scholaric.com

[Raising Little Shoots]

Does anyone here use this?

Can you share your thoughts?

I make my own forms & bind them into a planner & fill in with pencil. I am thinking this would save time....

[Raising Little Shoots]

bump!

anyone :001_smile:

[SnowWhite]

Yes, I DO use scholaric.com! I am so happy with it. I have, like you, always been a pencil and paper plan book type of person, for flexibility. I love the way scholaric is set up to do the repetitive stuff for you with so little effort. I also like that it gives me easy record keeping since ds is getting a little older and loves to keep track of his grades.

 

It is a new release from beta this year and the owner is releasing updates each month, with improvements, but it is already very versatile and usable. Plus it's so affordable!

 

We have been doing school for 3 weeks now and I am thrilled with the way scholaric has saved me time in the planning process.

[Raising Little Shoots]

thank you for your reply Jennifer!

I am going to sign up for this at the weekend (weekly planning time!)

I really like my pencil & paper, but it takes forever!

[Raising Little Shoots]

that is helpful, thank you.

Please may I ask what it was that you preferred about this software?

I havent used any planning software before.

[SnowWhite]

I like it because it is easy to jump in and finish a plan quickly. I have never been able to master another digital planner. Like you I have always done pencil and paper. Sometime around the fiftieth time I write "Lesson XX" in the row or column for math, I begin to suspect that a computer could do this much more quickly. And scholaric proves it can! I actually planned out all of ds's math, English, dictation, handwriting and poetry exercises for a whole year in about an hour.

 

Then Scholaric is so flexible- I spent a couple of weeks of evenings with two big tubs of history and lit titles, scheduling them out chapter by chapter and now I have a beautiful year-plan which did not rob me of days and days of my life (since all I have to do is figure out the number of chapters and how many days per week I want to read the title, then plug those in to the handy dandy scheduler).

[deannajo]

I just signed up for the free trial - is there a way to have it increment your lessons automatically? Like if I wanted them to do a lesson every day, is there a way I can put Lesson 1 in and set it up to automatically go lesson 2 and lesson3, etc., on subsequent days? What if I wanted them to do 2 lessons a day? Or maybe in the middle of the series, I wanted them to double up on some lessons - is that doable, and would it automatically adjust following lessons?

 

I saw on their twitter that they are working on lesson sharing? That would be sweet!

 

So far, and I've only used it for like 15 mins, :lol:, but so far I like the simplicity - seems like it might be just what I was looking for..

[Raising Little Shoots]

wow! I am inspired! thank you!

[Spryte]

I adore scholaric!

 

Prior to this year, I used pencil and paper. Over the summer, I tried planning on skedtrack, but didn't love it. It felt cumbersome.

 

Then I found scholaric. Wow, so easy! It's affordable, and I like the look of it, too. Those are bonuses.

 

I used it for the free trial, and just signed up to make payments. We've been using it for about 3 weeks or so, and it's been fabulous. My kiddo likes the print out with checkboxes for each day, too. I had no idea he was a box checker, but if it makes him happy, it makes me happy. :)

[Raising Little Shoots]

thanks! I think that would work with my dd too

[SBMama]

I just signed up for the free trial - is there a way to have it increment your lessons automatically? Like if I wanted them to do a lesson every day, is there a way I can put Lesson 1 in and set it up to automatically go lesson 2 and lesson3, etc., on subsequent days? What if I wanted them to do 2 lessons a day? Or maybe in the middle of the series, I wanted them to double up on some lessons - is that doable, and would it automatically adjust following lessons?

 

I am trying to figure out the same thing!

[Spryte]

On incrementing lessons... I don't do that, so I can't say that it does or doesn't have that function. It may. Or may not. But the developer seems very open to ideas, so it seems that you could ask about adding that function if it isn't there already.

 

I guess I tend to schedule fairly loosely on some topics, so when it is a subject that is of the "do the next thing" variety, I schedule "1 lesson" on every M, W, F (or whichever days we choose). It' easy to add another lesson on any given day.

 

For science and history, I type in more specific plans.

 

What I like most about scholaric right now is that it's made it possible for me to look at our stuffed shelves and bins, and take a long look at the unused (but wonderful) curriculum that my kiddo will soon outgrow. I've scheduled all of our regular subjects, and found space on days to add in some extras. So even if we're not going to do a supplement every day, or even every week, I've managed to put it into our schedule at some point. Weekly, bi-weekly, monthly. Just a nice reminder for me to pull out the fun extras!

[Frontier Mom]

Wow, just signed up. Thanks for the heads up as I missed this somehow. I have HST+ but as mine have gotten older, we do many subjects through our Co-op. Each class has its own syllabus so I just want something easy to plan out our other subjects.

 

This looks great. Looking forward to working with the program.

[SnowWhite]

I just signed up for the free trial - is there a way to have it increment your lessons automatically? Like if I wanted them to do a lesson every day, is there a way I can put Lesson 1 in and set it up to automatically go lesson 2 and lesson3, etc., on subsequent days? What if I wanted them to do 2 lessons a day? Or maybe in the middle of the series, I wanted them to double up on some lessons - is that doable, and would it automatically adjust following lessons?

 

I saw on their twitter that they are working on lesson sharing? That would be sweet!

 

So far, and I've only used it for like 15 mins, :lol:, but so far I like the simplicity - seems like it might be just what I was looking for..

 

YES, if you want a sequence of lessons, type in Lesson {1-160} (or applicable numbers) and then click over to the repetition tab and set it up to repeat on the appropriate days of the week for the appropriate number of lessons. The doubling up and then adjusting, No, that does not work yet. You'd have to set up "Lesson {1-85}", then hand enter Lesson 86-87, 88-89, and so forth, till you got to the end of the doubling and then enter Lesson {115-160} for the appropriate number of lessons. I am suggesting every time we're in contact that we need to be able to "bump backwards" or adjust based on lessons completed ahead of schedule, but I'm not sure where that lies on his priority list.

[Raising Little Shoots]

that is really helpful, thank you.

[SBMama]

YES, if you want a sequence of lessons, type in Lesson {1-160} (or applicable numbers) and then click over to the repetition tab and set it up to repeat on the appropriate days of the week for the appropriate number of lessons.

 

Perfect! Thanks so much!

[kahlanne]

Does anyone know how to bump back a lesson? I am using trail version and somehow skipped a week while putting in months of lessons. I want to bump back those lessons without having to start over. Know how?

[RhondaJK]

Does anyone know how to bump back a lesson? I am using trail version and somehow skipped a week while putting in months of lessons. I want to bump back those lessons without having to start over. Know how?

 

You can drag the already scheduled lessons forward. Grab the scheduled lesson (I think it turns red) and drag it to the day you want to move it to, and drop it. If you want to move it up a week drag it to the previous tab on the top of the schedule and drop it there, when you are done dragging the lessons you want to move, go to the previous week and they should all be on Saturday and you can drag them to the day you want them scheduled. It's a little time-consuming but I think it is easier than starting over.

Edited August 13, 2011 by RhondaJK

[SnowWhite]

SERIOUSLY!!! That is so awesome.

[Frontier Mom]

Are there additional options for printing the schedule or is only daily? I can't find anywhere where I can change it to weekly printouts.

 

Also, can I view a week or month at a time?

[SnowWhite]

When you are on the printout page, there is a little arrow by the words "Daily Lessons", which if you hover over it will pull up a menu which says "switch to" and then click on those words, and it will pull up "Weekly by Day" or "Weekly by Subject".

 

You cannot view a month at a time (yet). Request it! He's very amenable to requests. This software is still being improved.

[Frontier Mom]

When you are on the printout page, there is a little arrow by the words "Daily Lessons", which if you hover over it will pull up a menu which says "switch to" and then click on those words, and it will pull up "Weekly by Day" or "Weekly by Subject".

 

You cannot view a month at a time (yet). Request it! He's very amenable to requests. This software is still being improved.

 

Oh thank you so much!! I just started and am finding it to be very easy once I figure out what I am doing. I looked everywhere.

[HFClassicalAcademy]

Does anyone know how to put your classes in a certain sequence? I'm meaning to have them ordered in the way you do school (math, religion, spelling,etc.) and then have them printed out that way?

 

I just started my trial lesson and really like it so far because it's so simple and easy. It's like using my book planner. I like that there's not a ton that you have to type in and the learning curve isn't as steep as skedtrack or HST.

 

Thanks. I appreciate if anyone can offer me a clue as to how to set things up in order!

 

Liz

[extendedforecast]

Hopefully someone with more experience will chime in here. I have the same question. Another thing I'd like to be able to do is copy the list of classes for one child and paste it on another child's profile. Is this possible?

[HFClassicalAcademy]

Hopefully someone with more experience will chime in here. I have the same question. Another thing I'd like to be able to do is copy the list of classes for one child and paste it on another child's profile. Is this possible?

 

Apparently, as per the developer, lesson sharing is in final testing and should be out later this week. I emailed him and asked that same question because I have 3 kids who sometimes share lessons/courses. As soon as I find out how to do that, I'll post it. He said he would be emailing me.

 

The only other question I asked him about was creating a resource page, since some subjects use more than one book (history for example).

 

I highly suggest you email any ideas to scholaric as they seem to be very receptive!

 

I haven't emailed my question to them yet, just thinking someone on here might know how to do it!

 

Liz

[greenvneck]

I LOVE Scholaric! I've been using it sporadically this summer, while I try to figure out our new schedule for fall, and have not found anything I don't like. I did have some issues in the very beginning, but the developer fixed them immediately and kept in touch with me to make sure everything was running smoothly. I am using a paper planner to sketch out a basic weekly plan and then inputting the lesson plans into Scholaric.

 

My favorite is the "bump" feature, since we so often do not accomplish everything I planned. This thread is a good reminder that I need to finish planning!!

[SnowWhite]

Does anyone know how to put your classes in a certain sequence?

 

The way it appears to work is that the first subject (umbrella subject, like Mathematics or Language Arts) shows up first on the page, and then the smaller subjects show up within that bracket in the order in which you enter them. For example, if you enter Grammar within Language Arts and then enter Spelling at a later time, also within Language Arts, Spelling falls right under Grammar.

 

There is not yet a way to CHANGE that order, though it is a request I have made more than once. YOU could request it too and that would bump it up on the developer's priority list, probably!

[SweetandSimple]

I just requested a way to change the sequencing of the courses yesterday! The developer responded that he hopes to work on that next month.

 

I really am quite happy (so far!) with the simplicity of the program.

It does just what I want it to do!

[HFClassicalAcademy]

I've been making suggestions to the developer in terms of course sequence. But...I'm updating in case some of you don't subscribe to him or read the blog.

 

there is now lesson sharing, so you don't have to keep switching between students to add the same assignment! Yay! You can also hover over a completed assignment and it will give you the grade.

 

I just finished my trial lesson with scholaric and have signed up for it!

 

Liz

[Rene']

I've decided to try Scholaric and possibly cancel my subscription to My Well Planned Day software. I have a few days left to decide. So I signed up for a free trial to scholaric just now.

 

I've created a few course titles for a student, but I'm not seeing how to create a series of lessons that then automatically get assigned to certain days.

 

ETA: Well, I sort of found it. But on the Calendar it showed up as Lesson 61 to 141...on every day.

 

So with Scholaric, you can't edit the series of lessons to throw in a test within the lesson plan if you want, or give specific titles to the lessons?

 

It seems like the only planner that will do what I want is Simply Charlotte Mason and it's too expensive. :(

Edited August 19, 2012 by Rene'

[SnowWhite]

Oh, you can do all of these things.

 

For a sequence of lessons:

 

Description box:Lesson {42-116}

Repetition tab: Choose Series, click "number" bullet, then fill in the appropriate number of lessons (make sure the days of the week are chosen in which this subject is assigned: default is M-F)

 

To throw in a test, go to the assigned date, hover over the small arrow at the right of the lesson and choose "bump lesson forward". This will clear the date for a test to be inserted, moving everything forward.

 

Here is a link to the creator's blog with even more advanced sequencing information:

 

http://blog.scholaric.com/advanced-lesson-sequences

 

I'm not sure what you mean about specific titles. I schedule different readers within my history assignments, so those titles show up.

[Rene']

Thank you! I've been reading the blog and trying to get acquainted with it.

 

I think I might write to the developer and see if it would be possible to have a initial set-up feature that would set parameters for all users. There are certain days that we won't be doing school do to other events going on, and right now it seems I have to go through the whole year for each student to mark those days off.

[Rene']

I'm not sure what you mean about specific titles. I schedule different readers within my history assignments, so those titles show up.

 

What I mean by specific titles is, I like to have more than just "Lesson 1, Lesson 2" etc - if a book has "Lesson 1 - Adding Single Digits", "Lesson 2 - Adding Double Digits", etc. For the purpose of record keeping I like the option of being specific if I want to. I know I can click on each day and do something like that with each lesson individually. I was just wondering if there was a way to edit a series of lesson titles quickly and save them all at once like on Homeschool Skedtrack.

 

 

I really like this feature, but I find HS Skedtrack to be too cumbersome and confusing to use overall.

 

One more question (for now :001_smile:) - Scholaric doesn't have a library feature where you can add books to be used later. Do you just create lessons for the books as you get to them or do you add several of them in under History or Literature and then just schedule them when you are ready?

Edited August 20, 2012 by Rene'

[SnowWhite]

Oh, I see. You are right, you would have to individually edit each lesson. What I did with that type of thing is just enter each lesson individually instead of using the Lesson Sequence utility.

 

In the case of having books on hand I was not yet ready to schedule, I just stick them on the shelf with the books I have already scheduled and then plug them in later as desired. (If I understood your question correctly).

 

For library books, I usually found a table of contents online and scheduled that way (by number of chapters).

[celticmom]

That sounds really interesting. I will definitely check it out.

[SnowWhite]

Be sure to check out the Scholaric blog. Jeff Schmitz (programmer/creator) is constantly releasing new features.

 

http://blog.scholaric.com/

[Rene']

Jennifer, thank you for all your help. :)

 

In the "5 Quick Scholaric Tips" section it says "Make sure you set your default schedule for every course, using the course menu in the planning grid." - I have no idea what this is even talking about! :confused:

 

Oh, and Yay! I just realized that the vacations/holidays I entered for one child automatically show up for all. :hurray: I thought I was going to have to mark days off for each child.

Edited August 21, 2012 by Rene'

[SnowWhite]

That just means plan Math, with checkmarks for M-F, Science T/Th, or whatever you usually do. Mine are all default for M-F and that way I can choose to leave blank days if I want, within my individual lessons.

[OrganicMom]

I schedule different readers within my history assignments, so those titles show up.

 

I have a question on method. Do you type your history readers, for example in the "course" name or in the actual "lesson's title/notes"?

 

 

 

This thread has been so incredibly helpful! I am beyond thrilled to have scholaric now!!!! I only first heard of it this morning and it is everything and more.

 

I am only now looking for it to have

a resource page

a one page attendance record print out of what days we did school

and the ability to change subjects (not courses within subjects, i'm glad it can do that!) once the order has been created.

 

 

everything else is just beautiful!

i really really love the bump features,

the vacation and holiday features,

the pint out features,

the adjustment of goals and HOW to track it by hours or days or lessons, etc...

 

and many others... just simply perfect :)

 

can you tell i'm one happy woman!?

 

I still have not finished reading the thread to see if there were any other features that I have missed...

[OrganicMom]

when finishing a course do you then click hide from grid and then add the next one in it's place?

 

Let's use Life of Fred as an example.

 

Do you have "life of fred" as the course or "life of fred: Dogs"? If you use something more specific like life of fred: dogs, do you then hide it from the grid then add the next book in? which way is more beneficial overall?

[OrganicMom]

How do you guys utilize the "hide from grid" feature? How does this serve you/what do you use it for?

[SnowWhite]

I use it to hide last year's subjects when we are starting a new school year. They are still there, I can re-show them to refer to them or look at grades, etc.

[SnowWhite]

I have a question on method. Do you type your history readers, for example in the "course" name or in the actual "lesson's title/notes"?

 

 

In the Lesson Title area. You can have more than one lesson per course each day.

[Hoot]

I have a deep and abiding love for Scholaric. :001_wub: It is just so easy and it keeps EVERYTHING in one place - lesson plans, attendance, and grades. The one time I had trouble, the owner emailed me back really fast and fixed the problem in just a couple of hours. He definitely takes suggestions for updates that will make the program better, too.