Homeschool Student Planner #hsreviews

My oldest is now responsible for logging her own school hours with her new student planner that we received for review from My Student Logbook.  She now daily can write what she is to do(or I might still do it for her) and check off when she is done with her new homeschool student planner also known as the My Student Logbook.  

We received the undated logbook.  Our so cool book has horses on the front of it!  It’s a known fact that our house is a horse loving house.  There are several different covers to choose from which makes it easy to get something your child will like and enjoy.  You also have some choices on what format you receive the logbook in.  You can get a PDF of the logbook to download and print on your own.  This option is $10-20 depending on whether you get a family use option or a single use option.  You also have the choice with all of the planners of being dated(for the school year) August 2014 through July 2015 or a calendar year of 2015 or what we received which is the undated format so you can put your own dates in the top for each day you’re using it.  Each of the physical books is $15.  You get to choose dated or undated and what cover you would like.  The PDF does not give you cover options.

 

So to review quickly with you.  We received an undated student logbook with a horse cover which would have cost $15.  These are geared towards children who are old enough to accept some responsibility for their own school work.  Ideally this would be for a child in 2nd grade or up.  The student I have using it is 9 years old and in 3rd grade.  She is doing really well with this and I’m loving that I don’t have to do quite so much work.  I can see myself getting more of these so that each of my children has one.  I think that as long as I was the one writing in the assignments that my younger children could mark off their work as well.  Thinking of record keeping and the amount of time this would save me!  In my state you have to start keeping records the first school year that they are 7 years old.

 

 

Some features of the planner are:

• one colored page divider
• one all about me page
• one prayers and goals page
• one Bible verse memorized page
• three books read pages
• three events/projects/field trips pages
• three test record pages
• one year highlights page(for their favorite parts of the school year)

My daughter loves to read and I can easily see the three pages for books read as not being enough for her.  I’m thinking she’s going to need a separate notebook JUST for all the books she’s read!

Let’s talk a bit about using the planner.  You simply write down the tasks.  The pages fold over so you can use the same list of tasks for week after week as long as it’s not too specific.  For instance, on ours we have such items as do one lesson in math, do one lesson in handwriting, do one lesson in spelling/vocab, etc.  So, in essence we won’t have to write out our list again unless we change our daily tasks.  You can also include other things on here as well.  Such as if your child has any chores that they would like to be able to check off.  Things like water the dog, take out the trash, make your bed, etc.  This is a great way to start ensuring some responsibility and accountability with those chores as well.  

This is a DAILY planner so anything that your child should do daily can be added.  I can see this as being a wonderful tool anytime you add something new that they might not remember to do. Instead of constantly reminding them you would just have to tell them to make sure they completed all the tasks in their homeschool daily planner!  As a busy mom of many I like that this could help me keep track of who has what chores and make sure they are getting done.  My kids love being able to check or mark things off a list(they may or may not have gotten that from me– the list queen) and this is wonderful for them!

So, are we enjoying our My Student Logbook? Yes we are!  My daughter loves hers and I love that she loves it and that it is making my days a little simpler.  I also like that it is a physical record of her school work that I can keep as part of my homeschool records.  Do I recommend this product to others?  Yes I do.  A great big yes we do recommend this.  Anything we did not like about the planner?  Honestly, the only con I can see about this planner is that with the particular student I am using it with their aren’t enough pages for the books she reads!  And that is a good con indeed.

Interested in learning more about our new homeschool student planner?  Check out the Main TOS Crew Blog Page to see what other members have thought of theirs.  We all received a logbook to review though covers and date choices were different.  You can also find them on facebook and YouTube.