Homeschool Tracker question...

[Greta Lea]

I've been wondering if Homeschool Tracker might help me some. Can those of you who use it tell me if what I have in mine will be something HOmeschool Tracker can do.

 

First, for both of my boys I've downloaded a weekly lesson plan page from Donna Young's website. Every Friday I sit down at my computer and plug in all of the next weeks assignments on their weekly lesson plan page. For a while this year, I was just printing this off for them to use as their checklist. This didn't work for 2 reasons. First, both of my boys thought it was way TOO visually cluttered. They prefer to have a checklist for just that day. Also, I found that if we didn't get to something or I just had to change something for later in the week, the weekly lesson plan page they were using a checklist, became very messy with all the scratched out stuff with my scribblings out to the side.

 

For the past 3 weeks, I've been making this weekly lesson plan page on my computer, then each day I create a *daily* checklist and print that out for both of my boys.

 

I'm typing everything twice. I wondering if Homeschool Tracker (or any other similiar lesson planning program) could help. I'd like to be able to just type up the weekly lesson plans and then have a way to just "click" and have them transfered into a daily checklist that I could print out. Does this element exsist with Homeschool Tracker?

 

Thanks,

Greta:)

[JudoMom]

I've been wondering if Homeschool Tracker might help me some. Can those of you who use it tell me if what I have in mine will be something HOmeschool Tracker can do.

 

First, for both of my boys I've downloaded a weekly lesson plan page from Donna Young's website. Every Friday I sit down at my computer and plug in all of the next weeks assignments on their weekly lesson plan page. For a while this year, I was just printing this off for them to use as their checklist. This didn't work for 2 reasons. First, both of my boys thought it was way TOO visually cluttered. They prefer to have a checklist for just that day. Also, I found that if we didn't get to something or I just had to change something for later in the week, the weekly lesson plan page they were using a checklist, became very messy with all the scratched out stuff with my scribblings out to the side.

 

For the past 3 weeks, I've been making this weekly lesson plan page on my computer, then each day I create a *daily* checklist and print that out for both of my boys.

 

I'm typing everything twice. I wondering if Homeschool Tracker (or any other similiar lesson planning program) could help. I'd like to be able to just type up the weekly lesson plans and then have a way to just "click" and have them transfered into a daily checklist that I could print out. Does this element exsist with Homeschool Tracker?

 

Thanks,

Greta:)

 

With HST Plus, you can print assignment sheets for any day (or week/month) that you'd like. So yes, you can print daily assignment sheets.

[Samiam]

You don't even need the PLUS to do this. I use the free one, and I can do all of this.

 

I load up my son's schedule for the full week. You can add notes, such as read Chapter One, pages 2-10, you have a whole box to add notes.

 

Then after you have it all loaded, you can determine how you want it to print, daily, weekly, monthly.

 

So you could print a weekly schedule for youself, but then just print the daily one for your child.

 

Also, it is easy to change anything if your schedule changes, or you need to push a lesson back a day.

 

I am LOVING this software...not sure why I would need to upgrade to the paid one.

 

K

[mom31257]

I use the free version as well. I've not looked at the upgrade to see if it's necessary for me. As said before, you can print just that day's assignments or the whole week. I like that I assign a point value to everything, give the points earned, and it automatically figures a grade for me for the whole quarter. I like the section to record field trips and details about them. It also has a calendar for tracking attendance/school days. I do not use the time spent feature. I really don't want to have to track all of that, so I just leave it blank.

 

One thing I don't like, or at least haven't figured out yet, is I can't make a reading log without doing a special entry for each and every book, adding it as a resource. I would prefer just a place to enter it simply. Maybe someone could help me with that one.

 

I usually enter the whole week's assignments on Sunday night, then I try to go in and check off each assignment completed each night. If you have any other questions, please feel free to pm me. I've used it about a year now, and love it!

[JudoMom]

You don't even need the PLUS to do this. I use the free one, and I can do all of this.

 

I load up my son's schedule for the full week. You can add notes, such as read Chapter One, pages 2-10, you have a whole box to add notes.

 

Then after you have it all loaded, you can determine how you want it to print, daily, weekly, monthly.

 

So you could print a weekly schedule for youself, but then just print the daily one for your child.

 

Also, it is easy to change anything if your schedule changes, or you need to push a lesson back a day.

 

I am LOVING this software...not sure why I would need to upgrade to the paid one.

 

K

 

Back when I upgraded (maybe 3 years ago?), you couldn't reschedule forward and backward with the free one (I think you could do one way with the reschedule button, maybe). I reschedule often, so it was worth the $ to me to easily be able to reschedule both ways.

[ljf]

I just went with plus. With the free version you can only re-schedule forward. You need plus to re-schedule backward. Plus also allows you to import lesson plans, and there are a yahoo sites with many, many plans.

 

If you are only working/imputing a week at a time then the free version is right for you.

 

Linda

[LoveBaby]

I just recently purchased the HST + verion and I am *loving* it! I can easily print out a sheet on Monday for the week telling me what we need to accomplish and what day I would (ideally) like to accomplish it. My children are younger, so they don't have a need for the daily checklist, but it does offer that feature. I have tried several times to use the basic version, but it really is very different from the plus version.

[momtoboyz]

is there a way i can input some of the basic stuff (like the things we do everyday) for several months, let's say. so that i don't have to input the same things every week. i'd like to do it all in one shot, then go back and put in the specifics for the week. i just downloaded the basic yesterday and am trying to get it set up.

 

thank you.

[Janna]

is there a way i can input some of the basic stuff (like the things we do everyday) for several months, let's say. so that i don't have to input the same things every week. i'd like to do it all in one shot, then go back and put in the specifics for the week. i just downloaded the basic yesterday and am trying to get it set up.

 

thank you.

 

Yes, this is what the lesson planner is for. Put your stuff in the lesson planner, then when you're ready you submit them to the assignment grid for as many days as you'd like. There is a discussion group with helpful tips at the tracker website.

[momtoboyz]

janna, i don't see anything called the "lesson planner" in the basic. is that only available in the plus edition?

[Janna]

Oh, wow. I just looked at the tracker website, and yes, it looks like the lesson planner feature is part of the upgrade.

 

I had my basic version for such a short time before upgrading that I didn't recall the lesson planner not being part of it. I'm sorry.

 

Personally, I think the upgrade to the plus version is worth every penny. Any time there is an update to the program, you get it for free. Even if they were to completely revamp the whole thing, you'd get that for free. The differences in the plus vs. the basic are sharp. If the basic has been working for you so far, great, but I guarantee you that when you upgrade you'll wonder how you ever managed with just the basic.

 

For what you were wanting, in the plus version, there is an ability to use a "lesson planner" and a "weekly planner". If you wanted to plan out your year for a year in advance, you could do that easily (and quickly) in the lesson planner feature. Each week, or however often you wanted, you could just submit the assignments from the lesson planner into the assignment grid and add more specifics if you wanted or needed to. The weekly planner does this as well, but it's main purpose is to have a shorter time period planned out. Some people use both features depending on their curriculum choices, while others only use one or the other. The people who only want to use the assignment grid after work has been completed, or want to enter it daily, will be fine with the basic version.

 

Hope that helps you some. There are some video tutorials on the website and a comparison sheet of the two versions if you wanted to see and know the differences.

 

Again, I'm sorry I mentioned the LP when it wasn't part of the basic program.

[momtoboyz]

jana, i think you're convincing me. the ability to plan ahead and just plug in weekly what you need sounds great. i really need to get organized.

just to get a better idea, can you give me an idea of when or for what kind of curriculum you would use the lesson planner (planning out the year/quarter?) and when you would use the weekly planner?

thanks so much. you've been really helpful.

[keptwoman]

Yes Lesson Planner is a plus edition feature and it's so fabulous!!

I stuck with the basic for about a month to make sure I would use it before buying the upgrade and it has been worth every penny (why do we say that when we don't even have pennies in Australia??)

[SBP]

just to get a better idea, can you give me an idea of when or for what kind of curriculum you would use the lesson planner (planning out the year/quarter?) and when you would use the weekly planner?

 

 

Not, Jana, but I'm a new user to HST+ after using the basic version for several years. I've only had it for a few weeks, but it is really, really helpful, even though I'm still learning :)

 

For me, what works is to use the weekly planner for those subjects that are "do the next thing" subjects for us. In math, I teach lesson 1, then lesson 2, then lesson 3, and so on. (I usually decide during the lesson which problems I'm going to assign them to do on their own, so that's not something I plan ahead of time.) So math goes in the weekly planner. For grammar, I do Chapter 1, lesson 1, Chapter 1, lesson 2, etc., right down the line. I put that in the weekly planner. Things like Daily Grams, logic workbooks, Megawords - they all go in the weekly planner. If I want to include detail about what the lesson was about for posterity, I just stick that in after the fact - when we actually DO the lesson. Since I got the weekly planner properly set up, it takes me about two clicks to schedule all of these subjects every week.

 

The lesson plans, though, I use for things I actually need to plan out and coordinate ahead of time. We're tying history, science, and literature in with our Classical Conversations memory work this year, so I have lesson plans set up for each semester of CC indicating what we'll be doing in those subjects each week. I use the "Group" field to indicate "week 4", or whatever CC week that assignment is for, and when it comes time to schedule for that week, I just highlight all the "week 4" assignments and submit them to the assignment grid.

 

I've found the lesson plan feature especially helpful for planning out reading assignments - our read-alouds and the kids' literature assignments. I know about how much I can read aloud in one day and about how much they can read in one day, and I can plug those pages into the lesson planner and see exactly how long it will take us to get through a book, and from that information, how many books we can read each semester. This week, the book I was planning on the children reading was a library book. I found out at the last minute that both copies in our library system have recently been lost, and that I wasn't going to get it in time. So I ordered the book online and then quickly scanned my lesson planner and looked for a book that would take about the same amount of time for them to read - one that I could switch out with the other book while I waited for it to arrive. A couple of clicks and the substitution was made.

 

I have not explored the lesson plans available online - perhaps when I do I'll find even better ways to use the features of HST+ - but for right now, it's really working for me. And I must confess, it satisfies something in my inner geek to have all these lovely checklists and reports :D. During our school day, I have HST open on my laptop so that I can check things off as we go, which helps keep me on track.

 

Hope something here helps :)

 

SBP