One of my favorite tasks for homeschooling has always been organizing and planning my daughters’ studies each year.  I love researching the market for new and better programs, and I have a slew of bookmarked websites to prove it.  But despite eight years of chances, I never could keep my homeschool organized.  Instead, I’m forever gaping with awe and envy at other homeschool parents who always seem to have their act together.  Every year I’ve searched for a planner that would help me keep both my homeschool and my home organized, but I've never had much luck.  This summer, however, I’ve found a planner that seems more user-friendly than the others--The Well-Planned Day.  For those “nosy parents” who are looking for a way help their kids keep track of their lives, take a look at this!

The first thing that attracted me to The Well-Planned Day is the way it integrates both school and household tasks.  Because a homeschool is part of a family’s daily home life, this integration meets one of my first needs for a perfect planner.  I prefer to keep a small planner in my purse for keeping track of daily appointments, but I want something bigger for my home management. This planner is a full-size 8 ½ x 11”, which offers plenty of room on the page for my messy scrawl. And although I at first looked askance at the soft cover, thinking it would be in shreds by Christmas, I soon noticed the hole-punched and perforated paper.  Problem solved! I have several empty protective binders on my shelves.

The design of the main scheduling pages is what really won me over, though. The bulk of the planner is made up monthly calendar pages, each of which is followed by enough weekly assignment pages for that month. These are designed so that parents can write in assignments for up to four students. The subjects are pre-printed on each assignment page, which is a minor problem for people like me who follow a curriculum that wander outside of this structure. However, the margin allows enough room to write in my own subject names, and the bottom of the page provides four assignment sections that leave the subject title lines blank.

The best part of the assignment pages for me is the way they are designed to include room for our weekly dinner menu,  weekly priorities, and weekend activities (hey, education doesn’t stop on Friday, right??).  The only thing I don't really like is the weekly catechism question.  This feels out of place to me.  Although we certainly value catechetical study, I would rather the space was set aside for extra-curricular reminders or a similar practical planning tool.  

Considering how well-designed the main pages are in this planner, I would not have expected to be excited by the secondary features. In my experience a planner’s design tends to falter in either the primary or the secondary features. This planner is full of great extras, however. Even better, the designer somehow managed to include them without making the planner unwieldy (it's about 1/2" thick).  Not all of them are useful to me (my husband manages our household finances on his computer, for instance), but most are.  Because it would make this post too long, I can’t discuss all of the extra features here, but here is a list of the ones that interested me most:

*an hourly student schedule from “early a.m.” to “evening”—this is the first planner I have ever found with this feature, although it one I've always needed.  Do you know how much effort I’ve had to expend to create one on my computer?  Do you??

* a 2-page yearly planner for each student that includes space for listing chosen programs, extra literature, the weekly hourly schedule (see my song of praise above), and my homeschool expenses for each semester (not itemized, though).  Neat and concise, short and sweet—just my style.

*six little tear-out shopping lists for each month that I don’t really need but would use just because they’re cute.

*a daily attendance record and a weekly grade record.  There’s even space to record your grading scale, as well as “progress and accomplishments” that can’t be reflected on a grade record.  Cool!

*REPORT CARDS!!  Okay, maybe this isn’t a big deal for you, but I think this feature is absolutely wonderful.  They aren’t just simple pages in the planner, either. These are pretty, tear-out, traditional report cards on cardstock, enough for four students. My son might not like the pretty little flowers embellishing his permanent record, but hey, if it makes my life a little easier, c'est la vie!



* …which brings me to the last feature I’d like to mention.  The design of this planner really is lovely.  The floral motif gives the planner an air of elegance and grace, and I like that most pages contain a Bible verse or inspirational quote. It’s nice to have something both pretty and meaningful to look at each day in something as mundane as a planner. The only thing I would add is the daily liturgy readings, feast days, and Pope John Paul II’s daily rosary schedule. Maybe the company will consider a Catholic version someday, but for now this is an ecumenical version which can be easily used by anyone. 

I do not know how much longer I’ll be able to homeschool, because life has been pushing my family back to traditional school, despite my preferences.   However, when fall arrives this year, The Well-planned Day will be in hand as I plan for any of my remaining children who end up staying home.  Why not consider giving it a try yourself?  Enter my planner giveaway for one lucky winner, and you might even get to use it for free this year!  The giveaway ends July 25!!

**For legal reasons, this giveaway is open to US residents only.**

By the way, did you know that HEDUA has an affiliate program? If you are a blogger and would be interested in earning money just for sharing what you love click here for details: http://hedua.com/cart/index.php/affiliates/.  
 

Once upon a time, I loved school.  I loved the routine, my desk, the classroom buzz, and new school supplies.  I liked most of my teachers, and I usually did well. When I had children, I had every intention of putting them into the best school I could find, before homeschooling finally hooked me.  Within two years I had very different perspective of traditional school that pretty much ruined it for me for good. Now I could see things about it I'd never seen before, things I didn't want for my children.  One of these was the way schools tend to approach literature. 

Because of various circumstances, we are making a complete transition back to traditional school, much to my regret--but thankfully in schools that meet my ideals halfway.  Because both of the schools we've used are Core Knowledge, neo-classical schools, the literature selections are chosen to align with this educational approach.  So far, so good.  Core Knowledge isn't my ideal curriculum, but it is a pretty safe and solid one.  Even so, more than once I have found myself faced with the dilemma of whether to raise a stink about the literature presented to my children or whether to let it go.  For example, this year my 5th-grade daughter's class was required to read Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott.  If you've read this novel, you know that it is a wonderful, uplifting story that has earned its right as an American classic.  But you also know that it is over 400 pages long and that the book leaves the childhood of the March girls behind long before the  end.  In fact, at least half the novel is fairly adult, chronicling their romances and marriages, childbearing and dream-seeking.  It is not a 5th-grade book!  Yet, because of the Core Knowledge guidelines, this is what they had to read throughout most of 5th grade.  How many other wonderful, classic 5th-grade books did they pass up to read a book that could easily wait until high school?  I confess, I don't understand.

I am thankful, of course, that at least the novel doesn't conflict with our family's values, but this is only one mild example of a dilemma concerned parents face when they send their children to school.   Sometimes I think that the literature students read does not get the attention it deserves from parents. It is powerful stuff, more powerful than math, science, history, or writing. Why? Because in it our children confront life and ideas head-on.  Literature transports them to other lives and fills their heads with new insights and perspectives that will remain somewhere deep inside them for the rest of their lives.  Like all art, literature reaches down deep inside of us and changes us in ways we may not notice, at least at first. 

I would like to talk more about this sobering topic in another blog, but for now I will leave it hanging with a single question for those who, like me, have children in a traditional school:  Have you ever looked closely at the literature your child is being asked to read?