Create Your Own Personalized Homework Planner

Back to school time can be hectic and getting your children into the swing of a regular school and homework schedule can be a challenge. A personalized homework planner can not only help get your child back on track and stay organized, but it lets them have something that is uniquely theirs and helps them to express themselves. Here's how to make a personalized homework journal using any desktop publishing software.

There are several things that you may want to include in a homework planner:

Calendars: You may wish to insert a monthly calendar followed by planning pages as well as a calendar for the entire school year for a quick over view.

Planning pages: With the day of the week, date, and room for each subject that your child is taking.

Project Goals: You may want to add a small place for your child to write in goals to help them accomplish larger tasks, such as research papers, so they can spread the work out over a period of time and not be too overwhelmed the night before a project is due.

Class schedule: Including a class schedule in the homework planner, typically near the front, will help your child to keep on schedule during those first few weeks when they are adjusting to a new schedule. It will also be a helpful reference when scheduling doctor's appointments, etc. since you can easily reference which classes the appointment may conflict with to check for test dates, etc. that you may not want your child to miss.

Contacts: You will also want to include a small section for contact information for things like your work and cell phone numbers, a homework hotline number or class website for checking on missed assignments, coaches contact information or other important numbers.

Extracurricular Activities: Do not forget to include a section each week for writing down practice schedules, study sessions, rehearsals and other events associated with the extra curricular activities that your child enjoys. You may also want to include activity schedules for the year as a handy reference for games, tournaments, plays,etc.

Records: Another useful section to add to your child's personalized homework planner is a simple place to keep a record of their grades for the term, absences, etc. so that you can both monitor your child's progress and catch any potential downfalls.

Creating a personalized homework journal can be simple. First choose what size you would like for your planner to be. If you using a standard 8.5x11 sized planner you can easily create a cover with card stock or find a small colorful binder to hold the pages. If you want something smaller you could make one half the size where you fold the sheets in half creating a small booklet. Many desktop publishing programs such as Print Shop and Print Artist include templates for booklets to make it easy. Your pages can be simple with a format that looks something like the following:

Friday, September 5

English:

Algebra:

Biology:

French:

U.S. History:

After School:

Adding a graphic that relates to what your child is into, such as a small dolphin or soccer ball at the top or bottom of each page can help make it more personal as can using a color scheme designed around your child's favorite color. Of course, you can simply print in black and white on colored paper to give it that personal touch that really pops.

When inserting calendars, if you are using a desktop publishing software that does not create calendars to insert into your project then you can easily find free, printable calendars online to include in the homework planner.

Be sure to create a cover with your child's name on it and graphics that reflect your child's personality. For older children you may even want to make this a great joint project for you to do together so that your child can add their own touches and give you input. It is a great and creative way for you to spend some quality time with your child.