The product we received to review was a one-year subscription to Homeschool Planet.
I had the opportunity to review Homeschool Planet in the past, and I wanted to review them again to see the improvements and changes that have been made.
As soon as I received access I began entering information. To begin, I entered the information for our busy summer. The student is taking a college summer semester course through the dual enrollment program. His class meets Monday through Thursday, 8:00-10:00 a.m. I found it possible to enter this information. Either this feature has been improved or I just didn't figure it out before. There is an option, now, to select which days of the week the class will meet. Later you can adjust time on specific days.
For example, in the fall my student has a class that meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I created the class indicating that it meets from 12:30-2:00 p.m. However the class only meets at this time on Tuesday. On Thursday the class meets from 1:00-2:00 p.m. It was easy to go in and make that adjustment.
As the day goes by, the color fades, making it easy to see where you are on the schedule.
Once a week an email is sent to each email address you've given the program, letting the individual know what's coming up for the week.
In addition the program generates a daily email showing what's coming for the day.
In addition I found that you can use your Homeschool Planet desktop to send messages. So, for example, last night I signed my son up to take the SAT on August 26. I went to my Homeschool Planet schedule and put it on the schedule. At that time I could have also sent my son a message letting him know I got it scheduled and when. (In this case I know my son wants to finish his summer school class next week before I talk to him about any other upcoming school events.)
In addition I found I can add a widget for a shopping list, which I did. This is going to be so helpful for me! When I'm ready I can print the list or send the list! If my husband calls on the way home from work and says, "Do you need anything from the store?" I can email the list to him. It wants me to put a store name down, and I think it should be able to have a list for more than one store. I guess I would add another "Shopping" list widget to do more than one store list.
Also, did you notice my background color change? The original color was very pink, and I found a way to change it to a pale blue that I like better.
Homeschool Planet has a new feature: Lesson Plans. For the month of June, anyone who tries out the "Free 30 Day Trial" receives one free lesson plan. I was planning to use BJU Geometry next year, and Homeschool Planet has a Lesson Plan for that, so they gave me a BJU Geometry Lesson Plan to try out.
Things are always hopping here, and before I could enter my BJU Lesson Plans into Homeschool Planet, we had to have a family meeting with the student about Geometry. The student and the teacher were both struggling with working together. The student feels the teacher doesn't teach well, doesn't have a plan, and doesn't adequately hold the student accountable. The teacher does have a plan, feels the student doesn't respect this teacher the way he does other teachers, and concurs there is difficulty with accountability. All concerned decided to enroll the student in Geometry as an outside class with a local organization that conducts classes for home schooled high school students.
We did. So now we are no longer going to be using BJU Geometry. We are going to be using Saxon. I found Saxon Lesson Plans on Homeschool Planet, but not Saxon Geometry. It really wouldn't matter -- my son is going to need to follow the Syllabus handed out by his class, so I'm not sure a pre-created Lesson Plan would work for the class my son will be taking on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I still needed to be able to try out the Lesson Plan for BJU Geometry so I could tell you about it, because I had agreed to do that. So rather than muck up "J"s schedule with a class he is not really taking, I created a second profile for him called JD to use to set up the BJU Geometry Lesson Plans.
I was able to set up the Lesson Plan with ease once I had watched the Lesson Plan Tutorial.
And at the end of the tutorial it mentioned that there are a lot of tutorial videos available for Homeschool Planet. I had known that but had not previously found the tutorials. I have found Homeschool Planet intuitive enough to use without instructions, so I was doing fine before, but now I know I will be watching tutorials. I'm sure there is a lot I still don't know yet about Homeschool Planet that I will learn from them.
I am normally a paper planner type of gal, but I am just loving Homeschool Planet. I have learned how to log in from my iPhone, so now I can schedule things without having my paper planner. My phone is always with me! This is great! I am so thankful I had this opportunity to use Homeschool Planet for this, my last year of home schooling. I already don't know how I'll live without it next year. ::sigh!::
I highly recommend Homeschool Planet to you for your home school and your life! Go take a look and try it out for free for 30 days. Receive one set of Lesson Plans for free. I think you are going to love it like I do.
Other members of the Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Review Crew also reviewed Homeschool Planet. To read additional reviews please click on the button below.
