Everyone has the challenge of keeping photos, video, and other memorabilia organized, but for homeschoolers, it’s an even more important undertaking.
These memories may be used as part of our homeschool record keeping. We may not have yearly photos or a yearbook to rely on. We may have many children or many activities to document. When you add in memories that predate our homeschooling to the to-do list, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed.
But the goal of having memories in a form that can be enjoyed now and in the future is a worthy one. So where do we begin?
#1 Discuss and Choose a Method for Organizing Memories
Today we have many options for keeping photos, videos, and even memorabilia organized and accessible. That’s the good news. The bad news it can be harder than ever to decide the best way to keep your memories. Talk with your family about the method they prefer.
Keeping Memories in Acid-Free Organizers
Many experts recommend having prints made of your best photographs, rather than relying on digital media that may fail. Even if you prefer not to get prints, you likely have a number of older photos that haven’t been safely organized. If that’s the case, I recommend a Cropper Hopper Photo Case which can hold up to 2000 photos. I have a number of these cases and use them to organize my photos by topic. This method has allowed me to find old photos quickly.
Displaying memories can be creating a detailed scrapbook, slipping photos into an album, or doing Project Life (my current fave) which is somewhere in-between.
You may decide that keeping your photos in a digital format is the best choice for you. I recommend Eye-Fi cards for automatic photo uploading. I also love that my iPhone automatically backs up my photos to Google+.
Would you like to have all your photos and videos in digital format? You can convert them at home with a scanner or a video capture device. Or you can pay for conversion through a service like FotoBridge. You can also shoot photos and video of bulky memorabilia that you don’t want to hold onto.
We display our digital photos on our kitchen iMac’s screensaver, but digital photo frames are another option.
#2 Purchase Materials & Move Memories to a Safe Place
You’ll want to purchase any materials or services necessary to help you preserve your memories (see the links above), but don’t wait to move your memories to a safe place.
At one time, I had photos in the basement. The basement is the most likely place to experience water damage, so I moved them to the main floor. Memorabilia should also be kept away from sunlight. Choose acid-free containers rather than shoe boxes. As soon as possible, plan to safely remove photos from magnetic albums that aren’t acid-free.
Digital memories must also be kept safe. I keep my photos and videos on multiple external hard drives as well as on a computer and in online storage. If you don’t have a system for backing up these memories, set one up today.
#3 Begin Documenting 2013 With Help
If you don’t know where to start, begin by documenting the past year. Collect photos and videos into folders by months. One of my favorite quick ways to document a year is by creating a calendar. Shutterfly offers a number of options for doing this. If you choose a 12×12 calendar, you can store the pages in a scrapbook when the year is over. This is a perfect project for kids, too. Even if all you do is organize the past year’s digital photos and videos by putting them into folders, you’ll be a lot more organized.
#4 Choose a Top Priority Project and How to Complete It
Besides organizing memories from the previous year, choose another project that you’re motivated to complete. I have a son who is graduating from high school this May, so completing his school years scrapbook is a top priority. You may have an event that you’d like to make special by having memories on display.
Decide together what to tackle first and then determine how everyone can help. Young children can slide photos into a book. Older kids can learn to edit videos.
Want more help organizing your photos? Organized Photos is my favorite website.
I would love to hear what your top priority is for memory keeping.
I don’t know any homeschoolers who don’t have a lot to do.
Cooking, housekeeping, kids’ activities, church and homeschool group responsibilities, and outside work on top of parenting and teaching can keep you really, really busy.
No matter what your situation, you have a lot of tasks to manage–possibly more than you’ve had at any time in your life. If you haven’t found a way of managing your workload efficiently, your tasks may get in the way of your homeschooling.
This week we will focus on managing our to-do’s so they don’t manage us.
Want to watch this challenge on video instead? Scroll to the bottom.
Your Challenge for This Week
#1 Discuss task approaches and choose one to try
All work is managed with a to-do list, whether that list is in your head, on your calendar, or in a fancy app. But just as with curriculum, there are many, many kinds of to-do lists for many different kinds of homeschoolers.
Older children can (and probably should) be included in a discussion of managing tasks. They will be managing to-do’s on their own soon and teaching them how is a wonderful life skill. However, they may want to use a different approach than mom or dad because they have different personalities and workloads. The best approach to try is one that isn’t wildly different than what you’re doing now.
#2 Acquire the materials you need and set them up.
If you’re going to use a notebook and a pen or your calendar, you’re good to go. But if you want a new planner or an app, for example, you’ll need to get them and prep them for use. If you are going to use forms you download, you’ll need to print, copy, and probably 3-hole punch them.
Think about how you will use your approach when you’re away from home. Do you need a small notebook / datebook for your purse? Should you download an app for your phone? How will you make sure that tasks don’t fall through the cracks?
#3 Add a small number of tasks to your list and work on them.
Getting Things Done emphasizes the importance of adding absolutely everything you need or want to do to your list and later deciding that some of the tasks are someday/maybe tasks. Most homeschoolers could come up with thousands of tasks in no time, quickly producing overwhelm.
Whatever approach or list type you use, I recommend against adding every conceivable thing to your list right now. First, look at the upcoming quarter. Is there anything you need to start working on now? Second, look at the upcoming month. If you need to get started on something that is due in the next 30 days, add it to your list. At this point, don’t add things that you’d just like to do, but actually need to. You can add the want-to’s to your list as you find your managing your must-do’s. Third, add tasks that you have to complete this week. Finally, add things you need to get done today.
This may be the one list you work from every day or it may be the main list that you use to create a short list of tasks you want to accomplish today. Remember, that if you have a routine, you don’t have to add regular occurring tasks to your list.
#4 Continue working on your tasks and discuss your likes and dislikes.
I really enjoy buying planners, apps, and pens as well as spending time setting up new systems. That’s why I wrote a year-long series on living productively. But the point of this week’s challenge is to get more of your tasks done, so we have to get busy! Keep working on managing your to-do’s and take time to regularly discuss what’s working and what’s not.
I would love to hear about what you’re trying and whether it’s working for you. Discussing the pros and cons of your task management approach helps you remember that you’re not failing. You just need to keep working out a way to get things done that works for you–even if that means having to change it up frequently so you don’t get bored.
One of the things that appealed to me about homeschooling was that I wouldn’t have to have a schedule. I relished the idea of getting up when I felt like it. I also tried doing laundry and dishes and teaching when I felt like it when I started homeschooling. The problem was I didn’t feel like it very often! Something needed to change or I felt I would have to send my kids to school.
Discovering Routines
What changed is that I came across some emails by a woman named Marla Cilley — aka FLYLady. She gave me an alternative to a rigid schedule in her morning and evening routines. It seems so obvious that life runs more smoothly when you have an organized pattern of activities, but it wasn’t to me. The impact of loading and running the dishwasher each evening was huge. So was scheduling errands and doctor’s appointments on the same day of the week. There were many other benefits.
But when it came to school work, I was very much influenced by Managers of Their Homes. I wished I could be as super organized as Teri Maxwell so I initially created a packed schedule to manage my growing family. Then I was very frustrated that I never EVER followed it to a tee. I returned to a routine for schoolwork, but then managed to take the routine to an extreme, too. Today I use a fluid combination of a schedule and a routine, helped along by my children keeping me accountable. In other words, “Mom, are we going to start school?”
Your Challenge for This Week
#1 You and Older Children Track Your Routine or Schedule
The biggest mistake I have made where routines and schedules are concerned is trying to make too many changes at once. Rather than trying to plan the ideal routine, see what you’re doing right now. I really dislike time tracking in general, but an overview of what you’re actually doing is a very good idea. Older kids can definitely participate in this as time management is an increasingly important skill in our culture. Best not to let them record what you and others are “actually” doing in their opinions. 😉 You can track on paper listing the hours of the day on the left and your basic activities on the right. If you have subscribed to Psychowith6, you will have access to subscriber freebies that includes a form for tracking your routine this week.
#2 Keep Tracking and Choose One Schedule Change to Try
The book, The House That Cleans Itself, taught me to use what’s already happening to my advantage. Let me give you an example to clarify. Let’s say that you’d really like to do family devotions after dinner. But you see from tracking your schedule of actual activities that you tend to watch movies as a family instead. You could a) watch Christian or biblical films at that time, b) discuss secular movies from a biblical worldview, looking up verses, or c) you could choose a better time for family devotions. Trying to enforce more than one schedule change will likely frustrate your family and drain your energy. Pray about the change that would have the biggest impact. You have plenty of time to make more changes as this one becomes second nature.
#3 Keep Tracking and Plan a Time to Evaluate Your Schedule Change
You may not want to keep tracking (I get it!), but the days fluctuate and you may see some important patterns that have to be addressed. Implement your one change (older kids can choose an individual change also) and put a note on your calendar or use the reminder function of a smart phone to assess how well it’s working. This is the step so many of us leave out. Assessment keeps changes in the problem-solving realm, rather than the blaming realm. If it’s working, wonderful. Discussing it with the kids (if it impacts them) will teach them how to problem solve and manage time. If it’s not, it’s important to determine why not and brainstorm potential solutions. Don’t give up assuming that you’re just not organized.
#4 Keep Tracking and Choose a Schedule Format
Continue tracking today and through the weekend if you’d like. Save this information for next summer when we will be working on your homeschooling schedule in depth. Decide on how to keep your schedule or routine visible. I have my HomeRoutines app on my phone, a schedule in my homeschool planner and the kids’, and I have it posted in the kitchen and school room using magnetic frames. Are you getting the idea that I don’t want to forget? One change I plan to make is to acknowledge that the schedule/routine can be regularly updated. I have the file on Word. It doesn’t take much to update it and reprint.
I would love to know the one change you’re implementing this week!
If you’re anything like me, you find dozens of great ideas you could use to get and stay organized in your homeschooling and life. The problem is overwhelm! Where do you start? It often feels like you aren’t organized enough to get organized.
I’ve been there. In fact, when I gave homeschooling a try by teaching preschool 14 years ago, I was convinced I had to quit because I was so disorganized.
I was constantly forgetting appointments
I couldn’t find anything
The laundry piled up
I didn’t follow through with my curriculum
The stress made me short-tempered with the kids
Little did I know that homeschooling was the perfect remedy for a disorganized mom like me. I saw how incapable I was of doing what God had called me to do. It didn’t happen overnight, but today people consider me an organized person.
I’ve come a long way, but I still seek ways to make our homeschooling, home life, and work function as efficiently as possible. I’ve noticed that there aren’t a lot of organizing missions tailored to families who homeschool, and that’s too bad. We have specific organizing needs.
If you can relate, I invite you to join me for a year’s worth of challenges that will help us get organized enough to do all God has called us to do.
On Mondays, you can read the post, then do one 15-minute mission each remaining weekday, do an hour session over the weekend, or anything in between. One thing I forbid you to do is beat yourself up for not doing every mission. I’m telling you right now that I’m not going to do every single mission as scheduled! There are more important things in life than organization.
But if we do even a few of these missions this year, we will have a better homeschool than we had last year! That’s something to be excited about.
Please also follow the Organized Homeschool board on Pinterest for up-to-date great ideas for each challenge. Be sure to tell your friends about the challenge, too. Getting organized is always more fun with friends. If you haven’t already heard it, I invite you to listen to the Easy Way to Get Organized podcast on The Homeschool Sanity Show. I share ideas for how to get the most out of this challenge and share my fellow homeschoolers’ and podcasters’ best organizing tips.
I’m looking forward to getting organized with you this year!
Please share your organizing progress, tips, or related blog posts in the comments or on Facebook.
I’m a Christian psychologist turned homeschooling mother of six. My life can be a little crazy, so I look for sanity-saving ideas to use and share. I hope you’ll read my About page to learn more.
Larger art pieces and newspapers can be kept in over-sized storage boxes.
#3 Begin Documenting 2013 With Help
