Do you print your own homeschool journal or planner?

[bluejay]

I've never found a homeschool journal out there that's perfect for my family's needs.  I guess this is because no two families homeschool in quite the same way.  I'm not surprised by this.  But I'd like to know if there's anyone here who prints their journals, and if so, what's the most cost-effective way?   I know how to design a custom journal/planner.  And I know what to put in it.  I just don't know what the most economical way to print it is.  Any ideas? 

[CTVKath]

I print our homeschool planner at home and use a Brother color printer with generic toner to print 6-8 weeks at a time. Then I use the GBC ProClick P50 to punch holes and use the ProClick spines for binding. I don't know how much it costs but I do the same with pdf files and ebooks.

[3 ladybugs]

I printed mine from home for the most part. There were things like the cover that I took and printed at Staples because I wanted it to be printed with a laser printer. Hindsight being 20/20 I probably could have done the whole thing at home. 

 

I love my planner. It isn't perfect but I will have it till next July (mine goes from July 1 to June 30) and I will change some minor things in it at that time. 

 

Honestly when you figure out the price of ink and paper, you are better off to print it at home unless you have an unusually high cost of ink printer. Staples charges $1 a page! Now there are certain pages in mine that I just need copies of. That is more cost effective to run on a copier. That is provided you don't want those in color (which I didn't). Lamination I did at home except for the cover which I wanted thicker. I think next time I will just get thicker lamination sheets. Oh and to make dividers I printed on 11 by 17 paper so I could make the little tab. Then I cut it to size. Worked great. My tabs were thin enough that I could still put it in a normal 8 1/2 by 11 lamination sheets and make them work. 

 

Have fun!

[MerryAtHope]

I've always printed pages on my home printer and kept them in a 3-ring binder. That way I can easily adjust and move pages around if I want to (which I often do), plus I can add in shorter answer keys and other information that I want in my guide that year but that I wouldn't want permanently bound with my schedule pages. Here's what my Teacher Binder looks like.

[My4arrows]

I also print at home and put it in a binder. I've bound mine before but like having the option of adding things or changing things later. I only print what I need to in color and the rest is black and white to make it less expensive. I add in dividers and separate things that way, folders and answer guide and tms

[xixstar]

I designed and printed and bound my own. And then I hated it and ended up buying the expensive one I had originally wanted. I ended up paying 2x as much when you consider the binding and the nicer paper I bought to print on and the toner and lamination. Lesson learned.

Edited October 24, 2016 by xixstar

[73349]

Having felt I've overpaid when I've had things printed at FedEx/Kinko's, I now print everything at home that I can, and ProClick it together.

[Hobbes]

I print my own planning pages and put them under a tab of my home/life planner binder (which I print). I also print weekly checklists for each child and keep those (to which I tend to add notes during the week) in a file, as a succinct record of exactly what we did in a year.

[knitgrl]

I have never found a planner I like, so I make my own. After having used it for a year, I am still tweaking it. I only print off what I need for a month, because, I will probably want to change it. We have a laser printer. It gets frequent usage and the toner lasts well over a year for us.

[HS Mom in NC]

Printed spreadsheet for each kid and a 3 ring binder.

[AllSmiles]

I used to update my planner every year. However, now I've gone to a preprinted one. It's great because it accomadtes 8 subjects for five days. And there is room to schedule for 40 weeks instead of the usual 36 weeks. I believe they are priced pretty reasonable. Right now it is:

6.87 - at Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/18-Lesson-Wirebound-Class-Periods/dp/B001AZ71OW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1477400805&sr=8-2&keywords=ward+teacher+planner

5.19 at wal-https://www.walmart.com/ip/THE-HUBBARD-COMPANY-Ward-Lesson-Plan-Book-100-Pages/19684401

Rainbow Resouce has is for $4.80 http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/044880

 

I also use the ward grade book to keep track of their grades for their grades. There are enough pages that I can use it for our entire homeschooling years.

Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Ward-Record-Students-Grading-HUB910L/dp/B009R5JJCO/

Wal-mart - https://www.walmart.com/ip/THE-HUBBARD-COMPANY-Ward-Class-Record-Book/19684458

[KrissiK]

I make my own. I just make a table on a Word doc., but in the kids assignments, print off each kid's assignment sheet and put it in their binder. It's pretty easy. And I can adjust each week if we get behind or ahead or something.

[kolamum]

I use to. I use to design one based on my needs & print then bind it up in the summer holidays. Last year I just couldn't find my mojo & was so tired of the fiddly dates I had to deal with on my calendar pages.. So I ordered a Plum Paper Teacher planner. It's pretty clean & open & go even for homeschoolers because there's very little "extra" to it other then Mon-Friday boxes to schedule stuff. There's small boxes incase you need to do something on Sat or Sun. It has monthly pages, & then you can add things to it like note pages & check lists if you want. What I didn't realise when I ordered my first one was that i could have them remove the My Class section which is the ONLY portion that I didn't find HEAPS of use for. 

I ordered another planner from the same company for next year but went with an ME planner which allows me to schedule things on Saturday & Sunday as well. Each of my kids have things on the weekends that I like to book in. :) I've really enjoyed using something that was "done for me" this year.. hopefully I'll still feel that way next year! Had I been thinking ahead I might have even ordered it unpunched so I could punch it with the arc punch myself.. ahh well. :)