A Simple Plan Homeschool Planner from Mardel & 30% Off Coupon

I've been buying A Simple Plan homeschool planner for a few years now and love it. It really helps me when I'm doing my own thing or when I was doing virtual school for the last two years. Venturing out onto our own again this fall and have a high schooler (eek!) and using this planner yet again!

I feel like I can be laid-back as a homeschooler and not a stressball because I have a planner and I can get the thoughts and plans out of my brain and onto paper. Also, I often write things in the planner AFTER the fact. And I never feel like I have to fill in every blank. I assume each blank stands for about an hour of schooling, so 6 hours a day. That's too much for my younger kids. Their blanks also sometimes get filled in with activities like Scouts and also playdates. The pool in the summer for 2 hours counts for PE. We get it all covered :-)

When I highlight something, that means it's been done. I also use Pilot Frixion pens because I hate the mess pencils make when they rub off on other pages and love things in pen, yet these pens erase like a dream.

This planner is normally priced at $19.99 normally through Mardel here at this link. When there was free shipping I grabbed a student planner for my kid who is starting 10th grade in the fall of 2017. His homeschooling and regular lives didn't all fit onto 6 measly lines in A Simple Plan for 2016/2017 so he really needs his own planner. There are coupons on Mardel's website quite often, like this one for 30% off.

Updated July 2020: The planner is now $27.99 but it on sale for $22.99 so you might not be able to use the coupon. I'll let you know how it goes!

This one is mine for 2017-2018

This one is Joel's for 2017-2018

Homeschool High School Graduation Missouri

So you're plugging along, homeschooling since your kid is five, deciding later to keep him that one extra year because you know some people who have done that, especially with those crazy boys. You're happy to keep him around, not because he is academically challenged, but because you just love homeschooling so much.  Then you blink and he's almost 19 years old and it's his senior year.

Then your kid is going through the homeschool graduation process with something like 75 other kids, and that's just on the Missouri side. There are a bunch more on the Kansas side PLUS all the kids who just don't want to even mess with a graduation ceremony.

So proud of my son, Joel McLoughlin. He wants to go to Police Academy as soon as he is old enough. In the meantime, he's thinking about getting a personal trainer certification, an EMT certification, and of course he's working a job as well.

My husband and I on either side of Joel. Plus Sam and Eva and Callie (front), Michael (back right), and Julia, who is living with us during COVID (far right) and my husband's identical twin Eric (left), who was the only guest (1) we were able to have at the ceremony due to tickets (2) we could have gotten extra tickets, but grandparents are in the older population and chose to stay home. Actually, Aron's parents would have come but my FIL just had some procedure and was recuperating.

The ceremony was originally scheduled for a church in Raytown, MO near where my grandparents lived (my Poppy built the house) in the 1950s through 1970s on Harvard Road. Then it got moved far, far away to Warrensburg, MO. Finally it landed on Raymore-Peculiar High School gym. We found out dream home and moved from Overland Park, KS to Peculiar, MO in 2017, so the high school is about 5 minutes away!