Need more info on the school district phone ban and wait til 8th!! my oldest is in second grade and I have reached out to every parent. I know about the wait till eight and we have 11 signed up in his grade! Which is great news but at this point I’m at a standstill. I am trying to figure out how to reach out to the parents that I DONT know. Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcomed!!!
Love that you are working toward this, too, Rachael! Does your school send out a newsletter? One thing I've been considering is writing up a little blurb and asking our principal to include it in the weekly send. You might also try reaching out to the PTA, if your school has one!
Yes, I love having things printed so each year I make a family yearbook with all of the iPhone photos and camera photos I’ve taken that year. My husband and I have a shared folder on our phones that we both add our iPhone photos to throughout the year and I ask grandparents for any photos they have too. I then edit them all in Lightroom together and back them up on the server before laying out the pages for my yearbook. I go with the term yearbook over album because it’s a hodgepodge of images vs the albums I’ve beautifully designed for wedding clients in the past 😂.
I’ve been doing it like this for a couple years. This year, my goal is to really get organized and do it by month and also have a typed up page showing what stood out from that month and some of our favorite things. Excited for these changes!!
Once I’m done, I delete all but a couple favorites from my phone. I can’t stand clutter in my life, physical or digital lol.
Love this post! Although it feels like the very last thing I have time for, I can’t deny my digital photo clutter is out of control. Have you ever shared about the system you used to organize yours?
Indeed I do! Here it is: https://emformarvelous.com/ems-guide-to-photo-organization-part-two/ I would say the key part for me (for peace of mind) was establishing a backup system for our phone photos, and we accomplished that with Amazon Photos. It's still working great. More in the post!
I’m intrigued by clearing out screenshots! What a great idea to take them to the next level and make them actionable instead of just sitting on your phone. Love this whole post!
I love these! I can’t wait to hear about your Wait Until 8th pledge email. I have been drafting my own to send to my son’s second grade class. Do you have the other parents information or will you go through the teacher?
We have the other parents' emails via the teacher! Or at least the ones who have opted in to have them shared with the other parents, which is most. They collect them at the beginning of the year!
Lucky! I don’t have any contact information from any year aside from people I meet and when we have birthday parties and people rsvp (only about 50% of the class actually RSVP).
These are terrific goals. I am a grandmother now, and your goals apply to my world, too. I love my grandchildren (and children!), and want the best for them. Nuff said; I’ll tell my children about your goals/site. Thx
That is such a great idea about screen shots. I might have to try that one.
My son is just a few weeks older than June. He just started binging to tennis class alone on the trail (about a mile) and biking to his grandmas (a little less than two). It’s been a great confidence boost for him.
After reading the Anxious Generation I have also felt more compelled to do less hovering when my kids play outside. I let my 9 year old ride bikes and play with the kids on our street. It took a while for me to not worry and constantly check on him. But I’m getting used to it and he loves playing with his friends independently.
Exactly :) My husband and I are taking a sabbatical from our ministry jobs in Feb & March and I’m throwing January into this “season“. My word of the year is Fullness - I want more real life and less scrolling!
Clearing screenshots by day! That is genius—a quick win that I need to do with my thousands of extra photos and screenshots I have on my phone 🤪. I’ve also just begun tracking my deep work hours with the goal of hitting my 1,000 hour mark—using the CWM habit tracker!
I’m doing a daily delete for pictures 🙌🏻 Very similar to what you’re doing with the screenshots - although I hadn’t thought to go back to prior years. I’m curious, where do you organize the info from the screenshots? I’ve been using Trello boards, but I always wonder if there’s a better way!
A few different places! I keep book recommendations in my Notes app, playlists I'll star on Spotify, and recipes, travel, and home ideas go on Pinterest! Family ideas I'll either put on Pinterest or store in a folder on my Dropbox :)
I would love to hear about this district organization to ban phones! I’m assuming it’s county-wide? We are still a few years away from public school but you know how passionate both Omar and I are about no technology. In fact, Omar was telling me a story the other day about how his first year teaching, he banned Smart boards from his classroom and made the assistant principal remove it so he could have more white board space 😂
I second Chelsey - if there's any way to share more about these local efforts with those of us also in the local area I'd love to know more! Right now it's a lot of informal "oh we won't be getting our daughter a phone for a long time" speaking up to make sure other parents know where we stand. Also the Chromebook learning I'm very curious about too - we also just rely on hearing from our oldest about what she does but our youngest (in K) isn't as forthcoming so it'd be good to know a bit more!
Our 8 year old does have a Gabb watch since she walks home from school by herself (and which has been helpful when we have let her bike alone around the neighborhood! We have never contacted her or her contacted us while she's out but I think it gave her a little extra confidence to have it. She had been begging to go out on her own and she's been zipping around during break and it's been great! So definitely let June go for it!)
Need more info on the school district phone ban and wait til 8th!! my oldest is in second grade and I have reached out to every parent. I know about the wait till eight and we have 11 signed up in his grade! Which is great news but at this point I’m at a standstill. I am trying to figure out how to reach out to the parents that I DONT know. Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcomed!!!
Love that you are working toward this, too, Rachael! Does your school send out a newsletter? One thing I've been considering is writing up a little blurb and asking our principal to include it in the weekly send. You might also try reaching out to the PTA, if your school has one!
Yes, I love having things printed so each year I make a family yearbook with all of the iPhone photos and camera photos I’ve taken that year. My husband and I have a shared folder on our phones that we both add our iPhone photos to throughout the year and I ask grandparents for any photos they have too. I then edit them all in Lightroom together and back them up on the server before laying out the pages for my yearbook. I go with the term yearbook over album because it’s a hodgepodge of images vs the albums I’ve beautifully designed for wedding clients in the past 😂.
I’ve been doing it like this for a couple years. This year, my goal is to really get organized and do it by month and also have a typed up page showing what stood out from that month and some of our favorite things. Excited for these changes!!
Once I’m done, I delete all but a couple favorites from my phone. I can’t stand clutter in my life, physical or digital lol.
Amazing, Chelsea! A five-year photo album has been hard enough for me to maintain 😂 But they're always worth it in the end!
Love this post! Although it feels like the very last thing I have time for, I can’t deny my digital photo clutter is out of control. Have you ever shared about the system you used to organize yours?
Indeed I do! Here it is: https://emformarvelous.com/ems-guide-to-photo-organization-part-two/ I would say the key part for me (for peace of mind) was establishing a backup system for our phone photos, and we accomplished that with Amazon Photos. It's still working great. More in the post!
I’d also like to hear more about your system for clearing the phone clutter!
I’m intrigued by clearing out screenshots! What a great idea to take them to the next level and make them actionable instead of just sitting on your phone. Love this whole post!
I love these! I can’t wait to hear about your Wait Until 8th pledge email. I have been drafting my own to send to my son’s second grade class. Do you have the other parents information or will you go through the teacher?
We have the other parents' emails via the teacher! Or at least the ones who have opted in to have them shared with the other parents, which is most. They collect them at the beginning of the year!
Lucky! I don’t have any contact information from any year aside from people I meet and when we have birthday parties and people rsvp (only about 50% of the class actually RSVP).
These are terrific goals. I am a grandmother now, and your goals apply to my world, too. I love my grandchildren (and children!), and want the best for them. Nuff said; I’ll tell my children about your goals/site. Thx
Thank you so much, Rebecca! So glad you're here!
That is such a great idea about screen shots. I might have to try that one.
My son is just a few weeks older than June. He just started binging to tennis class alone on the trail (about a mile) and biking to his grandmas (a little less than two). It’s been a great confidence boost for him.
I love to hear this!
After reading the Anxious Generation I have also felt more compelled to do less hovering when my kids play outside. I let my 9 year old ride bikes and play with the kids on our street. It took a while for me to not worry and constantly check on him. But I’m getting used to it and he loves playing with his friends independently.
So good, Jordan!! Thank you for sharing!
Doing a social media detox Jan-Mar!
Love this! How are you defining detox? Just cold turkey no Instagram usage?
Exactly :) My husband and I are taking a sabbatical from our ministry jobs in Feb & March and I’m throwing January into this “season“. My word of the year is Fullness - I want more real life and less scrolling!
Amazing!
Clearing screenshots by day! That is genius—a quick win that I need to do with my thousands of extra photos and screenshots I have on my phone 🤪. I’ve also just begun tracking my deep work hours with the goal of hitting my 1,000 hour mark—using the CWM habit tracker!
Love it, friend!!
I’m doing a daily delete for pictures 🙌🏻 Very similar to what you’re doing with the screenshots - although I hadn’t thought to go back to prior years. I’m curious, where do you organize the info from the screenshots? I’ve been using Trello boards, but I always wonder if there’s a better way!
A few different places! I keep book recommendations in my Notes app, playlists I'll star on Spotify, and recipes, travel, and home ideas go on Pinterest! Family ideas I'll either put on Pinterest or store in a folder on my Dropbox :)
I’ve been sending my screenshots over to Pinterest!
This is a great idea, Ruth! I forget about Pinterest, but it’s PERFECT for so many screenshots. Thank you! 🙌🏻
I would love to hear about this district organization to ban phones! I’m assuming it’s county-wide? We are still a few years away from public school but you know how passionate both Omar and I are about no technology. In fact, Omar was telling me a story the other day about how his first year teaching, he banned Smart boards from his classroom and made the assistant principal remove it so he could have more white board space 😂
Omar = my hero ❤️ I'll tell you more at AC!
I second Chelsey - if there's any way to share more about these local efforts with those of us also in the local area I'd love to know more! Right now it's a lot of informal "oh we won't be getting our daughter a phone for a long time" speaking up to make sure other parents know where we stand. Also the Chromebook learning I'm very curious about too - we also just rely on hearing from our oldest about what she does but our youngest (in K) isn't as forthcoming so it'd be good to know a bit more!
Our 8 year old does have a Gabb watch since she walks home from school by herself (and which has been helpful when we have let her bike alone around the neighborhood! We have never contacted her or her contacted us while she's out but I think it gave her a little extra confidence to have it. She had been begging to go out on her own and she's been zipping around during break and it's been great! So definitely let June go for it!)
I'll keep you looped in as things progress, and I'm sure I'll report more on it here, too! Love this neighborhood biking testimonial ❤️
A Chromebook in kindergarten 😭😭😭
Not as it should be 😔