HST+: Worth the $ or not?

[Sue G in PA]

I have Basic and only use it for attendance, reading log. The rest is too complicated and time-consuming for me. Somebody said that the Plus version is much more user-friendly. Is this true? I will have a 9th, 7th, 5th, 4th, 2nd, Ker next year and will be using HOD's Preparing, LHFHG and the 9th grader is using MFW AHL which comes with a grid she can check off and assignments already scheduled. I'm wondering for Preparing and my 7th grader who can be more independent and complete assignments on his own. Would HST+ be worth it? Thanks.

[Frontier Mom]

I kinda have this love/hate relationship with HST+. I love it in theory. I find it the best way to put in my lesson plans for each subject. Then, I just print off the lesson plan and I have all the days for that subject laid out. For instance, I might do the entire lesson plans for history and then just print them out. When we are on Day 5, just highlight that on the list as done. However, I never use it as intended. It is not intuitive to my daily schooling at all! I even have it on a network in our home and I just have a hard time getting everyone to check off what they did everyday.

 

This is not to say that it is HST+'s fault. It just seems like extra work for me so we just kinda fly by the days instead of having a daily, weekly checklist. This might not answer your questions, but I believe that you have to pay to get the lesson plan feature. This alone would be worth it for me.

 

I have had HST+ for years, actually right after it came out so I don't really remember what the difference is between the paid and free version. Every year I say I am going to use it completely, but usually use it about 75% of its capacity. However, based upon that I would still buy it.

 

Something I am really liking right now is Planbook. It is great and much more intuitive for me. You might want to look at it as well.

[Sue G in PA]

Thanks! I will check out Planbook as well. Any more reviews?

[Matryoshka]

Thanks! I will check out Planbook as well. Any more reviews?

 

Sue, from what I saw of the Basic at the website, I'd chuck the computer across the room if I had to use it. The Plus is so much more powerful and has so many more features that make it easy to use.

 

Since you already have Basic and know how that works, I'd take a look at the video tutorials for Plus on the HST website. That should show you pretty quickly all the cool things HST+ can do.

 

For me, it was some very well-spent money!

[MamaMamaMama!!]

I use it.. My kids are younger but we like it. I leave my MFW lesson plans as in my TM. I just go down the grid. But anything the kids do independently I schedule using lesson plans. What is nice about it is that I can do it in advance and just click on what I want scheduled and it does it for me. Then my kids have a nice assignment sheet for the week to check off as they complete. It makes it nice because its hard to tell them.." Do X on this and that day and Y on the other day"... they just see what to do daily. Before HST+ I just had them do EVERY subject EVERY day.. just X number of pages. Once I wrote the day at the top of the workbook page they were supposed to do. Well this doesnt work with texts that are handed down. LOL> So I like it..I also record attendence and any books they read during bookbasket on HST.

[Caryl]

I have 7 homeschooling- I think I would lose my mind if not for HST. I love the ability to reuse lesson plans from year to year, and to import lesson plans from the Yahoo groups.

 

The learning curve was pretty steep, tho. Homeschool Tracker has almost too much flexibility, and it takes a bit to have it work in a way that fits you.