DISCLOSURE: I signed up for the free trial of Homeschool Planet and was compensated for my time to write this post. All opinions are my own honest thoughts.
I am an INTJ, the Mastermind, Scientist, or Architect type. This personality type is often portrayed in movies as the villain plotting evil schemes to take over governments or galaxies. Nice, huh? Well, we INTJs who don’t use our powers for evil, are very gifted at planning and organizing. It’s one of our most favorite things to do — mull over a problem and find a solution through careful thought, research, and putting different pieces together.
So the INTJ homeschool mom is a master planner. She collects curriculum catalogs like some women collect shoes. She has email folders full of teaching ideas from the best homeschool bloggers and keeps a detailed homeschool notebook full of inspirational articles, printable forms, and schedules. She has been known to spend more time planning an unit study than actually implementing it!
And she loves a great organizational tool like Homeschool Planet.
Of course, you don’t have to be an INTJ to appreciate Homeschool Planet. In fact, moms who struggle with organization are even more impressed by all the benefits this tool brings to their routine.
What I Love Most About Homeschool Planet Online Organizer
This tool will email you and your children reminders and daily/weekly digests. Or you can even get reminders as text messages! THAT is insanely smart. Homeschool Planet is a perfect tool for training kids to take accountability for completing work on their own and according to a schedule. There are no excuses for missing deadlines when they have clear reminders via text. (Aren’t they always on their phones, texting anyway?!)
Kids can have their own log-ins so they can see their assignments, check them off as complete, and leave you notes. What isn’t completed will automatically carry over to the next day so it’s not forgotten.
When you start out with Homeschool Planet, set up your calendar with what days you plan on having school and when you plan on taking holidays. Of course, it’s all easy to adjust when emergencies or illness occur. And the tool is so smart that it will automatically shift assignments down when you indicate that you missed school on a day you intended to have it.
It’s easy to set up repeating assignments —like something you do daily or weekly —with just a few keystrokes. You can drag and drop the assignments to reorder them easily. And you can color code them according to your preferences.
Of course, it has all the basic features you would expect in a homeschool planner: lessons, classes, multiple students, online record keeping, printable forms, etc. Plus the interface has the option to add widgets on the side of the main calendar panel with things like weather, shopping lists, and inspirational quotes.
Things That Are Great About Homeschool Planet But That I Wouldn’t Use
Because I have only one child, I don’t need the functions that help a mom of many, but for those of you with two or more children, this is a very practical tool. Not only can you create individual assignments and schedules for a particular child, you can also plan group work for two or more of those students. The planner will lay it all out in a visually clear way so that you can see what each child and what groups of children need to do according to your plan.
Of course, this applies to all activities and personal appointments, not just school assignments. So you can indicate things like co-op meetings, sports practice, and art lessons all within the same planner.
You can enter your own customized grading scale and use Homeschool Planet to figure grades for you. I never used grades until high school with Emma, but a lot of parents like to have numeric values for what they study.
But I’m a Pen and Paper Type of Homeschool Planner!
Yeah, I am too! But the forms are printable! And because you created them on the computer, they are neat and tidy. And instead of erasing and rewriting when life adjusts your brilliant plans, Homeschool Planet automatically shifts uncompleted tasks to the next day/week.
There are some minimal color coding functions within the tool itself, but if you need more color (like me), print on colored paper or attack your printed pages with highlighters or Sharpie markers to make them have the visual appeal you or your children need.
The thing is, until you try an online planner, you aren’t really going to know if you like it or not. So give it a try. And although you may be a pen and paper kind of planner, your child probably prefers something digital. As homeschool parents, we owe it to our kids to help them learn in their favored ways and organize their days in their favored ways. So if the communication between you and your tween/teen is breaking down when it comes to homeschool work, Homeschool Planet may be just what you need to bridge that gap.
Homeschool Planner FREE Trial
There is nothing to risk besides a few minutes of your time because Homeschool Buyer’s Co-Op offers a free 30 day trial of Homeschool Planet online organizer. First create a free account (or log into an existing account). Then sign up for the free trial. Be patient as it takes a few minutes for the emails to be delivered to your inbox, but once they come, you’ll get a direct link to the Homeschool Planet tool.
It’s strangely encouraging to read about another Mom who doesn’t really use grades for younger kids.
I’m an INTP…heavy on the research, but chill. I’m so chill now, I’m a borderline unschooler. Honestly, it’s not as fun as it was with my son(challenge of research and creation), but my daughter is doing great on her own with Khan Academy and other resources.
Catching up with you…love your blog.
I couldn’t stop laughing at your description of the INTJ homeschool mom. I WAS an architect before having kids. “She has been known to spend more time planning an unit study than actually implementing it!” Guilty!