeschooling over the last ten years. Then I'll give you a glimpse of what my plan is for this year with a mock up of lesson plans.
Generic Planners
For years I used a basic blue sky planner, the ones that you can pick up from Walmart or Target or pretty much anywhere. So my first year homeschooling a Kindergarten I picked up one from Staples. That year while I planned some things ahead of time, I mostly did what is called back planning, and simply recorded what we did each day. There was a weekly spread and then on the facing page an empty lined page so that I could write down what did or didn't work well. Since it was our first year, it was very much student lead, interest based learning. But, because we lived in Pennsylvania where homeschool laws are demanding, I found ways to document EVERYTHING we did.
This planner served it's purpose of documenting what we did, incase I ever needed to prove that we were schooling. HOWEVER, the terrible paper quality made it difficult to read, the paper was so thin that any pen bled through. The lack of additional pages for tracking books read, field trips, grades, etc limit it's effectiveness as a planner. However, the huge amount of space for weekly recaps was a real plus, especially as I made copious notes about what did and didn't work since it was also my first year homeschooling. Overall: I wouldn't recommend for anyone other than very early elementary, single student homes, who are documenting more than planning.
Pros
Cheap
Easy to find
Plenty of Note Space
Variety of Layouts
Cons
Terrible Paper Quality
Only Enough Space for One Student
Poor Binding and General Quality
No Teacher Planner Specific Layouts
No Teacher Planner Specific Pages
No Pages for Anything Other Than Weekly Lesson Plans
No Pocket Folder
Hey Mama! Schoolhouse Planner
The next year I looked for an actual homeschool planner, due to the lack in a generic planner, and I found the planner that The Old Schoolhouse Magazine puts out each year. I already enjoyed there material and it was teaching me alot, so I decided to give their planner a try. It was also only $20 back in the day. That year while I still did alot of back planning, I mostly planned ahead of time since I was now schooling two children. I had a year 2 kindergartener and a 4 year old who wanted to do kindergarten. There was a weekly spread over two pages, two page monthly spreads, and plenty of extra pages for recording other homeschool relevant material.
This planner served it's purpose of documenting what we did, incase I ever needed to prove that we were schooling. HOWEVER, again I ran into issues with paper quality and coil quality for the planner which made it difficult to read and keep together. The paper wasn't as bad as the year before, but most pens did shadow. The lack of a spot for weekly notes was disappointing, but there was a place for monthly notes as well as encouragement throughout the planner. However, the nicest part of the planner was all the extra pages: goal setting pages (monthly, semester, and yearly), attendance tracker, books read, contact list, and journaling prompts. Overall: I would recommend it anyone on a tight budget looking for a homeschool specific planner, but know that you lose out on the character and quality that makes other planners so user friendly.
Pros
Cheap
Enough Space for Many Students, Especially if You Write Small
Teacher Planner Specific Pages
Letters and Quotes of Encouragement
Cons
Poor Paper Quality
Bland Interior
Poor Binding
No Weekly Notes section on the Lesson Planner page
No Pocket Folder
Erin Condren Teacher Planner
For seven years then I used an Erin Condren Planner. (Teacher planners six years and a life planner one year). I decided to try them out because I was already using their life planner as my personal/family planner. They make a fantastic, quality product. It is also colorful, and just pretty which has always made me more likely to use a planner. Those two were probably the biggest positives from the years before. Other than the beauty and quality, the function is a typical teacher planner. I used it for 3 students, but was starting to find it a tight fit to cover everything.
This planner more than served it's purpose of planning, incase I ever needed to prove that we were schooling. The gorgeous planner inspired me to keep more than just my basic lesson planning in it, but to also decorate it and include pictures of the kids projects and events from our school year. It became a key part of my portfolio, as well as a scrapbook. The American made Mohawk paper stands up to anything, even sharpies. However, I disliked the months being at the beginning rather than with the lesson planning pages. That is different however, since they moved to a dated planner, from the undated design. I also needed to repurpose some of the additional teacher planner pages, to work for a homeschooler rather than a public school teacher. This did make for a huge amount of work, most of which I enjoyed but it was very time consuming to figure out which page layouts would work for something else, and to then cover and relabel pages to make it all work. Also, there were never enough pages for books read and curriculum used. One final complaint would be that it is only a 5 day planner, you can repurpose the subjects and dates to make a 7 day planner with 5 subject areas. As we are constantly doing educational activities, I like to have all 7 days on a spread, but to do this in an Erin Condren planner leaves less space for recording lesson plans. Overall: I would recommend for anyone, from those who need a little encouragement to stay on top of their planning, to those who like to do more than than just plan.
Pros
Extremely User Friendly
Room for Multiple Students
Multiple Color Schemes
Multiple Binding Options
Multiple Start Dates
Plenty of Teacher Planner Specific Pages
Extraordinarily High Quality
Pocket Folder and Page Protectors
Cons
Expensive
Classroom Teacher Specific
The Well Planned Day Homeschool Family Planner
For seven years I used an Erin Condren Planner, why you might wonder did I change planners this year? Life had gotten more than hectic with six children, and as much as I enjoyed reworking the Teacher Planner to make it into a Homeschool Planner, I just didn't have the time to devote to it. When looking at all the homeschool specific planners out there, this one more than any of the others jumped out at me. The big thing that they have that other homeschool planners don't is a detailed section for setting goals. I have used a planner for decades, and have of course done goal setting, but frequently the follow through isn't what I'd hoped when I set my goals. The Well Planned Day breaks goals down in a way that anyone can follow. I used the system both for setting personal goals, school goals, and even helped the kids set some goals in areas they wanted to work in. We can all say that we made more progress with their system than ever before. They also make a large family option to accommodate up to six students.
For a more in depth review see my post here.
This planner was worth the expense just for the goal planning section, and it was cheaper than most of the specialty planners on the market. There are pretty floral designs, more muted than my preference but still inspiring. The paper quality is average, so not as good as what I had been using, but has little shadowing. There are seven days, for a full year of planning pages, the months fall within the lesson planning pages, and there are plenty of homeschool specific pages. However, there are also a lot of home care, meal prep, and other type pages. Since my planner doubles as our main component of our portfolio, and I could have a need to show that to county officials to prove that we are schooling, I don't want those things in my homeschool planner. But, that could be a plus for you. Overall: I would recommend for anyone, especially those who are looking to keep all of their family and schooling planning in one place.
Pros
Fantastic Goal Setting Walk Through
Room for up to Six Students
Good Price Point
Multiple Start Dates
Plenty of Homeschool Specific Planner Pages
Cons
Everything in One Planner (but that might be a plus for you)
Poor Binding
No Pocket Folder
One Stop Teacher Planner
Having all of the extra unused pages in my planner really just isn't for me, I think it messes with my perfectionist tendencies. I also, wanted something more colorful, more me. But, I still don't have time to re-set-up an Erin Condren Planner, so this year I was again on the hunt for a different planner for the upcoming school year. After going through countless websites for more planners than I care to name, I had almost given up and decided I just needed to either take the time to redo an Erin Condren Teacher Planner, or I was going to have to make the time to make my own planner from scratch. That's when I saw an ad on Facebook for One Stop Teacher Planners. I got online, and for the same cost as a single year's Erin Condren Planner, I got access for life to the One Stop Teacher Planner. It is everything I've looked for in a planner.
For a more in depth review see my post here.
Some people use it solely as a digital planner, but I still need a physical planner. I've also heard from others that they make a great quality printed planner, but I opted for the downloadable planner, because it's customizable. Some of the options for customization are number of class blocks, names of classes, start date, three different interior designs, and choice of which pages to include. This final point is one of the best parts of this planner, because you can chose elementary, high school, or homeschool pages to add to your planner. I was even able to edit some of those pages to make them a better fit for our homeschool, any of which I'd be happy to offer as a free download, after purchasing the planner. All the fonts, colors, and shapes are customizable as well. It took me four days to completely set up and print out my planner, which I of course printed on a better quality paper. When I helped a friend with hers, I did it in 2 days. Rather than choosing to bind it, I opted for a binder, so that I could remove pages and add pages as needed. It was still cheaper for me to buy ink and paper to print myself than the nicer planners on the market. There are probably around 50 different cover/divider designs in a variety of color schemes, a boocoodle of digital stickers that can be added to the pages, and something for everyone. The only drawback I have found are the lack of seven days, However with a notes section there is room to note learning or activities on the weekend. All in all we aren't schooling six days a week as we have sometimes in the past, so I don't think it will be too big of a sacrifice to lose this one thing. Overall: I would highly recommend for anyone, in any situation, especially since it can be so quickly set up and printed.
Pros
Everything is Customizable
Can be Used as a Digital or Printable or Pre-Printed Planner
Plenty of Colorful Covers
Multiple Color Schemes
Multiple Start Dates
Plenty of Specific Teacher Planner Pages (elementary, high school, homeschool, etc.)
Cons
Must allow some time to set up and Print
Binding and Paper Quality only as good as you Choose
Choosing a Planner for Your Homeschool
There is some variability in choosing just the right planner for both your homeschool, and your current situation. Some of the options for many children would have been overkill early on, and some of the options for just a child or two wouldn't hold everything I need now. Price point may also be an issue for you, in which case you may need to make some decisions on the trade offs you will make. Ultimately the right fit can make planning and staying on track easier each day; therefore, it is worth the time to choose diligently. However, don't forget if it's not the best fit you can always change it up next year, or if you find out that it really doesn't work for you, change right away. I want to point out that you can make anything work for you. It doesn't have to be pretty or official looking, it could be a continual list in a notebook. Here is where the bonus planner comes in. One year, when Erin Condren was discontinuing a cover design, I ordered a cover for my Teacher Planner, only I goofed and ordered a regular life planner cover. Since I really wanted to use it and it definitely wouldn't fit on a Teacher Planner I got a second life planner to homeschool three kids.
I was determined to make it work. Rather than break the lesson plans up by subject I gave each kid a box for the day. I had to repurpose monthly pages to track that month's reading and field trips, because there weren't extra teacher pages. At the back of the book I took the blank pages and added as many things as I could to them. It was cramped, but for the year I made it work. I wanted to share this bonus layout, to show that even options that aren't ideal can be made to work with a little ingenuity.
Has this post helped you decide on a homeschool planner option for your next school year? Is there a planner that you would like to see highlighted with it's own post? Remember if you found this post helpful and decide to order a planner help me out by ordering through my affiliate buttons below. It doesn't cost you a thing, but it doesn't give me a small commission for directing you to their products.
If you are interested in ordering an Erin Condren product, use this link and we both get $5 off our next order.
If you are interested in ordering through Well Planned Gal, use this coupon code and you get a 15% discount to regular priced items on their website: DANIELLE15
If you are interested in ordering an One Stop Planner, use this link and while it won't cost you any extra I will get paid a small amount of your purchase as an affiliate.
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