Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Ultimate Planners

What do you think about when you hear Apologia?

Science, right?

Well, not so much anymore.  Apologia, as a company, has started branching out into other areas.  There's a lot of good stuff over there if you haven't checked them out lately!

Anyway, as part of the Mosaic's Review Team I received some planners, The Ultimate Planners, from Apologia to review.

Created by Debra Bell, author of The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling, these planners are designed with maximum flexibility and usability for families of all sizes and homeschooling styles.

This planner is designed to be used at the very beginning of your planning for the homeschool year.  Not only that, but it gives instructions on how to plan your homeschool year.  Not rigid instructions, but goal setting guidance and various "how to use" instructions.  In all my years of planning homeschool, I've never been instructed on how to do it, and let me tell you, the advice is wonderful - even for a seasoned homeschooler like myself.  I felt like we were covering definate goals and then breaking them down into manageable pieces.
Since I'm working with 2 younger children (Bear is technically K4 and Abby is PreK2) I listed the various "working areas" at the top (numbers, letters, Bible, character, phonics, hands-on) and then their names on the side (they each got 2 boxes) and then there is a box that I have labeled Together for the activities that we do together. 

There are a myriad of ways you can use this planner - subjects at the top, subjects at the side, etc.  All the options are laid out at the beginning of the planner. 

After the grid page each week there is a 2-page spread that allows you to write in prayer requests, weekly goals, hospitality goals and a space to record those special little things you want to remember (or notes, I'm using it for lots of notes).
The main goal of this planner is that Mom will have the guidelines in her planner and the weekly work will be transfered to the student planner. 
My littles don't read so we aren't using it, but it is a very standard planner with lots of space to write daily work, chores, etc. 

There is also a teen planner if your children are that age and I gather that it works well if your children are in public school also (our school supplies planners).

The MOM planner is $28, the STUDENT planner is $19 and the TEEN planner is $19.  These are nice, spiral bound planners.  My planner has a pocket in the front and has already been very abused - still going strong!

There will be a facebook party if you are looking for more information on Friday April 12th.

***As always, this product was given to me for free in exchange for an honest review as part of the Mosaics Review team.***  You can read other reviews of this product HERE

1 comment:

Proverbs 22:6 Academy said...

Love how you set up the "working areas" on the planning pages. Excellent ideas! Thanks for sharing.