Record Keeping using Evernote

OK, so you remember the record keeping book I had last year? I liked it, but to be honest, I didn't keep it up and I was trying to figure out a way to make it work for me including the Montessori materials. Another reason for my procrastination...

I decided to have one big book with all the presentations listed, and all the notes and observations in, but again, it didn't feel right for some reason... I really didn't want to keep an online record, there is something about keeping handwritten records I really like, however, I have previously used Evernote a little, and I decided to try to use that and I have to say, I love it! Here is how I am using it at the moment. (Note, I have Evernote Premium, which costs me £4 a month.)

Montessori presentations

I am keeping a list of all the Montessori presentations from the Keys of the World (see later post about this) on Evernote. Jessica, the author of the albums, has provided a suggested order of presentations, so my lists are based on that, and I have added three check boxes before each presentation to help me record 1) when something has been presented; 2) when it has been practised; and 3) when it has been mastered.

Adding another child? Easy, you can just copy the 'note' to another file. As you can see, this is Addie's record, and because she has covered some of the things already, at home or at the nursery she used to attend, I have been able to check off some work before we even really start.

What you can also see are photos of work she has done so far. I have loved this about Evernote. I have it on my phone, and I can just take a photo through the app and it adds it straight to her record, and I can add any notes I want too. It automatically dates it and adds it to Evernote, although you do need an internet connection to sync it with the laptop.

Weekly planning

I can also use Evernote to plan my weekly and daily schedules, and have a check box to tick off when I complete something. I can break this down into subjects or format it however I need it to be. As you can see under PLANNING, I have the notes HT1 - Jan & Feb - which is the one that is shown in the preview screen, 2015 HT1 Wk1 - this is my plan for the week and the other one is a breakdown of the terms I am using from now onwards.

(A quick note about my schedule - we are combining Interval 1 & 2 because Addie has had exposure to a lot of the Sensorial and Practical Life activities in these intervals, and we are just making sure we have covered everything needed.)

Albums
I have also got a copy of my albums on Evernote, so I can access it and view it whenever I need to from my laptop, tablet or phone, which is great! I have also used CutePDF to extract individual presentations so I can quickly find them (this is an ongoing project!).

Web Clipper
This is another great thing that I am also starting to use to store ideas I want to refer to later. I have been using Pinterest, which is great, but a lot of the things I pin, I pin just for me, and then I have issues trying to find them again. With the web clipper, I can store a copy of the web page on Evernote and add tags to it so I can easily find it again. Here is an idea I have for a great geography project later on..

So, there you go... I have (almost) ditched the paper - now I just keep my observations on paper that I update every evening of what we have done, and I will add photos to that, so we have a booklet we can look through together, and I am gradually moving all of my records online and getting into the 21st century!

To find out more about Evernote, visit the website here.