Are you looking for an all-in-one online homeschool planner? Finding the right homeschool planner can be frustrating.
You probably already know there are A TON of planners out there for homeschoolers. So, which one is right for you?
I recently came across Homeschool Planet, a digital homeschool planner, and would love to share my review on it and 8 awesome features that it offers.
WHAT IS HOMESCHOOL PLANET?
Homeschool Planet is an online subscription-based digital planner.
It is an all-in-one planner designed for homeschoolers.
You can create and manage:
- Daily, weekly, monthly calendar and planner
- Lesson plans (purchased or create your own)
- Attendance
- Grades
- Transcripts
- Automatic rescheduling
- Integrate Google calendar & iCal
You can easily print out any calendars, planner, lesson plans, or reports.
It’s also a great planner if you have multiple kids as it lets you individually craft schedules, assignments, grades, reports, and transcripts for each child. You can view all children all at once or one at a time
IS THERE AN APP?
A mobile version is available if you go into your mobile internet browser like Google chrome. From there you can type in Homeschool Planet’s web address and log in.
In their Help section, there are specific instructions on how you can drag the icon to your phone’s home screen.
I hear that the mobile version is quite limited though. Maybe there will be an app in the future? Who knows?
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
You can start using Homeschool Planet by signing up for their 30-day FREE trial, no credit card needed, no need to cancel.
Their annual subscription is $69.95/year. This is the best value.
Monthly subscription is $7.95/month.
Sign up for a 30-day FREE trial here.
WHO IS HOMESCHOOL PLANET FOR?
- If you are in one of those stricter homeschool states that require a specific number of school days and hours, or if there is a yearly evaluation, I would highly consider Homeschool Planet. This will help you keep everything recorded and organized in one place.
- If you are an ultra organized person and want everything recorded in one place.
- If you are an unorganized person who needs some help organizing and keeping everything in one place.
- If you have multiple kids that you have to keep track of their assignments, hours, tests, and planning.
HOMESCHOOL PLANET REVIEW & 8 AWESOME FEATURES
- Set up your school year calendar FAST.
- Easily track attendance (total school days and hours).
- Schedules & lesson plans for multiple kids all in one planner.
- Lesson plans from Marketplace or create your own lesson plans.
- Ability to assign a separate login for each child.
- Grades & transcript generator.
- Automatic rescheduling system if you miss a day, or two, or three 🤭 lol.
- Track and print out reports like assignment lists, field trips, class notes, and grades.
BEFORE YOUR START
Tip: Before you start anything, I think it is best to set your settings first. Under the Settings tab, click General.
1 | SET UP YOUR SCHOOL YEAR CALENDAR FAST & EASY
I absolutely love how fast and easy I can plan out the whole school year.
Just type in the current school year, select your “Reporting Periods.”
You have several choices for “reporting periods.”
- One (whole school year)
- Two semesters
- Three terms
- Four quarters
- Five periods
- Six periods
I like the quarter system since we are year round homeschoolers, but you can select whichever reporting period suits your situation best.
In the monthly calendar section, you don’t have to click the green check mark for every day, they will all be selected.
All you’d have to do is click off the green check mark if you want that day or week off and it’ll turn to red X mark(s).
If you apply holidays specific to your country or even religion, it’ll automatically X out those holidays. But, if you don’t want to take certain holidays off, simply click the red X and it’ll turn back to the green check mark.
Of course, should plans change you can just come to this section and edit or reschedule.
2 | TRACK TOTAL SCHOOL DAYS AND HOURS
Once you have your school year calendar set up, Homeschool Planet will automatically total up your school days for the year.
This is especially helpful for those who are in states where you have required number of school days.
I know. It’s not that hard to tally up your total school days from the regular ol’ attendance sheet. But, this to me is a real time saver.
You also have the option of tracking class hours. You can either track time spent on a specific assignment or you can just track the total time spent on a class or subject each day.
If you want to track class hours for one child and not the other, you have the option to do that as well.
3 | SCHEDULES AND LESSON PLANS FOR MULTIPLE STUDENTS
The ability to manage multiple children’s schedules and lesson plans all in one place is probably one of the main features of Homeschool Planet.
I would suggest setting up your child/ren’s name & information before doing any kind of planning. This way you can easily assign lessons to specific children once you get into the lesson planner and calendar.
Below is the monthly calendar view. You can click right on the day and schedule things like an extra assignment or an appointment. You can edit or reschedule just like any other planner.
You can also view or edit the calendar for all your kids or just one.
This is the weekly planner view. You have the ability to print this out if you want. I like the fact that you can check things off the list.
4 | LESSON PLANS
If lesson planning is not your jam, you should absolutely consider lesson plans from their Marketplace. This is a real time and sanity saver.
You can purchase lesson plans from their marketplace section for an additional cost. I know, more money to shell out. I am on a budget too. But, and this is a big but from me, I think it’s worth checking out because it’s a HUGE. TIME. SAVER.
They don’t have ALL the homeschool curricula out there but they do have quite a big selection.
If you go for the 30 days FREE trial, you can add one lesson plan from their marketplace for free.
Once you add or purchase your lesson plans, you will find it under the “Lesson Plans” tab.
You have to ability to create your own lesson plans if you don’t need or want the extra costs of purchased lesson plans.
Once you select “Lesson Plans,” you will come to this section where you can view your “Purchased Lesson Plans” and a “My Lesson Plans.”
Purchased lesson plans are just simply that. It’s lesson plans you purchased from marketplace. You can view or edit and the click “Apply this lesson plan” to select days and lessons. Once you’ve done this, it’ll automatically populate in your calendar or planner view.
“My lesson plans” is where you can create you own.
From here you can edit by click “Apply this lesson plan” in order to select days and lessons for the lesson plans to populate in your calendar or planner view.
Once you click “Apply this lesson plan”, you have more options in there.
You can select specific start day or lesson or just include the entire lesson plan if you are starting from Day 1.
This is the detailed view from a purchased lesson plan.
Now, this part right here is probably what I LOVE about Homeschool Planet’s purchased lesson plan(s).
Once you set your days and assignments and apply it to your calendar, it’ll automatically populate in the calendar and planner view.
You can see what the assignment is for that specific day, click on the resources or video lesson for that day and it will automatically bring you to your curriculum’s video lesson, resource, or PDF for that day.
Isn’t this amazing? I don’t know. I was like, “WAHHH??” It’s a huge time saver in my honest opinion.
Once you click on the instructional video, it’ll bring you to your child’s curriculum video lesson for that day.
Or if there are extra practice questions or resources, it’ll link to those websites too.
Here is a sample of the options available when you create your own lesson plans and this is just a little bit. The customization in here is amazing.
However, if you are not a techie like me, there’s a bit of a learning curve in this section.
At least it took me a while to figure out and I am sure there’s more that I haven’t discovered yet.
But, once you get a hang of it it’ll make lesson planning super fast.
5 | SEPARATE LOGIN FOR EACH CHILD
If you want to foster independence or think your child may be ready for it, you can create a different password for him/her.
Your child can log in with his/her own password and the planner will only show assignments for that child only.
I thought this was a great feature, especially if you have older child/ren and other little ones running around. This way your older child/ren can just log in and start their assignments.
6 | GENERATE GRADES AND TRANSCRIPT
Another great feature of Homeschool Planet is the ability to generate report cards and transcripts.
I know, some homeschoolers don’t really do grades (especially for the little ones), but for older kids this may come in very handy.
You are able to select the grading scale you prefer.
There are three options:
- Standard
- Standard +/-
- Pass/Fail
You can utilize a very handy feature for grades.
“Grading Helper” can help you easily and quickly calculate grades for homework, quizzes, or tests.
If you’ve been recording your child’s grades, then generating transcript for the school year or up to 4 years will be very easy.
7 | AUTOMATIC RESCHEDULING
With Homeschool Planet, gone are the days of erasing penciled in lesson plans.
If you are sick or for whatever reason school did not happen that day, you can easily reschedule by using the “Rescheduler Helper” and it will automatically shift your entire schedule accordingly.
8 | PRINTED REPORTS CAN BE GREAT FOR EVALUATION
This feature is especially helpful for those of you in a state where you’d have to meet with an evaluator or send in a portfolio for the school year.
WILL YOU TRY HOMESCHOOL PLANET?
As you can see there are lots of features here that can help you manage and plan your homeschool like a pro!
Homeschool Planet is easily one of my top 10 homeschool planners.
Remember, they have a 30-day FREE trial, no credit card needed, no need to cancel. Here is the link again if you want to give it a try.
I still have my Aldi’s planner that I talked about here in my blog post on how I plan my week as a homeschool mom of 2.
I intend to use my current planner and homeschool binder until the year is up so it doesn’t go to waste.
But, Homeschool Planet is DEFINITELY one of my top picks and will seriously consider next year once my homeschool budget is set up.
Let me know in the comment section below if you are giving it a try or if you are already using Homeschool Planet.
Or share another homeschool planner that you are loving! I’m curious!
Hi there! Shirley here, I am a homeschool mom of 2. I share tips & resources for elementary homeschool. I want to go through this journey with you! Homeschool doesn’t have to be hard. Let’s do this together!
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