It’s that time of year again. It’s time to start thinking about a new school year and how you’re going to keep yourself organized as a homeschooling parent. Like traditional schooling, organization is crucial in homeschooling. To help you sort through the countless physical and digital homeschool planners, we’ve built this list of the best homeschool planners.
For its price and features, our favorite homeschool planner is the A+ Homeschool Planner. As a bonus — our favorite digital planner is Homeschool Planet. Whether you’re looking for the best planner for homeschool moms or the best homeschool lesson planner, there is one here to fit your needs and budget. Keep reading to find the perfect planner for a successful school year.
Our Top Picks: Best Homeschool Planners
This article takes you through the best physical and digital homeschool planners. We’ll start with an overview of all the options — physical and digital — then take a detailed look at each one.
Physical Planners
If traditional pen and paper is your preferred way to track your student’s assignments and progress, check out one of these physical homeschool planners:
- Best Overall: The A+ Homeschool Planner. The A+ Homeschool Planner is one of the most robust and thorough physical homeschool planners on the market, and it’s our overall top pick.
- Best Runner-Up: The Homeschool Planner. Stylish and flexible, the un-dated pages of The Homeschool Planner make it easy to customize your homeschool planner.
- Best Budget: Blue Sky Academic Planner. Blue Sky has been a favorite brand of planners for years. It will make a perfect addition to planning your homeschool curriculum.
- Best Creative: Leuchtturm 197 Notebook. To get a little creative with your homeschool planner, try transforming a bullet journal into how you track your students’ progress and achievements.
- Best Splurge: Me & My Big Ideas Planner. Large and sturdy, the Me & My Big Ideas Planner is one of the most thorough planners for homeschooling curriculum and tracking everyday life.
Digital Planners
If you’re more digitally savvy and prefer a homeschool planner that is entirely online, check out these online homeschool planners:
- Best Overall: Homeschool Planet. Homeschool Planet is our favorite digital system for tracking your student’s progress and assignments. Its intuitive interface makes using the system simple.
- Best Runner-Up: Well Planned Gal Planner. Our second choice is Well Planned Gal for its ability to track everything your student needs via at-a-glance lists, dates, and events.
- Best Budget: Homeschool Skedtrack. Homeschool Skedtrack is the budget pick for best online homeschool planners because it’s completely free and comes equipped with the tools you need.
- Best Simple: Scholaric. Intuitive and straightforward, Scholaric is ideal if you’re looking for a minimal system to track the basics of your homeschool curriculum.
1. The A+ Homeschool Planner
The best homeschool planner overall
Publisher: Rockridge Press / Format: Paperback / Pages: 260 / Binding: Standard / Price: 💰💰
Plan, record, and celebrate your homeschooled student with this A+ Homeschool Planner. Its layout is designed with homeschooling in mind as an all-in-one planner that will help make your homeschool routine as seamless as possible. You can map out educational goals and track your student’s progress. It supports up to 6 students. It even comes complete with motivational quotes to inspire your student’s education. Users consistently report that this homeschool planner is easy to use and concise, making it our overall top pick.
Reviewers Like
- Spacious
- Easy to use
- Clear, concise
Reviewers Dislike
- Binding sometimes hard to use
- Huge book that doesn’t always sit flat when in use
2. The Homeschool Planner
The best homeschool planner runner-up
Publisher: Paper Peony Press / Format: Paperback / Pages: 192 / Binding: Spiral / Price: 💰💰💰
As our second choice for the best homeschool physical planner, The Homeschool Planner is stylish and flexible to your educational preferences. These pages are un-dated, allowing you to start at any time. It includes attendance sheets, reading and grade logs, a book wishlist, and much more.
Author Jennifer Pepito has been homeschooling her seven children for 23 years. She has consolidated her many years of experience into this one easy to use homeschool planner.
Reviewers Like
- Also available as a digital download
- Not restricted to a certain year or period
- Allows learning material to perfectly cater to students
Reviewers Dislike
- New to the market
- Have to handwrite in the dates before using
3. Blue Sky Academic Planner
The best homeschool planner on a budget
Publisher: Blue Sky / Format: Paperback / Pages: 74 / Binding: Spiral / Price: 💰
Blue Sky is well-known for producing high-quality planners in a variety of formats. If you’re seeking a homeschooling planner at a cheaper price point — make sure you aren’t sacrificing quality. This academic planner from Blue Sky features solid construction, but at a reasonable cost. Reviewers positively remarked on the great organization and layout of this planner. Many cite the extra room to make notes for future events and deadlines being a big selling point. The one most significant criticism is the weak spiral binding that fails to hold the planner together with a lot of handling.
Reviewers Like
- Tabs to separate months
- Spacious for taking detailed notes
- Week spread across two pages for maximum space per day
Reviewers Dislike
- Weak spiral binding
- Much thinner paper compared to previous editions
4. Leuchtturm 197 Notebook
The best creative homeschool planner
Publisher: Leuchtturm1917 / Format: Hardcover / Pages: 249 / Binding: Standard / Price: 💰💰💰
You’ve likely heard of bullet journaling, but have you ever tried using the bullet journaling method for homeschool planning? If you’re looking to get creative in designing your own monthly, weekly, and daily layouts and tracking systems for your students, this is an excellent option. This layout is fully customizable — you can add as little or as much detail as you want. This method also allows you complete control over prioritizing what is most important to your teaching style.
Reviewers Like
- Numbered pages
- Back pocket for storing important notes and papers
- Customization that goes far beyond the average planner
Reviewers Dislike
- Cannot easily tear out pages
- Thin paper, so some pens bleed through
5. Me & My Big Ideas Planner
The best physical homeschool planner when money is no object
Publisher: Me & My Big Ideas / Format: Hardcover / Pages: Varies / Binding: Spiral / Price: 💰💰💰💰💰
Coming in close to $50 is the Big Ideas Planner from Me & My. It’s almost entirely customizable and comes complete with many features that most other planners on the market don’t offer for homeschoolers. Not only is it organized for optimal monthly, weekly, and daily organization, but it also provides memory keeping space. You can track your student’s achievements throughout the school year and reflect on these accomplishments at the end. There is plenty of journaling space for you to make notes and comments.
Reviewers Like
- Beautiful design and sturdy structure
- Excellent for tracking more than just daily activities
- Lots of space between months for additional journaling
Reviewers Dislike
- Does not ship well from the company
- Corners bend easily if moved around a lot
6. Homeschool Planet
The best online homeschool planner
Publisher: Homeschool Planet / Platform: Desktop & Mobile / Customizable? Yes / Free Trial? Yes / Price: 💰💰💰
Tech-savvy homeschooling parents have nothing but great things to say about Homeschool Planet. We’ve named it our overall best online homeschool planner. There is a separate login for every student and family member, which allows you to fully customize what each person can see. The layout for assignments, appointments, and deadlines is all in one place that is intuitive to navigate and understand. You can create your own school calendar, add web links, and upload PDFs for the student’s reference. It’s truly one of the best online homeschool planners.
Reviewers Like
- Additional widgets for daily quotes, to-do lists, and more
- Options for entering assignments automatically to save time
- Sends “Daily Digest” reminders to students with the day’s assignments
Reviewers Dislike
- Lesson plans are an additional cost
- Ability to set weighted grades, but takes more time
7. Well Planned Gal Planner
The best online homeschool planner runner-up
Publisher: Well Planned Gal / Platform: Desktop & Mobile / Customizable? Yes / Free Trial? Yes / Price: 💰💰💰💰
Modern and sleek, Well Planned Gal’s online homeschool planner is perfect if you’re looking for one place to store your academic and life to-dos. It provides features for coursework as well as chore lists and other household-related tasks. Users can get limited access to the features with advertising for free. To skip the ads, opt for the paid version with no ads and all the features. Its intuitive interface makes it easy to batch assign projects, easily see what is due on a single day, and incorporate course schedules into your curriculum.
Reviewers Like
- Several users allowed at once
- Option to color code assignments on dashboard
- Bulletin where everyone can share lists, memories, and more
Reviewers Dislike
- Pricier than other online planners
- A good deal of time is needed to learn the software
8. Homeschool Skedtrack
The best free homeschool planner
Publisher: Homeschool Skedtrack / Platform: Desktop / Customizable? Yes / Free Trial? Entirely Free / Price: 💰
For the price of Homeschool Skedtrack, it’s hard to beat when comparing its features to other items on the market. It’s a simple interface that plainly shows what assignments are due and when. You can schedule and track field trips, attendance, and vacations. The major con with Homeschool Skedtrack is the time it takes to maintain. Every assignment that is completed for the day must be marked as complete by hand. However, this, along with the longer setup time for Homeschool Skedtrack, are little when considering the platform is entirely free.
Reviewers Like
- Entirely free to use
- Lots of competitive features
- Comprehensive planning and reporting in one place
Reviewers Dislike
- Long setup time
- Must report daily work completed by hand
9. Scholaric
The best simple homeschool planner
Publisher: Scholaric / Platform: Desktop & Mobile / Customizable? Yes / Free Trial? Yes / Price: 💰💰
Scholaric is one of the simplest online homeschooling platforms out there. Its drag and drop features allow you to adjust due dates and lesson plans easily. You can embed links to external sites, PDFs, and video material to supplement your core learning material. Progress tracking and weighted grades are simple with this system. As an added customization bonus, you can even choose unique colors for the layout.
Reviewers Like
- Very affordable
- User-friendly and intuitive
- Easy to move lesson plans around
Reviewers Dislike
- Only browser-based
- Limited tools depending on what you need from an online planner
What to Look for in the Best Homeschool Planners
Determining how to choose the best homeschool planner for your student and lifestyle can be daunting. There are countless physical planners on store shelves and even more online planners available on the Internet. In general, you want a planner that will save you time and work for your preferences. This way, you’re not spending a lot of money trying different styles of planners. That said, here is what to look for in a homeschool planner.
1
Size, Inserts, & Punch
Did you know you can find a homeschool planner from pocket to textbook-sized?
Depending on whether you plan on only teaching at home or want something that you can take on the road, your planner’s size is a factor to consider.
The ability to add inserts to the planner is another element. Usually, planners bound with spirals or coils do not allow for inserts to be added. If this is something you’d like to add to your homeschool planner in the future, keep this flexibility in mind when selecting your product.
Finally, the vast majority of homeschool planners use a three-hole punch. Try to find one that accommodates for this standard.
2
Layout & Hourly Planner
Consider your preferences when it comes to how the week and month organize out in your planner.
Do you want one week on a single page or spread out across two? How much space do you need to write on the weekly and monthly layouts?
If you’re someone who likes to keep a lot of little notes and write details about projects and deadlines, a planner with a two-page weekly spread might work the best.
Next, ask yourself if you want an hourly planner. Do you want to plot out your lessons and assignments for each day by the hour? It’s easy to find a planner with a detailed hourly layout for the utmost daily organization.
3
Design & Functionality
Simply put, your homeschooling planner should be easy to use.
Do you prefer a static planner or one that allows you to move the pages around? What kind of binding do you like?
The functionality of your planner must match your lifestyle. It’s also important that your planner matches your style. You will be looking at and working in this planner every day for the entire school year. Ideally, you want to like the design of your homeschooling planner. Try to pick one that matches your tastes.
Our Process
For this guide on homeschool planners, our team spent 6 hours researching the most popular options from over 20 brands and manufacturers big and small. We then read about two hundred user reviews (both positive and negative) to discover what shoppers thought about each planner. After comparing this data, we narrowed our list down to the top 9 homeschool planners on the market. You can count on this research to guide you to a mindful purchasing decision.
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Further Reading
