organization

My Student Logbook {Crew Review}

September 19, 2014 by Dana

My Student Logbook is a wonderful company that provides easy to use logbooks for your homeschooling. Appropriately titled, My Student Logbook is an amazing way to keep track of your day to day studies. This logbook is great for grades 2nd and up. If you’ve been looking for a way to keep your students on track, this may be it!

My Student Logbook comes in a variety of designs. Since I choose this logbook to use with my Emmalee, I chose the cover that most reflected her: a beautifully imaged cover with horses standing within a fenced field. Emmalee loved it!

The cover of her logbook has a special space to put her name and the year which is wonderful for record keeping. The cover page is paper but there is a wonderful plastic cover over it to prevent the page from getting dirty and help prevent damage during use. The back cover is a simple black plastic page to help keep the book clean. The entire book is paper and around the size of an average one subject school notebook.

When you open your logbook, you will find several pages explaining how to use the logbook. There are examples for both younger students and for high school students so you will need to read through and decide which best fits your needs. We chose to use the younger students method. Either method is set up the same way, it’s how you use the book that is different. We did not use the High School suggestions so this review will only reflect the suggestions for use with a younger student.

My Emma is in 5th grade this year and she is a very independent student who likes to keep up with her work on her own. This is new for her as she’s previously been very disorganized as most artists tend to be. If you have been reading our blog a while, you know that Emma wants to be an artist when she grows up!

Before this review became available, I had been wracking my brain for a method that would work for Emma to be able to keep track of what she needs to do daily for school and more. It needed to be a simple planner that was easy to manage. My Student Logbook appeared to be just what I was looking for and just in time as well!

Emma’s logbook arrived and it was very easy to set up. You simply cut out the first checklist page of the planner and fold it on the already marked lines. Place the page over the first calender page with the fold going over the notes section and tape it to the back of the notes section so that the checklist covers the notes section of the page. You do not need to tape it down over the front of the page, only the back.

Our logbook was not dated and I chose that because we do not always work daily. Our schedule is often changing so I wanted Emma to be able to have her list of work she needed to complete but not worry if she missed a day or even a week of work. I simply wanted her to be able to follow and pick up where she needs when she is able to do the work.

I listed her daily work and her chores as well in the checklist column. In the time column, I wrote how much time I wanted her to spend on the work or chore she needed to do. These times are adjustable as needed but I did write the maximum amount of time she needed to complete the items so she wasn’t dawdling all day.

As she worked through using My Student Logbook, she would put a letter for the day of the week and a number for the date into each of the column boxes so that we knew which day the work was done. At the top, where the date was supposed to go, we instead listed the month she was working on that week.

We used the notes section on each page to write back and forth to each other. If she needed to tell me something, she listed it there or if there was something I needed to remember, she’d make me a note. Same for me to her: if she needed to do something or needed an extra bit of information, I’d write it in the notes column for her. It worked well for us.

Since we’ve only been using this for a few weeks, we haven’t needed to change our checklist but one day we will need to. When we do, we simply move to the next calender page and add another checklist to it to start a new section. We will leave the old checklist in place so that it shows record of what’s been done.

Also as you move from week to week, you don’t have to use a new checklist. Simply lift the flap of the checklist and turn the page, then lay the flap back down to work on the next weeks set of boxes. Easy as that.

We greatly enjoyed using My Student Logbook. I’m hoping to purchase the other kids their own books very soon. My Student Logbook is available for $15 for both dated and undated versions and $10-20 for the PDF downloads of these logbooks. There are multiple covers to choose from allowing you to make each students unique if you choose to do so.

You can find My Student Logbook in the following places online:

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/MyStudentLogbook

You Tube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMxzpy91vov8a8nDpyp2ihQ

Please click on the banner below to read more reviews of My Student Logbook!

Motivated Moms {Crew Review}

March 5, 2014 by Dana

If you are a Mom like me, you have have heard of Motivated Moms before. Or maybe you are just hearing of the program and would like to know more about who and what Motivated Moms is. Either way, you are going to love this program as much as I do.

So what is it? Motivated Moms is a complete organizing program to help busy, often overwhelmed Moms stay on track and get things done. Cleaning, organizing and keeping up with life is very challenging to say the least but Motivated Moms helps to make that challenge a little easier through it’s wonderful and printable e-Book or their fun app!

I came across Motivated Moms a few years ago when I was looking for an inexpensive option to help me organize our home and our life. I was at my wits end trying to keep up with it all. I had two kids with Epilepsy and a son who had his own challenges educationally. Homeschooling, being a Mom, wife and blogger left me completely lost and so overwhelmed that I was just ready to give up on it all. So being a Techie Girl, I pulled up my big girl panties and went on the hunt to find the perfect program to get me through that season of life. And I found it in Motivated Moms.

I must admit, I didn’t jump into using this program right away though. I couldn’t bear to spend money on something I wasn’t sure would work. So I waited and I finally decided to take a chance on the Motivated Moms iPhone App. It was amazing – right away, I found just what I had needed to get me motivated to doing what I needed to do each day. This one little app kept me on task and I’ve been using it ever since.

Each day, when you log onto the Motivated Moms iPhone App, you are taken to the checklist for that very day. this list has around 20 or so different tasks that should be completed that day. Some are daily tasks and others are extra tasks for that day. You can also add in Bible reading that you or the whole family can follow along with. It’s a complete and wonderful planner app for the entire family!

The daily tasks are fairly easy and normal mundane things that you usually do on a daily basis. Things like change the kitchen towels or do the laundry or wipe the kitchen counters down. Also things like feeding your pets, reading to your children and taking your vitamins or medications.

The extra tasks are varied, not routine and change daily. These are things like wipe the bathroom mirror, declutter a nightstand, pay bills and dust the bookshelf. They are all things that need done but things you may not think of or that are not done daily.

You are able to view these tasks by daily tasks, by today’s task or by all tasks which includes the list of the two together. You can also add to the tasks any appointments you may have or personal chores you need to accomplish on that date. This is done simply by clicking the plus sign on the app in the upper left hand corner.

When you click on the plus sign to add a task, you are taken to another screen that allows you to input each detail for the task itself. You can put in the task name, make the task hidden or seen, put in a date that the task is due, make the task repeat, assign the task to a family member and choose a room that the task should be completed in. Once this is completed as you wish it to be, just click “save” in the upper right hand corner and the task will be added into the program to the day or days needed.

If you make a mistake or no longer need a task, you can choose to edit the tasks by clicking “edit” on the right upper side of the app while in the main checklist. This will allow you to remove any tasks that aren’t needed or wanted by you while using this program.

Next to edit is the download symbol of paper with an arrow on the iPhone. Clicking this symbol allows you to print the list or email it as needed. This is a great little feature for those who prefer paper checklists or who don’t want to use their phone for that day.

In the center top of the app are the words “sort by”. Click there to sort the app alphabetically, by family member, room or by user sort. This allows you to see who needs to do what, what needs done where or just view the list in order.

In the bottom left corner of the app is a calendar. Click it to go to the “date” screen of the app to choose your date and see other dates in use for the app. You can click to see yesterday’s, today’s and tomorrow’s lists or select a date in the calender to see the list for that date.

On the bottom right side of the checklist page on the app is a setup emblem. Clicking it takes you to the settings for setting up your app. Here you can choose to turn on and off features. Features of the app are Bible Reading, Moving Checked Tasks, Coloring Assignments, turning the Hidden tasks on and off, creating custom tasks, setting up family members through the people tab, and choosing rooms used in the app. You can also find app Help, your account info, the privacy policy and contact info for the app here.

As I mentioned above, I’ve been using Motivated Moms for years and I really love this app. It’s been a great help to me and my family, though I must admit, sometimes I do still forget to use it. I find that some of the tasks that come automatically on the app are not ones that I need or use so I often delete those right away but I didn’t for this review so that I would be able to give a full and honest opinion of what’s included on the app. For example, I do not empty my trash daily because of our trash system that we already use. I also do not prepare our clothing ahead since we are often home and can do that when we wake up each day.

Things I do use are the laundry and dishwasher reminders, plan dinner, clip children’s nails, organize bills, and so much more. All of these are simple things but sometimes I simply need the encouraging reminder to get these things done.

Motivated Moms is available both as an e-Book and as an App, which is what I choose to use. Their are different versions of e-Books available and each book costs $8 a piece. The Motivated Moms App is available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod for $7 on iTunes. There is a sample app available for $1.99 for two months of access to this planner.

You can also find Motivated Moms here:
https://www.facebook.com/motivated.moms
https://twitter.com/momoplanner

To read more reviews of Motivated Moms, click the banner below!

Expectations of Home {Thoughts From Me}

April 20, 2013 by Dana

I have to admit I was raised by a perfectionist. My Mother was and still is an amazing woman but she expected her house to be almost “perfect”. I grew up having to follow her strict rules of “put it back in it’s place” and “do it my way”.

Those of you who know me probably know that I was my Momma’s problem child and biggest challenge. We have butted heads many times over the years. She wants a home that showcases her favorite possessions and looks like a magazine cover. I want a home that is functional and lived in. I have a hard time getting her to comprehend the difference.

To me, it’s important that everything have it’s place but that everything in my home is functional and is used for a purpose. As a homeschooler, I need my space organized for that “classroom” aspect of our days. As a Mom, I need it to be functional for four fast growing kids who are home every single day.

Now, what my Mother thinks should not effect how my home is run in a normal family but in my family it does. Since she lives directly behind us and her job is to help me with my children daily, she is often in and out of my home. She straightens, directs children, helps with meal prep, puts things away as needed, give baths. Basically, she is an extension of myself and it’s a wonderful thing until you realize just how opposite we are in our expectations.

There are days when I get so fed up with choosing a place for things to go and organizing my home it to fit my family to then find it reorganized or out of place because Mom felt it belonged elsewhere, that I find myself doing nothing in my home except the essentials. With a family of essentially eight and two dogs, this doesn’t work well for me. It leaves my home in a bigger mess than I started out with.

As a Mom of a smaller large family, I can tell you that missing one day of tasks, chores, and household duties leaves us in a much bigger mess than we began with. Things quickly get out of hand and then it can take days to get caught back up, leaving future plans amiss in the process. So I strive to do my best not to let us get behind.

My children have daily chores, like laundry and dishes, that they complete to help out. If the routine is kept fairly well missing one day doesn’t hurt but it does mean double the work for the next day. Missing more than one day leaves us struggling to catch it all back up so I can tell you that doesn’t happen often.

I don’t currently use a schedule but it’s something I really do need to implement in our home. I probably need to create several lists too but this idea is a new one for me so it’s something I’m learning as I go along. Since my Mother and I are basically total opposites in home management, her ideas don’t necessarily work for me, so suggestions from her aren’t always helpful.

I really feel for you Momma’s that have a bigger family than I do! You are a true inspiration. I often take ideas and suggestions from you to fit into our own home. So if any of you are reading this, please do share in a comment some things that you do to make your homes more manageable for the rest of us who struggle with this daily.

I know I’m on my way in this home organization process but some days it feels that goal is so far away from me – lightyears to be exact. I want a home that is suitable and happy. One day I hope that I will get there.