Organized Part 2 – Getting the Kids Organized!

You can be the most organized person in the world but if your kids are not organized you will pull your hair out trying to keep yourself that way.  We love our children but we learn fast that they generally don’t have the organizational drive that we do.  I have tried several different things to keep my kids homeschool stuff organized. 

I learned fast that sending their school books to be placed neatly on their desks in their room is NOT a good idea!  Things get lost and destroyed in their bedrooms.  One of the things that I started doing that has worked is I have a small shelving unit and I have a spot on it for each child to stack all of their books, papers, etc.  The rule is when their work is done all items go back on their spot on the shelf.  That way I can find assignments to grade and we don’t spend half the day finding the spelling book that was swallowed up by the bedroom.

Organization is the KEY to keeping yourself sane!

I learned very quickly that organization is a MUST when it comes to homeschooling.  If you don’t stay organized you can get buried in paperwork almost overnight.  I wish I could get back all the time I spent trying to find school books the kids had misplaced.  And there is nothing worse than losing track of what you wanted to accomplish this year because you are unorganized. 

The best thing I did was create a binder just for me.  This binder is my “hub” for all things homeschool.  The first thing I did was sign up for this website called Mom’s Tool Belt.  She has tons of great designs for covers, spines, calendars, support materials, etc.  I like to use color coding so I picked a color for my binder that I know right away that it is mine.  My binder is green with “Mom’s School Notebook” on the cover and binding.  I put my binder together with tabs for each subject.  Behind each tab I put a lesson plan outline, a record sheet to record scores (or check off sheet), tests, and any answer keys I have in print off form.  I bought tabs that have built in folders so I could slip anything I needed to give the kids this week into the folders. 

Our School Day – version 3

When I started out this year I did what I think every homeschool mom does when they first start out.  I created a 6 or 7 subject day (version 1).  I was trying to cover all the subjects every day because that is how I learned when I was in school.  It was a struggle to get through the day with all school work done and the kids complained about the amount of work I was requiring. 

After Christmas I played with the schedule trying to reduce the amount of work but I continued the 6 subject day (version 2).  When I attended the homeschool convention I attended a class by a lady that had some great concepts.  She talked about how one of the problems with learning in school is that it promotes short term memory instead of long term retention.  They teach to the test and the kids only retain what they need for test and after forget what they had learned.  They don’t cover one subject long enough to create the long term retention.  She taught that you should do the 3 “R”s everyday (reading, writing, and arithmetic) and pick one subject to teach in a “unit study” style.  You cover that subject until you get through it, say a month, this promotes long term retention. 

Lesson Learned – Set a schedule

I would love to say that all of my kids loved the idea of homeschooling from day one but I would be lying.  I have received a lot of wining from my children about what they are missing out on.  When I try to explain to them the benefits of homeschooling such as a better education, more opportunities, etc. they roll their eyes and continue to complain.  So I had to pull out all the stops and try to win them over with other benefits such as being able to sleep in.  When I say sleep in I was thinking we normally was up at 6:45 to be on the bus by 7:30, and now we can sleep in till about 7:30 or 8:00.  But my children took it to a new level. 

They think sleeping in means they don’t see the light of day till about lunch time.  Until recently I had allowed them to do so as long as when they got up they had to complete all of their assignments.  The problem was our days became longer and longer.  Kids were sleeping later and going to bed later and it was a vicious cycle.  I was starting to sleep on this “2^nd shift” type schedule and I was getting NOTHING done! 

A little introduction about me and my family.

I married my high school sweetheart Dusty.  We have a very unique marriage; Dusty’s job requires him to travel for work so he is gone over 300 days a year.  We are the parents of 4 children and a Maltese/Chihuahua.  My oldest, Dominic is 17 and is my book worm.  He loves to tell us facts he learns from books no matter how off the wall, the King of Useless Facts I call him.  My only daughter Marissa is the social bug of the house.  She turns 13 tomorrow and is so excited she can barely contain herself.  Luke my 11 year old is my character, he prides himself on making sure he knows EVERYTHING that is going on around the house.  Elisha is 8 and he has more creative energy than I know what to do with.  He is always building/creating things, aka getting into trouble!  But he has a big heart and is always giving to others.  Lastly I have my baby, my puppy Buddy.  He keeps things interesting and tries to keep the kids in line by barking at them when they run in the house.  This 5 pound guard dog is cute as a button.