Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Kids Need Organizational Tools Too!!!

Awhile back I posted about the workbook/planners I made for the girls for school this year. And they have been working out WONDERFULLY!! So much easier to keep track of than multiple worksheets & notebooks and the girls love them.

Then a couple months ago I heard about a STUDENT PLANNER from The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.  I've already told you how much I love MY Schoolhouse Planner from TOS and now they had one (actually several) for kids too?!?!?! I was SOO tempted to get the Primary Student Planner (for grades K-3) for my girls, but I told myself that we'd already pulled together planners for this year and we didn't NEED to re-do them. I definitely filed it away to consider for NEXT year, but decided for this year I should go with what we had (I can't tell you how many times I went back and looked at it and thought about getting it, and convinced myself that I really didn't NEED to spend that money this year . . .)

So then, the TOS Crew gave us the option of reviewing the Student Planners!! I was so excited, and quickly volunteered to review the Primary Student Planner!! Then ext day during school time I told the girls we had a new planner and they could go through it and choose any pages they wanted to add to their school books. We all had SO much fun with it!! Since they already had calendars in their book, we didn't use the ones from the Schoolhouse Planner, but it's very nice, 2 pages per month, lined or not lined , so even young children can write things into their own calendar!

Both girls went nuts over the "information" pages, they were so excited to have their own lists of Jesus' miracles, Jesus' parables, the Presidents, sign language alphabet, invention timeline, and I don't remember what all else.

A1 (who actually USES the calendar she has) also liked the idea of having weekly planner forms so I printed those, and "to-do lists" for her too. And the planner includes the cutest "pizza planner" page that is just too cute & a great way for young kids to realize that if they "don't have time" for something, they just need to prioritize their time. So I printed those for each of the girls as well, since they are always saying they "don't have time" to play with their American Girl dolls, or Schleich animals, or sew, or whatever . . .

I was planning to take some pictures of the new pages in their planners, but my phone's acting up so I can't take pictures with it, and I'm not sure where my "real" camera even is, since I always just use my phone these days. But , if you go to the TOS Store, you can see their sample pages there.

In addition to the Primary Student Schoolhouse Planner (grades K-3) that I received, they also have a Secondary Student Schoolhouse Planner for grades 4-6, the Middle School Student Schoolhouse Planner for grades 7-8, and a High School Student Schoolhouse Planner for grades 9-12.  Or go here to see additional bundle options, or to purchase the planners on CD instead of as ebooks.   The ebooks start at $9.95 for the Primary & Secondary planners (Middle & High School are slightly more).

This is a GREAT way to help your students learn to take responsibility for their own schoolwork, chores, etc. And because they're ebooks (or on CD), you can print out whatever pages you do or don't need, and as many or as few of each page as you need, what a great value!

Disclaimer: I received a copy of the Primary Student Schoolhouse Planner ebook in exchange for writing this review. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

So is it a PDF file that I can choose what to print out? Can we type in the file? This is looking lovely and I really feel like this is something we are missing.

Unknown said...

Yes, it's a 200+ page PDF file so you can print what you want and leave the rest. And yes, you can type in the file as well. It suggests another option to be to just keep the file on your computer & use it as an electronic planner but personally I find the file too big for that to be practical, especially for young kids, but you can type in the dates, subjects, and even data into the calendar, and then print it out, the girls love it!

Unknown said...

Awesome! Thanks for the lead.