TOS Crew Review of the Ultimate Homeschooling Planner

I am one of those homeschoolers that has a hard time finding a planner. They are either way too much packed within the pages or just too simplified. Recently, I have had a chance to review the Ultimate Homeschooling Planner-Orange Cover from Apologia Educational Ministries. I received a physical copy.

I love Apologia Educational Ministries, they have a whole array of many different subjects like science, Christian Worldview, Bible, language arts, and so much more. All these materials come from a Christian mindset. There are no surprises when you are teaching your kids. I know when I use any material from Apologia Educational Ministries that it will go beyond my exceptions in Christian values.

When it came in the mail I was walking out the door for my daughter’s therapy appointments. I spent the next 2 hours exploring, reading, and figuring out how to best utilize the planner for my family.

What makes this the Ultimate Homeschooling Planner?

The Ultimate Homeschool Planner is available in three design covers that are either orange, blue, or yellow. This is a 52-week homeschool planner with 263 pages. It’s an extremely sturdy spiral-bound book. The spiral-bound is perfect for lying flat. You don’t have to fight with keeping the planner from closing on you while you are writing in it. There is also front and back pockets to store lose papers in. The cover is a sturdy construction with coated front and back that will wipe off and protect the inside pages.

There are around 12 pages user’s guide that give you suggestions on how to best utilize the planner for weekly, yearly, planning breaks, and much more. Lots of scripture and quotes throughout the pages.

Other feathers of this homeschool planner include:

A one year planning grid and a calendar to see the days up till 2017
Student goal setting
Pre-planning guides for family priorities and a resource list
Planner for weekly and monthly
Record keeping for grades, reading list, and activities
Teaching tips for raising independent learners, motivating the reluctant learning, learning styles and thinking skills, parent’s guide to the study-smart student toolkit
High school planning guide and planning guide examples
A place for writing down your year in review and for notes

How did I use the Ultimate Homeschooling Planner?

I am usually a very organized individual until the last 2 months with moving twice and now trying to get unpacked into our new home. Usually, I have more school plans laid out much better. Everything hit at the beginning of the school year. I been feeling like I am flying by the seat of my pants before the Ultimate Homeschooling Planner.

This forced me to look at the reality of the situation and to access what we needed for the short term and then I can plan for the long term school year once we get going into a full schedule without stopping and going so much.

I love the blank slate of this planner. I can adapt it to fit my homeschool. My first priority was planning our outside schedule of appointments for the month since, we can have a heavy load at times. Afterwards, I added in the weekly schedule for our school.

I worked on the reading list for the kids to get started with for the year.  This was something that I have actually never did before. I always had the books on the shelf for the kids to see!

Overall, this is a nice homeschool planner. I tend to write large and had some problems with the space. Which for most probably isn’t a problem if you write smaller than I do! It’s a lovely and practical planner that has a lot of nice features. I think when my life gets unpacked I will really appreciate all aspects of this homeschool planner.

Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/apologiaworld/timeline
Twitter: https://twitter.com/apologiaworld
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/apologia/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/105053356034237782125