How Spreadsheets Can Save the Day
Organize your day with a spreadsheet!
My first career was engineering, so Excel spreadsheets were my friend most days. I could use them to organize data, perform calculations, and keep track of expenses.
My second career was homeschooling and spreadsheets were my friend then, too! I used them for lesson planning and for scheduling our days. Now that I’m retired from homeschooling, I continue to use spreadsheets. I still love to Excel!
You might be thinking, “Get a life.” I’m okay with that, but let me share with you a few reasons why I love to use Excel.
Chore Charts: Spreadsheets are a wonderful tool to make chore charts (for children and for parents!). Make a master Chore Chart. As children mature, chores can be easily assigned to the next child. Copy and paste are fun little keys to reallocate the chores! I had a spreadsheet on our fridge. I printed it on pretty paper so no one really knew it was a spreadsheet. As chores changed, I updated the spreadsheet. I kept a copy of the old version, just in case we needed to go back to it.
Calendars: Calendars can be created using a very simple spreadsheet. You can make a weekly or monthly calendar to keep track of your family’s schedule. Or you can make a daily calendar that is broken down by the half-hour or hour. These were my favorite calendars and helped me with homeschooling. I could see very quickly if I was teaching a child to read while working with another child on math facts. As we all know, one Mama cannot be in two places at the same time (although we try)! I could also tell if we were trying to attend too many away-from-home activities in one week. Spreadsheets can give you a visual warning that you are trying to do too many tasks!
Lesson Planning: I really excelled in this area! If we had a sick day, I could easily change my lesson plans. Also, I kept each year’s lesson plans. When the next child was in that grade, the bulk of my planning was already done. Why re-invent the wheel?!
Change: An advantage of using an electronic spreadsheet is that they are very easy to change. Copying and pasting, or inserting cells/columns/rows, are much easier to do electronically than on a piece of paper. Just remember to “Save” often.
Sharing: Sending a file is a quick task and makes sure everyone is in the loop! Spreadsheets can even be shared online. Just make sure you set permissions for who can edit it!
Educational: Older children can hone their computer skills as they create and edit their own spreadsheets. They can make menus, grocery lists, goals, chore charts… the possibilities are endless!
During our recent move, I came across some old lesson plan spreadsheets. My heart melted. I remembered the hours I spent making those spreadsheets, but the hours of frustration they saved because we all had a plan was so worth it!
I hope you will love to Excel, too! It’s a great way to excel at planning while planning to excel!
Glen and Jerrine Hicks have been married 33 years and live near Sedalia, CO. They have two adult daughters and one son-in-love. Jerrine's idea of a perfect day would include a pot of PG Tips tea, some dark chocolate, a Jane Austen movie, and time reading Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Jerry Bridges, Emilie Barnes or L.M. Montgomery. She loves couchtime with her Glen and she is an introvert. The Hickses have been involved with Growing Families since 1996.