Hey, Mama! Homeschool Planner for 2019/20 Year ~ REVIEW

In just a few months we will be in the rv full time and this Mom needs a homeschool plan.  Normally I fly by the seat of my pants, but recently I have been more of a planner girl.  For this next school year I have already started planning out the year in my Hey, Mama! Homeschool Planner for 2019/20 Year from The Old Schoolhouse®.  Let me tell you... the author, Gena Suarez has thought of everything a homeschool mama needs!

Right on the inside front cover is an encouraging letter to us homeschooling parents that I'm sure to reread a few times throughout the year.  And if you are unsure how to grade your students or put together an academic transcript, she has you covered.  She includes how to discuss your child's plan for after graduation and what a college or university will be looking for.  As a mom who has gone through this twice I found her information accurate and helpful.  But what needs documenting?  Don't worry, Gena has that covered too with a printed, easy to use transcript for the year, along with a checklist and skills learned page.

For Kaden I will be using this page a little differently, because his goals are different.  But, the bones is here and I can customize it to work for us.  This saves me the time from having to reinvent the wheel.  :)

Let me show you how I will use this handy gem. First I love the whole look at the year calendar.  I can circle when my husband has days off and holidays.  This makes for easy traveling, which we will be doing more of this next year.  You have the 2019, 2020 and 2021 calendars available for future and past referencing.

Throughout the school year you may find yourself riding a high one minute and the next finding yourself wondering what you were thinking when you decided to keep your kids home all day every day with you...alone.  And we all get that from time to time, which is why I know I will appreciate Gena's sweet encouraging words at the beginning of each month.  It will be like a pep-talk, friendly cup of tea, a seminar and church sermon wrapped all in one.  
Following that you find a great spot for the months notes.  This is where I will scratch out activities, recipes to try, field trip ideas and even shopping lists.  I like to keep it all in one place when it comes to our homeschool.  I have been known to pull out an old planner to see what I put in my royal icing from a gingerbread house making contest we had 5 years ago.  And it's all right there in my notes! :)

And then my friends is my most favorite section of all the monthly spread....Imagine me saying that real slow and drawn out. :)  All I can say, is look at them big blank boxes.  These are my brain pages, I used to carry a binder with me for years called simply my brain book.  I dump everything onto these pages.  If I showed you a completed one your eyes would fall out because I literally chicken scratch this page up big time.  And that's ok, it works for me.
 

And every weekend I transfer my messy parts for the following week into the nicely organized week of spread.  This will be much more organized.  All is right with the world once I get it into the weekly pages.  I love that these are not dated already, because some weeks I may not get things transferred over or we just plan old skipped a week.  The boxes make it easy to fill out and you have spaces for up to 5 kiddos.

Speaking of kids, the last section is full of record keeping goodness for up to 5 kids.  If you need space for curriculum planning for each child there is a perfect spot for that.  I do like to keep website addresses, numbers and passwords for vendors I use regularly.  Also, in this section is a place to record attendance and track each child's reading journey. 

I love this because I try to have a goal every year.  Kaden reads hundreds of books a year, so we will need the other 4 student pages to hold all his titles. :)

The yearly goals section I had the most fun with, Kaden wanted me to keep it private.  But, I still wanted to share this because your child's success isn't always in the form of a grade.  For instance I remember when Mahala's goal financially one year was to open her first bank account.  When Skylar wanted to work on his talents and took up guitar and voice lessons.  Education is a broad spectrum that I feel homeschooling allows a child to relish each season of their lives.  I usually look at their yearly goals and break it down with them into bite size pieces for the semesters.  



So, what did I think?  I think it's a wonderfully organized planner that has what I need to successfully plan out our homeschool year.  I appreciate that it's simple and not overloaded with a ton of extras that doesn't pertain to us. That is what I usually run into with planners.  I don't need to flip past world time zones, measurements and shopping lists every time I need to check our homeschool schedule.  If you are new to homeschooling or seasoned you will find this to be a blessing as start to plan and get organized for next year.  I highly recommend it, but hurry they've sold out of close to 98% of their print run, and after that, they don't plan to print more until next year. :O
Make sure you connect with The Old Schoolhouse® on social media and check out what other reviewers had to say about this planner below.
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter  
Pinterest
    **********