Latest News from the Homeschool Planet Beta Test

Homeschool Planet is live!

We’ve decided to release Homeschool Planet to the public this morning, and so the beta test is officially over.  We will of course continue to improve the site and to resolve any remaining issues.  Please continue to send us your questions and suggestions, and to report any problems you find to betatest@homeschool-planner.com (you still have a private line directly to Joe).

Thank you again for your time and effort, and all the great comments and suggestions.  You’ve really helped us improve Homeschool Planet tremendously!

PS – We’ll be removing this widget in the next few days.

Welcome to the Homeschool Planet Beta Test

Welcome to the Homeschool Planet Beta Test!

Thank you for participating in our beta test! Your participation will make Homeschool Planet even more useful to other homeschoolers like you. We appreciate your help!

You probably have some questions about what Homeschool Planet can do, and what is expected of you as a participant in the beta test. We’ll try to explain some of that here, as well as on the Homeschool Planet Help web site, where you can watch an overview of the features. Of course, you can always contact us at betatest@homeschool-planner.com with any questions or comments – we are eager to hear from you!

Here are some quick answers to some of the top questions. If you want to learn more, check out the Beta Test FAQ. Or if you’d rather, you can just dive right in! Whenever you’re ready, just click OK to get started

What is a beta test?
Our programmers have brought Homeschool Planet to the point where we think it is ready for our members to use. We’ve invited a limited number of people to try it out, so we can be sure it is truly ready before we open it up to the world.
What am I expected to do?
All we ask of you is that you use Homeschool Planet as if you had just purchased it, and are using it as your full-time planning tool. The more often and the more realistically you use Homeschool Planet to organize your homeschooling and home life, the more it will help us make Homeschool Planet the best it can be.
What do I do if I have a question?
As a participant in the beta test, you have direct access to the programmers who created it, just by sending mail to betatest@homeschool-planner.com. If you have a question or uncover a problem, send a message and one of them will get back to you as soon as they can. And don’t feel uncomfortable asking questions! We are eager to hear from you and to help you be successful with Homeschool Planet.
Where can I learn more?
You can check out more questions and answers at the Beta Test FAQ. We’ll be adding more as questions come in from the beta test participants. And the Homeschool Planet Help web site contains tutorials and explanations of all the features of Homeschool Planet.

Thanks again for participating!

What is the Daily Digest

The Daily Digests are email messages that get sent to you and your students each morning, with that day’s schedule. It is an email-message-friendly version of the Planner view for that day. In addition, every Monday a Weekly Digest is sent, with a summary of the upcoming week’s schedule.

The Digests that are sent to you will show everyone’s classes and activities. The Digests send to other family members normally show only his or her classes and activities, but you can choose to send each a digest like yours, showing all classes and activities, by checking the appropriate box on his or her profile.

You can control which family members receive Daily Digests by editing their profiles. Digests are only available for family members for whom you have entered an email address, and you control whether or not each family member is sent a Daily or Weekly Digest by checking or un-checking the box underneath their email address.

Usually this email is enough of a reminder, but if needed, you can schedule additional reminders for particular classes or activities, either through email or text message, by adding a Reminder to an assignment or note for that class or activity.

Messages Widget

The Messages Widget allows you to send email or text messages to your family right from your Homeschool Planet home screen.

Standard messaging rates charged by your mobile service provider apply.

Shopping List Widget

The Shopping List Widget helps you keep track of your grocery list right from your Homeschool Planet home screen.

You can send the list to your (or a family member’s) email or cell phone using the widget, or you can have it sent to you by texting SHOP to (650) 564-3071.

Standard messaging rates charged by your mobile service provider apply.

To Do List Widget

The To Do List Widget helps you keep track of upcoming tasks right from your Homeschool Planet home screen.

You can send the list to your (or a family member’s) email or cell phone using the widget, or you can have it sent to you by texting TODO message to (650) 564-3071.

Standard messaging rates charged by your mobile service provider apply.

Reminders

Reminders are pre-scheduled messages that can be delivered via text message and e-mail to you and/or any of your family members.

Reminders can be added to calendar events or even individual assignments using the event editor.

Event editor screen shot

Event editor screen shot