I like to be and feel organised, but it seems a constant struggle with things changing each week such as Phil’s days off, various curriculum that need to be trialled, library and village events for the kids, housework and a blog, it can all get overwhelming. Just when I think I have a schedule under control something changes. It seem’s Murphy’s Law even occurs on the Emerald Isle! Here’s how I’m using Lessontrek to organise my life.
I was sponsored by Lessontrek to review their homeschool lesson planning tool and am excited to share my experience as well as an awesome giveaway! All opinions are mine alone. For more information please read my full disclosure.
I’ve been using Lessontrek for the past few weeks and I’m finding that my life is becoming easier with the week’s plan laid out in front of me, but if something changes it’s only a simple click or slide to change things around.
It’s easy to get started with Lessontrek!
Lessontrek is user-friendly, though it does take just a little longer to set everything up. The first thing you’ll want to do is create a student profile and set up the dates of their school year, as well as what grade they’re in (kindergarten to grade 12). You can label and colour-code the subjects, as well as track how much time has been spent on each subject if you need to track it for your homeschool authority or yourself. There’s also the ability to list grades as well, but as my children are still young, we don’t do that.
Once you have the basics set up, which you can change at any time, you can start building your week with a few simple clicks and maybe a drag and drop. Once your week is planned you’re on your way. You can copy and paste an entire week at a time to make life easier for you, then all you need to do is take out what you don’t need, and add in extras you do need for the next week. Nifty!
Lessontrek isn’t just for lesson planning!
Although Lessontrek has been created for tracking homeschool lessons, I’ve been having some fun with it and set up my own “students”. Blogging is a baby of mine, so I decided Crystal’s Tiny Treasures was deserving of its own ‘plan’. I’ve printed off a weekly schedule of things that I ‘should’ do each day/week, (boy, I didn’t realise there was so much that needed attention until I saw it all in one place!) and I can now easily check off each item as it’s done. I won’t get to everything every week, but I’ll track what I get done on each day for a month or so and then set up a realistic planning system. I’ll also be able to track how much time I actually spend on various blogging tasks if I’d like to find out exactly where my on-line time goes. Now THAT’s a scary thought!
Housework and chores…nobody likes them but everybody needs to do them. I’ve whipped up a chart for that, too! I hang it on the kitchen door so now everyone can see what needs to be done and the chores can be checked off as they’re completed. The kids can now see visually what they need to complete before playtime or crafts. I’m hoping it will motivate them as it has me as we all love to have more quality time together.
The only two things Lessontrek is missing are a way to schedule in particular times for the lessons for those who prefer a ‘schedule’. However, this can be amended by typing the time into the lesson plan for the day. Of course, without a scheduled time you don’t feel as pressured to watch the clock over the course of the day, either. The other thing is the ability to copy and paste from one student to another when you may have more than one student doing the same lesson.
So if you’re like us, and you like to plan, and even when you do things change, you can make your changes throughout the week and then print off you completed lessons at the end of the week to file away for future reference.
And here I thought Lessontrek was just for homeschool lesson planning! It’s so much more. It’s a whole home life organiser!
If you’d enjoyed this review and would like to learn more about other products we’ve used, please see our Reviews page.
