Customizable Homeschool Planners from A Plan in Place
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You what’s a weird thing about homeschool moms? Well, yeah, a lot of things, but the one I’m thinking of right now is how at this time of year, we’re as bad as our kids chomping at the bit for the school year to be over – but we’re already thinking about next year.
I know that isn’t true for everyone, especially if it’s been a rough year or you school year round. But a large percentage of us are already starting to think about next year – what classes our kids need to take, what curriculum we’ll use, whether or not we’ll join a co-op.
It’s probably the idea of a fresh, clean slate that gets us excited.
You know what else is exciting? A fresh, new personally-customized planner! Our family has used and loved the planners from A Plan in Place for several years, but they have an exciting new feature that even made my teen girl exclaim, “Oh, that’s cool!”
Now, not only can you customize the inside of your planner, but you can customize the outside, too!
What’s New with A Plan in Place Homeschool Planners?
Customizable planner covers
A Plan in Place has a couple of new options. Obviously, the one I’m most excited about is the customizable cover. The option is available for the homeschool teacher, high school, and student editions. (It’s not available on the Early Learner edition.)
You just upload your image to the Plan in Place site after you’ve chosen your planner and clicked the “custom” option under cover. You could use your children’s artwork, pictures of your kids, or favorite scenes from your last vacation. As long as you own the image, you can put it on your planner.
I used PicMonkey to create a collage of pictures that make me happy – some favorite photos of my kids and their friends. It would be fun to do a school photo as the cover each year. (Even though it wouldn’t be entirely accurate since I start planning a couple of months before the new school year.)
Wouldn’t the photo and completed planner of your year make a fabulous keepsake? If I could go back in time and have a picture of my babies the first year we homeschooled and a written reminder of all that we did…{sigh} Those of you with little ones, heads up! You’ll thank me later.
Printable PDF homeschool planners
Another new option from A Plan in Place is the option to download your planner as a PDF file. If you need your planner NOW and don’t mind printing and binding it yourself, you can choose a PDF download. The PDF version includes:
- Cover (optional and not customized)
- Customized weekly schedule sheets
- Calendars
- Goals and planning forms
- Record keeping forms
You can customize your planner and print it out today.
What Awesome Goodness Has Stayed the Same?
Inside your custom (or PDF-printed) cover, you can still expect all the amazing features that make A Plan in Place homeschool planners my favorite.
Customized weekly schedule sheets
You can choose between one or two pages per week and if you select the customized version, they’ll have all of what you need and none of what you don’t. Choose to list your kids’ subjects with generic titles such as science, history, and math, or further customize your planner with specific subject titles each year, such as American history, biology, and Algebra I.
You can include an inspirational quote or Bible verse on each page.
Or don’t even use subject titles. If you’re an unschooling family, you might just want lots of space to record books your kids have read, activities they’ve pursued, or videos they’ve watched. Choose larger boxes with any heading you’d like. You could do something similar if you have younger kids and just want to record their activities.
You can even have spaces for your to-do list, errands that you need to run, or items you need from the store. With the custom schedule sheets, the possibilities are endless.
One of my favorite things about having the weekly schedule sheets is being able to jot down scores for graded subjects. Each day, I write down my kids’ grades for their math assignments. (You’ve got to love computer-based math with automatic grading!)
And, once a week, I jot down Megan’s grade on her astronomy quiz. That is so much easier for me than opening up grade sheets on my laptop like I used to do.
Doodle page
I love the doodle page for helping my kids with math problems. You could use it for spelling practice or a running list of items you need from the store, erasing and starting over each week. I used a wet erase pen and wrote out math formulas that I need to remember to help with algebra.
Goals and planning pages
There is space to plan out your mission statement or brainstorm subject ideas (or whatever!). There are planning pages for:
- Developing your homeschool mission statement
- Brainstorming
- General daily schedule
- Field trips
- Menus
- Books to read
I like to use the Family Plan pages to list the subjects each of my kids is going to take for the year and the resources we’ll use for each.
Calendars
There are two year-at-a-glance calendars – one for the current year and one for the next. I like to use those to map out my plan for our school year with the start and end dates and anticipated break weeks.
You can also get a page for each month starting with whichever month you’d like. I always start ours in July since we usually start school in late-July or early-August.
Record keeping and notes
As always, there are plenty of pages for record keeping. There are pages for resources, various expenses, and your lending library. You know, so you can remember who you loaned your books to!
My Best Tips for Customizing A Plan in Place Homeschool Planner
This year marks my third customized planner from A Plan in Place. That’s saying something coming from the girl who didn’t think she needed a planner. I thought I’d share a few tips with you to make the most of your customized planner.
Do the planning worksheet ahead of time. You can print a planning sheet to help you brainstorm your customized planner. I strongly encourage you to do this before you sit down to order your planner. First, it will save you time as you go through the ordering process. Second, and most important, it will help to ensure that you don’t forget anything.
Get at least one pocket. You will be so sad if you don’t get at least one pocket in your planner. There is always going to be some loose something you need to keep handy.
Every year, I type up a list of the kid’s math lessons and tests in order. Because they use Teaching Textbooks and work independently, it helps me to keep track of where they should be and not gripe at them for not completing a lesson only to realize that it was because they did a test that day. {ahem}
Use Frixion pens. Frixion pens are erasable pens, and they are an absolute lifesaver. You can get them as an add-on when you order your planner. You can use different colors to color code things such as appointments or assignments for each child.
And you can erase when things don’t go as planned. You can even erase lots of times without messing up your planner pages. Ask me how I know.
I absolutely love the Plan in Place planners! They make my school day so much easier and provide a keepsake that I know I’m going to enjoy looking back on some day. Plus, now that my kids are in high school, they’re my backup, so I don’t forget to put something on their transcripts.
If you’d like to order a planner from A Plan in Place, you can save 20% with coupon code WUHS2017 now through June 11, 2017. Plus, A Plan in Place is currently running a special where you can get a free download of their summer planner/journal when you purchase a student or high school planner (good through May 31, 2017). These offers can be combined for greater savings!
What is your biggest challenge when it comes to homeschool planning?
Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.