The current school year is ending, which means it is the perfect time to start the search for the perfect school planner. I was blessed to receive a copy of the Hey Mama! Print Schoolhouse Planner 2016-2017 from The Old Schoolhouse to review. They even threw in a giant, and very useful, SchoolhouseTeachers.com tote bag. I love them both!
The Hey Mama! Print Schoolhouse Planner 2016-2017 is a spiral-bound, soft covered homeschool organization tool. It is 192 pages thick and includes much more than just planner pages.
Homeschool Organization
The tone of the planner is very casual and yet inspirational. There is a note from Gena Suarez, publisher of The Old Schoolhouse, inside the front cover that is very uplifting and God-centered.
The Table of Contents reveals that in the first section, there are tiny informational calendars for 2016, 2017, and 2018, as well as 2-page monthly calendars with notes and Hey Mama! letters sprinkled in for monthly inspiration.
Each month begins with a brief letter written right to you, the homeschooling mama, and then is mirrored with a blank (but dated) lined page to write notes. Following that is the monthly calendar. The monthly calendars are dated and contain large squares for each date for that month.
This is a great place to put basic family responsibilities to keep them all in one place. It would be a good spot to put appointments, pet sitting or babysitting obligations, when you’ll be headed to your co-op, vacation dates, holidays, birthdays, and so on.
In the next section, there are plenty of homeschool forms. It begins with 90 pages of Weekly Planners and some more Hey Mama! letters and little historical factoids featuring some fun items like the spinning wheel, cast iron skillet, horseshoes and more.
The Weekly Planner pages are not dated. The titles for the columns and the rows are also left blank. This makes it possible to customize this as needed. I love that this gives the planner a lot of flexibility. You could easily list your children along the top or side and then list school subjects on the other section and fill in the blanks with their assignments if you’d like. You could also choose to track co-op activities and assignments in there. The possibilities really are wide open because it is a blank form where you fill everything in how you want it except the words Week of: ____________________ at the top.
Next are GOAL pages. First, there are Monthly Goals. There are 5 of these in the Hey Mama! planner. It has a place for you to write who or what it is for, and then below that it lists categories for your goals with a large space to fill them in. The categories are: Educational, Spiritual, Physical, Personal Talents, Life Skills, Financial, and Relational.
Next are 5 pages of Semester Goals. It is the exact same format with the exact same categories. Finally, there are 5 pages of Yearly Goals. Again, it follows the exact same format with identical categories.
Following the goals are 5 pages of Attendance Charts. Each chart is the same and has a place for the child’s name, the school year, and then 180 numbered boxes for checking off attendance each school day.
Next are 4 pages of Books Read This Year with a spot for the child’s name and grade, and then the title, author, and date completed for each book. There’s space for 20 books per chart, so it’s easy for students to quickly jot down what they read or are currently reading. I plan on using this section for me to actually keep track of books I am wanting to read!
Five Curriculum Planning Sheets are next. They have a place to note who it is for and the year. Then there are 7 places per page to write down information, including the subject, grade level, curriculum, price, vendor, and contact information. This would be perfect for being able to physically write down and keep track of the curriculum you are considering using for the upcoming year. It’s much easier to make sure you covered it all if you are able to see it all together like this.
The last pages of the Hey Mama! Print Schoolhouse Planner 2016-2017 consist of a Homeschooling Contact List, 36 General Writing Prompts, Story Starters, history and government facts and information, information on creating an academic transcript, a blank academic transcript for, and checklist and skills learned, and a sheet for other courses.
I will likely use this as my “work completed” log. I have a hard time using planners to write down assignments and such in advance, because we have to be very flexible with our schedules. Sometimes life throws us curveballs, and I feel like a failure if I can’t cross things off as originally written down.
Instead, I’ll be using it to record what we completed each day to keep track of it as it actually happened, rather than as my grand plan. 🙂 Since most of our curriculum already has a schedule of how to complete the assignments built into it, I can just jot down which lessons they completed on the day they were completed.
I love the story starters and writing prompts included in the back. I might choose one per week to have my kids write about for some awesome creative writing practice. The topics look like a lot of fun, such as, “When are you the happiest?” and, “Write a description of yourself using exactly 50 words. Do not make a list.”
Savings!
Are you interested in purchasing one for yourself? From now until July 15th, 2016, you can get $10 off the print calendar. That makes it $19 for US homeschooling mamas.
To see how others are using their Hey Mama! planner, click the banner below.