Help! How to organize everything???

[Joyfullyblessed]

Hello Everyone,

 

I am a new homeschooler this year to my five year old son. While I have really enjoyed the experience for the most part, I can't seem to get organized.

 

It is driving me a little bonkers because I want to be organized and know exactly what we will be doing the next day. However, I have papers everywhere, no plan of action for the following school day, etc...

 

All this makes me doubt my ability to be able to homeschool my son for the long haul (which is what I would like to do). Being scattered makes me feel that I am going to miss something that I should be teaching him. I do not want to mess his education up just because I can't seem to get it together.

 

Despite this, we are doing alright because I do follow HOD LHFHG right now, so that maps out things pretty easily for me. Also, this is kindergarten and I don't have to report anything to GA. this year. But next year, when my son is six, I will have to begin reporting everything. That scares me to pieces!

 

Plus, I am not doing HOD next year. I am mapping out my own 1st grade curriculum using a few different programs.

 

Soooo, PLEASE, if you have any great tips on getting organized with all the homeschool stuff, mapping out the days (or the school year), etc... that you would be willing to share, I would VERY much appreciate it.

 

I have to get it together before Fall 2010. My son turns six in August and then we move to 1st grade. Help me please!

 

Thanks so much and have a wonderful day. : )

[Tabrett]

You could take a look at Workboxes. I used the physical set-up suggested in the book. I don't do the workboxes exactly as she suggests, but all my dc's material is right beside their workspaces in individual boxes. All I have to do is pick a box and have my dc start working. After we are done, I get the boxes set for the next day. I keep my plan book on my dc's desk and fill it in as we go. We put all completed paper in a 3 ring binder that stays on their desks. All math manipulatives are either in the math box or on their desks. It is the same with any flashcard I use. I also keep a box on their desk that has pencils, crayons, makers, glue, ect... so it is always right there when we need it.

[GaHadley]

boy, we must be twins! I'm in GA and my dd turns 6 in August! I feel like this fall is down to business :)

 

I'm writing down my curriculum choices, then I'm going to make goals as to where we want to be at the end of the year. I'm going to decide how many days of the week we're going to do each subject and then I'lm going to plan out several weeks at the time. . .

 

I read someone on here only plans say 170 days worth of work - this leaves 10 days for field trips and some make up days.

 

My plan is to do math and language arts Mon - Thur. then Science on Mon, Wed and History on Tue, Thur - Fridays will be used to wrap up whatever needs to be wrapped up - extra science projects, deeper history exploring, etc. we could also do extra math practice or finish up anything that needs to be finished from the week.

 

My math and language arts will mostly be "do the next thing" and I plan to school year 'round, so we'll have several weeks on then a week off. I'll use that week to plan and place library holds and such for history and science.

 

I hope that makes sense and helps a little

[skueppers]

Being scattered makes me feel that I am going to miss something that I should be teaching him. I do not want to mess his education up just because I can't seem to get it together.

 

I'm not the right person to respond to the rest of your post, but I think I can speak to this.

 

Relax. You are not going to mess up his education. Yes, you may realize two years from now that it would have been better to use a different math curriculum, or that your son responds better to more/less structure, or whatever. Realizing that you have done things in a less-than-optimal way is not an indication that you are messing up his education -- they are a sign that you are paying attention! Exactly what he learns or doesn't learn in any given year of elementary school is not really that important in the grand scheme of things. If you detect a deficiency in his learning, you will have time to work with him to improve it.

 

When you have doubts about your ability to homeschool, it is easy to latch on to every perceived error or weakness and think of it as a reason homeschooling may not be best for your child. Remember, though, that even in the most ideal possible school environment, there are going to be things that are less than perfect. Can you honestly say that you think there are MORE things wrong with what you are doing at home than there would be with whatever school he would go to?

[Dinsfamily]

I use binders to keep me organized. I can't have any loose papers or they'll get lost or destroyed. I have 1 planning binder which includes a table of my curriculum choices, a school calendar, and my plans for next year. I got my school calendar off of www.donnayoung.org. She has a lot of helpful forms. The calendar is really my lifeline. I write when we start and finish math workbooks, spelling lists, readers, and read-alouds. I also keep track of vacations that affect our school year and the number of days we've schooled/have left. I don't have to do any reporting, but it would come in handy if I did. At the end of the year, I have a very colorful record of our year.

 

I also have teacher and student spelling (LA) binders, a Sonlight binder, and a general K binder which will becom a portfolio of my ds's work at the end of the year. For now, I keep all of his spelling enrichments and tests in the spelling binder, but a sample will be transferred to the K binder at the end of the year. Math organizes itself so I just keep the workbooks and manipulatives on a shelf. We just do the next lesson each day. I have a detailed schedule for spelling which is in my teacher binder so I just open it and go. I also have the rest of my spelling materials in the spelling binder so that I know where they are. All of ds's other work like art and geography, I just put straight into his K binder so it's all there when we're done.

 

I'm a pretty unorganized person in general, so I have to work really hard at this. The binders keep me in check and provide a place for everything so that everything can go in its place. If I didn't have a system in place school would probably be haphazard. That wouldn't be a big deal for K, but I'm setting up for the future when it would be a big deal.

[HollyBee]

:grouphug: You are not alone--I am struggling with organization as well, so I'm looking forward to the other responses you get (my kids are 3rd grade and 5th grade, though).

 

Also, this is kindergarten and I don't have to report anything to GA. this year. But next year, when my son is six, I will have to begin reporting everything.

 

I did want to respond to this. We're in GA, and the only thing you have to do is file a letter of intent and send in attendance. So don't stress about that!

 

Holly

[mrs.m]

I think as they get older it is important to have a plan. But don't be chained to it. Allow it guide you and help you keep track of where you are in the school year. I get hooked on that I'm not doing enough and sometimes a plan helps me see that we are making progress and it is enough!

 

I plan what we are doing the next week on Saturday or Sunday afternoon. I only plan out one week at a time because it seems like planning further doesn't give us a chance to work on pace. So I write out what lessons we are doing each day in each subject. I just use a table in MS Word.

 

I also go through the previous week and note what we completed, didn't complete, and any activities that can be counted as school. This entire process takes less than an hour and helps me focus for the week on what needs to be completed.

 

I then have a system similar to workboxes to help my kids know what they should do daily. With grading the previous day's work, this takes about 20-30 minutes each evening to put together. Sometimes I'll put it together right after they finish school.

 

HTH!

[mamato3 all-boy boys]

In getting organized, I find spreadsheets a huge help. Especially a year at a glance (I'm linking one from Smooth Stones Academy, because her's are so pretty!) I've made them with the columns labeled with the subject (spelling, history, science), and the rows being the weeks of school. Then I look at the curriculum (let's use First Language Lessons as an example), and notice how many lessons it is divided into -- 100 in this case. Then I figure out how many times/week I need to do FLL if I have 36 weeks of school. At the intersection of the column for FLL and the week, I'll type in the numbered lessons I need to complete.

 

This is my first step.

 

I am a very visual person, so I like to see my week-at-a-glance. At first I created spreadsheets with the days of the week across the top, and the subjects listed out on the left side. Then I would plug in the lesson for each subject that I was doing that day. This looked very similar to a Sonlight home instructor's guide (but many othe curriculums do the same thing).

 

I now use Home School Tracker Plus to plan all my lessons. I get the same great weekly grid that I used to make on excel. I can enter all the books I have for a curriculum into it. I can also make lesson plans (especially helpful with cross-subject unit studies). I love that I can reschedule lessons if we don't get it it. And it tracks attendance. And a ton of other things (field trips, memorization, chores....)

[Joyfullyblessed]

Thanks so much for the replies! I am going to come back a little later when I have more time and take some notes on the different suggestions given. :001_smile:

 

I really appreciate all the advice. Hopefully, I will be able to get everything together which will make things go much more smoothly each day for us.

 

Thanks! Keep the ideas coming. :)

[Carol in Cal.]

We used 100 EZ lessons for reading, and I did the next lesson (or half lesson when they got really long toward the end of the book). We used Saxon for math, so we did the next lesson in Saxon. We used SOTW1 and the Bible for history, so we read the next thing. We used FLL, so we did the next lesson. We used Magic School Bus for science, so we read whatever I wanted to read next (usually we would read each one repeatedly, at different levels).

 

We did a ton of field trips, and when we did, I tried to still do math and reading. But sometimes I didn't.

 

I read to DD every day, fun books that we discussed. Serious books that we discussed. History books that we discussed. Religion books that we discussed.

 

When she got a little older and we were working on copywork, I wrote something on a piece of paper and she copied it, every day. I would teach her a letter, and then she would practice it, every day.

 

We played a lot of board games, mostly because I like them, but they were educational as well. We would talk about strategies also. Family Pastimes makes cooperative games where you play as a team against the game itself, and those were good for strategic discussions.

 

I made short little notes most days about what we did. That was sufficient for reporting. A couple of years into this I stopped making those daily notes as much. So I would think back to the last monthly meeting and summarize what we had done since then for each major subject area in a Word doc. This worked out quite well, as I would just look at my calendar, look at the last month's doc, and update it to where we currently stood. Those are great for reporting, and it's a lot easier to see progress in one month increments than daily ones. Again, though, we just kept doing the next thing.

 

About once per quarter I stop and think about how fast we have to progress to converge on a certain goal. Do we have to do 6 math lessons per week for a while instead of 4 or 5, in order to get prepared in time for state testing? Do we have to switch to a particular Shakespeare play in literature now to be ready to watch it live in 3 weeks? Do I have some short stories lined up to study in between long major works? Since we are behind in grammar, does that mean that I should separately teach infinitives and gerunds instead of waiting for Rod and Staff to get around to them? (Yes). Since we are ahead in writing, does that mean that I can allow DD some more flexibility in choosing her writing subjects for a while? (Yes). What do I want to do this summer academically, and what do I need to do in the spring to get ready for that?

 

This combo of 'doing the next thing' and 'pondering strategially every quarter' has worked out extremely well. DD is 13 and has received a well-rounded, effective education that is fine tuned to her interests and inclinations without closing off any possibilities for her.

 

Personally, those detailed daily schedules would have taken a lot of the flexibility that I value about homeschooling away from me. Last year DD was invited to join a robotics team, unplanned, and to sing in an opera, unplanned. The fact that I use the approach that I do enabled me to capitalize on those opportunities without guilt and without shortchanging her education. Field trips pop up the same way. I want to be able to stop an study a play because we are going to go see it. I want to be able to make an occasional family trip that pops up, without worrying about throwing off a detailed schedule. For me, that is one of the best things about homeschooling.

[Momof1plustwins]

I also use workboxes. We have tried various ways of getting organized and we always have a hard time sticking with any method.

 

Workboxes have been great. I don't do them exactly as the book suggests but it works for us. I actually use sterilite drawers instead of boxes. My reluctant learner likes them too because he can see exactly how much work he has to do before he is finished for the day.

 

I put the same subjects in each box daily, so as soon as we are finished, I just skim over the next day's lessons and put the supplies and books back in the box. I keep a plastic basket near by for materials we don't need the next day, so nothing is left laying around.

 

I would recommend workboxes to anyone.

[MSNative]

I know people love the workboxes and I like the theory, but just couldn't get my head around 36 boxes in my hs room. Ahhh. Others (much more creative than I) clearly had the same problem and came up with diff. ideas. This site has several real life interpretations of workboxes that might help you out. I know it helped me.

http://www.squidoo.com/workboxes

[Momof1plustwins]

Here is a picture of how I have my workboxes setup.

 

[Jennefer@SSA]

In getting organized, I find spreadsheets a huge help. Especially a year at a glance (I'm linking one from Smooth Stones Academy, because her's are so pretty!) I've made them with the columns labeled with the subject (spelling, history, science), and the rows being the weeks of school. Then I look at the curriculum (let's use First Language Lessons as an example), and notice how many lessons it is divided into -- 100 in this case. Then I figure out how many times/week I need to do FLL if I have 36 weeks of school. At the intersection of the column for FLL and the week, I'll type in the numbered lessons I need to complete.

 

This is my first step.

 

 

Thank you! I really have enjoyed using the Year at a Glance and am tickled that it has been a useful tool for others.

 

I still need more though. I make my Year at a Glance as mentioned above each summer. This is more of a macro-plan for me.

 

Then I micro-plan 4 weeks at a time. I make weekly lesson plans and flesh it all out: What library books will I need? What supplies for any experiments/activities? What supplements do I need to pull? What videos go along with what we are studying? And so on...

 

Then each Sunday night I pull that week's lesson and pre-read and prepare. I read through all the history, science, ds's independent reading for that week and everything else. I skim his math lessons for that week as well. Then I am finally prepared. :)

 

Is it a lot of work? Yep! Is it worth it to feel fully prepared. Absolutely!

[Tracy]

We just started Kindergarten this year, too. First, I have a schedule of what we do each day--not by the hour, but just what subjects we do each day. Each weekend, I use Homeschool Tracker Plus to enter all of the assignments for the week. I don't have any reporting requirements where I live, but I do this largely so that other people can see what we do, if ever they need to, whether it is because of a change in our state law or because something happens to me and someone else needs to take over the schooling of my children. I used to print these out, but now that I know more of what I am doing, I just have them in the computer.

 

I also have a binder with folders for each subject, but I think I may be better off changing this to folders for each weekday. At the end of the week, I keep the most noteworthy item from each subject and throw the rest away. I do the same at the end of each month and then the end of each quarter. So then for each quarter, I have a small file folder with representative work in each subject. Part of this is so that dd can cope with throwing things away, and part is once again in case someone ever needs to see what kind of work dd is doing.

 

Tracy

[monalisa]

I just ordered Planning Your CHarlotte Mason Education, and it is FANTASTIC! I'm not a Charlotte Mason homeschooler per say, but I read about this planning tool on some post on this forum. It is great -- it walks you through how to plan your whole program, then year (by term), then week, then day. I got the book & DVD and I'm glad I got both. I can't wait to use it, both for planning out the rest of this year, and for next.

 

http://simplycharlottemason.com/books/planning-your-charlotte-mason-education/

 

I tried workboxes, but have fallen into a big rut with doing everything the same, and having no year long, or overall plan. The concept is good for day to day, but doesn't have a long term hook for me I guess.