Most homeschoolers rely on their computers. We use them for:
curriculum
research
creating
communicating
worship (I play a family worship CD on our computer)
and much more…
The problem is neglecting our computers until they give us fits.
This week’s challenge is all about making sure they work for our homeschools and not against them.
#1 Create a Safety Plan
We took steps to keep our photos and videos safe during the Memory Keeping Challenge. This week, we will take steps to protect our other valuable files: documents, records, music, contacts, and more.
Fortunately, most computer programs have automatic backups these days. Unfortunately, some programs require you to indicate that you want automatic backup ON in your settings. Never assume that your files are being backed up — that goes for your mobile devices as well. Take a few minutes to make sure they will be there if your computer isn’t.
Determine how to back up files. I prefer to have files backed up online. I use Dropbox for many different kinds of files. If you’re comfortable with your files being backed up online, add at least one more level of safety. My huge list of Gmail contacts became corrupted. I hadn’t made a backup of them. Never trust an online account to be your only backup of vital information. You may want to consider an external hard drive (or two) as a backup.
Make sure your security software is up to date. Anyone who’s had a computer completely destroyed by viruses (me!) will tell you that it pays to download the latest version of your software program of choice.
Create a safety plan for your kids. There are many excellent methods of limiting kids’ exposure to online predators and pornography. I’ve reviewed many of them. But I believe the most effective method is educating our children.
Explain to kids that there are unscrupulous people who would like to exploit their natural curiosity and desire for relationships. Clicking on an ad or sharing personal information can lead to unintended problems. It’s really important to tell children that if they do come across pornographic material or give personal information to a stranger, that you will NOT be angry with them. Instead, you want them to tell you, so you can prevent the incident from becoming a serious problem.
Of course, this kind of education should be ongoing with information and discussions taking place when children reach a new stage of development. This video addresses internet safety in general.
#2 Maximize Performance
You need all your patience to teach and parent; you can’t afford to deal with a slow computer, too.
If you have a slow internet connection, spend some time researching an economical option. And don’t be afraid to pray! We had problems with our network for months until a friend at church, who works for our internet company, saw my Facebook update about it. He sent someone out who finally determined and fixed the problem.
Educate the kids not to agree to download extra adware when getting games or software online. This has been a primary cause of slowness on our PCs.
A messy computer desktop can be just as overwhelming as a cluttered work space. If you’re using a PC, you don’t really need those program icons. Deleting them shouldn’t delete your programs, which can be run from the task bar or start menu. Everything in its place applies to computers, too.
The quickest way to clean your desktop is to create a folder and label it archive. Drag everything into it that you think you may need and go through it later when you have a folder system set up. Mark Hurst describes this approach in his free Kindle book, Bit Literacy .
Use a desktop wallpaper. IHeartOrganizing shares a file-naming strategy and pretty desktop wallpaper (just a photo that you set as your desktop) that you can use for organizing files you’re actively working with.
#4 Declutter Unneeded Files
Take 15 minutes and delete files you don’t need. To make this practice easier in the future, consider having a “To Delete” file. I often download files I know I won’t need later to this folder.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Joseph Hoffman of Hoffman Academy for the podcast today. I hope you’ll listen to this excellent interview. I called him the Mister Rogers of piano lessons.
First, let me say that I am not an affiliate for Hoffman Academy. I sought Joseph out for an interview because I am so thrilled to have found something that works for my children.
Why I Needed Hoffman Academy’s Free Video Piano Lessons
I am not a trained piano teacher. I can play, but I know very little music theory. I would have had to spend a lot more time, that I didn’t have, learning how to teach.
Lessons are expensive. I have three children ages 8, 10, and 11 whom I want to learn the piano (my oldest three took lessons from a teacher in our home several years ago). The price tag for in-home teaching would be $75 a week. Ouch.
The other curriculum we’ve tried hasn’t worked. Either the video lessons were too hard for the kids or the book lessons were too hard for me to teach. More often than not, I put piano off in lieu of other subjects.
Why I’m Crazy About Hoffman Academy’s Free Video Piano Lessons
I am learning piano. I can read music and play, but watching these lessons with my kids and playing the music provided in the supplemental materials is helping me see how everything fits together. I’m so excited about the next lesson that I no longer put it off.
The format. I had purchased a DVD curriculum in the past that required buying a cheap portable DVD player to use at the piano. It soon broke. I love that these lessons are accessible online via our large TV (we like to watch the lesson together) and also via our iPad at the piano, so we can practice individually. The downloadable material (an optional purchase) was easy for me to copy and put in binders for the kids.
The pace. These lessons are perfect for my busy homeschooling family. Sometimes we just can’t do lessons. I don’t have to call the teacher to cancel. We just pick up where we left off when things calm down. I also love the gentle, Charlotte-Mason-style teaching of Joseph Hoffman. He is so positive and teaches very complex concepts in such a clear and simple way, kids feel confident they can play. That has been very important for my eight-year-old. Here is a video of my daughter playing Lesson 41 (we’ve been using the lessons for a little more than a semester).
The price. I recently purchased the family option for Unit III for $29. For a little more than the price of one traditional lesson, I received the following supplements for 20 free video lessons:
Music Theory Worksheets & Activity Pages (21 PDF pages)
Song Sheets with Practice Instructions (7 PDF pages)
Piano Listening CD MP3s
Practice CD MP3s
Parent’s Guide
I am so pleased with the lessons (that my children actually practice), that I plan to continue as long as Joseph Hoffman continues to produce them! He is offering a copy of the supplementary materials for Unit 1 (the first 20 lessons) to one fortunate reader. I hope you’ll enter the giveaway below, will purchase directly, or will listen to the podcast which should answer many of your questions.
As homeschoolers, we can find it difficult to minimize the collection of stuff. Here are a few reasons why:
Books are often our greatest treasure; we can’t imagine giving them away
We may have more than one child or might have, so we figure we will need the toys, the clothing, and the curriculum again soon
We need to save two-liter bottles, empty milk containers, and toilet paper rolls for those experiments and crafts that use “what you have on hand”
We may do unit studies and could use just about anything as a prop or costume
We don’t want to waste money living on a single income or just to be good stewards
Although we can come up with good reasons to keep our stuff, there are also good reasons to get rid of it:
If we keep buying bookshelves, we will have to buy a larger house
Organizing hand-me-downs can be very time-consuming
If we save too many recyclables, we might start thinking that having 20 cats is normal, too
It’s no use saving so many things to use for unit studies if we can’t find them
Clutter can cost us emotionally, socially, financially, and spiritually
We can’t clear years’ worth of clutter in a week, but we can get a good start on it. This week:
#1 Make a List of All Gifts Received for Christmas
I receive a few gifts for Christmas, but I buy most of my clothing and other items I need at the end of the year because of sales. If I don’t declutter as much as I take in, it won’t take long for me to look like a hoarder. The same goes for the kids.
Enough time has gone by that it will be an interesting exercise to have your children make a list of everything they’ve gotten during the Christmas season. I’m providing a form for subscribers for this purpose. If they can’t remember, what does that tell them about the real value of things?
#2 Collect Items to Declutter Based on Your Gifts Received List
The idea is to do a one-in, one-out exchange. If you got a new sweater, an old one is decluttered. If the kids got a new game, an old one is given away. If you can’t do that for some reason, just declutter any item in exchange for the new one received.
I had a very difficult time with this where the kids were concerned for many years. One child would get a toy as a gift and everyone played with it. This is great until it comes time to declutter. The teen no longer cared about the younger kids’ stuff, so he would want to declutter it, much to his siblings’ dismay.
I now lay two blankets on the floor when we are decluttering kid stuff. One blanket is for anything any child wants to give away. The other is for trash. The kids enjoy going through their stash of toys and games and putting items on the blankets. As a child sees something on the blanket he wants to keep, he rescues it and returns it to storage. As the process continues, he may change his mind and return it to the giveaway pile, however. Sometimes kids are ready to release things when they feel free to choose. I may also rescue items from the blanket that I want to sell or keep for grandchildren (I’ve changed my mind about many of these latter items with my husband’s encouragement.)
#3 Put Unwanted Books/Curriculum Aside or List for Sale
Once, when I had more books than bookcases, I went through boxes of books while on the phone with a friend. I would explain to her why I was keeping each book. It wasn’t long before I realized that I didn’t need to be everyone’s library. So much of the time I was keeping books in case someone wanted to borrow them. I encourage you to ask yourself why you’re keeping books and release those that hold no interest, no sentimental value, or will not be read again.
Can we talk about releasing curriculum now? It’s tough to admit you spent hundreds on something you hate or that your kids will never be cute little kindergartners again, but you’ll have so much more peace in your homeschool when it’s out of sight. If you declutter something you end up wanting again, you can always buy it (or borrow it) again.
At this point in the school year, you know which materials you purchased that just aren’t working. Box them up to sell at spring or summer used book sales or list them for sale now. Check out my post on the best places to sell used curriculum.
#4 Deliver Unwanted Items to Charity, Consignment, or the Post Office
Unless you’ve determined that later in the year is a better time to offload your unwanted items, do yourself a favor and send them to a new home as soon as possible.
In our area, many charities will pick up donations. I usually prefer to free up space by sending my husband to the drop-off location (which he gladly does).
My favorite resource for decluttering inspiration is FLYLady.net or her book, Sink Reflections. My one claim to fame is that I have a blurb on the back.
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 expected our interview to be about how to lay low and still convince our kids to homeschool our grandchildren one day. Instead, it was much more of a reminder of why we should homeschool in the first place.
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.
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.
Most homeschoolers rely on their computers. We use them for:
