Organizing Digital Homeschool Resources

Digital homeschool resources make it possible to educate your kids at home on a budget and without a lot of physical clutter. But how do you organize digital homeschool resources and files so that you know what you have and can be sure to use these resources? Here are the best digital homeschool organization tips.

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In a world of ever-growing digital homeschool resources, how can you best organize them? Because you really don’t want to waste time searching for that perfect resource when you need to be homeschooling the kids. I’ve been homeschooling since 2008, and here are the most effective digital homeschool resource management strategies that I’ve learned over the years.

Importance of Organizing Digital Homeschool Resources

Digital homeschool files can be a huge blessing and help to homeschoolers! Many times, it’s cheaper to buy a digital resource than a printed one. And if you plan to use that resource with multiple kids, it will cost you less over time to re-use that file.

And digital homeschool resources are plentiful. You can find them almost anywhere. Some are free and some are paid products, but you can find nearly anything you can imagine to help with homeschooling.

If you’re a subscriber to my email list, I send you a round-up of relevant homeschool resources every week! Freebie Friday is one of my favorite emails to send out each month. I join forces with sometimes two dozen homeschool blogging friends and we share normally-paid products with our readers for FREE. You can grow your homeschool digital resource library for cheap (or free!) this way. Jump on my list if you’re not already a subscriber!

But part of the challenge of acquiring so many digital resources is in organizing them so that you know what you have and actually use them!

Because if you don’t end up using them, you’re not only cluttering your computer but you may be losing money.

Assessing Your Digital Homeschool Resources

Digital homeschool resources can include anything from e-books to online courses, educational apps to printables and worksheets. This post will show you one free online tool that can organize all of it! Go ahead and pull all your digital homeschool files into one main folder on your computer desktop for starters.

Then you’ll need to evaluate your current resources and identify areas that need organization. Also take a quick look at the main levels that the resources cover (PreK, K-4, grade 5-8, high school) and the content areas that are included.

But here’s one caveat: don’t necessarily download every single freebie you’re ever offered! If you know your homeschooling style and what works (and doesn’t work) for your kids, then you can say no to certain resources without any FOMO. Streamlining digital homeschool resources may be just as important as organizing them.

How to Organize Digital Homeschool Resources

You need to be able to see what you have for each grade level and each content area at a minimum.

Is the history product you downloaded appropriate for K-4 or 9-12? Is the printable pack for math only or does it include science as well?

While you may not have an immediate use for some digital resources, you need to organize them so that you will be able to find them when the time is right. This digital library is kind of like your physical library in your home, filled with books spanning many levels.

Establishing a System for Organization

The first step is creating a system for managing digital homeschool resources. There are many ways to organize your digital resources, but my favorite way is to use Trello. You can use Trello by itself or in conjunction with a cloud storage service like Google Drive or Dropbox. Here’s how to use these top tools for organizing homeschooling materials.

What is Trello?

Let me tell you about my secret weapon for digital file organization: Trello.

Trello is free. Let’s start right there. The great news is that you don’t need to invest in a program.

Next, Trello is an online organization and task management tool. You can access it from any of your devices. It’s an amazing tool for visual people. If you love sticky notes, I think you’ll love Trello. It’s like having an organized desk full of sticky notes but without the paper clutter.

Visualize it like a big empty desktop or whiteboard (they call it a board) where you can organize sticky notes into columns. One column might be all your science unit studies. Another one is art lessons. Then in each column, you might have various sticky notes (they’re called cards in Trello) with the actual PDF or URL for that resource.

Three Ways to Organize Digital Files by Category

When you purchase or receive digital files for free, you download them onto your computer. The solution here is to attach each one to a Trello card in the right category.

Your first task in organizing online learning materials for homeschooling is to figure out which categories make sense for your family and homeschool season.

You could organize by:

• Grade level – generally as elementary, middle, high school or specifically 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.
• Subject area – language arts, social studies, art, etc.
• Type of file – online course, workbook, unit study, etc.

Once you figure out the categories, you’ll create them in Trello. You can even include each resource in multiple categories. Do whatever works best for your brain. Where would you naturally look for that particular resource? Put it there.

A great aspect of Trello is that you can further micro-organize from there. So, if you decide to organize by subject area with columns for each, you can also use colored labels on each card to further designate grade-levels.

See how in my Bible category, I can easily determine which grade level designation for each resource. In this example, the yellow labels are for elementary and the blue labels are for middle and high school.

How to Attach a Digital File to a Card on Trello

Once you’ve linked all the content onto cards on Trello, you can use this system to find resources as you plan lessons, unit studies, or the next homeschool year. You’ll now be able to see at a glance which resources you have or what you might want to purchase.

Here’s how to attach a digital file to a card on Trello:

• Title the card on Trello so you know what’s on it (usually the name of the resource)
• Use the attachment feature to choose the attachment – computer, Trello, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, and OneDrive
• Or if you’re organizing an online course, you can simply include the URL and login information for courses you’ve joined

Here’s a video to see Trello in action.

How to Use This Trello Organization System for Homeschool Files

Now that you have all your digital resources organized on Trello, how do you go about sharing the links with your kids? Here’s Trello to the rescue again!

But if your teens use Trello for their homeschool task management, you’ll also be able to add these cards to your student’s Trello boards. So if you have a reading comprehension PDF you want them to access, for example, here’s what you would do:

• find the card on Trello with that digital file
• click on the card, then choose actions > copy > keep attachments
• now choose a board to add it to (this could be a master board or weekly board for your teen)
• choose “create card”

Here’s what this looks like inside Trello.

Additional Tips & Strategies

In addition to using Trello, you could also create a master document or spreadsheet to track resources. You’ll also want to regularly review and update your Trello board to ensure its effectiveness. If you schedule in dedicated time for file management and decluttering, this system should work to lessen the overwhelm that comes with huge amounts of digital files.

Listen to the Podcast

On episode 196 of the Homeschool with Moxie Podcast, I explained how I use Trello to help organize my digital homeschool files and resources.

Learn How to Plan Your Homeschool Year on Trello

I spend less than an hour each year planning the next homeschool year on Trello. Then, all it takes each week is a quick 5 minute reboot each Friday to set the next week’s Trello boards. In other words, I don’t have a gigantic teacher planner book. I don’t spend all weekend lesson planning or writing out what each of my kids will be working on. I set it once and almost forget it with Trello!

If you want to learn how I do this, check out these resources.

• Easy Homeschool Scheduling with Trello
• Yearly Lesson Planning in Less Than an Hour

Get Free Digital Homeschool Resources Each Month

Want the option to download dozens of high quality free homeschool digital resources each and every month? Then you need to grab a spot on my email list! Because every week, I join forces with my homeschool blogging friends and we bring exclusive freebies (sometimes paid products for free!) to our email subscribers.

Plus, I’ll give you the password to my members-only resource library where you can find all my freebies in one place.

Back to Homeschool Giveaway

Even though it feels like summer just started, a new homeschool year will be upon us in no time! Have you started planning and prepping yet? Preparing for a new homeschool year is an exciting time, but it can also create feelings of overwhelm and stress! What curriculum should we use next year? What supplies do we need? And how are we going to pay for it all?

Many homeschoolers live on one income and have to stick to a strict budget that doesn’t always allow for much wiggle room. That’s why I’ve teamed up with a group of amazing homeschool bloggers to make getting ready for your new school year just a little bit easier and hopefully a little less stressful for you. Our hope is that we can bless a few homeschool families (although we wish we could bless many more) and ease a little of that financial burden and help you check some extra things off your homeschool wish list this year.

Three people will win a $250 gift card to either Rainbow Resource Center or Christianbook.com – two great places to shop for homeschool curriculum and resources, with the best prices around!!

To enter for your chance to win, simply use the Rafflecopter form below to enter.  Now I know this is quite a few entries, but each of these bloggers has generously chipped in their own money to make this giveaway possible, so I hope you will take the time to do all of the entries.  And hey, the more entries you do, the better your odds are of winning!