Naturally disorganized but WANT to get it together? Help?

[Above The Rowan]

Hey all!

I, up til now, have been very much "fly by the seat of our pants" kind of homeschooling. This is the start of our third school year homeschooling and I've really just been kind of feeling my way around it til now. 

 

But I have a 4th grader and 2nd grader and for a number of reasons, they want/need to be taught separately as much as possible. 

 

Which means that I, a chronic procrastinator and hater of plans, really need to learn how to get organized. Between schoolwork, a few regularly scheduled events and outings, and just life stuff, I'm a mess this year and it's really causing a lot of friction in the home. 

 

So, for anyone else who is not naturally an organized person - have you read any books or blogs, or have any tips of learning to be more routined? 

 

Thanks for any ideas!

[Kiara.I]

Right there with you.

If you haven't ever checked out FlyLady, it's worth a look.  It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it works for many.  And her main points I think work for MANY people, including those who dislike the "tone" of it.

 

But you're right: routines are where it's at.

 

It's easiest if you start small, and as they become automatic add more to them.  But you might need to jump in with a more large-scale overhaul if things are really sliding out of control right now.

 

For us, one of the biggest things is getting started at a sensible time.

Next...I get bogged down in deciding "what to do next."  If that's a problem for you, figuring out how to address it is well worth it.  And, remind yourself that the plan doesn't have to be perfect.  You can try it, and if it's not working it can be changed.  But at least TRY.  ;)  (Because this is how conversations in my own head go...)

You could go a couple of ways with this.  You could write a schedule.  Kid A does this while Kid B does this, starting at 9:00 AM.  At 9:30, Kid A does this other thing while Kid B does this.  At 10:....etc.  Or you could go with a rotating list of subjects.  Do math.  Then do spelling.  Then do history.  Then do....whatever.  Wherever you stop for the day, pick up the list and continue the cycle the next day.  Or I'm sure there are many other ways of doing it, but don't get too bogged down in picking the perfect one.  Pick one, do it for a couple of weeks, and assess how it's working.  Then tweak it or change approaches completely.

 

 

[Laura Corin]

I wouldn't go from disorganised to extremely structured in one go.  It's likely to fall apart.

 

I would concentrate on the basics: on Sunday, write down what you want to achieve that week, something like:

 

Maths every day; five exercises during the week

English every day; one chapter during the week.

PE every day

 

Start from there and don't build on it until that is really, really solid.  Your children are young, and the basics are all that is really needed.

 

Once the basics are solid and happening every single week, start to add in other stuff, but pull back if the basics start to fall apart.

 

L

[73349]

I would start with a big calendar on the wall that lists the times and locations of all your outside activities.

 

Next, make a weekly checklist. You might try a section of things you need to do with each child. For example:

 

4th-grader

math             M  T  W  R  F

composition  M      W       F

spelling         M  T  W       F

science         M      W       F

history           M  T       R

art                      T       R

free reading  M  T  W  R

 

2nd-grader

math             M  T  W  R  F

spelling         M  T  W  R  F

cursive                   W      F

reading              T  W  R

science         M                 F

history                    W  R  F

art                      T       R

 

or however you want to do things for the week.

[Above The Rowan]

I would start with a big calendar on the wall that lists the time of all your outside locations.

 

Next, make a weekly checklist. You might a section of things you need to do with each child. For example:

 

4th-grader

math             M  T  W  R  F

composition  M      W       F

spelling         M  T  W       F

science         M      W       F

history           M  T       R

art                      T       R

free reading  M  T  W  R

 

2nd-grader

math             M  T  W  R  F

spelling         M  T  W  R  F

cursive                   W      F

reading              T  W  R

science         M                 F

history                    W  R  F

art                      T       R

 

or however you want to do things for the week.

I like this checklist idea. I think this could be a feasible way for me to stay on top of things and see what we have to do each week. 

[mamiof5]

I hear you! With a 5th, 4th and 2nd grader, and an 11 month old baby...I had to try a more organized approach or our year was going to go downhill. Our plan is still in progress, but it involves a lot of timekeeping, which has been hard for me. Not used to depending on an alarm clock, but this is what is working for us right now. I read a post around here not that long ago, just using a regular cheap notebook to write what each child needs to do...so they follow their checklists and know what needs to be done. It has also helped me a lot to schedule individual instruction time with each child.

[Momto4inSoCal]

I am very scattered on general. In order to really get throughy day and get things done I need to have order. I create a lesson plan in the summer for the whole year. Planning doesn't come natural to me but I do it because I know it's the only way we will get through our work. For me I focus on routine over a specific schedule. We have a set order for each day ie bible first, then VPSP, then memory work etc. I don't like the day to drag bit I don't want to be a slave to my schedule either. I schedule two make up days a month. That helps with field trips, sickness or anything unplanned. I use an online planner. We are involved in a lot of things so I need a plan already in place otherwise I fall behind and give up on planning all together.

[HS Mom in NC]

Household and Outside Activity Organization

 

1. Large lined calendar on the fridge. On it are listed activities and their start times, the lunch and dinner plan for each day in pencil and the chore chart (we assign by the month.) Back when I was learning to meal plan I wrote down what we actually ate for lunch and dinner for 2 months and started my meal planning with that information.  I have meal planned for 2 weeks at a time at our busiest stage of life (teens who couldn't drive yet) but now I just meal plan a week at a time and shop on Thursdays because that's what works now.

 

2. Magnetic pencil holder on the fridge.  Since there are so many of us with completely different schedules, each family member has an assigned sharpie marker.  I'm blue, hubby is black, oldest is purple, middle is red, youngest is green.  Family functions for everyone are orange.   This makes it really easy to see what applies to whom. My husband usually works from home but sometimes needs to go on site 45 minutes away.  I have to know who might need a ride if all the 3 vehicles are needed by all 4 drivers. There's no public transportation here.

 

3. Magnetic shopping lists.  I shop at 3 different stores.  I have a magnetic shopping list for each of those stores.  When we run out of something we have the list right there with the magnetic pencil holder with pencils and colored markers right next to it. We can write it down on the list as soon as we see it's not in the fridge or pantry. I do the major grocery shopping trip on Thursdays because that's the best day to do it and on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays my youngest has Tae Kwon Do across the street from a Super Target.  I can pick up any odds and ends missed on the big trip while she's in class.  She grabs here gear, I grab my list and off we go.

 

4. Small magnetic white board with clip for dry erase marker on the fridge.  On it is my to do list.

 

 

[HomeAgain]

I second the Flylady suggestion.  It is easily adaptable to the home school.  Start with one thing, do it consistently, and then build from there.  Flylady starts with a small routine in the morning and builds to focus on one area per week of the rest of the home + a weekly overview one day.  I'd start by printing and putting into a sheet protector a planning page for each kid.  Give them the pages and dry erase markers.  Your new little daily routine is to sit and develop the plans together.  Get that going for a week, and add in focusing on organizing a subject for the next week.  Take an hour on Saturday or Sunday and go through each subject, 10 minutes on each one, putting together plans for the week, printouts, supplies..  You won't hit everything and that won't matter.  You'll still be better off than you were.

[Ellie]

Hey all!

I, up til now, have been very much "fly by the seat of our pants" kind of homeschooling. This is the start of our third school year homeschooling and I've really just been kind of feeling my way around it til now. 

 

But I have a 4th grader and 2nd grader and for a number of reasons, they want/need to be taught separately as much as possible. 

 

Which means that I, a chronic procrastinator and hater of plans, really need to learn how to get organized. Between schoolwork, a few regularly scheduled events and outings, and just life stuff, I'm a mess this year and it's really causing a lot of friction in the home. 

 

So, for anyone else who is not naturally an organized person - have you read any books or blogs, or have any tips of learning to be more routine? 

 

Thanks for any ideas!

 

:grouphug:

 

For household organization, The Sidetracked Home Executives (Flylady got her start with S.H.E.). You don't even have to touch your computer to do S.H.E. :-)

 

For the paper monster in your house (which includes keeping your calendar in order), File--Don't Pile!, by Pat Dorff.

[Sahamamama]

I have a 4th grader and 2nd grader and for a number of reasons, they want/need to be taught separately as much as possible.

 

Last year, when I had a 4th grader and twin 2nd graders, we basically did the year like this:

• Group Work -- Bible, Literature (read alouds), Science, History, Geography, Health & Safety, and so on. We enjoyed having this time together.
• Independent Work -- I figured out all the "bits and pieces" of things that my kids could do on their own (e.g., the math fact cards, but not the entire math lesson), and gave them a list each day (or every other). This allowed me to focus on one or two students at a time, while ensuring that the non-tutored group was still making progress on school work.
• Tutor Time -- I mostly alternated days for Tutor Time. It was enough. So, for example, say it's Monday, we do some Group Work, then the 2nd graders break out into Independent Work (they love lists, LOL), and I work one-on-one with my 4th grader. Break for lunch, then switch (perhaps), or just do something as a group, such as a read aloud, play time, exercise, chores, or a nap. :) Next day, it's Tuesday -- same routine, some Group Work, 4th grader does her own work, I focus on the 2nd graders, break for lunch, etc.
• We did manage to do math daily, for both "sets" of kids.

I found that this was an effective way to handle tutoring the separate levels, teaching them to manage some of their own work, and having enough group time to feel connected.

 

We're basically doing 3rd & 5th the same way this year. I type up our work lists at night, after the kids are in bed (then I can concentrate). It sort of looks like this, only filled in with specific assignments:

 

Chores

Morning Chapel

Group Work

Independent Work (for one level) OR Tutor Time (for the other)

Lunch

Tutor Time (for one level) OR Independent Work (for the other)

Quiet Time/Free Time

 

I like making up the work lists the night before, because then I can incorporate our real lives, and adjust as needed. HTH.

[shadah]

What has helped me most with organizing for school has been blacking out the times when we can't school like Storytime, Co-op,meal time prep, whatever you do during the day. It surprised me how long it takes us to fix and eat lunch, for example. I was scheduling schoolwork for that time without realizing it.

Then, I looked at the slots I had and fit the schoolwork aound our life. Which right now means we do what we can in the morning and then an hour after dinner. It's weird, I know. But it works because my husband is home days and gone evenings. A friend of mine realized she had to get up earlier and start earlier because she is always exhausted after lunch. What is your life like? When can you focus most? I see this as working with your strengths.

When I tried to do other people's schedules it messed up the rhythm of our day. I couldn't get anything at all done.

[HS Mom in NC]

Here's an old thread on how to plan a whole year with the file folder system:

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/517577-planning-full-year-with-filing-system/?hl=%2Bplanning+%2Byear+%2Bwith+%2Bfiling+%2Bsystem&do=findComment&comment=5731699

 

Here's an old thread on juggling kids at different ability levels.  It's geared to people with larger families, but the same principles apply to all families:

 

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/447289-not-handling-the-multi-ages-very-well/?hl=%2Bnot+%2Bhandling+%2Bmulti+%2Bages&do=findComment&comment=4584257

[lailasmum]

I'm organised but untidy and it all gets on top of me fairly frequently. I'm currently liking using the Tasks function on Google calendar alongside the Calengoo app on our tablets. I can make a big effort to schedule or several weeks and then not worry about it and it can get ticked off in the app as it's done. 

[LMD]

I missed this thread the first time around. I'm sort of at breaking point at the moment!

I have some semi working things... We use the spiral notebook checklist thing which works well for my older 2. I have a whiteboard, I'm going to adapt it for next year in combination with a wall calendar. Will include activities, events, meal plans, work rosters, budget/bills, to do list, housework. I need it colourful and on the wall or I forget to look at it!

 

I am going to streamline our homeschool room, organise my filing system and all my teacher papers. I'm going to try the year planning too, at least for some subjects.

 

Then I'm going to take time to do what I should've done when my babies were little, get a good routine going! I was very random...

 

Any more tips would be welcome! I'm super bad at this!

[Loesje22000]

We use textbooks.

They are easy to divide in lessons to get covered.

Additional stuff, is additional. So we don't have 5 math programs or three language arts programs.

En if I don't have time we don't do the additional stuff.

 

I can't do both: organised homeschooling and organised household.

So I plan enough schoolvacations for dd to get my house a little bit in order.

When I homeschool I do my bare minimum in householding,

When I household I do not much homeschooling.

 

Not sure householding is a verb in English too, but I think you'll understand.

[Critterfixer]

One thing that helps me is to have regularly scheduled times for planning. We take regular breaks during our year round school year, and part of the purpose of those breaks is to give me an opportunity to plan. I will even set aside a specific day during the week to work on a particular subject: Monday for Writing, Tuesday for History, Wednesday for Science, etc. I won't plan more than about six weeks at a time. Anything beyond that and I'll feel frustrated when life gets in the middle of my perfect plans and throws them all around the room.

 

I think that when you are naturally more spontaneous, the very last thing that will work for you is to try to tie yourself up in routines and schedules. Start small. Work on one subject, one student, one day at a time. I have my routines for getting things done, but one of the very best things I did at the start of planning is to give myself permission to adjust, tweak and flat throw out anything that didn't work without a second thought. Flexibility was the most important thing for me to have in a schedule, and am I ever glad I decided to make that my priority from the beginning.

[J-rap]

Yeah, that's me!  What helped me was to have a general plan laid out ahead of time, which I'd put together at the end of the summer.  So, I'd have my curriculum, and if a subject is 18 chapters long, for example, I'd know we have to do 2 chapters/month.  That's half chapter/week.  I'd get a general school-year plan laid out like that, and that helped a LOT!  I'd work in Christmas break, Spring break, etc.

 

After that, I'd set aside time on the weekend -- usually an hour or two on Sunday evenings, to narrow it down for the week.  I'd write up our daily goals for that week.  As long as I had the general year-long plan in place, this part was pretty easy.

 

Lastly, I'd set aside 30-60 minutes each evening after the kids were in bed to correct the day's lessons and make sure I'm ready for the following day's lessons. 

 

Again, having the whole year's schedule basically in place made everything else feel fairly easy to keep up with.

 

Of course my house was never very organized, but that's a different story!

[MomOfABunch]

What has helped me most with organizing for school has been blacking out the times when we can't school like Storytime, Co-op,meal time prep, whatever you do during the day. It surprised me how long it takes us to fix and eat lunch, for example. I was scheduling schoolwork for that time without realizing it.

Then, I looked at the slots I had and fit the schoolwork aound our life. Which right now means we do what we can in the morning and then an hour after dinner. It's weird, I know. But it works because my husband is home days and gone evenings. A friend of mine realized she had to get up earlier and start earlier because she is always exhausted after lunch. What is your life like? When can you focus most? I see this as working with your strengths.

When I tried to do other people's schedules it messed up the rhythm of our day. I couldn't get anything at all done.

This. I did this and found that the amount of time that we spend in the kitchen is staggering. I made the switch to paper dishes on busy days, substantially streamlined meal prep and assigned all the kids I kitchen jobs that they're supposed to do before and after every meal. It helped. But I have to allow a full 90 minutes for each meal/chore cycle.

I also gave up the idea of me getting up before the kids. Even when I try to be super quiet, the littlest ones wake up every.single.time. So I'm up super early with cranky kids, not getting anything done. So great in theory, but in practice, not so much.

Do the paper and pencil scheduling exercise. It's amazing what you find out.

[MerryAtHope]

I'm not naturally organized either--but homeschool and some other things have made me/helped me become somewhat organized in those areas! Now is a great time to consider this too, because you can start a revised routine after Christmas. I have some organizational articles on my blog that you might find helpful:

 

• Organization: Priorities and Passions
• Creating a Workable Routine
• Implementing a New Routine
• A Typical Day
• Teacher Box
• Creating your Teacher Binder