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I am wondering if anyone uses a separate planner with HOD. I had bought the Well Planned Day planner before I had decided to go back to HOD, and now I am wondering if it will just be a waste of time and redundant. I am going to be running two guides, Little Hearts and Bigger Hearts and am using all HOD suggestions, including DITHOR, except for Singapore. We will use Saxon, which isn't hard to schedule, at all. Thoughts?

I sort of created my own planner on one sheet because of having multiple children. That way I can keep track and check off what we do easily. I have all three kids on one page for next year. I do write page numbers or one word to explain the activity in a box, but I don't go into details. I looked at other planners, but thought I needed something more simple for me.

What a great question, krazzymama! I, like you, am using multiple HOD books with math being the one exception, as we have MUS and DH has said to finish out what we have before we do something else. (ok, and reading for my little guy, we have Delightful Reading and an Abeka book...the money done runned out )
I used AND LOVED Apologia's Ultimate Homeschool Planner (did a major review of it and did a giveaway, in fact), but at the time, I was using Ambleside Online and needed a place to write it all done.
It worked then.
Because my watchword for this Year of the Pregnancy seems to be "SYSTEMS", I have been striving towards efficiency and simplicity. The idea of having to re-write all the lessons in my new planner for this year just flat-out wears me out. But then I think about having to add in the extensions, and latin. And I have a planner for my daughter (that goes with the Ultimate Planner) and I am wondering if that will be moot. She can write her assignments, short and list-form, but still -- is that really necessary?
Hmm. I appreciate the response you got, and look forward to reading what others have done.

Not really. I do have a planner I got from Targets dollar spot that I tried to use last year when my oldest was still at home. I put in all the days we wouldn't be able to school and then just wrote in the unit/day numbers for each kid on all the available school days. But it never matched up to what really happened and it just frustrated me. There are times we need a day to catch up on missed assignments, there are sick days, there are doctor appointments. something always comes up. I prefer to just open my manual to the next days plans and go rather than trying to keep up with a planner book.

Funny to see this post today because I ordered the Well Planned Day for the first time and it arrives today . I used a planner before HOD but then stopped 4 years ago when I began using HOD for the same reasons you all have said ... it wasn't needed and it was just added stress and time. It was wonderful to only have my calendar to deal with and no planner. Another blessing of how well HOD is planned out and works . Now my oldest is one year away from High School so I decided that this year would be a good year to use a planner again to help me get ready for all the keeping track that will be needed for High School the next year. I like that I can keep everything in one place with the Well Planned Day Planner. I plan to use the daily check off boxes to randomly post in grades. I am a little overwhelmed thinking of using one again but with High School on the horizon it seemed like the time ... we'll just have to see how it goes .

I think I'd like to hear how it goes with older kids, I'm thinking we won't use it for now.

I hvae 4 kids, we use a different math and I add latin. I don't do formal schooling with my little ones in K-2 so I no longer do the youngest levels of HOD. But, I do plan things to do with them and like to be systematic about it. I don't want to re-write HOD but I do like a daily checklist for everyone and I like to have a place for homeschooling and home plans...schedules, appointments, lessons, fieldtrips, chores, when bills are due, etc. I've been using Cozi and like that it sends me reminders and such, can be synced online and on my phone, but it doesn't do lesson plans. So, I'm looking at the Well Planned Day ONLINE planner, rather than written, and it will be like Cozi on homeschool sterioids It will help me stay organized b/c that's just how my mind works, and it will help me plan every thing for our days accordingly based on outside "stuff" and everything else. If we have a busier day with HOD plus an appt, I can move Latin over a day...if we miss a day of school for unexpected visitors, etc., I can move the whole day over. It will let me keep a portfolio for each child, which is required by our state. I can keep pictures and documents, etc. in folders for each child (as many as needed for each child...math, WWTB, art work, project pictures, field trips, etc.) and I think it will be incorporating a reading log which we also have to have as part of our portfolio. Once you enter the plans (which HOD plans will simply say "Do Ind History Box as instructed in guide" or whatever, you never have to enter it again for future kids coming into that level...you just assign it! It will also serve as our proof of completion and attendence without having to write in the guide that I"ll have four students going through! I can also document goals and when they're met (like the goal of moving from very guided written narrations to less guided, then to no guiding, etc. ).

If we didn't need any of this, or my mind wasn't in need of "all in one place planning", I'd skip it. The guides are so clear and easy to follow. My daughter also gets distracted when seeing the directions all written in the boxes and seeing a printed checklist of "Do this box" is easier for her to manage her time than the boxes with the directions. She can see her printout for the day and know what she has to do, but refer to the guide for specifics. She can easily follow the directions, it's just how her mind works...I've always been the same way. I need my basic list to outline my days, then my detailed list for the same things but with all the details. LOL

I agree that a planner is not necessary.

With that said... I do use Homeschool Tracker the way mom2monkeys decribes her planner. It is really for MY benefit because I am a box checker and don't like to write in my guide. Often my "planner" is just more work for me!

I may make some changes this summer. I have one student going into high school and I would like for her to be more responsible in planning her week. She will be taking an outside Biology class.

I do use a planner (the well planned day), although instead of using it as a 'planner' I use it
to keep track of what we have already done. It is mainly for me and not the children's benefit.
I really need this to stay on track! At this point in I have time to do it. In part because between the hours
of 8:30am -11:30am, we don't do anything except school and training time.
Bottom line, I think the use of a planner is a personal one, that will vary from family to family.

I have been using Scholaric this year and love it! I don't type out all the isntructions for HOD, I just type in Unit 2 day 1 and so forth. But I do put in ours math and spelling because we do a different curriculum. I like it because it lets me know when we will be finished with a certain book, or subject so I can plan accordingly and get the next one from the library, or get the next level of curriculum.

I really like it because if you miss a day (sick day or unexpected field trip etc) you can "bump" that assignment to the next day and it bumps the entire series. If you work ahead you can bump earlier too. It keeps track of attendance and hours to those that need to do that. I'm a box checker too and I love seeing the days work completed.

Best of all it's only $1/month per student with a 5 student max! There is a free trial period to see if it will work for you. the developer is a homeschool dad and he is super responsive to requests and is updating the program frequently. I use it exclusively on my iPad and have no problems at all.

I know you don't really need a planner with HOD, but it's my nature to want to plan lol. And I love Scholaric because it is really like a paper planner with electronic capabilities! Nothing extra, just what you need. It's not as pretty as some programs, but for $1 I'll deal with that!

Ok, I haven't ever even looked at any of the planners that you gals are talking about. BUT, I can tell you that I like being organized and my memory seemed to be a little shaky the last 2 years while pregnant. And, I just use HOD's guides as is, and we know exactly what we've accomplished. I have a post-it tab on the page we're on in the guide, and we use a colored pencil to make a check mark in the corner of each box as it's finished. As we go through the guides: Grant is orange; Allison is pink; and Garret is blue. Each day my planning consists of moving the sticky tab for the younger ones...Grant moves his own. Wha-la!! Couldn't be simpler! And, I know that all my bases are covered. (To me it would definitely seem redundant to recopy anything from the guide.)

Kathleen

I just want to add if we didn't have a different math and were.on.the same lesson for grammar for oldest and ssame.lesson.for.grammar, cursive, emerging readers, spelling for next child smd Latin.for both....id probably be fine.without a planner. I have multiple tabs per child in each book to mark where we are for each subject. I get overwhelmed easily snd no one can just pick up smd go to help me.if I were gone out one day. lol. my system is MY system but a planner would make it clear for everyone. me, kids, dad, any helpers.

I use a planner but not to actually "plan" if that makes sense

I have a Class lesson Planner that I 3-hole punched put into a binder with my HOD manual (punched & in binder too). Instead of writing what we need to do, I write in what we have accomplished at the end of each day. It helps me keep track of our progress. Plus, I can make notes if one of my dc is struggling, needs to review a lesson, or even if I want to remember something they did/said. More of a journal than a planner. I also write in extras for each unit (coloring pages/websites to visit/field trip ideas/crafts/experiments/etc).

Kathleen wrote:... I just use HOD's guides as is, and we know exactly what we've accomplished. I have a post-it tab on the page we're on in the guide, and we use a colored pencil to make a check mark in the corner of each box as it's finished...Each day my planning consists of moving the sticky tab for the younger ones...

This is exactly what we do, and it works oh so well! The upper HOD guides especially are already like student planners, and I have actually begun to check each box myself too as we have our midpoint meeting time together. Works great for a planner for both my ds and for me!

However, I know others may enjoy a planner and find it a convenient place to write other things as well (i.e. chores, grocery list, errands, etc). We have another system in place for these things that works well for us. In general, if your planner doesn't take much time and alleviates stress in your life - it's probably worth it. If it is a time stealer and stresses you out to keep up with, I'd ditch it as it truly isn't necessary with HOD. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

I used Well Planned Day last year-I was wanting something where I could write what we got done (we sometimes do half days), or outside appointments, or chores all in one place. The well planned Day ended up frustrating me because the subjects didn't fit HOD's boxes. I basically used only the attendence records in the back of the book consistently.

This year I'm going to try one that I made. I put charts of the HOD boxes arranged as they are in the manual and shrunk to fit a week's worth on one page. We have really tiny boxes where I can just put a checkmark, or a grade if I decide to do that for my older daughter this year. Left page for Preparing, and Right page for Beyond/LHTH. Then on the back of those is just a basic page with lines for each day of the week where I can write down outside appointments, phone calls I need to make, bills I need to remember, or chores, etc.

Now I just need to get them bound in a way that I can use them