For so many of us it’s that time again: Back-to-school. This means back to a more consistent schedule, an earlier bedtime, and usually a quieter house for some chunk of time during the day. It also means that order, routine, and organization are totally on the brain. They’re my little magic words right now. Focus words.
For the love of all things orderly, here are a few projects going on around here:
[ LABEL-HAPPY ] You know I was all giddy labeling every single thing that we packed in Porter’s backpack. Love my label maker.
[ MEAL-PLANNING ] I asked you guys last week to share your meal-planning systems and boy, did you ever. Thank you! Tons of great input, and plenty of you relating to this desire to be better organized about planning and carrying out meals. I haven’t even made it through all the detailed comments but something that popped up over and over was e-mealz. Many of you are using this online service and the Higgins are giving it a try! Thanks for the recommendation. We’ll let you know how it goes. All I know is I was so happy to do my grocery shopping over the weekend based on a list that I didn’t come up with for once. We’re looking forward to some new recipes too.
[ PROJECT LIFE ] For those of you who are in a similar boat, I’ve fallen a bit behind on our Project Life this summer. No worries. Try to schedule a block of time each day for the next week or two (or whatever you need) to do catching up. For example, my method of doing Project Life is the POTD-way — taking a picture every single day of the year. That part is easy for me. Check. Done. Got it. As for the journaling, I’m scheduling 30 minutes in my daily routine until I’m back on track with that. Another option is to just go back over the months you still would like to do, and just do a two-page layout for each month. As in – choose 7 favorite pictures from each month, add a journaling note to go with each one – and you’re done!
[ PERSONAL YEARBOOK ] You may remember that little project I’ve been doing in Porter’s classroom at school the past couple of years. Click here for a re-cap if you missed that. The end result of this project is a personal yearbook for each child. I am officially set to go with this again for the new school year – in both Porter’s 2nd grade class and Claire’s preschool class. I know a lot of you are interested in doing something similar.
Good News: I will be sharing downloads (free, of course) that will be the templates for these pages that will work for an entire school year. No more waiting for me to post the next month’s stuff. No more figuring out how to create your own pages. I’m going to simplify the entire process for you so that you can confidently volunteer to do this in your child’s class. So stay tuned. I’ll be sharing more information about how to get started, what supplies are needed, and of course the free downloadable page templates.
Tags: labels, meal-planning, personal yearbook, Project Life, schedule, school supplies
I totally just got out my project life today and spent a good chunk of the day (in between other “manditory” things) getting caught up! Sad to say it might take me a few days… hey I have 3 kids too!
I am excited about the personal yearbook. I want to give it a try this year!
I can’t wait for you to share your templates for the school yearbook! I wanted to do it last year for my daughters kindergarten, But had no idea where to start! Glad I found your blog before school starts this year.
I LOVE Back to School! My son will be a first grader this year and I’ve got his backpack ALL ready to go. First day is in two weeks!! Another summer flew by! Seems like I just picked him up on the last day which was June 4th.
Can’t wait to see this years Back to School book. I am doing this with both my kids in their 2nd grade & K classrooms this year. SO excited! Thanks Becky for all the templates and the inspiration.
SO excited to see this years school book. I wanted to do this last year but… too late in the year when I thought of it. It gives me two days guaranteed in my kids’ classrooms which is the real bonus of doing it!
You are so awesome and generous to put the templates and supply list up for our use. My son is just 2 but if I start now maybe I’ll be somewhat organized and ready for when he goes to school. I would love to do this when the time comes. Thank you.
DANG!
I thought you were ANNOUNCING that the BACK.TO.SCHOOL. kit is available!!!
waiting ANXIOUSLY, my [Porter] pre.schooler is back.to.school…KITLESS!
Hugs.
Jess
Becky, so excited for you to be sharing the Personal Yearbook downloads. I am in Australia and our school year starts in January so I am looking forward to having this available for my son next year. Thanks Becky : )
Oh and for meal planning I use your download ; ) I have been since you posted it. I made up a cute clipboard and it lives on the fridge and every Sunday we sit and write out our meals. It has been working for us for over 12 months now. Good luck finding a system that works for you.
So excited about the “personal school yearbook!” Last year I adapted it for my daughters Daisy troop! The girls loved it and had a great time reflecting on all the fun things we did! (I can send you the pictures if you would like.)
I made books last year for each kindergarten kid in my daughter’s class. I appreciated your templates so much. Thank you!
Thank you for giving me and everyone else permission to choose 7 photos for a particular month for project life. I was going strong, and then summer hit and I fell off the wagon, but I don’t want to give up. A monthly layout I can do that! Thanks Becky!
Have you ever heard of Mabels Labels? The cutest labels ever and are dishwasher and microwave safe…perfect for back to school….You may enjoy them…Cheers Jeannie
So excited about the school scrapbook dowloads! I have already volunteered and started the first few pages for my boys’ 2nd grade class! I’m still trying to find the clear folders that you used last year.
So excited for these new templates. I’d downloaded the previous year’s worth and realized how much juggling I’d have to do to adapt for my own use, so I’m really looking forward to seeing the new downloads you will have for us. Thanks in advance!!
Becky,
Thank you for being so generous in making available to all of us (out here in Blogland) the templates for a kiddo’s school album! This is not only a great project for publicly or privately schooled children, but for the home schooled ones as well!
I am a 5th grade teacher, and I love your idea of a scrapbook. I think I’m going to have it as one of the things parents can sign up to do. I believe older children will love it just as much. In fact, they’ll know how to keep it better. I can’t wait to get anymore details on how it works.
LOVE the personal yearbook idea!!! I think you should bring porter back to vistancia for 3rd grade so that Mrs. Rodgerson (aka:me) can have him as a student (and you as a mom)
And isnt that Mrs. MacDonald FANTASTIC?!?! Wow.
I too love organizing and my label maker is my best friend
Excited about your templates coming for the school yearbook idea! I am a teacher and trying to get motivated for Back to School! The yearbook is something that I am going to try to do with my kids since I don’t have a lot of parent volunteers. I love that you are offering this idea and it is a great idea for parents to take initiative to contact their child’s teacher about leading a once a month project. Kudos, Becky for helping parents and teachers work together!
thank you Becky!
Hi Becky – I just wanted you to know that I was TOTALLY inspired by your yearbook posts last year and I am doing them with my class of 6-7 yr olds this year. We’re starting on Wednesday with a back-to-school photoshoot !
Can’t wait to see your yearbook templates! Thank you SO much for sharing those with us! I am so excited to get started!!
You’re the best!
Yeah I am so excited you will be doing this for preschool! I really wanted to do this with my son’s class but I couldn’t quite figure out how to make for that level!
Becky- Now that you have “organization” on your mind, does that mean that you’ll be sharing your organization tips here on your blog? Oh, I’d love to see a post with your super organization tips coupled w/ Container Store, etc. finds. One long, juicy blog full of organization goodness wld be super. (Sigh- a girl can dream, right?) And- I’m with you on the label maker- while normally I don’t think that women should get gifts that plug in (appliances, etc.) I was so happy when hubby bought me one as a surprise gift. cbs
I’m totally in the clean out, organize, finish up back-to-school mode.
I’m using August as a clean up month of sorts.
A time to finish projects that were started and not finished and make a list of projects to do once the routine of school has started.
SO looking forward to your student album project! I’m getting on board this year!!
Thanks again for being SO willing to share with all of us!
L.O.V.E. that you are so giving and sharing of your ideas!! I am so looking forward to reading more about the personal yearbook for your kids and may want to try that with my kids classrooms – all three of them!! THANK yOU!!
You are awesome!! Thanks for sharing all of your wonderful ideas, especially the Personal Yearbook!
I also love the meal planning & organizing of life when getting back to school…although I miss my kiddo so much when they leave. Its a process, soon we will be in full routine. I was wondering if anyone mentioned the Martha Stewart Everyday Food app for meal ideas? Have you tried it? I LOVE it!!! Mostly I was already a fan, her everyday food vs living magazine ideas are much much simpler & but still creative & seasonal (I am a seasonal food craver-like pumpkin in fall etc) anyway, it is .99 I think, sends me a quick idea via text once a day & has a search for when your at the store & think of a “Oh I wanta make” so you have the recipe with you AND it makes you a grocery list. Love it, cause its with me.
Also wanted to say how much I LOVE the ideas & downloads for the school books. I adapted them to work for our school events & our grades. It was a dream! Please keep it up & I have a preschool starting too
As for PL, so so behind. Haven’t gotten the album in the mail yet
Mine was damaged in the first round of mailings & it has made it hard to keep organized. BUT it is on the priority list when they do go back to school.
Happy End of Summer!
~Ada in Coastal Cali
I have friend that takes her crockpot and uses it out of the back of her van. She makes all kinds of things. She has 4 kids and all of the activities that goes with that many children. I’m thinking of trying some abreviated version for in between after school and the football game on Fridays.
You have inspired me to try an plan out meals this coming school year. Ideally it would be wonderful to plan our meals and have the ingredients we need on hand so dinner is not such a “what are having tonight” scavenger hunt. I am a teacher and trying to figure it out after a long day at work can be overhwleming.
And…Since I’m a teacher, teaching 2nd grade this year!!! I am planning to do the scrapbook project with my class. Not sure I will be able to get any parent volunteers but that’s okay. I did a scrapbook project with my kindergarteners a few years ago but it was a bit different. I think this one is a much simplier version but heartfelt at the same time.
Thanks for sharing all your wonderful ideas!!
IMPRESSIVE….customer service for PROJECT LIFE. I just received a replacement binder for a Project Life I received in early January. I purchased this kit understanding that it was a brand new endeavour for the Higgins and the Project Life team. So, when I received an email that said it would be a while before I received my binder I simply waited with a few emails here and there to check on the status of coming binder. By the way, I received a response to each of my emails. So, today I received a beautiful brand new binder! This was accompanied by a sweet letter which clearly and emphatically expressed how much they regretted that I had to wait this long and how they appreciated my patience. It also said that as they look to the future they hope replacing parts won’t take this long. A few sheet protectors were enclosed as a “thanks” for waiting so long. I guess those who appreciate great customer service know how to give it back! KUDOS to the Project Life team!
I teach first grade and can’t wait to do the yearbooks with the students. If anyone finds the clear plastic folders do tell!
I am so blessed to have found this blog. My oldest is going into preschool and I was trying to figure this out. You ROCK!!!! I am also glad I am not the only one behind. I must say I am behind on pictures as well, but I will get there one day as well.
It’s a good life!
Terri E.
I see on the E-Mealz, that they have Kroger listed as a store to plan meals around. If you don’t coupon, it’s a great way to save a TON of money and the Kroger family of stores offers great deals and loves couponers! You can literally slash your family’s budget in half each month for groceries and bring home twice as much food. The key is to match your coupons according to their ad, or in this case to your menu! A great site to visit is http://www.stockpilingmoms.com It’s so nice to buy more each week, for less and have it go so much further!!!
From reading the comments I know you hear this a lot but let me just say it also. I am loving my Project Life. How proud you must feel to have created such a wonderful gift. I got mine last week. I am not using it as a photo a day I am just putting all the photos I take in there and journalling about every day. I plan on scrapping some events seperately (vacation, birthdays…) I am so happy. It is a wonderful product. I am so looking forward to next years. I had a smug on one of my month dividers and they sent me a new one right away. Plus you sent me a personal email. He He. I am a bit star struck. Thank you Becky.
speaking of back to school on the brain… can you share any info on the new school kid being created in your brain? like about when you think it will launch, even if it is a ball park (because I know things like this can always change) I’m just so excited to get going on this, since I now have school age kids, and I didn’t when the last kit was out, BUT I wish I had gotten it then- oh well I am just SOOOO glad you are doing another one!
Becky…I LOVE that you are so generous with your talents. SO many people just try to make as much money as they possibly can off of any good idea that they have.
THANK YOU for sharing these FREE downloads to help mothers all over the world give their children these wonderful scrapbooks for their school year!!
I was wondering when you were going to be posting the templates for the school book? My son starts school on Thursday, and I’d like to mention this to his teacher as soon as possible. I wanted to do it last year, but my son’s teacher wasn’t a very parent in the classroom kind of teacher… so i am really excited to do it this year. Can’t wait to see them.
Karen
Can’t wait to see the school yearbook!!!! Thank you so much for sharing! You are so good to all of your loyal readers! I am excited to share it with my daughter’s teacher. Congrats on your new logo and company. I have been a fan of yours fore several years ever since I saw the pages you did for Porter’s baby book in Creating Keepsakes.