5 Productivity Tools Every Homeschool Mom Needs to Stay Ahead

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We all need to do our work better and faster, so that we can have more time for fun. However, I do hope homeschooling is fun for you most of the time. In this spirit, I offer you five productivity tools. This post contains affiliate links. Here we go:

 

Tool #1

Homeschool planner – This Paper Peony Press planner contains pages for your yearly, monthly, and weekly goals. As such, you will find space to plan your menus, besides your lessons and calendar. Bonus: it is undated. I really like it.

Homeschool Planner

Homeschool Planner

 

Tool #2

Noise-canceling earbuds for focused planning – Personally, I enjoy silence from time to time. When I sit at co-op with all the noise around me, in the general area, it can get very noisy. At home, we run the dehumidifier all. the. time. I do not find white noise relaxing. It annoys me. A lot. So these earbuds are a lifesaver for me. I wish I had them when the children were little and loud.

Earbuds

Noise-canceling earbuds

 

Tool #3

Portable chargers for co-op days or field trips – How long do you stay at co-op? We spend seven hours there. We also drive for three hours both ways. So we are gone from home for 10 hours. When we take fields trips, they also usually take all day. As a mom with children on the road, I need to be connected with my husband via cell. We live in the year of our Lord 2025. Gone are the days of payphones and pagers. For my peace of mind, I must have a cell phone and a charger with me.

Portable Charger

Portable Charger

 

Tool #4

Desk calendars or dry-erase boards for scheduling – These come in handy. As a result, the entire family knows where everybody goes and when. Now that we have three cars and three drivers, we all go in different directions. It feels good to know and see visually the week or the month ahead. Personally, I like this wall calendar because of the cork board section at the bottom, where you can pin tickets or bits of paper and notes.

Wall Calendar

Wall Calendar

 

Tool #5

Coffee maker and tumbler for on-the-go days – You know homeschool moms do not stay at home every day, right? We need our coffee on the go, preferably in a stainless steel tumbler, please. The link will take you to a black matching set with a coffee maker and a 14 oz travel mug. As the only coffee drinker in my family, I love my single-serve coffee maker – which is what this link will take you to. No waste, reusable filter, and compact for your already crowded kitchen counter.

Coffee Maker and Tumbler

Coffee Maker and Tumbler


Week 11 – Done

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We still cannot homeschool full time due to the recent death in the family and its aftermath. There are many tasks we have to do and this is the time to do it. Nothing can wait.

Food Ministry Donation

Our daughter next to our truck, full of donations for the Food Ministry Second Hand Store

One day at a time, we wake up, discuss the situation, and decide which subjects we can tackle and which subjects we can leave for Christmas break. We already see ourselves doing some school through the end of December and the beginning of January. Continue reading »


Ready, Set, Go!

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We start the new school year next week. I know. It’s early. Two weeks earlier than our local public school district. There are many reasons why we start now.

Hydrangeas

Enjoy summer and hydrangeas while they last.

First, we need 30 weeks of instruction until the nationally standardized test they take in March of 2021. I add Christmas break, Thanksgiving break, sick days, and count back to a date in early August. Continue reading »


Planning for the School Year

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On my week without children, because they spent this week at camp in Georgia, I decided to tackle planning the school year. Over the years, I have tried different planners and even made my own. This year, some homeschooling moms told me about a digital conference which, so far, has been worth every penny.

Trello Board for Homeschooling

My daughter’s first week of homeschooling as laid out in Trello.

One of the workshops dealt with planning your entire school year in Excel. I tried to do what she wanted us to do, but it just never seemed right. What if Lesson 46 does not get done in math one day? Well, you put it on the right side and move it to the next week. Then, you build in make up days. It just seemed too difficult.

The other thing that did not work for me was how fiddly Excel is. The presenter offered some free forms and logs, but they all got changed by the time I opened my Excel file. Then, I had to mess with cell formatting and that’s just not something I enjoy. Continue reading »