5 Reasons You’ll Love Organizing Your Homeschool with Trello

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Organizing homeschool is tricky! There are so many moving parts. Learn why Trello is an amazing resource to help you master homeschool organization.

Alright, Mama. It’s 9 a.m. You’re sitting at the kitchen table with your kids, coffee in hand, ready to start school. 

Or are you?

• Do you remember how to log in to that website your son uses for math class?
• What’s the link for that YouTube video about hummingbirds that you were planning to show the kids this morning?
• How far did your husband get in your English curriculum when he worked with the kids yesterday?

Yeah, I didn’t use to be able to quickly find the answers to these questions either—until I started organizing our homeschool year in Trello.

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Trello. I raved about it here, and here. Trello truly shines, though, in managing all the crap you need to keep track of when you’re homeschooling. 

I used to be disorganized, too

For years, I have had homeschool information all over the place. Some things I needed were in paper PDFs. Others were bookmarked in various spots on my computer or tablet. Some were written down or stored as paper files in binders or folders. 

Never used Trello before? Check out How to Use Trello and Why It Will Change Your Life.

Information inevitably slipped through the cracks.

More than once I:

• found myself without essential materials when we sat down to do school in the morning.
• bought books twice because I didn’t realize I already owned the ebook version on my Kindle app.
• forgot to log assignments we completed in our Homeschool Log spreadsheet.
• found myself digging through workbooks, booklists, and months worth of digital photos to try to assemble a portfolio.

Trello makes all of these hassles a thing of the past.

Managing information is easy and seamless—whether you’re in the planning stages, managing your daily school schedule, or trying to get a good look at what you did this year. 

Here are five reasons why you simply must use Trello for organizing your homeschool year.

You can keep track of loads of information, all in one place

When we’re homeschooling, we have tons of information to keep up with. We’re using a pre-made curriculum for one subject, we need access to a YouTube video for the 2nd, and we need to remember the login for a website for the third.

Trello manages all of this information with ease. (And you know I’m all about making homeschooling as easy as possible).

A Trello card looks simple and neat on your list, but has a wealth of information on it when you flip it over. You can include the text of entire lessons in the description, add checklists of tasks you’d like to complete, add links to websites, photos, and audio files, and so much more. I haven’t found anything that I can’t organize with this thing.

It’s so nice to sit down with the kids on a homeschool morning with my coffee in my hand and know that I can easily access everything that I need for the day. No more hurrying to Google a fact that I need or searching for that audio file on Spotify that I decided two weeks ago would be perfect for today.

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You can share information easily with other Trello users

With Trello, it’s easy to share cards, lists, and even entire boards with other users. This is great if you are working together in a co-op situation, sharing educational responsibilities with your spouse, or simply assigning work to your kiddos.

Once you’ve shared a board in Trello with your kiddo or a fellow teacher, it’s easy to see what lesson you need to teach next week at the co-op, what math exercises your husband did yesterday with your eldest, or how many chapters your 8th grader has left in his literature book. You’ll be notified when any user updates a card in any way.

My 8-year-old son loves checklists, so we’re practicing giving him a bit of autonomy this year. He’ll have access to our weekly homeschool planning board, and he’ll be able to choose when to do the lessons and check him off as he completes them. (I’ll be checking in regularly to make sure he’s staying on track, of course.)

You can keep your plans loose

We’ve all had the experience of planning a beautifully organized week in a paper planner, only to find that plans changed dramatically.

With Trello, if I wake up with a sick kid, take longer than expected to complete a lesson, or have an opportunity to skip school and enjoy the day with a beautiful hike, I can easily take the cards I’d earmarked for today and drag them over to tomorrow or next week—no cross-outs, erasures, or reprints required.

Oh, and if you like to plan from behind, Trello will work for you, too. Simply create a card based on the activities you did, and attach any websites, photos, or other files you need to document the experience.

Record keeping is simple

It’s easy to attach photos and videos of the work we’ve completed right in our Trello card for an individual assignment. When that assignment is complete, I move it into the completed list for the week. If a card contains information I might like to include in a portfolio or reference again, I can use a colored label to distinguish it.

I then collect all of those completed lists into a “Completed Weeks” board for the year. (Each list can be moved at the end of a homeschool week with just a few clicks.)

Later, if I need to complete a portfolio or reference a resource we used, I’ve got a record of everything we did every single day. Text on cards is searchable, so things are easy to find. I can even create a PDF print out of any information I’d like with the Agile Cards power up.

Trello goes with you anywhere

Stuck in traffic and wishing you could listen to that science podcast you wanted the kids to hear? Bring up your homeschool Trello board in the iPhone or Android app and click on the link.

At the library and having trouble remembering the name of that book you needed for English? Check the app.

Staying at Grandma’s house and left your laptop and schoolbooks at home? Check out some of the educational websites you’ve saved in your homeschool Trello board.

Your Trello app is available to you on any device—laptop, tablet, or phone—even the Apple watch—so you’ll never find yourself without the information you need.

Use Trello when organizing your homeschool, and ensure that you start your day with everything you need. You know, so you can maybe get a sip or two of that coffee before it gets cold…