7 Practical Tips for Organizing Your Digital Homeschool Resources

When you finally take the plunge, it can be challenging to keep all of these worksheets, e-books, and supplemental materials under control.  It’s not as bad as you might think, though.  Here are some tips for managing all of your digital homeschool goodness.

Once upon a time, I organized my digital homeschool files by grade level. That makes perfect sense, right?  Well, this worked out for a year or two, but became a neglected mess before my very eyes. I missed items I looked forward to using because of my files being arranged by grade level. Organizing by subject helps avoid that kind of frustration.

For example, if we didn’t have time to cover a specific science topic one year, it became difficult to remember what resources were on hand when planning to cover it in following years. After all, it’s hard to remember each science resource you’ve saved for second grade once you’re homeschooling a fourth grader.

Now I have two flash drives I work with for homeschooling; one for early learning and one for elementary and up. These flash drive files are much easier to manage now that they’re all organized by subject rather than grade!

2.  Narrow Down Topics within Subject Folder

Once you’ve made folders for each subject, create subfolders within each folder.  For example, my math folder contains several subfolders that allow me to quickly find exactly what I need.  If I’m looking for a specific resource to help us cover fractions, I can easily find it by opening my fractions folder.

Chances are if you’re stocking up on digital resources, you’ll need a printing system that works well for you.  I have a To Be Printed file on each of my flash drives and in my laptop’s My Documents folder.  That way, I can easily copy and paste items for the upcoming week into one location. I don’t search a folder and print a few items and then search another folder and print from there. By having a To Be Printed file, I can quickly access everything I need to print throughout the homeschool week.

I can sometimes print all at once for the week, but sometimes it’s better to wait and print day by day.  Some of my items are merely on standby. I don’t want to waste precious paper and ink by printing those items and end up not using them. That’s where this To Be Printed file shines the most.

When I’m done with my planning and printing for the timeframe, I delete those copied files and have an empty folder waiting for the next round of printing.

I organize my e-books the same as I do my curricula and supplemental resources.  I have a folder titled “homeschool books,” that contains any e-versions of our curricula and actual e-books.  Most of the subfolders contain items for the kids, but I even have a “mom stuff” folder for books on homeschool encouragement, administrative helps, and teaching tips.

When it comes time to access all of these books, I use the Send to Kindle option.  This makes it possible to use your Kindle or preferred device to read all of these e-books and other documents.  This is such a lifesaver for using e-books in your homeschool!

Once it’s installed, you can simply right click on your e-books and files and select the Send to Kindle option. It’s that simple and it makes using digital homeschool resources a piece of cake!

5.  Backup Your Resources

This one goes without saying, but a reminder never hurts.  The last thing you’d want is to have this beautiful stockpile of homeschool resources and then lose them all because of some computer-related snafu.

Whether your original storage location is a flash drive or the My Documents folder of your computer, be sure to back up your resources on a regular basis. I recommend adding a backup reminder to your homeschool planner every few months.

There’s no shortage of online backup options out there. DropBox, and OneDrive, are just a couple worth considering.

Don’t let your digital resources linger in your Downloads file.  Like any kind of filing, it can be tempting to put it off, but the best thing to do is move your resources to the correct folders immediately after downloading. That way, no questions asked, your resources are ready and waiting when you need them.

By delaying, you risk forgetting what you’ve downloaded and making it difficult to find your resources when you need them.

Also remember to rename your files when necessary.  If changing a file name helps you easily identify it when you need it, then go for it. There’s no reason to keep the original name if it’s not helpful to you.