In thinking about this planner, the first word that comes to mind is Mammoth! It is huge, 247 pages to be exact.
Upon opening the planner (which comes in e-book format), I couldn’t help but say, “Wow!” The developers have obviously put a lot of hard work into creating forms and planning sheets galore.
Each month includes a calendar, recipes, an essay from a seasoned homeschooler, information pages (such as a timeline of inventions, countries and capitals, and a kitchen conversion cheat sheet), along with an internet linked list of resources available at the Old Schoolhouse store which coincide with that month’s focus (i.e. geography, inventions, math and so on).
If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know I love to cook. As you can imagine, I was excited to see new recipes to try. In fact, I already have. The Tropical Chicken Dinner from July was quite tasty. There are 24 recipes in this planner; those are a nice bonus.
I very much enjoyed the information pages each month (there are 12 in all). Most have been printed and are now filed in the back of my daily binder for easy reference. They are something I will be using my entire homeschool teaching career. Whenever I need to know who invented chewing gum, what year a certain composer was born, or who was the 15th President, I'll have the information at my fingertips.
After the calender section you will find an incredible list of Homeschool Forms which can be used year after year. There are 42 forms in this section, some I had never imagined needing. Your style of schooling and record keeping, as well as your state or country regulations, will determine which forms you want to print out. There are weekly planning pages, curriculum, discipleship and memory work records, science lab sheets, and evaluation forms, just to name a few. With 42 forms, I am leaving a lot out here. Let’s just say, if you need a form for something, it’s probably there.
My favorite homeschool form was Yearly Goals - writing down specific areas of growth and development was very motivating. Keeping this in my binder for review throughout the year should aid us in reaching those goals.
After looking through these forms I am now considering adding a homeschool log to my binder. In doing so, I will utilize forms such as: Books read this year, Crafts completed, Field trip log and an extra curricular activities log. It’s always fun to look back and see what you have accomplished.
The last section of the Schoolhouse Planner consists of Household forms. Here you will find 32 forms to aid in the running of your home: Schedules, Menu Planners, Chore Charts, Budget forms, Bible Reading Schedules, Garden Plans, Homekeeping Reminders, Appliance Inventory, Address Book, and more.
My favorite from this section is the Loaned and Borrowed List. I'm always sending friends home with books then forgetting who I gave them to.
So, now you have the basic information on this planner...here’s what I think about it:
What I liked:
• The two-page monthly calenders are a nice size and perfect for keeping up with everything we do.
• I love the informational pages included each month (as mentioned above).
• The monthly focus on a specific topic with a list of resources and an encouraging, how-to essay from a seasoned homeschooler is very helpful.
• The ability to customize my planner.
I really don’t like buying a planner and having to lug around pages I don’t intend to use. Printing only the forms or pages I will use and placing them in the order that suits me is very appealing.
• There are some very helpful forms included in this planner. It is wonderful to print them out and not have to create them myself.
• Information can be typed directly onto the form before printing out.
• Forms come in different options. For example, there is not one weekly menu plan, but three. You can choose the one that fits best, or try them all and find out which works for your family. This is also the case with calenders, chore charts, and daily recording sheets, among others.
What I didn’t like:
(There’s not much...but I do want to give a balanced and honest review)
• I could not delete parts of forms.
There were a few forms I liked, but they contained items I wouldn’t use and I wish I could delete those particular items from the form. For example, a chore chart for non-readers (which is quite cute), had the chore “feed pet” along with a picture of a dog. We don’t have a pet at the moment and I would like to use that form, but it would be a little confusing for my 3 year old. It would be great if I could edit that. I will say that there are alternative chore charts offered. But, this one was just right (almost). There are also a few items on the budget form which we don’t have in our budget. It would be very convenient if I could change them. (Please correct me if I am wrong on this.)
• This is not neccessarily a dislike, however, I must mention the fact that the value for money with this planner comes with how little or how much of it you use. It does contain 247 pages, has certainly had a lot of hard work put into it, and contains an abundance of handy tools for any homeschooling family. All of the forms and planning pages can be used for many years with multiple children. It costs $39.
• If you are not into planning or record keeping, this may not be for you. Although once you get a look at it you might be inspired to do more (like I was).
All in all, I found the The Schoolhouse Planner to be extremely useful. With it I have created a homeschool/household binder for my family and am feeling more organized already!
Find out more and get a sneak peek here |
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