May 20, 2016

Affordable Homeschool Planner 2016-17

"Any recommendations for an affordable planner that I can use to keep track of doctor appointments for myself and hubby also?"

"I'm trying to find planner sheets and figure out how to plan for schooling year round."

"Does anyone have a really awesome planner that you can print and bind yourself?  I want it to be cute and functional for homeschool, possibly even have a chore chart."

"Looking for a good planner (lots of space for writing) for everything daily."

Any of those sound familiar?  All of them applied to me a few years ago, so I scoured Pinterest and Google and Etsy and all the Facebook groups trying to find the perfect planner.  Most of them were far to fancy for me.  I don't need a menu planner or a budget guide or an address book.  I just wanted something to keep track of my kids' assignments and to mark off attendance and days off.  I also needed a new system for assigning chores to my kids. Nope.  I found nothing.  And I couldn't see the point of spending $20 or more on a planner that I only needed a third of.

What's a homeschooling mama to do?  Create her own, of course!

But I felt like I couldn't be the only one looking for the type of planner I wanted, so over the past couple of years, I decided to share my Simple Homeschool Planner.
 

I'm offering it again this year, but with a couple new features.

HERE'S WHAT'S INCLUDED:

A planner cover page, as you can see in the photo above. A full academic year calendar for marking attendance and planned days off, vacations, and holidays.  Monthly pages by subject, which is where you fill in your lesson plans/assignments for each day.  One month per page, from July 2016 through June 2017.  The pages are color coded, and run Monday through Friday.  Weekly appointment calendar pages, running from July 2016 through June 2017.  Finally, I've included a chore system like I use with my own kids.  Two wheels with spaces for 6 chores each, one wheel for easy chores and one for hard chores.  I'll explain more of that in a bit.


HERE'S HOW IT WORKS:

All pages are in PDF form, except the chore system, which is a MS Word document.  I suggest that you print all your pages in duplex mode (back to back) in order to save paper, but you can do whatever works best for you.

The subjects included are Math, Language Arts, Science, History, Health, Music, Art, Bible, Phys. Ed., Practical Arts, Foreign Language, three Electives, and a Miscellaneous.

Each subject is a separate document, so you can choose to print as many or as few subjects as suit your needs.  Once printed, match up the pages how you like.  Match up all the July pages, then all the August, then September, etc..  Or, include all months of one subject, then all of another, etc.  It's really up to you.  I wanted this planner to be customizable and meet the needs of people with different needs.  The same goes for arranging your appointment calendar pages and your full academic year calendar.  Whatever way you want to arrange your pages is perfect!

For the chore system, you'll see two color wheels labeled "hard" and "easy".  It's a MS Word document, so when you open it there, you'll be able to edit the text for each chore to customize them with your own chores.  I use this system with my own kids, and it blew my mind how much it cut down on the arguments and procrastination that our past systems had caused, because it's fair for everyone.  I have two boys.  They spin the spinner on our chore wheels and get 3 hard and 3 easy chores each.  They spin once a week, so each week they get a new set of chores.  Besides being fair, it also cuts down on the monotony of being stuck with the same chores week after week.  Instructions for assembling the chore system are included with that part of the download.

The least expensive way to bind your pages is with a 3-hole punch and a 3-ring binder.  It can be time consuming but works just fine.  You'll need a 1" to 1 1/2" binder.  I prefer the ones with the clear plastic cover where you can slide your planner cover page in the top opening.

Last year, though, I sent my files off to Staples and had them print and bind my planner.  It was more expensive, but the quality was better, and I didn't have to spend the time assembling it.

So, how can you get your hands on this dream-come-true planner?  I'm glad you asked.

In the past, I've been able to share my planner for FREE, and the response has been amazing!  This year, though, because of the amount of time and work I dedicated to it, I find I need to charge a small fee for download privileges.  I want my planner to be accessible to as many people as possible, and even though it's not free this year, I think you'll find it's still very affordable.  You can have unlimited access to the files for only $5.00 (U.S.).  No catch.  No hoops to jump through.  No annoying spam sent to your Email after the fact.

Simply click on the PayPal button below to make your one-time payment of $5.00.  Once your payment is processed, you'll be sent a link to the files, located on Google Drive, which you can access as often as you need.  Your link will be sent to the Email address associated with your PayPal account.



If you would like to get an idea of what the planner looks like, you can check out last year's free planner.  Keep in mind that the chore system and the appointment calendar are new this year, so you won't see those.

I hope you love this planner.  It has been perfect for me and meets my needs in a way no other planner I've ever looked at could.  If you don't want or need anything fancy but crave something functional, then this planner is for you!

As always, please do comment below with what you think of the planner and with any questions you may have.

Enjoy!



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