Heather, I have 3 children but I’m happy to tell you my experience!
I’ve tried an awful lot of planning things–several different computer programs, using several different paper planners that I kept writing on. For me, the only con of the Organizer is the cost (I think it’s worth it, but still, it’s something I need to plan carefully for) and the fact that, on occasion, my interenet connection is down and I can’t access the Organizer.
Pros:
I used to write things out, cross them out when we didn’t do them, write them out again. I had to write out the things each child did separately, then on top of that I had to either write the things we did all together, once and photocopy it for each child’s file, or copy it out two more times. Argh! I hated that. When I needed to make a change, or needed to move something, or a child read ahead, or someone was sick and didn’t get a day done, I had to go back and rewrite and reschedule. Even when we moved to a computer program, when we didn’t get something done, I would stress–it was easier to keep the kid up late or do dictation in the car than to reschedule the missing assignment on the computer program! Which made for some crazy days. The longest time of my planning was writing out which things we’d read each week, splitting each book up and then writing out all the book assignments–I spent weeks on this every year.
I don’t do any of those things anymore! I used to spend several weeks in the summer getting everything ready, then two hours every Friday afternoon. Now, I just do a quick check on Fridays to see if there are upcoming project or experiment ingredients I need to get ready, or photocopies I need to make. Ten minutes and I’m done. 🙂 If we miss something, it’s OK. It’ll show up again the next time. No more laboriously splitting up books into weekly assignments–I choose the book from the nice stock of titles here, and in two minutes can have it scheduled throughout the year for three children. 🙂 I spend a lot less time each morning worrying about assigments, who’s done what, and following kids around to write down how far they got on everything–because my morning record keeping takes seconds on the computer, and they can do a lot of it themselves.
My dh was concerned about the cost too, but just the other day he asked when it was time to pay for it again because he wanted to make sure I renewed this. He’s very happy with the extra breads and muffins and things I promised to make for him with my extra time. 🙂 I just took the boys’ printed summary reports from the end of our “school year” to him, along with the transcripts (for the oldest) that I made out using the info from them, and they look so nice and professional. He was impressed, both with the reports and with what we’d gotten accomplished this year, because he said it felt so much more effortless to him (probably because my stress level was so much lower, lol) My mil was just here kind of harping on homeschooling, and he proudly told her that the reports of what the boys got done this year were seveen pages long–each!
Michelle D
