A TOS Review: Homeschool Planet

I have a confession to make...I love so much about homeschooling. Our family has a lot of quality time together. I get to choose what topics and in what order my children are studying. I get to put the most important things first, which are their spiritual training and character development. But there is something that I absolutely dread - something I am not at all good at - organizing. Sometimes there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day. I am a complete scatterbrain! Organization was not a gift bestowed upon me. I overplan, miss deadlines, and always seem to throw another fun subject or activity into my poor kids' lives when I know there just isn't room, thus letting all of my multiple spinning plates come crashing down. I have tried planners, schedules, calendars, all. I have tried one for the whole family, one for each child, notebooks, online apps, and so many more. So to have the opportunity to review Homeschool Planet for the Homeschool Buyers' Co-op was a little daunting to my overwhelmed brain. But I was willing to give it a go, for the sake of giving my children some level of sanity within our crazy life.
Homeschool Buyers' Co-op is the world's largest buying club for homeschool families. They are able to find great deals on products and curriculum that will benefit homeschoolers and then offer those products at a group discounted price. They work hard to find quality products to share with us, but they had found many people like me who were discouraged with the homeschool planners available. So they developed Homeschool Planet, an online organizer created for busy homeschool families.
Homeschool Planet has a lot of great qualities. You can begin by setting up a profile for each member of your family. You can enter each individual subject, activity or appointment for a family member. Everyone has their own login and password so they can check their own schedule and mark off what they have done for the day. There is a printable option that you can give each child every day or week so the information is readily available to them. I know I will use this option most with Caleb, since he isn't very computer literate yet. 


There is also email and texting notifications available, in case they can't get on the computer or are away from the house, This will be a great tool for Connor. There is a way to see each person's calendar, or everyone's calendar - or whoever's calendar you want displayed! I personally keep my calendar set to display everyone's, but when the kids are on, they don't have to see everyone else's assignments. I really like the diversity in displaying all the information.


This is what I have my calendar set to - I can see everyone's assignments and appointments on one page, which is pretty handy for me. But I know it would overwhelm the kids to see all of this, so their calendars are set to show only their assignments.

When I go in to schedule their work, I can be as specific or generic as I need to be. I can give them book lists, supply lists, page numbers, book titles, and so much more. This can be a great tool for record keeping! Since we aren't doing a lot of formal schooling this summer, I was enjoying just playing around with the calendar. I added in some of the kids' assignments, then didn't check in for a couple days. I figured it would be a mess! But something really cool happened when I logged in after a couple days away. A pop up box appeared, giving me the opportunity to check off what had been finished. There was also an option to reschedule the assignments without me having to retype everything. Basically, the computer asked me if these assignments had been done. Here is a screenshot of what the pop up box looked like:


What a great tool for emergency breaks! (And you know we all have them!) I can just imagine if someone gets sick this winter, and I can just hit the move assignments button - it will be such a relief to not have to worry about it. 
Homeschool Planet offers so much more than just a lesson planner and calendar, ,though. I can't begin to tell you what all is on here, but I'll try. So here goes:

• Shopping lists that can be sent directly to your cell phone
• Daily scripture
• Attendance tracking
• Grading
• Transcript templates (I can't wait to use this - transcripts scare me!)

Now, I will admit, when I began, I was very overwhelmed. It didn't really help matters that I didn't have a lot to schedule at this time, so I had to wing it. There was definitely a learning curve for the first several days. But I hopped on the help board and found all these amazing tutorial videos on just about everything I had questions about. The only thing I'm still having trouble with is syncing with my cell phone. 

This planner is the best one I have found. I am excited about planning out the kids' schedules in the coming weeks to get our best foot set forward for the coming school year. There is so much that will help me with planning that I haven't even begun to uitilize all it has to offer. I think Homeschool Planet just may become my new BFF in the homeschool world!

You can follow Homeschool Planet on the following social media:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Google+

For more information from my fellow bloggers, check out their reviews here:

A TOS Review: Prasso Ministries

I love bible studies. I love the opportunity to dig deeper into the hidden treasure of the Father's love letter to us, His children. It is a highlight of our homeschool journey to share and discover truths from God's word together with the kids. Unfortunately, sometimes the family bible time gets pushed to the wayside in the summer, and this past school year, Connor was working through a separate Bible curriculum than the rest of us and often missed the time I spent with the younger ones studying the Bible. It seems that this review came at just the right time, giving the kids and me a chance to study the Word together using Prasso Ministries' two separate books, Teen Prasso Student Journal and Teen Prasso Teacher's Manual. The bible study is broken down into 13 lessons for a 12 week duration (the first week is an introduction).



The Teacher's Manual (the cover says Teaching Lessons) is set up to teach in a group setting, not for a typical family study or individual study. Each lesson is broken down into segments made up of a story and a message. The manual suggests you read the story in 3 parts interspersed with the message. I can see how this would be a good breakdown in a group setting. The story follows two brothers, Derek and Brandon, who take a long-dreamed-of mountain trek together. Their adventure is full of twists and turns and very engaging for teenage boys. Their journey is spread through the study, so you are basically reading a chapter with your group each week. The chapters have a key topic with a coinciding key verse, and are as follows:

• The Right Beginning - Proverbs 4:25-2
• The Map - Psalm 119:105
• The Bridge - 1 John 4:9-10
• The Storms - Romans 8:28
• The Enemy - 1 Peter 5:8
• Testimony -  no story, guest speaker
• The Two Opposing Fears - Proverbs 29:25, Proverbs 14:27
• Anger - James 1:19-20
• Forgiveness - Colossians 3:13
• Pride - Philippians 2:3
• Refocus - Romans 12:2
• Prasso - Philippians 4:9
• Eternal Eyeglasses - 2 Timothy 4:7-8

Being a family who reads aloud regularly, I found the breaks between the story made me lose momentum. So, in typical homeschool mom fashion, I revamped it to make it work better for my kids. We read the story straight through, then I went back through and shared what I felt would benefit from further discussion from the message sections.



The Homework Manual (the cover says Student Journal) is divided into the following 12 lessons:

1. God Your Heavenly Father
2. God’s Love
3. Why Doesn’t 1 + 2 Add up in My Life?
4. It’s All-Out War
5. The Enemy’s Lies…and Where They Lead
6. Pressure!
7. Anger
8. Forgiveness
9. Two Brothers – Pride and Selfishness
10. Refocus
11. Prasso, putting it all into practice
12. The Journey

There is a lesson for 6 days of every week. The first 5 days are reading scripture, writing scripture, and some critical thinking questions. Day 6 gives the student space to write what they learned or liked best from each day's lesson and then a set of questions to have completed for group discussion. Day 7 would be the day you would meet with your group or family.

Connor reviewed the first 3 weeks' lessons. While he enjoyed the introductions and topics of discussion, he found all the writing of scripture difficult. He liked the scripture, but felt there was a lot of reading for each day. The website said the lessons would take about 20 minutes a day, but he found them taking nearly an hour (again, that may have been due to the amount of writing, which isn't his strong point). So by the second week, he would spread the work of each lesson between two days, which he found much more manageable.

Chloe reviewed week 5: The Enemy's Lies and Where They Lead. She found the introductory theme very engaging - in fact, it has been a topic of interest to her for about a year. (The intro talked about Nazi Germany and codebreaking). She also remarked that there was a lot of writing. However, unlike her brother, she loves to look up scripture and copy it, so it didn't bother her at all. She actually prefers bible studies that have her copy scripture and memorize it because she said it helps her keep it in mind longer instead of just moving forward.

Overall, both the kids enjoyed the content of the study. I am looking forward to continue the lessons as a family, and the kids both said they will continue using the study.

You can follow Prasso ministries on their Facebook page.

Many other TOS Review Crew families got to work in Prasso. See what they liked about it here:

Back to Back Vacations

Aren't vacations supposed to be relaxing? Aren't you supposed to get away from it all, sit back and relax, sleep in? In this family? Eh, not so much! The kids and I went to Branson with April and her kids for five days, were home for about 24 hours, and then headed to Stockton to camp for three days. It was a lot of fun, but I think I am more tired than before the vacations!

Staying at a condo was nice. We had plenty of room for us all to spread out and enjoy our time together. The pool was fun, and the few things we got out to do were good, too. We played mini golf, ate at a fun country style restaurant with a giant chicken in the front, visited the horse stables at Dixie Stampede, went to Dick's Five and Dime downtown, walked the Landing, took old time photos at Buster's, watched the fountains, and got some Maggie Moo's Ice Cream. We also watched movies, played trivia games, and visited. There wasn't much downtime (how can there be when there are 10 kids under 16 together for so many days?), and we didn't do all we had intended. But it was a lot of fun, nonetheless.

Then we were headed home. Laundry, dishes, sweeping, unpacking, repacking. All of it is worth it for some lake time! Connor and Canon had asked a few weeks ago if they could have kayaks for their birthdays, and if they could get them early to enjoy them for the summer (their birthdays are August and September). Connor did a bunch of research and price shopping online, and he found a great deal on inflatable kayaks on Amazon. Now, I will admit, I was a little hesitant. I thought they'd be flimsy, childish, and super fragile. But turns out they are made with the same material that white water rafts are made. They are really cool! And the boys are loving them, which is what really matters.

There was no wind this weekend, so no sailing. But it actually turned out to be a good thing. We don't usually get to pull the kids behind the boat or jump off the rocks or just anchor out to swim because it's not possible under sail. So we enjoyed that opportunity while we had it. The kids jumped off the cliffs for quite a while, and even I got in on the fun of tubing. It had been a while, and I had a blast!

The fireworks were great this year. Some people didn't agree with me, so maybe it was just my perspective...you see, I got to watch them with Castle. Now at 2 and 1/2, this is really the first year he paid any attention to them. He was so excited, and it completely rubbed off! He'd scream and point and shout "Look at that one!", or "Whoa!!", or "That one's my favorite!" about every other firework. He loved every minute of it, and I can't remember enjoying them that much for a really long time. Seeing something new in your world for the first time is always a magical moment, and I'm so blessed that as a mommy, I've gotten to do it multiple times.

Now we are home, again. The swimsuits and towels are in the laundry, and we had pizza delivered for dinner. Because now that vacation is over, it is time for...day camp! I'm SOOO glad to be rested an ready for this week! (Insert sarcasm here!!) Praying God's strength and energy or all of us, and for His spirit to surround us!