By Nancy King

Do you have a system for organizing all the treasures that come home with your child from school seemingly every day? I’m not talking about the three-dimensional art work (or the 6-foot wooden plank decorated with plaster T-rex bones my daughter was “lucky” enough to walk away with after her class studied dinosaurs). No, I’m talking about the drawings, poems, photos, and other keepsakes that accumulate faster than tuition bills and late notices from the library.

My “system” thus far has been to drop everything into a paper bag from Whole Foods, with “Nursery,” “Kindergarten,” “First Grade” scrawled on the side with a Sharpie. Then these overstuffed bags get sent to the attic where they will live, in gloom and darkness, until we move to another house.

You will understand my excitement, then, when I discovered School Years: A Family Keepsake of School Memories. It’s a handy, wire-ring album that organizes your child’s school treasures for you. Starting in kindergarten and running all the way through twelfth grade, the album has pocket folders for notes, homework, report cards, etc., plus a spot on each page for inserting a photograph of your budding student-scholar and spaces to fill in names of teachers, height and weight (of your kid, not the teachers), favorite subjects, honors & awards, and my personal favorite: “When I grow up, I want to be…” (So far, my daughter has filled in “dancer” and “artist,” which means I will need to be wealthy when I grow up so I can support her.)

The questions evolve with the passing years, so instead of recording age and weight on the first day of school, the focus is “Skills I’d like to learn” and “Colleges/universities to check out.” Not so fast, please, I’d like to keep college out of the picture for me and my little dancer-artist just a bit longer…

Part journal, part filing system, and completely smart, School Years is a godsend. Now if only they’d make one that’s six feet tall for organizing dinosaur bones.

The Details
School Years: A Family Keepsake of School Memories
$19.95 Creative Toy Shop
www.creativetoyshop.com

By Katy Killilea

Families do all kinds of kooky things to save money and/or time. Shopping at a warehouse club, for example: It takes forever to maneuver the giant cart around the place, and then the line to pay is long, and something like a case of pens or forearm-size loaf of goat cheese finds its way into the cart, making the savings in time and money nil. But then there are things that other families do that are pure genius.

Here are the very best convenience tips I’ve learned from other parents this year:

Efficient Household Management:

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• Wash and dry laundry in a catch-as-catch-can style, but fold it only once a week, while you watch a TV show that doesn’t demand undivided attention. (The Biggest Loser is just about perfect.) Put the folded clothes away intermittently, during commercial breaks.
• Have children select the next school day’s outfit the night before. If they don’t care what they wear, select the outfit for them and place it bedside.
• Vacuum under and behind sofas/chairs/rugs when building tipped-over furniture forts. No rush on taking down the forts.
• If you have more than one child, have each of them observe and critique the other’s tooth brushing, so you can step away from the sink and do something else.
• Buy many pairs of each family member’s favorite sock to facilitate  matching.
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• Stick to a fairly rigid after-school routine: Wash hands. Snack. Homework/reading. Parents get to sit down to read during that time too.

Shopping Avoidance Techniques:

• Don’t read sale flyers. You don’t need to know—it will be on sale when you get there whether you’re prepared for it or not.
• CVS and other pharmacies will automatically refill the prescriptions your family uses if you ask them to. An automated system will call  to let you know that your refill is ready for pickup.
• Order groceries online. If you’re nasty, you can arrange to have them delivered while you’re out but your spouse/babysitter will be there to put them away.

Voila! Food:

• If you neglected to defrost the whole chicken you had planned to serve for dinner, you can place it, rock hard, in your slow cooker and it will be luscious and cooked in time for dinner. Read the ridiculously easy instructions here.
• Strange but true: You can pick up Sockeye and Wild Coho salmon fillets in the freezer section at Target.
• While there, you can also get all the ingredients for our friend Mrs. Gower’s Top Secret Chicken: frozen breaded chicken cutlets (we use Morning Star Farms faux chicken), sliced provolone cheese,  a jar of sauce, and pasta. (Put water on to boil and heat oven to 350. Layer the sauce, then the chicken/faux chicken and cheese in a pan, and bake for 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling water to serve with the chicken.)
• Stop thinking about what to pack in kids’ lunch boxes and copy other people’s smart ideas. Let them buy pizza and chocolate milk on Fridays.
• Put dinner planning on automatic pilot. Have a burrito night, a soup night, a fish taco night…a night for whatever your family likes to eat. This greatly reduces brain strain for the meal planner. And if you don’t tell anyone (shhh!) that Tuesday is pasta night, they won’t complain when you inevitably stray from the pattern.

A Streamlined Lifestyle:

• Go on a Facebook fast, inspired by Ramadan in function if not in spirit: refrain during daylight hours.
• If you run or go to a gym, sleep in your workout clothes.
• Spend time with the people you love, and block out the merely so-so ones as often as possible.
• If you have long hair, learn to take a shower without getting it wet.

This list was so handy last year, I decided to re-use it. Here is a summary of articles from the Kidoinfo archives that may be helpful as readers plan their month. Find craft projects, local events, and books to read, along with tips and ideas to make your holidays a little easier, hopefully less stressful—and memorable for the kids. Some of you may be way ahead of me, so pick and use what you need and please share your own helpful tips and ideas below with the Kidoinfo readers.

1. Make an advent calendar to count down the days till Christmas or buy one at a local shop (probably on sale now).

2. Mark you calendar with upcoming events and parties for school, home, work, etc. Plan which local events or family traditions you plan to participate in this year. If you plan to see a show, order your tickets and put them in safe place. Subscribe to Kidoinfo and receive our newsletter list of “Weekend Picks” in your inbox every Thursday.

3. Plan your holiday card. Find an adorable photo of your child(ren) or schedule a professional or at-home photo shoot. Buy ready-made cards or make your own. Use old magazines to make collage cards for family and teachers. I organize my contacts in BatchBook so I can easily print all my addresses on mailing labels.

4. Teach your children about the many holidays celebrated at this time of year. (Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice). Read books, listen to music, and try new foods associated with the various holidays. We have an international house—our family celebrates Christmas, Eid, and Hanukkah.

5. Make paper snowflakes.

6. Plan as a family or as a class how you will thank your child’s teacher or caregiver this year. (Gift Ideas)

7. Buy and trim your Christmas tree. I find it easier—and less frustrating for my boys—to bring out all the decorations and test all the lights before announcing that it’s time to hang the ornaments on the tree. After the decorating is done, we usually celebrate with hot cocoa and popcorn or holiday treats.

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Here is a follow-up to Katys recent review of Tools for the Parent, Organized and Otherwise to let you know what works for me. I am definitely not super mom and not organized ALL the time, but these tools help me out most of the time. Please share your favorite ways to stay organized.

1. All Out Of pads. Keeps my grocery list organized and now my kids are old enough to help out by adding to it every time they notice we are out of things like milk, cereal, ice cream, or bananasand cookies.

2. Sharpies. I agree with Katy. Perfect for labeling clothes, Tupperware, lunch boxes, and more with my childs name.

3. Rubber bands, binder clips, and paperclips. Essential for organizing mail, homework word sorts, and sealing bags of chips.

4. Car Survival Kit. I used to keep a clean set of clothes in the car for the boys. Now I carry wipes, Kleenex, a first-aid kit, a bucket of books/toys, extra bags for trash or the occasional car sickness, paper towels, a blanket, and a flashlight.

5. Key box. A box by the front door where we store all of our keys. Saves me time in the morning because I always know where my keys are; not so true about missing gloves.

6. iPhone. This eliminates having a to carry a separate cell phone and calendar (PDA or paper). Now I have those plus a camera, music player, GPS device all in one gadget. I use iCal (calendar) on my iPhone and on my laptop. I created three calendars—home, school, work—color-coded each one so I can easily see what I need to do wherever I am – scheduling a doctors appointment, PTO meetings, or a business event. Plus you can get tons of free (or close to free) applications for you and your children everything from light sabers, local movie listings, to peekaboo barn and a baby schedule.

7. Wall calendar. In the kitchen I use a wall calendar as a backup with pockets to keep track of event tickets and fliers by month and visible to anyone (my husband) who walks into the kitchen they can easily check whats on the schedule.

8. Zippered pouch by Balanced Design. Keeps my coupons, money, and extra Kidoinfo postcards handy.

9. Graph paper mini notebooks. My favorites for doodling and list making are by moleskin or Clairefontaine.

10. The (almost) perfect black purse. Even better when I bought one that was 40% off at Macys. Holds all my essential stuff (except for my laptop), including extra Band-aids, lip balm, Kleenex, a deck of cards, and retractable pencils for homework.

By Katy Killilea

A fresh, new year often brings a smidge or more of motivation to get a grip on the mayhem of family life. What works for one parent certainly won’t work for all, but here’s what’s working for me.

Scrap paper & Sharpies
We use the backs of school papers and mail for notes and lists. Any 8″ x 11″ sheet gets cut into quarters, and a stack of these is kept near the pen jar. This may be ecologically sound, but I do it more out of admiration for all of the pretty paper the kindergarten teacher uses. Add a variety of Sharpies into the mix and you’ve got a high-impact note-writing system. ($0, scrap paper; $1, Sharpie)

Magnetic clamps
These clamps are powerful magnets with powerful jaws. Perfect for holding a grocery list, the stack of envelopes you need to mail, and sometimes a stray Webkinz. Their simple shape and plain, uncolored metal make them visually unobtrusive. ($3 for two)

Metal strips
We keep a running grocery list clamped (see above) to a metal strip smartly installed—not my idea—on the inside of a cabinet door. This means the list is handy, but private, allowing for a veil of mystery regarding one’s plan to buy penne instead of farfalle. ($4)

iPhone (apple.com)
I had been using mine solely as a phone, a calculator, for e-mail and for Pacman. But this year I’ve begun to use my iPhone’s calendar. This resulted mostly from peer pressure. But it’s fairly divine to know with certainty, when the receptionist asks, that Thursday at 10:15 will be a wonderful time to return for that root canal. ($200)

Datebook made from actual paper
A paper datebook is essential: for back-up, as a security blanket, for doodling during PTO meetings, and because there are so many irresistible ones. The best is the Personal & Family Organizer by Busy Body Book. A week in BBB land is minimally but ingeniously divided into a grid that corrals a family’s goings-on. But it does more. It helps you think. And it has all of the features you could wish for: internal pockets, water-resistant covers, and each week has dedicated empty space to use at your whim. Heaven. ($17.95)

If I were shopping for a datebook and feeling more pink faux crocodile than minimalist, I’d head for MomAgenda. These have well-thought-out organizing features, with a little bit of frill and quite a bit of girliness, some polka dots, and some toile. ($40)

Motivational Tools
Sometimes the best intentions need a little oomph. 2009 offers lots of specialized stationery options.

Buttoned Up’s line of products is insane—things I’d never have imagined needing, but that make sense: a book just for recording passwords, a binder to hold gift cards and keep track of the balance on each, a pad of forms for delegating chores to family members, and a notebook for recording your fitness routine and eating patterns in minute detail. Any of these will give a boost to an even slightly motivated person in need of a change. ($4 and up.)

Piles of papers are easily tamed with binder clips, but are more fun to tame with Mateo Ilasco’s Action Organizing Clips, These clips come with numerals (pictured) or with lovely-looking but forceful demands like, “Pay” and “File.” ($13/set)

At first this pad seemed like a joke to me, but now I see it as the most useful tool of all: Prettybitter’s “I Will Do One Thing Today” sticky-notes. You now have permission to: Pick one thing. Do it. Check it off of your list. Take the rest of the day off.

What are you doing to stay organized? Please share your ideas with the Kidoinfo community by posting your comments.

By Katy Killilea

A friend I admire very much has a refrigerator magnet that speaks to my soul: “A Clean House is a Sign of a Wasted Life.” I think of this magnet in the evenings as I chip ossified breakfast cereal off of the kitchen floor. Life waster that I am, though, I like certain things neat. (If anyone knows of a similar magnet for “An Ironed Shirt” or “Consistently-Groomed Eyebrows,” please alert me.)

For people who like to clean (or hate to clean but do it anyway) and can’t stand fumes or the aura of drudgery that hovers around traditional cleaning products, there are lots of good choices. Some people splurge on an entire matching set of Mrs. Meyer’s products from toilet bowl cleaner to dryer sheets. People seem to form tribal-like loyalty to their favorite Mrs. Meyer’s scent; could a Lemon Verbena and a Basil ever really get along? The new line of cleaning products from J. R. Watkins look like they escaped from the Kiehl’s counter at Nordstrom to hide out under the kitchen sink. The lemon dish soap makes my whole world smell—and I mean this in the best possible way— of Pez. Both of these brands are available all over the place, even at Target, and are natural, not harmful to humans, and not tested on animals.

But for something completely different, look into Lily’s Garden Herbals made locally in Wakefield.

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By Nancy King

Here’s a question: Is the line between order and chaos in your world an increasingly fine one? If you’re a mother, the answer may well be, “Of course.”

Well, here to the rescue is a nifty book called Mom Essentials: A One-Stop Organizer for Moms on the Move. It promises nothing less than being the busy mom’s ultimate personal assistant. I’d rather hire Zac Ephron for the job, but still, the book’s pretty amazing. There’s a week-at-a-glance calendar inside the left cover (pages and pages of them, actually, so you have the satisfaction of ripping off an entire week come Sunday), and catchy Post-it notes (“Multitasked out” or “Balance schmalance”) inside the right cover that serve as reminders wherever you need them. In between the covers is where you’ll find the real action: there are four tabbed sections that capture all the important stuff, from contact lists and to-do lists to shopping lists, menu planners, and more. There’s even a pocket at the end for stuffing in whatever it is you need to have handy (tickets, receipts, library cards…).

The people at Chronicle Books know design, so the package is predictably fetching and colorful and smart. As I flipped through the various sections, I was haunted by my own question: What if? What if I had used a resource like this to reinforce the line between order and chaos? It was fun to fantasize that I held in my hand the roadmap to a life that could have been, one that flows along with purpose and efficiency and without the constant hiccups, hassles, and frustrations that only mothers know about.

Is it too late for a personal assistant? I’m going to find out. Wish me and my purse-sized planner luck. And tell Zac Ephron to call me if he’s looking for work.

The details:
Mom Essentials: A One-Stop Organizer for Moms on the Move
By Amy Keroes
$14.95 Chronicle Books

Children tend to have someone at their beck and call—someone called Mom (and Dad). I know there are many busy moms out there like me who may work in or out of the home, are juggling kids, the household, the spouse—and trying to squeeze in one more thing on the to-do list. The very idea of having someone to help me out is simply irresistible. And for those of us who live in the Providence area, we are lucky enough to have someone at our Beck and Call. Melissa Laundry is a stay-at-home mom with lots of free time since her son goes to school all day. She will run all sorts of errands: pick up dry cleaning, make coffee runs to the office, handle vet visits for your pet, wrap a birthday present, or come to your home or office to notarize your papers, and more. She charges an hourly rate with a half-hour minimum. So, if you need a little help with your to-do list, you may want Melissa at your Beck and Call. And imagine what a brilliant gift this would be for a new mom—one size fits all!

You may have noticed a change to the Kidoinfo events calendar. With the help of my techie husband, Doug, we have set up Google Calendar to track events instead of 30 Boxes. Although I liked the way 30 Boxes looked, it did not always display all events or allow you to save an event to your own calendar. I am in the process of testing more sophisticated calendars that will allow readers to input their own events and share them friends with a click of a button. In the meantime, Google Calendar allows you to see a list of events by day, and with one click you can expand the event to see a description and the location. You can also add any of these events to your own calendar using the iCal format.

On a personal calendar note: I am on a quest to organize my life – stay on top of e-mails, PTO and work meetings, article deadlines, and a night out with my husband or gal pals. I have been searching for a calendar that works, a reliable place to jot down my ideas, and a place to track my contacts. Anna recently wrote about this topic on her blog, “To do today: tell me how you stay organized,” and many readers have commented on what they do. I am curious about what works for you. Are you a Post-it person or paperless? Just as in parenting, other people’s tips and tricks can be enormously helpful.

I am a notebook person (maybe too many), and I use a combo of online and offline systems which I will write more about later. I’ve also started using Google Calendar for myself, which allows me to set up separate calendars for work, school, and home. I can see them all at once or turn off the ones I do not want with a simple click. I can also share the calendars with my husband so he knows when we have a school event, the kids have a doctor’s appointment, or when we’ve scheduled a babysitter.

I invite you to share your thoughts about the new Kidoinfo Events Calendar and how you stay organized.

Daylight Saving Time is March 9, 2008.

I find it helpful to set our clocks forward 1 hour before we go to bed tonight so when we wake up we know what time it is supposed to be. Read from our archives, Time to Spring Forward for helpful tips and activities about time.

My boys are currently into anything about space—from Star Wars to our Solar System. Since I had time on my mind while I was surfing the web for cool clocks I was drawn to this Out Of This World Clock from Olive Kids.