I recently read a short blurb about Homeschool Day Book in a review of several planners that Dawn with 5 Kids and a Dog had written. At the beginning of last year, I had tried a computer-based planner that I very quickly became frustrated with. Because of this, I was really interested in reading Dawn’s post.
As I read her post, the Homeschool Day Book really stood out. When Dawn said that she had it all figured out in 2 hours, I just HAD to try it! I followed her link to the Free Trial and began to read. One thing that I quickly realized was that I would have to lug out my PC. I will say that I LOVE my Mac, but I have not found a computer-based homeschool planner that is Mac-friendly. This is one of the few negatives about the Homeschool Day Book.
After I downloaded the trial version, I opened it up to realize that this program was not going to make me stand on my head to enter the information. It is very intuitive, and I believe that this program will be able handle to reporting criteria for most, if not all, states. Make sure to download the trial version to verify that it will cover your state’s requirements.
Attendance is automatically entered when the user enters an activity for the day, and the user can document time spent per activity, as well. It is SUPER easy to enter all the information into this planner.
There are 5 different types of reports that can be printed to provide documentation as needed for reporting purposes: Attendance, by child; Activities with title only; Activities with full description; Time spent per date (and in a date range), by child; Time spent by subject, by child. Note: I am using the term “activity”, but the application actually uses the term “entries”.
I had a question about documentation of curriculum, so I used the “Contact Us” section on the website and received a same day response. I was told that there was not a place to document the curriculum used for the year. Since we are more eclectic, this is not a deal breaker for me. If a person wanted to put the curriculum in, I think that it would work to enter the curriculum specifics as an activity in a date prior to the beginning of the year. If the associated subject and student were checked, it appears that this information would show up at the top of the “Entries” report.
To summarize:
Pros:
- Very simple interface.
- All the report types that I would need.
- Inexpensive at $39 for a permanent use.
- Speed of entry allows for more time with the kids.
Cons:
- Only Windows XP, Vista, and 7 compatible.
- Not a designated curriculum entry location.
- Some of the appearance color schemes are difficult to read.
Overall, I found this software to be exactly what I need. I kept calling it a “planner”, but it is really intended for entry after the class or activity is completed. However, I believe that an activity could be entered in advance and be “changed” to reflect the time spent on the activity after completion.
Disclosure: I downloaded a free trial version of the Homeschool Day Book. As a homeschool blogger, I may receive a free permanent license after the fact. The opinions expressed here are my own because a free license would be of no use to me if I did not honestly like the program.
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