10 February 2014

Homeschool Planners for 2014

It's not a new thought, but take it from me - homeschool planners are not created equal especially if your educating year starts in February and ends in December!

There are a ton! of customised, or customisable, planners for those homeschooling in the U.S.  - where a calendar learning year runs from July (2014) to June (2015) and this post does not detail those.

A home educating friend of mine, Kendra of Aussie Pumpkin Patch, has created a downloadable printable home educating planner just for us Southern Hemisphere (or in a single year) educators.
The price is great too: $5.00 aud,  $5.55 NZ
More pictures of the planner in use!

For this year, however, I'd already purchased a planner (or 2) to use ... which didn't stop me purchasing Kendra's also, so that I could make use of some of the excellent pages she's created for us.
Those pages will fit into my working, 3 ring binder, folder perfectly. I followed some of the links to other planning freebies she noted and jazzed up the planner - The Ultimate Homeschool Planner - I will be using this year.
These tabs are detailed on Kendra's planner post.
I'm really hoping that Kendra will create a planner for us for next year, and beyond, too .. no pressure though

The less than side to my planner purchases for 2014:
 I originally purchased a customised planner from personal-planner.com.au well ahead of time so I'd be super organised for this year.
The company's delivery time was excellent!
The planner size was not and neither was the price, after I received it and had a look through it!!
$45 aud for a planner that I can not put to use (ouch!)
It is just too small (think standard diary size of 15cm x 20.5cm.) to be able to write much of anything in it.  Let alone an entire years worth of educational requirements for 2 students, and me.
Left: The Planner we'll be using...... Right: the planner we've tossed
More of the Same
And just to be nit-picky........ the week by week pages at the end of the planner are all scrambled, they start at wk30 and run to wk 51, then the next page starts at wk2 and runs to wk 23... which has me wondering, perhaps this planning company don't have a wk 1, wk 24, or wk 52 in their lives?  ;-)

I did contact the  company and shared my 'complaints' - they told me to enjoy my planner and they'd note my considerations for future planners.
Tut!
Poorly done personal-planner.
(This is the first, seriously, negative review I've ever given anything on my blog.)
Other's may love a personal-planner planner, we didn't ☺

The blessing side of my personal planning purchases for 2014:
So I went internet shopping.
And found Debra Bell's planner , The Ultimate Homeschool Planner....  (a few of our own pictures, and some other blogger's links, at the end of this post show Debra Bell's planner being put to use).
The pro's:
  • It's a large A4 sized spiral bound book that is so easy to customise.
  • It has plenty of space for writing in!!!!
  • It has spaces and pages, and sections enough to delight any home educating mum.
  • It can be used for any year.
  • It includes inspiring quotations & scripture..... and
  • it's pretty ;)
The small cons:
  • The year at a glance/calendar page starts in June/ends in July which is easy enough to navigate around as the calendar is a one page spread.
  • I've added tabs to make the sections easier to find quickly.
Getting Organised (Pages on the right are from Kendra's Planner set)
All Scrawled Up & Ready to Go.
To read a few others reviews:
Homeschooling Unscripted
Adventures in Home Education
and Vicki's extra's, that match the planner

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