Home Grown Hearts Academy Homeschool Blog: daily planner

Monday, July 13, 2015

Homeschool Planet - Homeschool Buyers Co-op Review

I'm a huge planner! Well not really, I'm a person, but I love planning. You see what I did there? Okay, I'll admit I chuckled a bit. Anyhow, I have tried many planners and honestly nothing has stood out to me as much as Homeschool Planet from Homeschool Buyers Co-op. I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to review it. I know my family is also very thankful. You ever notice how smooth things go with you are organized? Homeschool Planet has for sure helped me stay organized.

What is Homeschool Planet?

Homeschool Planet is a full-featured online planner that doesn't require hours to learn how to use it. All you have to do is launch Homeschool Planet, click on the calendar, and start adding your classes, assignments, and appointments! Since it is an online planner, you can use it anytime you have internet connection. There is no need to download any software.

What's the wonderful features?

I love the Calendar View that lets you see anybody's or everybody's calendars at once. It's nice to be able to see everyone's lesson assignments and appointments or just look at my stuff only.

A Planner View with a simple list of everything you need to do and when. I also love how I can view everything by the day, week, or month.

A Resource View that shows you all the books, DVDs, websites and more that you are using for your lessons

There are also a ton of Widgets you can add and use to do research, plan meals, send text messages, make shopping lists and more

You can even have separate logins to view assignments and check them off when completed.

Daily Digest emails to everyone in your family with their own schedule, assignments, and chores for the day. My husband has really enjoyed this. One afternoon my daughter said mom are we doing history today and my husband responded "No honey, that is Wednesday." I was so impressed. I mean seriously daily digest emails are awesome! They have allowed my husband to keep up with everything his daughters are doing in a better way than before.

Easy attendance tracking, grading and transcript creation

Shopping lists that you can text to your spouse or have sent to your smartphone when on the go. This has been such an amazing help. As soon as something comes to my mind, I add it. It has helped me not forget those things that I use to say "Oh, I'll remember"

Mobile Version -- Ability to view and edit your calendar on Smart Phones and tablets

Calendar sharing -- View the contents of your Google Calendar inside Homeschool Planet, and vice versa! This also works with Apple iCal and other online calendars. This has been very helpful as well. I had already added a ton into Google Calendar, so being able to join the info together was a very nice surprise.

Lesson Copying -- Copy any lesson for use at a later time by another student.

Another thing that I loved is the ability to customize it with the theme I wanted. It was also very easy to do in the settings area.

Another great feature is the show me! button. This button helped me understand so much. If I wasn't quite sure how a portion worked or what to do, I would push this button. After pushing it, a window with a video would pop up that would help me. Very, very helpful and I loved it!

Final Thoughts

I am blown away by Homeschool Planet. There is so much wonderful features. I'm so thankful that I had the chance to review it. It's for sure here to stay with our family. Now that I have it, I don't even want to think about life before it.

How much does Homeschool Planet Cost?

You can currently purchase Homeschool Planet for only $65 for a year

Want to try it out first?

You can get a FREE 30 Trial (no credit card needed)

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Click below to read more reviews from the Schoolhouse Review Crew

Friday, September 12, 2014

The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner ~ Review

I recently had the opportunity to review The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner from The 7 Minute Life. What a fantastic tool for organizing your life. I'm so happy to be able to use it. I've seen many planners in my life, but I've never quite seen anything like The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner.

What is The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner?

The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner is a 7.3" by 8.5" physical spiraled planner for adults that allows you to set priorities and stick to them, learn to avoid interruptions and distractions, master unfinished tasks, and declutter your mind and life.

How did I use The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner?

When I first received it, I was a bit anxious about it. I wasn't quite sure how it was going to work for me. I quickly learned that it was truly unlike any other planner I had ever came across. Not in a bad way either. I found that it challenged me to want to make changes and stick with them by planning and taking actions.

There is a wonderful and very helpful introduction included at the beginning of the planner. This section allowed me to understand the goal of The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner and what planning could do for my life. It also explained each section of the planner and how to easily get started using it.

I learned that by spending 7 minutes a day with The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner, that it would enable me to

Define my values
Discover my purpose
Set written goals
Monitor my physical health
Get rid of clutter in my life
Have a daily plan of action
Track my progress

I must admit, I was excited, because all of it sounded wonderful, but I still wasn't quite sure how it was going to work for me.

One of the first things the planner did for me, was challenge me to prioritize what values are most important to me. I was able to place a check mark next to the values that were important to me and then narrow them down to a top 10.

The next section challenged me even more, by asking me to write what my purpose in life is. I did write it, and I must admit, it felt great to write it out.

The next sections in the books allowed me to write out what I love to do, my strengths, rewards, mental clutters, personal, work, financial, and life goals. I was also able to write out unfinished tasks, home repair information, and connections. There is even a grocery list included. I enjoyed writing all these out. I have goals, strengths, and mental clutters. We all do, but I never realized how much more came to me as I began to write them down before my eyes. I had barely made it into the planner and I was already feeling like I was accomplishing something huge. I finally began to see how it was going to work for me.

The planner also includes an annual calendar at a glance, 90-day calendar worksheets, and a monthly calendar at a glance. The planner is not dated. I didn't mind though. I actually liked being able to fill the dates in as needed.

My favorite and most used section of the planner is called "daily progress report". In this section I was able keep track of my daily water and food intake, which was much needed. I was able to list daily contacts, unfinished tasks, what I spent, appointments, and five things I would do before 11. The five things before 11 was my absolute favorite. I found myself actually getting way more accomplished before 11 a.m. than I had before using the planner. It was exciting! Just writing them down and then doing them, left me with a wonderful feeling. I was able to focus on accomplishing the things that were important for my family.

There is also a voice mail area. I didn't really need a voice mail area, so I used that spot to write notes about our daily homeschooling activities and goals. It worked great for me.

The back of the planner has an area for notes and also includes an exercise progress report. I haven't used this yet, but plan on using it soon.

Final Thought

I found The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner to be a fantastic tool for organizing my life. It challenged me to write down and act upon goals and decisions. Like I stated before, it truly is unlike any planner I have used before. It's motivational and inspiring. It got me thinking and acting in a much more positive manner and that is always a wonderful thing. I highly recommend this planner to anyone wanting to prioritize, organize, and simplify.

How much does The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner cost?

You can currently purchase The 7 Minute Life™ Daily Planner for only $24.95.

Want to connect with The 7 Minute Life?