Category: Digital Planning and Paperless Living

How I Plan Our Homeschool Time In OneNote and Our First Day Preschool at Home DITL

Posted on by Mery

I just recently realized that I no longer have a toddler. Now that Little Gal is three, she is considered a preschooler. How in the world did that happen?! 

We’ve been doing relaxed, organized learning in some form for a year a half. Now that Little Gal is older, I’m working to create more routine and structure in our learning day. Nothing too intense since I do believe that the majority of learning at this age comes from play interaction, but just some anchor points to give us a little more structure in those sometimes unpredictable at home days. 

My first focus is to build up our circle time, or morning time as I call it. Our routine for this currently includes: 

  • Singing “This Is The Day”
  • Adding the date to our wall calendar
  • Singing our days of the week song
  • Talking about what day of the week it is
  • Singing our months of the year song
  • Talking about today’s date
  • Listening to the Bounce Patrol counting song
  • Talking about our number of the week
  • Listening to the Preschool Prep phonics song
  • Talking about our letter of the week
  • Singing a Bible verse song (currently coming from ABC Jesus Loves Me)
  • Saying a prayer 
  • Talking about what we are going to do for the day

I’ve also started planning for our homeschool time in a new way this year – using OneNote. I’m really finding OneNote to be a great fit for my prep and planning time due to the flexibility of being able to use it on my phone, tablet, and laptop. I love that I can embed YouTube videos for our learning time right into my plan for that homeschool day. 

I’m definitely not a homeschool pro, but little gal and I are learning together.  We are both really loving this morning time and our homeschool activities so far this year! 

 

Brookebot Digital Planner and Digital Sticker Review

Posted on by Mery

DISCLAIMER: I was provided this planner free of charge for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I do not receive any compensation if you purchase from Brookebot.

 

If you are looking for a 2018 digital planner, the Brookebot Digital Planner is a great option to check out! With a simple, elegant design and a super helpful hyperlinked navigation bar, it’s an easy to use and functional planner. Check out this video review to get a peek inside this digital planner!

DISCLAIMER: I was provided this planner free of charge for a review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I do not receive any compensation if you purchase from Brookebot.

Purchase the Brookebot Digital Planner and stickers here: http://www.aforementionedthoughts.com/brookebot

How to Add Images to Your Google Calendar

Posted on by Mery

 

While I really enjoy using my “paper digital” planner, I still keep my appointments in my Google Calendar because of the functionality and because I am always near my phone. One of my biggest gripes about Google Calendar is that it can be a little drab. That’s why I was so excited when I figured out how to add images to my Google Calendar. It was so much simpler than I could have dreamed and, yes, it does work on almost all of the different platforms I’ve tried – Android, iPhone, and web! 

Why I Still Use My Google Calendar Along With My Paper Style Planner

Posted on by Mery

I really enjoy using my “paper digital” planner, Google Calendar is still where I house all of my appointments and even some of my record keeping. Here are my top six reasons I still use Google Calendar: 

  1. It’s always with me – I am almost never without my phone. Thanks to Siri and other apps, I can quickly add upcoming appointments while I am on the go. 
  2. Ability to share – It is great to be able to easily share appointments with friends and family when I need to. When I am able to share my calendar with others, I never have to be concerned that they forgot about our plans. 
  3. Reminders – Thanks to reminders, I don’t have to keep my plans floating around in my head. My phone or computer will give me a gentle reminder that keeps me on track (even if I haven’t opened my calendar)! 
  4. Easy to edit – You can’t get much easier than click and drag to update appointments to a new date! 
  5. Automation – I have many IFTTT and Zapier automations set up with my Google Calendar so that I don’t even have to manually enter or write down all of the details of a plan or record. 
  6. Search – I can easily search back several years to find out when something happened last. So much better than needing to manually look through past years’ calendars! 

If you are interested in me covering any areas above further, please let me know in the comments below! 

FREEBIE – Digital Planning Sticker Book Cover

Posted on by Mery

 

I’m SO excited to share with you my first FREEBIE for your digital planner! Earlier this week, I shared with you how to create and use your own digital sticker book in GoodNotes on the iPad Pro. This free sticker book cover will show in your notebooks area of GoodNotes so that you can easily find your sticker book (and it will look adorable!) Watch today’s video to find out how to add this as the cover of your sticker book.

To get your free sticker book cover, just subscribe to my mailing list below. And don’t worry, you’ll only receive updates you ask for and your email will never be sold.

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How to Create and Use A Digital Planner Sticker Book in GoodNotes on the iPad Pro

Posted on by Mery

One of the things I love the most about using my Seasonal Happy Planner digitally on my iPad Pro is that I can decorated it with all of the digital stickers I want without needing to carry around or store a huge sticker stash. Check out the video above to learn how to make your own digital sticker book and how to use those stickers in your digital planner.

2017 Digital Seasonal Happy Planner

Posted on by Mery

I love my organization apps (Google Calendar, Remember the Milk, and Evernote), but I did miss being able to decorate a planner and use it as a way to record special memories of our family. That’s something that just never seemed to translate to a regular thing on my apps.  I also couldn’t seem to make a paper planner truly work in my life either. Being a stay at home mom meant that I didn’t always have my paper planner with me and honestly I didn’t want to buy a ton of adorable planner supplies that I would need to find a place to store. 

When I got my iPad Pro, I found a great middle ground. I still use my apps for certain things, like appointments and business tasks), but now I use my digital “paper” planner (a PDF file in the GoodNotes app) to decorate, plan out my home tasks, habit track, and do memory keeping.

My digital “paper” planner this year is a 2017 Seasonal Happy Planner that I purchased before I got my iPad Pro and just couldn’t make work for me. I scanned the pages, turned them into two page spread in Keynote, and uploaded the PDF file into GoodNotes. Check out the video above for tour of my digital Happy Planner!