As friends, family and frequent visitors to my blog can attest, I am a list maker. Short lists, long lists, check boxes, doodles, shopping lists, book lists, lists, lists, lists... it's just me. I just like pen/pencil to paper. I like the look and the feel and even the task of writing those lists.
Since starting our homeschool journey back at preschool-level I made schedules, journal pages and lists galore. It worked fine. Really it did. EXCEPT ...
I'm also a planner.
This caused a bit of an issue, me wanting to plan things out by hand, on paper, yet stay flexible enough to live life, let life happen, and to enjoy homeschooling. Eventually I realized to NOT date my planned days until we were DOING that day and to use lots of post-it notes.
Oh, I dabbled in a couple different homeschool computer based tracking programs but they were either too difficult to ever feel like I "got it" or just plain didn't do what *I* needed it to do.
....Until one day last Spring, in some AIM conversation with my good pal, Kay, she informed me that Homeschool Tracker finally had upgraded far enough that she thought I might want to give it a whirl. She sent me some PDFs of some reports and such she'd made up for her own use, just for me to see what it can do, and I was hooked. I bought the full HST Plus version and haven't looked back!
I truly love it. It was a reasonable price and does what I want/need for it to do. It is fairly simple to learn, has a FABULOUS email loop with wonderful list members that will help you, and all program updates are free.
Someone on the HST email list recently asked why she [stop keeping her records on paper and] should upgrade from the (free) Basic Edition to the (paid) PLUS edition. Katie, the program owner, replied with a fabulous answer. I emailed Katie to see if I could quote her here, and she agreed. Here is her answer in it's entirety.
Only you can decide for sure whether [Homeschool Tracker] Plus is worth it to you. If you're actively using the Basic edition that you downloaded a few months ago, you'll find the Plus to be easier and packed with all the features you might wish that Basic had.
Homeschool Tracker is the competitively priced with similar products on the market. It is less expensive than just about any other homeschool record-keeping program currently available, and in addition, once you've paid for it, you never pay again - no charge for support or updates (which are frequent and feature-packed - unlike other products available).
If you prefer pencil and paper and/or don't enjoy working on your computer, then it may not be the right fit for you. However, we contend that computerized record keeping is more efficient in the long run. It makes it easier to: make changes to your schedule; reuse information as needed through the years; create assignment lists for your children; create reports for any organization who requires them; etc.
Some features of Plus that do not exist in Basic:
- Customizing your grid views - choose columns to display; column order; colors; etc
- Enhanced copy functions for creating multiple, incremented assignments
- Lesson Plan feature allowing easy plan-ahead functions
- Transcripts
- More reports with more options
- Enhanced template feature (memorized assignments that repeat)
- Chores/Appointments
- Weighted grading options
- Multiple grading scale options (for different courses or different students)
- Auto-Attendance features
- etc
There are some introductory and training videos on the website that can give you a preview of the Plus program.
But again, only you can truly determine which tools are best for assisting you with your homeschool.
I thought that summed it up VERY well. I put this here on my blog as a way to spread the word about Homeschool Tracker's greatness. No, it isn't going to be for everyone. But as a former paper-scheduler myself, I can honestly say that I've not regretted this purchase at all... ever.
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