Evernote and Homeschooling: An Update

As it turns out, I'm increasingly finding Evernote to be a useful tool.  It's much more convenient than bookmarking a site.  It's nice that you don't have to worry about the site disappearing because you've saved the information on the Evernote.  All you do is highlight the information from a site that you want to save, click on the little Evernote button that gets added to your browser, and then tag the site.  I use tags such as homeschool, homeschool 2012-2013, Spanish vocabulary, science experiments, history, etc.  I learned today that you can nest your tags, so that pretty much all tags related to homeschooling are now a sub-tag of homeschooling. 

I always find cool crafts on the Internet, but then I have trouble finding them in my bookmarks.  Now, I have them saved in Evernote and categorized seasonally.  I'm making my plans for the year in Evernote.  I was making our weekly schedule in Open Office, but I may make that in Evernote too. 

As I wrote before, I'm also keeping a monthly record of our activities with a table in Evernote.  I admit that it's impossible to keep track of everything educational that the boys do, but it certainly does make me feel better to look back and see what we have done.  I tend to stay so focused in the present and the future that sometimes I look back on the blur that was my month and think, Did we do anything at all?  Jotting down what we did is really helpful to me.  The boys learn the same whether I write it down or not.
Although it's not directly related to homeschooling, I'm really happy with organizing recipes with Evernote.  I've even typed some in, and it's very convenient to me to just pull up the recipe on computer and consult it as needed.  If I get an iPod Touch, I'll be able to pull up the recipes right in the kitchen. 

I have my recipes tagged under both recipe, and under their main ingredients (which are now subtags of recipe.)  I'm planning to use Evernote to plan our monthly meals.  I am a big fan of freezer cooking.  I am lucky to be married to a man who enjoys cooking, so I only have to make four meals a week (Monday through Thursday).  That means I could cook 32 meals and have enough for 2 months! 

Record Keeping: Simple Portfolios and Scrapbooks

One thing I've done for the past two years is put much of Bee's work in a 3-ring binder, for each school year.  I have it divided into three categories:  Math, Language, and Other.  For his first grade year, I put nearly all of his written work in there because we just didn't do a ton of written work.  For his second grade year, I've put all of his writing samples and the weekly math page that we did, but I had to thin out and just use what I thought were the best/most interesting/most representative samples.

I'm also making a binder of the work that Bug brought home from preschool (drawings, letter and number tracing, Montessori metal insets, etc.).  I put little projects he's done around the house as well.  His stuff is kind of scattered, so I'm gradually collecting it.  Since he'll be only homeschooling next year, I'll start a new binder for him.

I'm going to a "crop" this weekend.  For those who don't know, that's where a bunch of scrapbookers get together in a big room and work on projects.  I'm hoping to make simple 8.5 x 11 pages of the field trips that Bee (and Bug to a lesser extent) went on the past two years.  I will then make a copy of them.  The originals will go in a special family homeschool scrapbook.  The copies will go in their binders for the year that they occurred.

I keep photo pages, certificates, and the most special projects in plastic sheet protectors in the notebok.  The protectors are especially good for little booklets.  Many pages just get 3-hole-punched and stuck in the binder.  I am probably saving too many things, but at least they are neatly put away in a binder, rather than scattered throughout the house. 

I start the school year the in June before the real school year starts.  So, most everything that happens in the summer before the school year goes in the binder for the upcoming school year.   Other families might find it makes more sense to start in the fall.  Or those who eschew the concept of the traditional school year might start in January.  And there's no rule that these binders need to be "one-year" binders.  Families who are better at throwing things out might have a binder that spans several years. 

This portfolio/scrapbook could also easily be put together by non-homeschooling parents who want to save momentos and work from each school year. 

List of Items I include (or plant to include) in portfolios: 

• Photos of museums and cultural attractions we visited (we went many places locally, and Bee and his dad travelled to both NYC and DC this year!)
• Photos of fun days (like when we went to theme parks during school hours)
• Photos of them and their homeschool friends at park days
• Photos of  extracurricular activities
• Writing samples:  I treasure these; it is so special to look back on what children thought was interesting to write about.  I love to keep the scraps of paper I find lying around the house with things that they spontaneously created. 
• Interesting workbook pages
• Art work (larger pieces can be photographed, and the photograph included)
• Projects made at camps and classes
• Certificates/ribbons given upon completion of a program or winning a prize
• Brochures of Places we Visited
• This coming year, I hope to include in each binder a list of the things that we did each month, from my Evernote.  

They learn the same whether or not I keep records!  But it is nice for all of us to look back on what we've done to get a sense of accomplishment.