I love to see how others have their iPads laid out. I actually have my iPhone and iPad with prominent apps in the same places so I never have to hunt. Here are my screens and notes about current rationale for how I organize things. Even if you have a Droid or something else, the apps and the concepts may help you as you decide how you’re going to organize things.

Your 5 Important Electronic Desktop Decisions

Having an organized, productive workspace is important. You have 5 very important electronic desktop decisions that can have a big impact on your life and your focus:

1. Your computer desktop
2. Your browser start screen and toolbars (I use firefox browser sync and a custom igoogle page.)
3. Your mobile phone start screen
4. Your tablet device start screen
5. Your media diet (thanks Mark Hurst – author of Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload for this one.) Your media diet is what media sources will I attend to daily

In this post, we’ll talk about how I tackle #3 and #4 on this list.

Home Screen- iPad
I “Pareto” everything. What are the 20% of things that give me 80% of the benefit of my life? These need to be in my face on my home screen shouting to be touched and used. What are the things I hunt for? If it is an icon on my home screen, I use it every day.

Home Screen – iPhone
You’ll notice that I left the middle row on my iPad out on my iPhone. I did this because I feel like I look for the icons relative to the edge of the screen. So, I will look for the bottom icons relative to the bottom. Also, my tray at the bottom is different but I like it that way.

Photographer Folder- iPad
I like to name most folders by who I am so I can picture myself as that and am reinforcing my thought patterns to get out of life what I want to be. In life, the journey is the destination. Now that photos are synced via my devices, I use these apps even more to doctor photos taken via iPhone. (I literally took a screenshot on my iphone and in less than a minute, the photos were on my ipad, ready to be uploaded into the first draft of this post on BlogPress.)

Photographer Folder- iPhone

Dashboard Folder- iPad
This folder holds my hottest tools and apps I need to get to. I use these items a lot and want to be reminded of them. If it is in my dashboard on my iPhone it is also here in exactly the same order.

Dashboard – iPhone

My Tools Folder- iPad
The utilities and tools that help. I follow the same rule as I have for dashboard.

My tools -iPhone
iPhone has some things that iPad doesn’t and those tools are here.

My Thought Leader Folder (Thought Ldr)
Note: my most important reads are ON the home screen of my iPad but I want a variety of news sources at my fingertips so I can read several sources of info. This is on my second screen on my iPhone because iPad is my electronic paper, typically. This is another example of how I’m trying to program myself to think in a way that I want to be.

My Music Folder – iPad
More interfaces to find new music that have text features here.

My music folder – iPhone

My second Screen- iPad
Here, I want my favorite things in front of me that will lead me to the related folder on the right. I look at this screen pretty often.

Second screen iPhone
These are folders based on who I want to be. Even if I don’t go in them, I look and read over the folder names daily because they keep front and center who I want to be. When I feel I am lacking in an area or badges are screaming at me, I go there and work on it as I travel.

There are two folder names you may be curious about so I will explain them. The 65% folder is from a statement made in a great book on personal productivity management called Personal KanBan (Personal Kanban: Mapping Work | Navigating Life.) The authors point out that highways start becoming parking lots at about the 65% full level. When I overbook myself I become unproductive, so the apps there help me manage myself to give myself some leeway. You can’t manage time, you can only manage yourself. I do not have to say yes to everything. 65% reminds my goal should be to hit that threshold for my waking hours- although I struggle with doing too much. (If you want me to share what is in these folders, let me know and I’ll work on a future post.)

Aire- Money is a struggle for many of us who got sucked into the lies the credit card companies told us in the 80′s and 90′s. I am sad to say that I fell for those lies and have spent the better part of the last 10 years paying dearly. Losing our life savings in the pecan grove in the flood of 94 and floating flat classroom projects on credit cards hasn’t helped but we consistently work to pay down our debt and live below our means. I dream of being an aire one day but will not put limits on it. (I was listening to a Brian Tracy audiobook Million Dollar Habits on the characteristics of millionaires the other day and heard the average millionaire goes broke 3.2 times. I called my husband and said, “Good news, honey, we only have .2 times to go.”)

Wishing won’t get you your dreams. Find out what those who have what you want do and emulate those behaviors and you will get the same results. Successful and unsuccessful people both hate doing the same things- the difference is that successful people do them anyway. (Another Brian Tracy paraphrase.)

So, my folders are: 65%, Aire, Archivist, Artist, Athlete, Author, Chef, Christian, Connectivist, IPhone, Maestro, Minimalist, Newshound, R&R, Thought Ldr, Traveler

Third screen -iPad
My school app dashboard and other items that were on 2nd screen of iPhone in those folders.

Fourth screen – iPad
My son’s study screen. This is where I keep the apps my 4th grader needs to do homework and study. We consistently do the first three games every day.

Hope this gives you ideas but I also want to see your screens. Please share your productivity strategies. Hashtag: #mlearning or #ipadchat.

Parenting is a tough job and we all want our children to be successful in school. But are we willing to admit that the success our kids have in school starts at home? The first post in this series gave an overview of just how much influence you do have, the second post gave the first three points in starting student success at home, and the last post gave items 4-6. Let’s continue.

10 Tips for Starting Student Success at Home (7-8)
7 – Give honest, sincere praise.
Praise for the sake of praise itself makes you a liar. Not everything is praiseworthy because not everything is good.

Work hard to find the good things that your child does, notice it and share it. Work hard to speak well of all of your children in a way that is honest, true, and reflects well upon them as a person.

Know your child’s limits. Your child isn’t good at everything. No one is. We have way too many people who think they are good at everything and  think they don’t have to work for it and consequently are good for nothing and no one wants to work with them. Go back and look at #1 where you’re trying to help your child find his/her strengths. Some things are going to be tough for your child to do and that is OK because that is life.

I also work hard to be careful to not make my child think that my love is conditional upon his/her success. Unconditional love is important to me and to my child. I might dislike something my child did but that doesn’t mean I love him/her less.

Sometimes you can’t get a word in edgewise because your children are so angry that they don’t hear your words. That is when you can go buy their favorite thing at the store, put it in the fridge with their name on it and the words

“I love you.”

I did this with my teenage son a few years back when he and I in a room were like gasoline and a match. I’d put the stickers on the things (usually food) I knew he loved and would write his name.

To [insert name] I love you. Mom

At first those notes would be crumpled up and put in the trash (but he ate the food.) Then, I’d find them on the counters. Then, I found a few in his room.  Beef jerkey, strawberry milk, even a few big macs and several banana splits all had this note on them. (Before you criticize me for using food in this way, my son grew from 5’8” to 6’6” in just 2 ½ years time. My youngest has trouble with weight so I typically buy him a movie on Amazon or other non food items. Select appropriately.)

There are ways to communicate love. Sometimes it isn’t for what they DO but who they are. Your child is YOUR child. A flesh and bone part of YOU. It is your job as a parent to LOVE your child as a human first.

8 – I will criticize the action NOT the child as a person.
Children make mistakes. I make mistakes. My love for my child is not conditioned upon their behavior and yet if I love my child, I will discipline him/her. I need to send my children into the world with as many things that will cause them to self-inflict pain buffed down and acknowledged. Things like tardiness, disrespect, laziness, unethical behavior, self-centeredness and the like.

I know that the things I repeat over and over will come back into their minds long after I’m gone. Things like

“I’d rather have an honest C than a cheatin’ A”  -or- “I may not be smarter but I can work harder.”

or from my husband “only speak the truth.”

Or our favorite Churchillian quote “Never, never, never quit.”
It is my responsibility as a parent not to send my child into the world without working on areas that will make it hard for my children in the world. If I can’t make a difference in these areas, my child will have some very hard, unpleasant lessons to learn.

More on this in the next post where we cover the last two items on this list.

Remember, Moms matter. (and Dads too too!)

As my social media part of “My Family Tuesday” here on the Balancing Act, we’ve been talking about how the sweet smell of success starts at home. (See part 1 part 2 part 3) Parents can do a lot at home to inspire their children and help them find their interests.

My parents were always buying me science kits, electronics kits, and Dad would even let me take apart sensors and broken equipment from the farm so I could see the electronics inside. I remember one summer, Mom let us actually dig an archaeology project in the driveway with spoons. It started innocently enough but we did have some great finds (as well as tearing up the underside of the farm truck when the unwitting driver did not see our archaeology pit!)

With my own children, I was a stay at home Mom for the first four years of their life and spent a lot of time doing cool experiments and a wide variety of things at home. As much as I love my computer and our family iPad, hands on is very important too.

As part of the Balancing Act Community, I get to receive and review items that I like. Today there are two items that I’m excited to review. One is an art and creativity program for homeschoolers and teachers from Madcap Logic (the animators at Disney and Dreamworks) called creativity express and the other is a cool polymer chemistry set from discovery kids for my 10 year old.

Creativity Builders Lesson Plans

This is an award winning standards aligned 16 lesson journey into the language of art. I think the thing I like most about these lesson plans is that they have a “by-hand” and a digital version of almost every lesson plan. Templates for use in digital paint programs are available for download from their website.

I recommend the free paint.net if you need a low-cost alternative instead of the paint program that comes with your computer.(  Also note that the link in the book is not working for downloading the items, but I believe that you have to have an online teacher account to access that material. I will ask.) This is an online program as well, but if that is not for you, there is enough in the Creativity Builders Lesson Plans book to have at least 1 art lesson a week for the entire year. (For those schools who need standards alignment with the lessons, you can download them from their website.)

Parents can also have their children with an account at home to go through these lessons as well. I’m going to talk to my artistically inclined son and daughter about setting up an account here at the house.

Discovery Kids Polymer Chemistry Set

Chemistry sets are a big hit in our home (except with me as sometimes they make a mess.) In full disclosure, I am a Discovery STAR educator and have been to their headquarters to help facilitate a meeting of the best STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, and Math) teachers for the prestigious Siemens STEM Institute. I went to Georgia Tech and STEM is my “thing” so yes, I’m a bit biased. I think every child should have some hands on science in their stocking!

But on a personal note, every year I buy things for my elementary age children from the Discovery Store just because it is my go to place for science. I was completely thrilled when I opened my box from Randi Farina, the Balancing Act’s Social Media Director, to see that there was a Polymer Chemistry Set for us to test. We’re all over this thing.

You make slime and make snow with this small, compact kit that comes with one mixing flask. Perfect for a parent who wants science but doesn’t want the bathroom taken over for the next month. (If you don’t mind the bathroom being taken over I’m sure the store will oblige you there too with some of these science projects.)

I do love the Discovery store because I use it every year to buy things for my kids. I’d tell you that whether I was asked to review a product for them or not. Great site and great people.

Sometimes the best gifts are those you don’t ask for

I know your kids (like mine) want video games or clothes or all kinds of things. Some of the best things I’ve ever gotten that I didn’t ask for were my first James Michener book from my Dad in eighth grade, the electronics sets where you had all the voltage and connections, and the science kits where I did take over the bathroom for a month.

School is a great place for learning but the best homes have lots of learning and laughter too. The sweet smell of success does start at home.

Best wishes for a lovely holiday season. It is hard to balance it all. Do your best and sometimes when you’ve done all you can do, follow my Granny Martin’s advice and know that “sometimes you’ve gotta let the rough end drag.”

Merry Christmas.

In the first post in this series, I shared the facts about how success starts at home, in the last post we covered the first three items in my list of 10 tips for starting student success at home.

10 Tips for Starting Student Success at Home (4-6)

4 – Success in the classroom is not just mastery of the subject matter but mastery of a child’s relationship with his/her teacher.

We all have to get along with people they don’t like for the rest of their life and classroom is life. Children will have bad bosses one day and they may have a bad teacher today.

I am preparing them for how to deal with a bad boss when I teach them how to deal with a bad teacher. Sometimes my child can learn more from a bad teacher than a good one if they learn to be strong, do the right thing, and work hard. I cannot always insulate my child from such experiences but can help give them perspective.

I do believe that most teachers are good teachers and there are some great teachers. Realize also that a great teacher can become a mediocre teacher quickly if administrators or budgets have put too many children in a classroom.

5 – I will create an area that sets them up for success at home.

The following YouTube video shares is our “study center.”  I know that a well-equipped study center at home shows that I expect them to bring work home. (Note to readers:  Every circumstance is different- customize this to your child.)

6 – I will read with my younger children and let them see me read.

Reading is part of life and being a lifelong learner. It has a revered place in our home as something that we all do. I will read a variety of things and let them see me do it. Sometimes they learn more about who I am when they catch me reading my bible at 6 am or reading Consumer Reports before buying a washing machine or reading Educational Journals cover to cover.

We work hard to find books that our children like to read. My youngest has dyslexia and it has been a challenge but we’ve read and read. My favorite trick is to find a book he loves (the Chronicles of Narnia is his favorite now) and I’ll read a chapter and then yawn and say,

“OK, I’m really tired, I’ll let you stay up for another 15 minutes and read the next chapter if you want to.”

He does and now I hear him giggling at funny things or groaning and upsetting things as he reads. With my older two, I would read aloud to them in the car as we drove. Although we could do a book on tape, hearing my voice is important, I think. They know I think reading is important.

In my post, Time to Get Angry About Reading, I shared some research about how one third of high school graduates never read another book in their lives and over 40% of college graduates don’t read another book after college.

If you don’t like reading then your child won’t like it either. Success in reading definitely starts at home.

See the next post in this series for items 7-10 in this list. Remember, Moms (and Dads) matter.

The fact is that student success is more highly correlated with the parent than the teacher. A 2005 study through Harvard (Parental Involvement and Student Achivement: A Meta-Analysis) that looked at all research studies about parenting and school success found that:

“Two of the patterns that emerged from the findings were that the facets of parental involvement that required a large investment of time, such as reading and communicating with one’s child, and the more subtle aspects of parental involvement, such as parental style and expectations, had a greater impact on student educational outcomes than some of the more demonstrative aspects of parental involvement, such as having household rules, and parental attendance and participation at school functions.”

Have you ever heard the statement:

“How do children spell love? T-I-M-E”

Well, you can now say:

How do children gain success: T-I-M-E.

Is it any surprise that it is the same answer?

The Sweet Smell of Success
After the football game Thursday night I smelled horrific. Not just bad but locker room bad. Three days in a gym bag bad. My sweaty 6’6″ almost 200 pound junior got to play in the second half of the game. Not just play but he had a great game, opening up a hole for a touchdown run and playing as part of our team. (I later found out he got a “pancake” sticker for putting an opponent on his back.)

The other team is from a school twice our size and in a higher division. We won by 1 point last year in the last 2 seconds. Every game with them is a killer and it is a great rivalry. We are 14-0 from last year and this was our 15th win — WE WON! My son was part.

My son has to work hard for what he gets in football. It has been very hard the last two years seeing him give every thing he had just to be a practice dummy for our state football team.

It is hard seeing your kids work hard and not get what they desire. But not once have I or my husband discussed playing time with the coaches. I am convinced that is NOT what good parents do.

● Good parents help their kids prepare.
● Good parents help their kids see that hard work and goal setting does show rewards.
● Good parents help their kids see that life isn’t always fair.
● Good parents believe in their children to work through things.
● Good parents seek wise advice and step in only when necessary and in that case, very rare.
● Good parents never quit.

So, that sweat smelled good to me. It meant that his hard work has paid off and he got to play and contribute on the team.

Bring it on. I’ll take that sweat any day.

Because when I see my children when they are 40 (God willing) I will think they are successful if they are doing WORK worth doing and contributing to a team. Do they make the world around them better? Do they stand up against injustice? Are they making a difference in the world? Are they investing their lives long term in their own children? Are they willing to work hard today for a payoff next year or in ten years or later?

Research, life experience, and my time as a teacher have helped me help my children succeed. How can a woman who is wildly busy (I run a blog, 4 businesses, a non profit, author of 2 books, presenter, and full time teacher and I run 7 miles a week) still take time to help her children succeed? How do we balance it all?

This is what the balancing “act” is all about and yet it can’t be an act. It has to be real balance or your children suffer or you suffer. Let’s take this journey together.

In my next post in this series, I’ll share with you 10 tips for starting student success at home.