Friday, September 5, 2014

Productivity and Organization Systems for Our Homeschool

I spent much of last weekend (in between folding laundry), trying to figure out what productivity tools I would use for the school year.  I had very much wanted to switch to a completely paperless system on my iTouch, but there are times when paper is still a lot more convenient, mostly because you can see more things at once. 

Here is my organizational plan so far. Some of these things have worked for me in the past, others are very similar to things that have worked for me in the past, and others are new. 

Non-electronic tools:
  • I have a binder with my lesson plans and daily to-do list  for myself.  I will make a separate post explaining that system. 
  • I can also put any papers or worksheets that we'll use that week in the binder.  (Our homeschool isn't worksheet heavy, but we do sometimes print fun pages off the Internet to do.)
  • Right now, I am storing my binder and all of their school books in a reusable grocery bag.  (Obviously, we don't have a lot of school books!)  This proved to be convenient last week when we needed to do some work out of the house. 
  • I need to buy a small composition book or journal to keep in my purse for random notes while I am out.  
Electronic tools on my iTouch:
  • Sunrise Calendar:  I have started using this free app on my iTouch to keep track of our appointments.  It syncs with Google calendar, and my husband can view it too.  The only thing I don't like about it is that I can't make changes to all events in a series.  I set it to remind me of all events 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 15 minutes in advance.  Very useful  for someone who loses track of time easily. 
  • Lesson Tracker:  I love this app and have really been keeping up with it in more detail than I had before.  It's so cool because it can easily convert my daily data entry into an attractive report than I can keep in my files.  I think the kids will feel proud of (and surprised by) all the hours that they spent on school at the end of the year.  I wrote a more extensive review of it several days ago.  
  • RE.minder:  This is a cool app that I can set to go off every minute to remind me to get ready for something.  I use it as an alarm clock, and it's especially good for any event that I think I might forget.  I especially like it for our Skype Spanish lessons because it's easy to get sidetracked and lose track of time at home.  
  • HomeRoutines:  I really like this app for keeping track of my daily and weekly routines, but I've not been too good about using it lately.  Hopefully, after we move, I'll find it easier to focus on the house.  
  • OurGroceries:  This is a great app.  My husband and I can sync it across our devices (it is compatible with Android and iOS), and it helps us to make shopping lists.  I much prefer it to a paper list.  
  • Paperless:  Another to-do list app.  I use it sometimes.  
If you have a recommendation for a productivity tool, be it electronic or not, feel free to post it in the comments!  

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