Which electronic planner do you use?

[dori123]

What say you? I am looking for something like Trello but with better scheduling, time tracking, and assignment grading capabilities. I know, it doesn't exist.

So what do you guys use?

Homeschool Planet is great but not pretty and the kids aren't huge fans. I have my own Excel sheets that I default to, but I hate entering things once in Excel and again in Trello. Planning Pad seems pretty good, too, but they don't offer a free trial, and, well, I'm not ready to commit. Plus, I can't enter grades on assignments.

One Note seems okay too, but not much different than Trello, and I'm still inputting things twice, once in a gradebook and once in One Note.

Grrrrr.

[Freedom]

I use Homeschool Tracker but the old download version. I love it. They have an online version now that is supposed to have improved features. Worth a look I think. :)

[ByGrace3]

Scholaric

[Aloha2U]

OLLY — The Organized Life and Learning Yearbook (Only for Mac)

 

ETA: Here's a great review of OLLY.

Edited May 17, 2016 by NCAmusings

[dori123]

Great suggestions. I am really hoping for more Trello-ish features, but with the capability of assessing grades on each sheet and having those grades link by subject to a grade calculator. 

Think I'm stuffed for the moment, but these are all good planners in their own right. 

[scoutingmom]

Well as I don't know trello, I don't know what features you want

 

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[kaxy]

No idea what this is, but I saw "Applecore" included in the Build Your Bundle subscriptions. Looks like it tracks grading and such. 

 

I use OneNote for my planning and record-keeping, but I am not at the point of needing grades. Can you have your gradebook within it so you don't have to input twice? Or is it a physical gradebook? Maybe snap a photo of it and upload it to your OneNote page? idk. 

[dori123]

As far as I can tell with OneNote, there is no way to link certain elements (assignments with grades) together to form an overall grade, based on a grading calculator. That's my problem. : /

[SkateLeft]

I used Planbook for a while, before going back to Trello and OneNote. It's designed for teachers, but it works for homeschoolers too. It has the drag and drop and cut and paste functionality of Trello. They're supposedly adding a gradebook function too, though I'm not sure if it's there yet.

 

To use it with multiple kids, I created multiple school years and named them after each kid.

[dori123]

SkateLeft, what made you go back to Trello/OneNote? Planbook looks great -- especially if they follow through with the gradebook. Thanks for the tip -- I'm going to try it. 

[SkateLeft]

I really liked Planbook, but I missed having some of the collaborative tools that Trello has, especially for my high school kids.

[SoCal_Bear]

+1 on Homeschool Tracker. Also I got it when it was download for PC. If the day comes that no longer works, I will switch to the online version. It does everything I want it to do for assignments, rescheduling, (if I actually did lesson planning versus open and go, it would be amazing! eventually, I will have to do this), field trips, free reading tracking, my curriculum and library resources, attendance, grades, transcripts, daily or weekly assignments planner for kids, etc.

[kaxy]

As far as I can tell with OneNote, there is no way to link certain elements (assignments with grades) together to form an overall grade, based on a grading calculator. That's my problem. : /

 

 

I haven't messed too much with the Excel spreadsheets with OneNote. I just know that you can embed or maybe link to it within OneNote, but clicking on it opens the Excel application. I think. Not sure if using Excel for grade calculation and embedding that file in OneNote just to have it all in one place would be too clunky. Shouldn't require inputting it twice, though.

 

Looks like others have some good suggestions. I hope you can find a solution!

[hermione310]

I sampled of bunch of different programs (so glad for free trials!) this week and settled on Homeschool Minder. Have you checked it out? I'm not using the grading functionality, but the calendar scheduling seems excellent. Really easy to use and enables me to add non-class entries to the calendar as well, like swim practice and piano lessons. I've generated a daily activities list (this one prints in a checklist format with the time for each task and a box to check off on the left) each morning. I've only used it for a few days, but so far, so good. May be worth a peek!

[mom2scouts]

I also use the downloaded version of Homeschool Tracker Plus. I plan out all my lessons in the summer and then assign them to a week during the school year. I'm considering going to the online version as we approach high school.

[Porridge]

I sampled of bunch of different programs (so glad for free trials!) this week and settled on Homeschool Minder. Have you checked it out? I'm not using the grading functionality, but the calendar scheduling seems excellent. Really easy to use and enables me to add non-class entries to the calendar as well, like swim practice and piano lessons. I've generated a daily activities list (this one prints in a checklist format with the time for each task and a box to check off on the left) each morning. I've only used it for a few days, but so far, so good. May be worth a peek!

wow. Homeschool Minder looks amazing. 

[boscopup]

I have no idea what Trello is, but I use Homeschool Tracker Plus (download version), and when that no longer works on my machine, I'll switch to the online version. It calculates grades no problem. You can do different weights for grades. You can say "15 points possible, 12 points were earned", and it will automatically show you the percentage. My favorite feature of HST+ is the reusable lesson plans. If I use the same level of a curriculum with multiple children in different years, it's very simple to use that existing lesson plan with the next kid. I make all my lesson plans at the beginning of the school year - no dates attached. I then assign lessons on a weekly basis. If we get off schedule even with the weekly scheduling, it's easy to reschedule them.

 

After using HST+, every time I try another planner, I always feel like it's unusable for me because it doesn't have xyz feature that HST+ has.

 

I'm pretty sure the online version is basically the same as HST+, possibly with some extra features (and ISBN search working again - that was handy, as it would populate all the data about a book in your homeschool library).

 

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[Momling]

Homeschool helper app on my iPad was the best 4.99$ ever spent. I've been using it for three years now.

[dori123]

Thanks for all the replies. It came down to Planbook.com and Homeschool Planet. Once I figured out that HP actually did offer some of the advanced features I wanted (a bit of a learning curve finding them), I am super happy now. Planbook is also great, but some of the features I needed aren't available until July and I wanted to get it all set up now. That's one to watch, though.