Planning ahead: finding the perfect calendar

It's that time of year... time to start planning out the new school year and getting all of our ducks in a row.  Here are a few calendar/planner choices for those that haven't settled on a system yet:

The Well-Planned Day

The Well-Planned Day is a classic spiral-bound organizer, designed especially for homeschooling moms.   It allows planning for up to four different students, and contains progress reports, report cards, and other items you might need for school district reporting.  In addition to academics, The Well-Planned Day also has a meal planning and shopping list section. 

$24.95 for spiral bound and $19.95 for PDF download
Christian content:  daily Bible readings and a place for prayer requests.

The publishers of The Well-Planned Day also offer The Well Grounded Middle Schooler, a student 12-month assignment planner, as well as The Well Guided High Schooler, which is especially convenient as a 4-year planner.  Both are available spiral bound or as a PDF download.

Family Time

dotmine Day Planners are another great option for a spiral bound planner.  The family_time.mine planners were created for all moms - not just home schoolers - so there are no specific fields for school related items.  But there are plenty of fields for kids schedules and activities, and household information galore, including babysitter info, shopping lists, quarterly pull-out schedules, and more.  I used this planner last year and loved it.  It comes in two sizes,  an 8.5x11 full sized, and a 6x9 purse sized.  I used the smaller one last year and have upgraded to the larger size for this year.  All the dot.mine planners are 17-months, so you can plan from August 2010-December 2011.

The time.mine planners are student editions, with master schedule sheets, assignment pages and plenty of note pages.  All the planners, both for mom and student, come with fun and funky printed covers that are a durable plastic rather than cardboard.


dotmine day planners are available exclusively at Borders, and are about $17.99 (prices vary)
Don't forget that you can use your 25% off educators discount for this item!
Christian Content:  none

DIY

If you're a do-it-yourself kinda gal, or you really like keeping all your planning information on your computer, take a look at the free academic calendars offered by Vertex42.  Whether you prefer an Excel format, or just a PDF hard copy, you can create and print to your heart's delight on their site.  Choose from portrait or landscape, Monday or Sunday start, and academic years all the way through 2013.

Happy Planning!