Why We’re Still Using Homeschool Planet After 9 Years (Plus Two Free Tools You Need Right Now)

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This post is sponsored by Homeschool Planet. All opinions are my own, and I only share products and services I truly use and love with my Happily Homegrown family.

If you’ve been following along here at Happily Homegrown for a while, you already know I’m not one to jump from curriculum to curriculum or planner to planner just because something new and shiny comes along. So when I tell you that we’ve used Homeschool Planet for nine years, I need you to understand what a big deal that is. Nine years of planning, nine years of report cards, nine years of watching my kids move from workbooks to transcripts — all in one place.

Today I want to share why Homeschool Planet has earned a permanent spot in our homeschool, plus tell you about two completely free tools they offer that every homeschooling family should have in their back pocket, whether you use the full planner or not.

The Homeschool Planet Planner: Our Home Base

Homeschooling more than one kid means juggling more than one set of lesson plans, more than one schedule, and more than one pile of paperwork. Here’s the trick I’ve used for years to keep my sanity: I create our lesson plans once, and then apply them to each child as they reach that grade level. I’m not rebuilding the wheel every single year. That alone has saved me more hours than I can count.  Michael is now working off lesson plans that I created for David 5 years ago, and all I need to do is make a few little tweaks and apply it to the coming school year.

A few other ways Homeschool Planet earns its keep in our house:

It’s genuinely everything in one place. Personal schedules, work commitments, family calendars, vital school records, lesson plans, to-do lists, even the grocery list — it’s all sitting in one app that I can pull up on my phone or my computer, whenever and wherever I need it. No more digging through three different notebooks to figure out what’s happening today.  We sync our Scout calendar and our Homeschool Calendar that we keep building out on Google, so they display on Homeschool Planet.  

It flexes to fit how our homeschool actually works. Some weeks go exactly as planned. Most don’t. I love that I can move a lesson forward with a couple of clicks or rearrange our whole week without starting over. Life happens — sick days, field trips, that one week everyone has a cold — and Homeschool Planet just moves with us instead of against us.  

The integrated lesson plans are a huge time-saver. Over the years, I’ve purchased pre-built lesson plans through Homeschool Planet for curricula like Handwriting Without Tears, Teaching Textbooks, Khan Academy, and Essentials in Writing & Essentials in Literature. Instead of spending my summer mapping out every single lesson, I plug in the plan and adjust as needed. With over 3,100 plans in their Lesson Plan Marketplace and new ones added monthly, chances are good your curriculum is already there waiting for you. 

Report cards, transcripts, and grades — handled. We use the report card and transcript features every year, and Homeschool Planet doubles as our gradebook. As my kids have moved toward the high school years, having accurate, organized records already built has been such a relief.

My kids use it too. This isn’t just a “mom tool.” My children use the app to track their own assignments and check things off as they finish. It’s simple enough that they navigate it independently, which means more ownership for them and less nagging for me.

We plan the whole year at once. I know this approach isn’t for everyone, but for how my brain works, sitting down and mapping out the entire homeschool year in one go — rather than piecing it together month by month — gives me the big-picture peace of mind I need.

If you’ve never tried it, Homeschool Planet offers a 30-day free trial of their Digital Planner — no credit card required. That’s plenty of time to load in a few weeks of lessons and see if it fits your family the way it’s fit ours.

Two Free Tools Every Homeschool Family Should Grab

Even if a full digital planner isn’t on your radar right now, these two tools are free, take just a few minutes to use, and are worth adding to your homeschool toolkit today.

The 4-Year High School Blueprint

High school planning can feel overwhelming, especially if you’re staring down those years for the first time. The 4-Year High School Blueprint takes a lot of that stress off the table. It’s a free digital planning tool that maps out all four years of high school in a single view.

Choose your state, and the Blueprint automatically populates with your state’s graduation requirements. You can also customize it to fit your own goals and your student’s path. The result is a clear, four-year plan that lets you see the whole high school journey at once, stay organized, and make informed decisions year after year instead of scrambling each fall.

The Homeschool ID Card

This one is such a simple thing, but it’s incredibly useful. Homeschool Planet lets you customize and print your own Homeschool ID Card — for free — for both teachers and students.

These cards come in handy more often than you’d think: taking advantage of educator and student discounts, having something to show for identification purposes, and just having that “official” homeschool credential on hand. It takes just a few minutes to create, and it’s free.

The Bottom Line

Nine years is a long time to stick with anything, especially in the ever-changing world of homeschool curriculum and tools. But Homeschool Planet has grown with our family — from those early elementary lesson plans all the way up to high school transcripts — and it continues to be the system that keeps our homeschool running smoothly.

Whether you’re ready to try the full planner with their 30-day free trial or you just want to grab the free High School Blueprint or Homeschool ID Cards, these are tools I’m genuinely glad to have found — and genuinely glad to share with you.

Have questions about how we use Homeschool Planet day to day? Drop them in the comments — I’m happy to share more!