I have to admit, I’ve been a little spoiled by Indiana’s freedom when it comes to homeschooling. Here, we don’t have to do a lot of record keeping for the state. This means, at least for me, that in the first few years it’s pretty easy to be lazy. A dollar store calendar with the dates we do school checked off, that’s been my method of record keeping. Now that my kids are getting older and doing a lot more quantifiable work, I’m realizing the importance of really keeping track of it all. Thanks to the Schoolhouse Review Crew and Lord Heritage, I’ve had the opportunity to try out HomeSchool Office for review.
HomeSchool Office is a record keeping dream. It works on the POWER principle: Plan, Order, Work, Evaluate, and Report.
Plan
The first step is entering all your information. You can enter multiple students, with their grade level, and each class they are working on, including book titles, how long they are expected to work on each topic each day, and outside classes taught by others. You can even plan your school expense budget!
Order
In this section, you are able to set your schedule, including any outside commitments. You can create an entire calendar and even add reminders for yourself.
Work
Give yourself and your kids a clear sense of what needs to be done on any given day. Print off schedules or give your children their own access to the site. You can set it up in a very clear manner that even lists what specific lesson should be done on what day.
Evaluate
Here you can keep track of your attendance and grades. Should you live in a state with stricter homeschooling requirements, you are able to make sure the things you are doing meet the state standards. You can use track how many hours are spent on each subject and what standards are being met!
Report
You can create reports to turn in for your state standards, or in my case to keep in the kids’ portfolios for my own knowledge. If you have high school students, you may need to print off transcripts for college applications or other purposes. HomeSchool Office gives you an easy way to do that!
HomeSchool Office is entirely web-based, which means you can access your records from any internet browser (on your regular computer as well as your phone or tablet).
What I Love
HomeSchool Office is really, really easy to use. The first time you use it, it will take some time to put all of your information in, just because you have to put it ALL in (seriously, I don’t even think I realized how much work we really do until I had to enter the data for each and every thing), but the site makes it really easy to put it all in. It’s set up in a clear manner that allows you to enter each piece separately. Some sites that use this much information can get confusing just because there is SO MUCH, but HomeSchool Office keeps everything simple and user-friendly. This is really important to me because I get overwhelmed easily with new products, and if I can’t immediately figure it out, it’s pretty likely that I won’t continue using it.
The fact that it is entirely web-based is another plus for me. This way I can access it regularly from my computer, but the kids are able to access their student accounts from theirs, and should we be away from home for a few days we can still access everything from our tablets or phone. Again, really user friendly and easy to use.
As my kids get older and we have even more and more classes and lessons to keep track of, I see HomeSchool Office being a godsend. This is definitely a product I will continue using, and I am so grateful to Lord Heritage for the opportunity to try it out. Visit their site for a free 30 day trial, you will not be disappointed.
