Review: Old Schoolhouse Magazine 2009 Planner Review

I am SO excited!! Not only is this my first review as a participant of the Homeschool Crew for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, I get to review a product I have been WANTING!! How cool is that? (Answer: VERY cool!)

Do you like being organized?

Do you enjoy being ahead of the school year?

Do you like having something prepared for the school day before it dawns?

Then, THIS is the planner for you!

A few facts about the planner:

The cost is only $39.00 at The Old Schoolhouse Store.
The planner is 375 pages long!
Contents includes 24 recipes, 12 essays, 12 “must-know” lists, 40+ forms for school and home, and more!
This comes in an e-book format – you don’t have to worry about shipping, you download it to your computer and print pages as needed.

Honestly, I had been drooling over this planner since I saw the first photo of it, but I was too afraid to look at the price. I figured that something like this would cost much more than it does. The price tag seems very modest to me when taking into account everything you get.

Calendars

At the very beginning, you have three full-year calendars, each on a page of its own. I have many uses for this type of calendar and always seem to be searching for one or making another one on my Excel spreadsheet since I can’t rememer where I saved the last one. It will be so nice to have one at my fingertips and ready to go!

Starting with July 2009, you then have a two-pages per month layout which is by far my favorite layout. There are nice big spaces to write down a basic outline of the month.

After each month, there is a one to two page article written on topics of much interest to every homeschooler. These articles could be the start of a wonderful unit study for that month or a lesson plan for one day.
Then, there is a resource guide after each month with aids that you can purchase from Old Schoolhouse to go along with the article. They have some fabulous resources that will draw your children in and have them learning through their excitement over the topic at hand.
Two recipes are included for each month as well. I love to try new recipes and this is a delightful way to incorporate a few more.
For example, you have a two-page layout for the month of July. Then, you have an article about The Thirteen Colonies written by a veteran homeschool mom. Afterward, you get a handy list of several facts about each colony including when it started and where its first settlers were from. The resource page for July is full of items that related perfectly with the thirteen colonies scuh as “A Thankful Thanksgiving Unit Study – CD” and “Cowboys Project Pack”. Lastly, there is a recipe for Spinach Alfredo Lasagna and one for Chicken and Rice.

Later on in the planner, there are weekly planner pages. I’m going to write about it here, right after the monthly layouts. My favorite are the one-page per week layouts with Saturday and Sunday sharing a column. This is where you can get down to the nitty gritty of planning each day of your week. The planner includes a few different looks at the week, so there is bound to be one that works for you:

By subject by day (each row is for a new Subject with space for 9 subjects, columns are labeled by Day)
By child by day (each row is for a child with 9 rows, columns are labeled by Day)
By subject by week (each row is for a new Subject with space for 10 subjects, one column for goals or lesson plans)
By day by child (for two children with layouts up to five children – each row is for a different day, one column for each child)
Week at a glance (space for goals, notes, supplies needed, to do next week, activities to remember)

Pause! Just this much alone is worth far more than the price tag Old Schoolhouse has put on this planner. The articles in themselves would take several hours to compile and write! Not to mention formating the month and week layouts.

What I have not mentioned yet is that you can type your information into each page of the planner (except for pages you wouldn’t want to write on anyway, like the articles). So, all the forms that you’ll see listed at the end of the article can be nicely and clearly typed and printed. What a benefit that will be! I can see typing everything out at the beginning of the year and just printing pages as you need them or not printing them at all. Just take a glance at it over coffee in the morning and you’ll be ready for the day!

After the monthly calendars, there is a section called Misc. Educational Info. This is such a fabulous resource – just looking at the pages of this planner is pushing along my excitement to start a new year of school! I’ll be printing out the kitchen conversions and the measurement conversions to tape inside one of my cabinet doors for easy reference all year long.

Home. School. Forms.

In the Forms section, you will first meet the school forms. If you love forms and lists, raise your hand! This is a form-junkie heaven! You will never need to look for, create, or buy another form to keep track of your homeschooling again! I cannot think of one thing they left out – from attendance charts to a preschool planner to a homeschool book inventory to an all-purpose wishlist and so much more in between.

Don’t forget the house forms. Now, you have two planners combined into one. They have covered everything from a grocery shopping list to budget worksheets to chore charts. Each resource is easy to work with and easy to understand topped off by the fact that you can type directly into each one and save that information within the document.

Overall, I really think this is the most comprehensive planner I have ever seen. FranklinCovey better just watch out! This is a very creative, all-inclusive planner with nice bright colors and lots of white space to jot down thoughts and ideas as you go along.

You are going to have a fabulous year with this planner!

I’m not going to post the entire six page Table of Contents here – it is mind-blowing and eye-boggling. But, I would like to post a sampling of my favorites …

Table of Contents

October
House Fires Happen
Emergency Preparedness

November
American Government Basics
Branches Of Federal, State, and Local Governments

June
Homeschooling Around the World
The ABCs of Landforms
The ABCs of Landforms Worksheet

Miscellaneous Educational Information
Timeline of Inventions
Countries & Capitals
United States & Capitals
U.S. Presidents
U.S. Presidents & Their Wives
Important U.S. Documents

Homeschool Forms
Yearly Goals
Curriculum Planning Sheet
End-of-Year Evaluation Form
Weekly Planning 1
Curriculum Key Chart
Bible Memorization Record
Attendance Chart
Preschool Activity Box
Preschool Planner
Educational Activities for Preschoolers
Teaching Supplies and Inventory List
All-Purpose Wish List

Household Forms
Home Keeping Weekly Schedule
Home Repair Projects
Monthly Menu Planner
Weekly Menu Planner
Bible Reading Schedule
Bible Study Notes

2009 Planner Modules

As a special bonus – Order between June 11, 2009 and July 12, 2009 and receive the 2008 Planner Excerpts FREE. You can order HERE.

Did you know that Old Schoolhouse sells a supplement to the Planner?

They are called Monthly Modules and they explore and expound upon the information already in the planner for the month. You can get a subscription for the year or you can purchase each module separately.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS Feed or email updates because you don’t want miss any of my reviews for The Old Schoolhouse Magazine! It’s going to be an exciting year!

Tagged as: homeschool, homeschool planner, old schoolhouse magazine, planner, school