homeschool record keeping software

[ecmom45]

Anyone use homeschool record keeping software? If so, which one do you have? Thanks.

[nukeswife]

I have Homeschool Tracker Plus and really like it. I find it easy to make lesson plans for a certain curriculum and then just submit it to the assignment grid weekly. This also allows me to reuse it later for another child.

[J'etudie]

I use HST Plus also. I don't use the lesson plan feature, but I like the Weekly Planner. I have all of our subjects slotted in order for the week; after I "submit" those plans to a specific week I fill in what we'll be doing. I print a report of each week for each child when we're done and slip it into his portfolio so I have a record of what they've done all year. There was a free basic version when I bought mine, and I think that's still available. They also have excellent customer service!

[bluemongoose]

Ditto on HST+! It is great!

[lovemykids]

I haven't thought about HST in awhile, it was always more than I needed in the past. But it might be just what I need for the future. High school transcripts, great!

[Matryoshka]

I started using HST+ this year, and I really like it. It does everything I need it to do. The free version doesn't - it was well worth it to me to buy it.

 

I used to use Edu-Track, which at the time I bought it was probably the best thing out there, but they haven't updated it in years as far as I can tell, and HST+ is now leagues ahead, imho.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I have Homeschool Tracker Plus and really like it. I find it easy to make lesson plans for a certain curriculum and then just submit it to the assignment grid weekly. This also allows me to reuse it later for another child.

 

I'm just now dabbling with the HST basic. Could you explain what you mean about lesson plans? I'm trying to see if plus is something that I should bother with or if it would fall into the category of just one more thing.

[Jen S in Va]

Homeschool Easy Records has been my go-to since my eldest was in 3rd-4th grade. I'm still using the 2nd ed even though there are later editions available. This has been all I've needed for homeschool planning and record keeping. It can be glitchy, but I'm familiar with it, it generates nice lesson plans with places for checking off what is complete, as well as lines for grades. It produces progress reports, report cards, and high school transcripts. I've started my youngest in it and hope that it will make it through another 11 years of school.

[Blessedwithboys]

I bought Edu-Track. It is very easy to use and has a lot of cool features. :thumbup:

[1bassoon]

I'm using Homeschool Skedtrack - there's a review of it on my blog. (Link's in the siggie - you'll have to search back a bit - sorry my internet's being wonky and I can't do a direct link)

 

It's a free, internet-based service. Love it!

[TechWife]

I'm just now dabbling with the HST basic. Could you explain what you mean about lesson plans? I'm trying to see if plus is something that I should bother with or if it would fall into the category of just one more thing.

 

Lesson Plan is a feature on HST+ that isn't on basic.

 

There are several advantages:

 

 

 

• Lesson plans belong to the teacher, not the student. You can submit the same lesson plan to the assignments for more than one student at a time w/no additional work beyond a couple of keystrokes. This saves a lot of time when you have more than one student working on the same thing - you only have to get it into the computer once! This is also a great help when you have two students moving through the same program at different rates - you only assign to the individual students, so they each get what they need.

• If you need to change the order in which you do something, or have found your student moves at a different rate than you expected, it's ok because you haven't already assigned everything. You work from your lesson plan, then assign more or less accordingly.

• You can quickly and easily put in straightforward lesson plans for the whole year at one time. Lesson plans that proceed from lesson 1, 2, 3... can be entered in a couple of minutes and you are done. It is also easy when they have intermittent tests - you enter the tests first, then enter the daily lessons and tell it to "skip" the sequence numbers. This works well with math, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, Latin, etc. Each year I am able to plan out these subjects in a very short time for the ENTIRE year.

• For things like reading, you can tell it to start w/chapter or page number (or customize that), increase by the number of chapters that you want read per day, give it an ending number and the the lesson plan is automatically incremented for you. Again, this is a great feature.

• I use one resource that covers many subjects (History Odyssey). I build one lesson plan for HO so that I can see the big picture, but then assign each of the activities to the appropriate subject (history, literature, writing) and they are automatically sent to those subjects when I submit them to the assignment grid. For record keeping purposes, any grades I enter are also recorded under the appropriate subjects.

• Lesson plans can be archived for later use with another student or the same student. This is helpful when you have more than one student doing the same curriculum in a later year. You would already have the basics done, you would just change it from archive to active and then you can make any needed individual adjustments as you go. For us, we read the Bible all of the time, so when we finish, I just pull up the beginning plan and reuse it.

 

 

Additionally, the reports feature is phenomenal! You can get so much information in so many different ways - it's really great!

 

I love HST+ - it is such a time saver for planning and record keeping. I would go nuts if I had to write it out, then erase every time something changed.

[Mommyfaithe]

Anyone use homeschool record keeping software? If so, which one do you have? Thanks.

 

I have HST+ and for the life of me I can not get it to work for me. I am so frustrated after spending hours and hours inputting material for it not to work. It makes me feel like an idiot and I can feel my brain being sucked into a vortex every time i try to use it...which has been yearly for about 5 years. I keep trying to tell myself that I can get it to work this time! ARG!!!!! HATE IT!

 

 

Faithe

[Mommyfaithe]

Lesson Plan is a feature on HST+ that isn't on basic.

 

There are several advantages:

 

 

 

• Lesson plans belong to the teacher, not the student. You can submit the same lesson plan to the assignments for more than one student at a time w/no additional work beyond a couple of keystrokes. This saves a lot of time when you have more than one student working on the same thing - you only have to get it into the computer once! This is also a great help when you have two students moving through the same program at different rates - you only assign to the individual students, so they each get what they need.

• If you need to change the order in which you do something, or have found your student moves at a different rate than you expected, it's ok because you haven't already assigned everything. You work from your lesson plan, then assign more or less accordingly.

• You can quickly and easily put in straightforward lesson plans for the whole year at one time. Lesson plans that proceed from lesson 1, 2, 3... can be entered in a couple of minutes and you are done. It is also easy when they have intermittent tests - you enter the tests first, then enter the daily lessons and tell it to "skip" the sequence numbers. This works well with math, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, Latin, etc. Each year I am able to plan out these subjects in a very short time for the ENTIRE year.

• For things like reading, you can tell it to start w/chapter or page number (or customize that), increase by the number of chapters that you want read per day, give it an ending number and the the lesson plan is automatically incremented for you. Again, this is a great feature.

• I use one resource that covers many subjects (History Odyssey). I build one lesson plan for HO so that I can see the big picture, but then assign each of the activities to the appropriate subject (history, literature, writing) and they are automatically sent to those subjects when I submit them to the assignment grid. For record keeping purposes, any grades I enter are also recorded under the appropriate subjects.

• Lesson plans can be archived for later use with another student or the same student. This is helpful when you have more than one student doing the same curriculum in a later year. You would already have the basics done, you would just change it from archive to active and then you can make any needed individual adjustments as you go. For us, we read the Bible all of the time, so when we finish, I just pull up the beginning plan and reuse it.

 

 

Additionally, the reports feature is phenomenal! You can get so much information in so many different ways - it's really great!

 

I love HST+ - it is such a time saver for planning and record keeping. I would go nuts if I had to write it out, then erase every time something changed.

 

UGH!!! This is making me feel like an even bigger moron. It must be me....sigh....

[branycbur]

I have the free version of Homeschool Tracker and I love it! Thank you Techwife for reviewing the plus version, I think I may need to upgrade :)

[meet me in paris]

I have HST+ and for the life of me I can not get it to work for me. I am so frustrated after spending hours and hours inputting material for it not to work. It makes me feel like an idiot and I can feel my brain being sucked into a vortex every time i try to use it...which has been yearly for about 5 years. I keep trying to tell myself that I can get it to work this time! ARG!!!!! HATE IT!

 

 

Faithe

I'm with you! I upgraded recently, and CANNOT get it to work for me. I inputted (is that a word? LOL) several entire lesson plans and can't figure out how to assign them to students. I downloaded the instruction book, read all through the forums, and no luck. Lots of time down the drain. :glare:

[Melora in NC]

:iagree:

Another vote for Homeschool Tracker +! It makes it so easy to put together our schedule & then rearrange the schedule when life doesn't cooperate!

[RedHouse]

I'm looking for a program I can enter my plans into and print them out into a neat schedule, one for me & a more condensed version for 9 y/o DD. Can HST+ do that? Or is everything done on the computer? I don't want to have to log on every day for that day's schedule.

[Tracy]

I'm just now dabbling with the HST basic. Could you explain what you mean about lesson plans? I'm trying to see if plus is something that I should bother with or if it would fall into the category of just one more thing.

 

HST basic is way different than the plus version. I wish I could remember why I decided to upgrade, but I realized immediately that I would want the plus version. IMO, I would not spend a lot of time with it if you plan to upgrade. It is very reasonable--only $50, and you get all updates, which are fairly regular.

 

Tracy

[TechWife]

I'm with you! I upgraded recently, and CANNOT get it to work for me. I inputted (is that a word? LOL) several entire lesson plans and can't figure out how to assign them to students. I downloaded the instruction book, read all through the forums, and no luck. Lots of time down the drain. :glare:

Have you: set dates for your school year? Entered subjects on schedules for your students? If so, you should be able to highlight the lesson plans, rt. click to get a drop down menu, select: submit to assignment grid, chose student and go. It is really easy, I promise! Have you watched the videos on the website?

[dani3boys]

Another vote for HST+. I have been using it for over a year now, and it has made my weekly planning much easier.

[Matryoshka]

I have HST+ and for the life of me I can not get it to work for me. I am so frustrated after spending hours and hours inputting material for it not to work. It makes me feel like an idiot and I can feel my brain being sucked into a vortex every time i try to use it...which has been yearly for about 5 years. I keep trying to tell myself that I can get it to work this time! ARG!!!!! HATE IT!

 

 

You do have the plus version, not the basic?

 

You should not need to spend hours inputting anything - ever. You should be able to use the lesson plan feature to create a lesson plan for each subject/book for the year (I find it waaay easier to create lesson plans by book rather than subject, then I can just assign a piece when it fits and not be tied to some sequence. Also makes it much easier to use the copy feature). If there's any kind of regularity to the book/program (do x pages or x chapter or x unit), it should take a couple minutes at the most. If it's more complex, it's still not hard - usually I can still find some pattern to work with.

 

What I really love about HST+ is that there's the planning database, and then the assignment database (grid) - I can plan everything and not worry a whit about when I'll get to it. I usually assign lessons weekly or sometimes even daily if we're having a wacky week. Rescheduling is also a breeze.

 

Have you visited the forums to ask questions and watched all the extremely helpful video tutorials?