Thursday Thinking – Focusing on What’s Important

Last week I rambled on and on about how to make our fall schedule work and getting everything I want to do fitted into our days; and it occurred to me after reading my post a few times that my focus was entirely on the wrong things.

I’ve been way too focused on tot-schooling / pre-schooling M. Way, way, way too focused. I love planning school activities, but when I’m totally stressed out because I just don’t know how I’m going to get it all done, something is very wrong.

M is only 3. He has the rest of his life, well his childhood at least, to learn about patterns, color shades, the sounds “C” can make, and so on… he doesn’t need to learn it all right now. Especially if Mommy is grumpy about it. He'll be going to school at age 6 (we will most likely not homeschool), and I only have a few more precious years with him. This thought has hit me with force the past few weeks. I don’t have time to work on getting my act together and figuring everything out. I need to be kind, patient, and gentle with him now, love him now, and help him to grow in love now.

I get a great amount of enjoyment and energy from putting things together to do with him, but my focus has shifted from “I want to have fun one-on-one time with you and maybe help you have fun learning in the process”, to “we’ve got to do this because I spent 2 days putting it together and I want to blog about it.”

Putting things together for him and planning our tot school time together is something I’ll continue to do as I can find the time, after all the important stuff is done. I want to keep it in our life, just not at the top of my list of priorities. It never should’ve risen to that spot in the first place.

Housework is another stressor for me – I don’t like cleaning (*news flash!*). But I do love the feeling of having the household running in an orderly manner. It’s important to me and so I’ve come up with what I want/need to have done on a regular basis. I hope to post about that some time soon (because this post is already too long and you are probably sick of these long rambling posts of mine!).

This post was a real eye-opener for me and I hope you’ll click over and read it – It says all my heart needs to remember as I “mother” M. I’m going to print it out so I can read it every day.

Have a beautiful day! :)

Organizing Ideas

I’ve been trying so many different ways of organizing all the ideas I run across online.  I’ve used Delicious to bookmark pages and add tags, I’ve kept notebooks filled with handwritten lists, and used google reader to tag and star items for later.  It’s all about to drive me crazy because none of it works (for me).  I’ve even looked at evernote, but it isn’t the answer for me either.

I am so embarrassed when I write a post that includes an activity inspired by someone else’s post… and I can’t remember where I saw it.  It’s just polite to give another blogger credit for her ideas. 

Sometimes I actually have ideas of my own. :)  And I need somewhere to keep them.  Somewhere that I have easy access to, and where they are sorted in a manner that makes at least a little bit of sense.  I've been scribbling ideas down in a notebook for a long time now.  However, math activities are mixed in with art and poems and abc’s, and so on. 

So, I decided to make my own organization system.  And it’s actually working.  Yay!  And it’s simple.  Really, really simple.  I turned to my old friend, Excel and made a spreadsheet of ideas and activities. Click on the image to make it bigger.

I’ve added room for 2 separate tags, a space for notes, and a space for a link if it’s something I’ve come across online.  Now, when I sit down to read my blogs I open my spreadsheet up and just copy and paste away. 

And when I’m planning a week’s worth of activities and art projects, I can sort the spreadsheet by any of the headings -  sensory ideas or counting activities or art – whatever!

Also, I can print it and have it handy in my planning binder.  This is the important part for me because I’m usually sitting in my easy chair drinking coffee, far away from the computer when I’m writing out our weekly calendar.  I’m a hard-copy kind of girl. :) I think that’s why none of the online programs were working for me.  I’ll be able to make notes of ideas that sprout from my own brain right onto my hard copy and add them onto the spreadsheet later.  And I’ll probably be printing the spreadsheet on a monthly basis, which will help me go over all the things I’ve wanted to do but haven’t gotten around to yet. 

I’ll still use Delicious as a bookmarker for resource sites (not specific activities).  And I’ve been taking 5 to 10 minute breaks once a day to go through my Google Reader list.  I quickly star everything that looks interesting (and get rid of a lot that doesn’t), then go back later and  read my starred items.  That’s when I open my spreadsheet and start gathering new ideas.

How do you keep all the terrific online information organized?  I’d love to hear in the comments!

Have a beautiful day! :)