TOS CREW: TOS 2009 Schoolhouse Planner

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine has done it again by producing another great planner. New topics, 24 new recipes, and 40 additional new forms are included in this 2009-2010 edition of the planner. What is great about this planner is the you can type on them and then print them out as you need them. There are 375 pages in this down-loadable file, so it is a big download!

Calender / monthly planner for 2009-2010

What I like about this part of the planner is the monthly themes. I always want to have a monthly topic that my entire family can work on together. This gives articles and suggestions for completing the topic of the month. Additional modules are released each month to enhance these topics, but they are an optional purchase.

Themes this year include:
13 colonies
Weather
Math
Fire Safety
American Government
Planets
Letter writing
Jesus' first miracle
Latin and Greek Roots
Getting into College
Lapbooks
Homeschooling around the world


Miscellaneous Homeschool Information

Composers, inventors, seven wonders of the world, presidents, periodic table of elements, and more.

School Forms

There are all sorts of useful forms in this section. So many, that I doubt I would use many of them. But if you are looking for it, it is probably here. Report Cards, tracking high school hours, weekly planners, course of study, curriculum planner, bible memorization record, books read, multiple journal and nature pages, book report forms, a preschool planner with checklist and activities, and new this year is the multiple children planner for up to 5 children. There are way too many forms to list here!

Household Forms

Here you will find traditional forms for the home. Emergency numbers, information for the babysitter, medical information, home-keeping schedule, home improvement forms, schedules, chore charts, meal planning, grocery lists, budgeting forms, prayer journal, pet forms, car maintenance forms, vacation planning, and garden planning forms. TOO MANY TO LIST!

What I like about the planner:

- that you can type on the pages before printing them out to personalize them

- the variety of forms available

- monthly themes to bring the family together on one topic

- availability of monthly modules to supplement planner

What I don't like about the planner:

- large size of file to download

- most forms (except the chore charts which are multi-colored) are just two colors - black and maroon/red colored. I would rather they just be black and white. This is easily fixed by "telling" my printer to print in only black and white.

- I wish they had the option of buying it on a CD.

- more forms then I would use (but this goes on both lists depending on how you look at it.)

- wish they included a blank monthly calender

- wish you could buy modules on a subscription basis at a reduced cost

- cost: $39.95 makes it difficult to purchase on a yearly basis. Would like to be able to purchase updates only at a reduced cost.

You can purchase this at The Old Schoolhouse Website by Clicking HERE!

The Schoolhouse Planner

The Schoolhouse Planner is the most complete planner I have found. There are so many useful pages through out. I love the fact that it is in e-book format so it makes it so easy to print any page on demand. No need to worry about having access to a copy machine or a trip to Kinkos. The forms are also typeable so I can type what I want on the forms and print it. An added feature I haven’t seen in other e-book formats is the ability to save the information directly on the form and come back to them again later.

There is just about any thing a homeschool household would need. In fact, I believe any household would benefit from this planner. There are so many types of planning pages that this short list won’t give it justice. In addition to yearly calendars and monthly calendars through June 2009, some examples of planning pages are: appliance and electronic inventory, pet care, garden planning, budgeting, menu planning, chores, bible reading plan, as well as the typical homeschool planning pages, like progress reports and curriculum planners.

For each month in the calendar pages there is an article of encouragement, homeschool idea, or other household suggestions, a couple of family friendly recipes, a theme for the month with charts (like great composers, states and capitols, presidents) and clickable links to more resources that fit that months theme. I especially like this because it organizes our school year around a monthly theme that we can study together in addition to everyone’s independent studies.

Also included are copies of many important US documents like The Deceleration of Independence and The US Constitution. There are even charts for use in the kitchen. So do you see how this can be useful in ANY household?

Overall I think this is the best planner out there. Much time and preparation went into making sure that everything a homeschool household would need is in here. This isn’t just a bunch of pages to print off, there is a description with a brief explanation for every planner page. Whether you are a seasoned pro at organizing your homeschool or your homeschool needs a major overhaul, the tools given here may be just what you need to help get your homeschool on the right track.

To see a free preview of the planner or to purchase it click here.