Crystal in VA Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Every year I say this is going to be the best ever school year. Every year I find that I am not as organized as I'd like to be. I have 3 dd...all at different levels. Sometimes I find it hard to keep it all straight. I like the sound of the workbox system but I don't think its quite what I'm looking for. I'd love to hear what others do to keep it all straight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnTheBrink Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 :bigear: I do the same thing. I'm really really hoping to get it together, organizationally, this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 A chart with 3 columes (why can't I spell that word??). Goals, curriculum, subject. Listed in detail. Sorted in detail. Books by subject on bookshelf. Readers by time period on bookshelf. Memory work by week- to be put on white board each week. Co-op notebooks ready to go. I love the workbox idea. I really need to work in more "fun"- esp for my 6 yr old! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skaterbabs Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 :lurk5: reminder to myself: come back and post my great idea when I have more time.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanki Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 (edited) We do school in the kitchen and living room. All of our books and extra supplies are downstairs in my unfinished basement on bookshelves (oh, how I wish it was finished!!). Instead of having to go up and down the stairs every school day, I have those milk crate containers ($2.99 @ Target) for each child and I put the supplies/books that they use everyday (daily schedule, binders, pencils, paper, math book, language arts books, etc.). I keep the crates in the kitchen under my microwave table. They know which container is theirs and they just pull it out and get to work. I have a very long way to go to feel completely organized but I am making progress :001_smile:. Edited July 7, 2009 by jjhankins97 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissel Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 :lurk5: reminder to myself: come back and post my great idea when I have more time.... Yes please!!! I'm :lurk5: too. I'm starting workboxes--got the system set up, boxes made, numbers laminated, some file folder games for DD3 made...and then we were all sick for four weeks, then we left for vacation for a week, got back and had to prep for fossil hunting, had my birthday, started back to work, and now have family in town for two weeks. My poor, lonely workbox setup us just sitting there *sigh* So I wish I could add some advice about that, but I can't just yet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gretchen in NJ Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 (edited) 2 years ago, I stole my dh's office.:blushing: I made it our school room.:001_smile: Both of my girls have their own desks with a file drawer. They keep their workbooks and suplies they will need for school. They each have a shelf in the bookcase where they keep their notebooks. When we travel, I have a plastic file box for the basics. Edited July 7, 2009 by Gretchen in NJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Every year I say this is going to be the best ever school year. Every year I find that I am not as organized as I'd like to be. I have 3 dd...all at different levels. Sometimes I find it hard to keep it all straight. I like the sound of the workbox system but I don't think its quite what I'm looking for. I'd love to hear what others do to keep it all straight. Various things have helped over the years, although what works seems to change a bit over time. Perhaps part of the effectiveness of an organization process for me is that things get moved around and I start to "see" them better. Magazine holders for each subject. Each one had everything needed to work on one topic. For example, Spelling Power and spelling notebooks. Or Italic workbooks. Or First Language Lessons. I used this a lot when my older kids were in their first couple of years. They might not have been able to find all the various books we needed for a subject from the shelf, but they could bring me the magazine holder marked grammar/handwriting. Plus they looked pretty put together on the shelf, turned so the opening faced the back of the bookcase. In fact, I have redoing these for my youngest on my to do list. Getting out everything needed for the day and putting it back as we go. I guess this is a little like the workbox system. I just have the older kids go through their schedule and pile up everything they need. Then their either pass it off to the other kid or put it away as they finish. I think they like the effect of seeing the pile dwindle. The key here is that I'm not the one getting things out. They have to learn to read their schedule. I suppose you could call this the workchair method, because things tend to get piled up on an extra dining room chair. Schedule. I have done obsessive scheduling (via Homeschool Tracker) and little scheduling. When the kids were little I just had a half sheet where I listed the topics for the week and checked them off if we did them. I always just did the next lesson in the book for each topic. The problem with this was that even in 1st grade, I only planned to do some topics a couple times a week, so there were always things not done. That made it easier to also leave undone the things that should have been daily. Right now I have a schedule book with the science and history schedules from Sonlight, filed by week. Then I make a similarly formated schedule for all the other subjects and put it behind the same tab. The kids have to do and check off everything on my schedule, plus all the science, plus the highlighted lines of the history grid. I can see a huge difference between the weeks when I take time to do this and weeks when I don't. We get much more done with a schedule than without, and it often takes less time. The last tip is that we have much better school days on days when I stay off the computer during school hours. Even just ducking on at lunch to check "stuff" drains my time away Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phathui5 Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I do my planning for the coming week every weekend. Then we can only get so far off track. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skaterbabs Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 OK, I have a manila folders: one for Yacko and one for Wacko. Inside each folder I have glued 8 library pockets. Each pocket is labeled with a subject. On the front of Yacko's folder is one more library pocket, labeled "completed work". Wacko has two pockets on the front of his folder: "Today's work" and "completed work". At the end of each week we sit down and write out the work for the following week on index cards, one card for each day per subject. Then a full week's worth of cards are placed in each subject's pocket. Every morning Wacko pulls the cards for that day of the week and places them in the "Today's work" folder. Yacko prefers to pull his cards as he does each subject. When the assignment is finished, the card is placed in the "completed work" pocket. We have a 6-drawer tower; each child gets two drawers. The top three drawers contain everything they need to complete that day's assignments. Completed work is placed in one of the bottom three; each child knows which two (top & bottom) drawers belong to that child. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crystal in VA Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 I've been researching this all day and still haven't come up with what I want to do. I know one thing that I have to do...be consistent with our scheduling and holding each kid accountable for their own stuff. I think workboxes appeal to me because I would be in control of laying everything out for the kids the night before. However, I'm worried about the nights when I'm dead tired...do I really want to be filling up boxes? My girls are older. I want them to be capable of keeping up with their own books, school supplies, and such. We've had a many-a-mornings when something didn't get done due to one of them misplacing something. Arghhh! I really want to avoid that this year. I want to keep myself organized... as well as help the girls develop good organizational habits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skaterbabs Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 That's why I think the file folder system will work for us. Everything is laid out for an entire week; the only daily part is taking the "completed" cards out of the folder pockets. we plan to laminate them so we can use the same set of cards over and over, but I don't know how well that will work just yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I blogged about my system about a week ago. I file our work...consumables and assignment sheets by week. Each Monday, I put their work in their respective binders with pocket dividers. A few days of work means almost no work the rest of the year and we get it all done with time to spare. Here's the link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTMCassandra Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I'm having trouble identifying exactly what needs organizing. Can you clarify? Books? Materials? Assignments? Lesson Planning? Scheduling? All of the above? Here's (briefly) how I handle those. Books: Each child has a section of a four-square, low bookcase for current texts. I only let them get out one subject at a time and then they put it back before they get out the next one. Four large school bookshelves are behind the school table and contain history (categorized by the 4 yr history rotation), science (sorted by WTM year also), and reference books. I have another four-square bookshelf that has curriculum waiting to be used, and some shelves hung on the wall above my desk that hold my teacher reference books. Materials: Each child also has a "materials" dish tub and pencil box in the first four-square bookcase mentioned above. The bookcase lives right next to the school table. Assignments and Scheduling: We have a "routine" that we follow daily. At 8:30am we start with math. Always. Then we do Latin. Then we have a recess. Then I tend to do the "smaller" subjects like logic, etc., until lunch. Right after lunch we often do Classical Writing. At the end, as a "reward," we do either history or science. I do not give assignments ahead of time. I give them on the spot. If they don't finish them in a "normal" amount of time they are homework. School finishes at 2pm regardless of how things have gone. After that they have a rest time and then a reading time. This is essential for my sanity. Lesson Planning: I have a Mom's notebook with my marked up Biblioplan rotation. I don't do advance lesson planning for other subjects. The few times I have gone away and DH has stayed home from work and done school, I have made assignment sheets, and the children LOVE them, but they are a big pain to make. I don't do them unless I have to. Now, this will have to change as we transition into high school, but we're not there yet ; ). I know I could go really OCD on lesson planning and make everyone's lives miserable if we don't stick EXACTLY to the schedule I worked SO HARD on . . . so I try not to go there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crystal in VA Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 I starting to think that I may do a combination of things. I think I'm going to completely clean off our bookshelves. Only keep what we will be using this year on 'em. Each girl has her own shelf for her books. I'm thinking that I'll plan out only 9wks at a time so that I'll have a guide as to where we're going each week. If I have folders set up for each week, I could then printout anything and everything that we'll need for our projects and store them in a file. I like to color code everything so I can use colored files for each girls and then label it with the subject. Saw some colorful files today at Wal-Mart that I liked for this. I think that each girl can have one shoebox on their shelf loaded with their own school supplies. That way if they lose it, then they will have to replace it. Hopefully they'll learn to be responsible for their stuff. Really...its the younger one that I have trouble with on keeping up with her own things. I still want to hear what other ideas you may have. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crystal in VA Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 Joann...love your system. This is what I think I'm leaning to. Except I was thinking of just labeling my folders "week 1", "week 2", etc. It drives me crazy to get behind on our dates. This way...it doesn't bother me as much and I can focus on truly learning instead of playing catch-up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I've found that we rarely get behind because we use the weekend to finish any independent work they didn't do. For work we do together, we never get more than a week, maybe two, behind and when we do I give that priority by doing it first in the day. Having to reload their binders each Monday helps me see what we need to focus on that week to keep on schedule. Labeling by "week 1", "week 2" would drive me nuts because I'd always be at the calendar trying to figure out which week number it is. Plus, I think I'd be more likely to get behind because I wouldn't know what we were are suppose to be on. Say it's week 20 but you're pulling from week 16 because you didn't realize you were that far behind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crystal in VA Posted July 7, 2009 Author Share Posted July 7, 2009 I'm having trouble identifying exactly what needs organizing. Can you clarify? Books? Materials? Assignments? Lesson Planning? Scheduling? All of the above? Mainly its the books and materials. But I'm open to hearing about anything that can improve our school years.:D I'm just trying to find the most effective way to organize everything. We don't have a schoolroom so I don't have a designated school area to use as I would like. I do have two bookshelves in my living room that are overflowing and I want to change that.:) I want to have the most effective, organized space while using the least amount of stuff (as in workboxes and such).:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I think I'm unusual in that I don't amass a lot of books. I just moved a 6 foot tall, 3 foot wide, 5 shelf bookcase into the school room...and that holds are most essential items. The top shelf has our MUS manipulatives in gallon size ziplock bags in a $1 store basket, our Melissa & Doug play money, and my white board markers (to keep away from 2yo). The 2nd shelf has our text books, DVD/CDs, and kids' binders. The 3rd shelf has our reference books (ie. Kingfisher type books), Bible, and teacher's manuals. These items are all taller and don't fit on the other shelves. The 4th shelf is our baby/toddler/early readers (ie. Cat in the Hat) books for my 2yo. The bottom shelf is our library shelf. Instead of having a large home library, I've opted to keeping just the one toddler shelf and using the library more. Our other supplies are on Ikea shelving on another wall. The entire wall is covered with these shelves because they hold all of our games, my scrapbooking, my crochet/knitting supplies, our art/craft supplies, my home office, all office supplies, and other miscellaneous stuff. I'm working now in dramatically reducing this stuff and reorganizing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTMCassandra Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Here's what I would do: If I had bookshelves in my living room and didn't have a schoolroom, I would buy each child a crate and a small plastic toolbox and put them on the bottom shelf or two of the bookcase. I would have them put their books in the crate and their supplies in the toolbox. (Most modern pencil boxes are too small.) Then, they can each pull out their materials whenever and wherever school occurs and then put them away easily. In our previous two houses, I schooled at the dining room table, and I was able in both cases to fit at least two bookshelves in there, so our supplies lived in there with us. But particularly in the last house, I only had reference books and the current year of history and science on those shelves. I kept the other three years of history and science down in our family room. The moral of that story ; ) is that don't feel like you have to keep EVERYTHING schoolish on those two crammed living room bookshelves. Try keeping only what you are using NOW on there along with the children's materials and store other books elsewhere. Does this help at all? I do well remember what it's like not to have a schoolroom. I did it for many years, and it can be challenging. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTMCassandra Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Ha! I think I'm the total opposite. I am working on our book inventory and I'm past 3,200. Many of the books I collect are out of print or not at the library--Cornerstones of Freedom, Landmarks, Hentys, Christian biographies, Veritas Press and Sonlight titles, etc. I use the library as well, but I rely heavily on our home collection. I admire you for keeping your book collection so concise. I can remember when my homeschool collection fit on TWO bookcases, but I can't ever remember when it fit on one ; ). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTMCassandra Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 These sound like great ideas. Let us know how they work! Shoeboxes are a good idea. I posted about plastic toolboxes, but shoeboxes would work great too. You could cover them with contact paper and let each child decorate her own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 I admire you for keeping your book collection so concise. I can remember when my homeschool collection fit on TWO bookcases, but I can't ever remember when it fit on one ; ). It's a matter of space/necessity. We have 5 people (very soon to be 6) in a 1200sq foot, 3 bedroom, 1 bath house that we share with 1 medium-size dog and 4 cats. We have three main rooms: the school room (would have been a parlor when the house was built), living room, and dining room which form an L shaped area. Each is small, about 10x12. Each has one missing wall (as in a large 8-12 foot opening between rooms) and each has a wall of windows. Oh, the living room actually only has 1 wall; 2 are those large openings and 1 is solid windows and the door. Not much space for furniture and bookshelves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTMCassandra Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 I get what you're saying about space limitations. But if I had your Ikea shelves, they would all be completely full of books, and bookcases would be tucked into every nook and cranny. Books tend to RULE and be top priority at my house ; ), although I'm anti-clutter otherwise. I'm just an incurable book junkie. My craft stuff and other supplies would have been demoted in a minute off those shelves. ; ) I've gotten rid of a lot of books over the years--those 3,000 books are the cream of the crop. In fact, I have three large boxes of books ready to sell at a Used Curriculum sale tomorrow. What I have, we pretty much read and use. I have bookshelves in many major rooms, and I even have two bookcases on the landing of our staircase (it is larger than usual). I think I'm a pretty hardcore case. You are to be commended for being more moderate! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dirtroad Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Excel spread sheets (colums = days of week) (rows = subject). The spreadsheets work great for kids & then I use a basic plan by week for history & science (much like Amblesideonline) Big Milk-style crates hold their workbooks, notebooks, and related textbooks. History & Science are on shelf b/c we use them together. Literature & other readers are on shelf divided by subject and child. My stuff is in a milk crate too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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