Homeschool Personal Assistant
for the Christian Home Educator
Authors: Tess Leonard, Kathi Willeford, Vicki McFarland
Publisher: Katevik Publications
For more information or to order: www.katevik.com

When the package arrived with The Homeschool Personal Assistant inside - I was amazed at the SIZE!  Three busy moms have put together every form you could ever imagine - helping YOU streamline your life.  The Homeschool Personal Assistant consists of over 250 pages of articles, charts and forms in a three-ring binder, and a handy CD.  My first warning is this: there are more forms here than you could ever use (at least at one time).  You are not expected to carry around this huge binder, but rather to pick and choose which forms to reproduce and place in your own notebook(s).  This is a TOOL, it is there to serve your needs.  The CD is especially useful since it contains all of the reproducible forms for easy printing.  Just another way the authors are trying to save you time…no running to the office store to make copies! 

Because you are a woman of God first, then a homeschool mom, the authors start The Personal Assistant with a section on Bible study helps.  This includes articles, devotional journal pages, a long list of suggested memory verses and more.  These are not only for you, but for use with your children as well.  I really like the journal pages, which encourage you to take your requests to God and also to note things that you appreciate in your children.  Being with our kids all day, it is so easy to only focus on the areas that need work.  This form reminds us to "stop and smell the roses" and that includes noticing all of the work that God is doing in our children's lives.

The next section features help with school planning, including various styles of monthly calendars, curriculum planners, unit study planners and more.  If your state or covering school requires you to keep grades, you will appreciate the laminated chart with grading scales for quick reference.  Some of the forms in this section and others are a bit too "schoolish" for me.  For example, there are forms for health records, immunizations, emergency contact information, etc. I remember having to have on file when I was in school, but can't see much use for since I am always with my kids and we're not required in FL to keep all of those records.  Remember, though that the authors have really tried to cover all the bases and those who are already very organized by nature or are required to keep more extensive "school" records will appreciate having these forms available.  This binder is full of more than just a stack of organizational forms, there are helpful articles scattered throughout the binder.  Some of the topics covered in the articles are Guarding Your Time, How to Study the Bible, Choosing Curriculum, and Volunteering.

There are so many great features of The Homeschool Personal Assistant that I can't take the space here to list them all.  I will give you a short list though: recipes for teaching, such as finger paint and red cabbage litmus paper, links to Dept. of Education for each state, contact info for popular curriculum publishers, historical documents such as the Constitution, fill in the blank research forms, book lists, science forms, basic spelling rules and so much more!  A highlight for me is in the math section where you will find basic math concepts and how to teach them, helpful reference pages with general math formulas, example problems and solutions.  The Homeschool Personal Assistant offers a plethora of choices and helpful tips for using many of the charts and forms.

If you already keep track of field trip details, books you have loaned or borrowed, neat files of your children's assignments, and keep your whole family on a master schedule, you probably don't need this resource.  However, if you are like the other 99.9% of us AND you're willing to make the effort to organize in order to make better use of your time, then you might what to give The Homeschool Personal Assistant a try!  They have lots of information - including sample pages - on their website.

Making the grade: A
Cost: $39.95 with binder, $34.95 unbound
Value for your homeschool dollar: 10
Reviewed by Cindy Prechtel, Editor