Why have I never thought of this? (Organization idea)

[busymama7]

I have usually organized the kids books, notebooks, workbooks etc by child in some form. We have used dishpans and crates to varying degrees of success. My kids are not neat and tidy about putting things away correctly and tend to toss anything they don't want to put away into their (or even someone's else's) bin where it will hide until I can't stand the mess anymore and I dump them all out, clean then out and start over. ETA: not to mention the inevitable lost books when I call for math time or whatever.

 

It is time to organize the school cupboard for the year and I'm dreading it. The doors are closed yet I know there are messes lurking in every corner :/

 

I came up with this idea to use the bins to my advantage and have them be *subject* bins instead of student bins. It feels like a light bulb moment but I haven't tried it yet so I'm not sure it will exactly work.

 

I have our schedule organized by subject (math for everyone right after breakfast, then morning time, then table time then lunch then literature and reading). The subjects that we do in each section of the day are set and don't change. So my idea is we get out the math bin, everyone does their math and then puts the books back. We put the bin away. Then during morning time we already use a basket for those subjects. Then the first thing at table time is grammar for older ones and handwriting for younger ones. So a bin for those. Then spelling. Then writing. Then phonics for the youngest two etc. Each in its own bin with everyone's in there(probably even the teacher manual!) plus anything else we need like manipulatives.

 

Does anyone else do this? Does it work? Have I been living under a rock and of course I should have thought of this sooner?!?

[SilverMoon]

Sounds logical for your arrangement. :001_smile:

 

Ours live on a bookshelf near the dining table. The highschoolers have an entire shelf each. Younger kids share a shelf with a sibling, boy on the left, girl on the right. (Dancers. :laugh: )

 

This year a fair chunk of the science is moving to its own location. DH built a lab/work table for school purposes, and put an extra shelf under it for schoolbooks.

[8filltheheart]

If that is the way your family functions, it is worth trying.

 

It would not work for our family bc everyone works at their own pace doing their own thing. But my kids get in trouble if they don't put their school books away where they belong. Wasted time looking for things that aren't where they are supposed to be impacts everyone. Big no-no.

[Soror]

Mine don't do all their subjects at the same time as I have to work with them on various things so it wouldn't work for us. At my house I have a cubby bookshelf and each kid schooling (3 this year) has their own cubby, on the other side of my table I have a cabinet with school supplies. I could see it perhaps working if each subject is done together though.

[Critterfixer]

I don't have bins, but each subject has its own space in the cabinet. We put up after each subject, and it does keep things neat for us.

[lmrich]

I think you are on to a bigger discovery  - that what works for others may not work for you and more importantly what worked for you in the past may not work for you now. Have a great school year.

[Tawlas]

I have something similar . . . at least I have things sorted by "work type". Anything we need for morning time in one basket (mostly just read aloud books). Everything for group time (sounds the same as your table time as we do writing, grammar and science or history) is in vertical file holder (keeps things upright better than a dishtub) next to the table. Everything we need for one-on-one work in another vertical filer (spelling and reading and math). Their assigned reading (independent) is in a small basket for easy access. I do have seperate handwork tubs for each kids to occupy them during read aloud, each kid has an art tub for use as needed because otherwise the kids who take very good care of their art supplies still end up with dried up glue and smooshed felt tips and that just doesn't seem fair.

 

I'm a year-long filer so I put their papers for the week into a binder on Sundays and estimate daily workload which is separated with tabs so they can see what needs to be done each day. But those binders are kept in the one-on-one filer or in a group binder in the group filer. At the end of the week I put the complete papers into notebooks by subject.

 

Sounds like you're you've got a system that may work better for your family - at the very least you'll only have to supervise the putting in and taking out of one tub at a time so you might be able to build better habits in your kids. I'm a tweaking junkie, I'm constantly changing and improving things as our circumstances and family continues to evolve :)

[MomOfABunch]

Yes, it works really well.

Oldest DS is the only one that I trust to be able to find his things when it's time, so he gets to keep his things how he wants to and he works mostly independently. The others? They're all about the same level, which helps. Phonics things in the phonics basket, Math in the math basket, Science in the science basket, etc. When it's time for handwriting, grab 1 basket. Want to do science outside today? No problem because it's all in the basket.

Missing school stuff really frustrates me.

[Arcadia]

My expedit cube shelves are organized by subjects. The contents in the shelves are color coded for each child. So one cubbie has for example all the math books and the books are color coded by round stickers at the book spine.