Creating Homeschool Independence with Online Schedulers

The opinions on independence and online schedulers in this post are my own. I was compensated for my time in mentioning Homeschool Planet.

How do you make sure your middle and high schoolers know their daily assignments? Some of us use plan books or whiteboards (in our case an exquisite slate board!). Some use calendars and custom homeschool planners. I like to use a plain spiral notebook for my own planning, but I like to provide my kids with a simple weekly list of the things they need to do by week’s end. Creating Independence with Online Schedulers is all about how we use daily and weekly lists and how they might benefit you.

Advantages of Homeschooling Independence

Every homeschooling mother dreams of when some of her children can work on their own. Some students are naturals and others need more guidance when the time comes. What are some reasons it’s good to be independent?

• Allows mom to work one on one with other students- We all need this from time to time, right? Basic skills like math and reading come to my mind especially when your kids are at various levels.
• Teaches students strategies for solving their own problems.
• Offers opportunities for ownership of work- This is necessary when students are ready for you to transition from teaching to mentoring.

Benefits of an Online Homeschool Scheduler

Many homeschoolers make use of a daily task list. What if you could make this list easily using an online format? How would this benefit your homeschool?

• Automated– So, once you type in the assignments, you don’t have to worry about making sure your student finds the list. It’ll be delivered to his inbox.
• Easy to find– Less likely to lose a device such as a tablet and phone compared to a piece of paper or a notebook.
• Available on mobile devices– All it takes is for the device to receive an email. The email contains the assignment list which is color coded.
• Receive assignments on the go– Or have a reminder of what those are when they are away from home.
• Takes advantage of digital oriented habits– Many students today already check tablets and phones during the day. Including their daily task list in this format makes the habit easy to stick to.
• Reminders can go beyond school assignments– You can choose categories for reminders and include items like work, volunteer jobs, field trips, chores, etc.

Homeschool Planet Online Scheduler

Homeschool Planet is an online scheduler and homeschool planner. I’d been searching a long time for something easy to use to give my kids an electronic task list without the overhead of a lot of other online and digitally formatted planning software. Here are a few things I’ve enjoyed about using Homeschool Planet:

• Set up is quick & easy– There isn’t a ton of information to be entered before being able to use the program. It has capabilities beyond what I need and if you are looking for more, you can keep records, attendance, grades, etc. But the bottom line is names of kids and their classes and a spot to put assignments. Done.
• Does not require setting up lessons– In order to use the features that make the task lists. This is so important if you just want a scheduler. I don’t need the historical data because I have to do a lot of reporting in NY State separate from what is recorded in online planners. I just want the scheduler.
• Entry of assignments is not time consuming– It’s pretty intuitive and adding assignments for all four of my kids takes only a few minutes.
• Emails assignments to my kids– I can pick how often and what they see on any given week, but every morning they’ll get an email with the tasks necessary for each subject for that day and it’s color coded. You can also send a weekly digest so they see the week ahead.
• Calendar Sharing– If you want to share your calendar (various formats available) you can do that as well. I like to keep things simple, but there are a lot of features.

Sign Up for the Free Trial

There is a 30 Day Free Trial of Homeschool Planet. You can get a free membership to Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op and try out Homeschool Planet free for 30 Days.

Homeschool Planet is $65 per year or $6.95 per month.

Relevant Posts from Blog, She Wrote

Using Ordinary Notebook Paper: Planners & Assignment Books– This method of using a spiral notebook transitions well to the online scheduler. In fact, that’s how I’ve been using Homeschool Planet. I continue to keep  my notebooks and choose this scheduler as the delivery method. There’s still no empty boxes and lots of freedom. The best part is how quick it is to transpose my plans into the online form and sit back as assignments are delivered daily to my kids!

Creating Opportunities for Your Homeschooled Teen– Speaking of independence and creating electronic task lists, how do we work with our high schoolers and help them to become more autonomous before leaving home?

How to Homeschool with a Kindle– Using an online daily scheduler is another great reason to use a Kindle in your homeschool. It’s an affordable way to enter the world of tablets and they’ve been such a useful tool for our kids.