Planning

I have mentioned before that I love planning.  It is my favorite part of getting things done.  I am a bit of a planner addict.  I have one that I am currently using that I LOVE!  I am a pen to paper kind of girl.  It is called Mom's Tool Belt. I love the day to day part.  It is what I use the most often.  It is completely editable and trust me, I need editable.  I moved things around and added a work area and took out the exercise area and replaced it with a blog section.  (After seeing myself in the mirror I am thinking I should add the exercise part back in! lol)

After I started using the planner the one thing that I didn't like was that it is a lot of black and white.  I thought about printing it off with color in it but I don't like using a lot of color ink.  My very clever hubby had a great solution for me - highlighters!  We set off to the store to find some in a variety of colors and I found - are you ready for it? - erasable highlighters!!!  Genius!  I had no idea they even made such a thing.  I use different colors for different blocks with no real rhym or reason.  I just thought that they add a pretty spash of color.  I guess I could color code things but I really like the colorfulness of my planner.

I do not use this planner for our school, though.  I have created my own workbox planner/schedule that I will use to keep up with what I need to put in workboxes each night and I have subscribed to My Well Planned Day software by Home Educating Family.  It is still in the Beta stages so I haven't gotten a lot done with it.  I cannot wait for the full version to be ready.  It will come with apps and hand scheduling for the entire family on our online devices.  Last year I used the Well Planned Day paper planner.  It didn't work very well for me.  I found that if we missed a day of work it threw a wrench in everything. I didn't like having to erase and move everything.  The new software will allow me to drag and drop our lessons so if something is missed we just move it over and keep right on trucking.  Great solution!  There are however, lots and lots of moms that swear by the paper planner.  I would love to get their binder to keep my planner and important papers in soon, though.  It looks amazing!

For my to-do lists I use a standard spiral notebook and jot down my to-do's and rip them off at the end of the day to start fresh.

What do you use for your planning?

Planning

I have been waiting for months and months to purchase the new My Well Planed Day planner from Home Educating Family.  Last night the Beta went live.  I stalked their website and Facebook pages for hours yesterday to get my subscription.  I was able to purchase around 12am ET last night.  I walked through the setup wizard and then chose my style...

I am still feeling my way around the site and so far I love it!  I am not able to save my lesson plans or input info into the calendar but for now I am able to input our home library books and all of our curriculum and assign them...

I look forward to being able to upload our units and getting reports together.  The release date is set for August at which time the program will go to full price, $65.  For right now, though, you can purchase the program for $40, get 2 moths free AND will be able to resubscribe next year for only $40!  That is an amazing price if you consider what all this includes.  The program is completely cloud based which means that you can access your planner from any device that is internet ready.  You will be able to make changes and input information from those devices as well.  You are not tied to a specific computer or have to carry a planner around all of the time.  Most of us have smart phones and tablets that are continually with us. Your subscription includes all upgrades and new features that they add along the way.  I believe this program is going to prove to be the best in it's class and I look forward to getting to know it better!