Organization

I am a planner.  I try not to be one at times, but it still kind of just happens.  I think by planning I will be sure to accomplish something.  I have become more laid back, but the planner and leader in me always seems to make its way out.

As a home educator, I was recently asked by a friend what kind of lesson plan book I used.  Hmmm...I don't use a lesson plan book.  I can say that is one thing that I pretty much hated when I was teaching in the public schools.  It does help to know what you are going to do and have a plan.  But I remember having to look up standard numbers for everything I was doing and turning them in to be reviewed.  Ugh.  So I've rebelled against the lesson plan book.  I do, however, love my calendar.  I used to spend hours in the office supply stores looking for the perfect planner.  I wanted it to have the blank month and then daily areas behind each month.  I also had to have a year at a glance page.  Then to top it all off, it had to look good.  It was almost like picking out a purse or shoes that you would have with you most of the time, because I did have it with me.  My planner was an accessory.

A couple of years ago I broke from the planner mode.  I now carry a cute three ringed binder with colorful birds all over it.  I have dividers in it for all the different activities we are involved in.  The first spot is my calendar pages.  I design them myself with quotes that I want to see regularly.  I print them in colors I like and put them in the front.  Then I have a divider for my homeschool group where I put my membership directory and any other tidbits of info I may need.  Then the 4H group with any project paperwork that is needed.  I thought about getting pocket divider so I could collect those bits of paper with notes or fliers from another, but for me, it had disaster written all over it.  I jot notes on the back of calendar pages and such as I need.  It works for me.

If you are going to home school, please have a calendar that you can access at any time.  I have a few friends who love the electronic ones.  Me?  I like to write; it helps me to remember.  I also like the paper trail.  In our home school group, we always have field trips and socials going on.  I write in my calendar what we have committed ourselves to.  If payment is due at a certain time, I put that in my calendar too.  I even print out a public school calendar to carry. We have friends and family that are in public school, so it helps to know when they will be off.  Sometimes we will take those days off, or sometimes we will take full advantage of a place to visit knowing most of the other kids are in school.

Organizing at home is important too.  There are different ways to organize your house.  I am in favor of bookshelves and baskets, the bigger ones that hold books or craft supplies.  My hubby and fil just made me a large built-in bookshelf.  Yes, I am happy and blessed.  I am still organizing it.  I have all this space.  It's wonderful.  My kids keep the books and notebooks that they personally use in backpacks in their bedrooms.  They bring them out to do their schoolwork and put them away when we are done.  I also joke that they are very convenient for "car-schooling."  We are on the go a bit during the school year, so it makes sense for them to be able to take work with them in the car.  It works for our household organization too.  I have a shelf of school books that they are to ask to use.  Then plenty of shelves with reading books and reference materials.  We have done our history as a family since we began this journey.  I like to keep all the history materials in a basket to pull out to use.  It works well for us. I know where everything is.  One of my children can get the basket if they need to do so.

School work is kept my each child in their binders in their backpacks.  If their binders get too full, they can give me their work, paper clipped together and I will stick it in a file until the end of the year.  In our state, Florida, portfolios are kept for end of the year evaluations.  Portfolios are to only be a sample of the students work, so at the end of the year, I go through to choose what will be kept.  Everything else is trashed.  I keep a lot of the writing assignments.  I have a hard time throwing those away.  But I do throw some of them out. 

Some families like having cubbies for each child.  They use a daily or weekly folder system for their work to be done.  I think it can be a good idea for younger children.  I like giving the responsibility over to my children though as they get older.  Some parent educators have a basket for each child or even a desk for each child.  Just keep it all organized somehow.  It will make your sanity and school year go much smoother. 

If things do get chaotic and need to be re-organized.  Take a day off to get it done.  Don't continue in a mess or your work and your children's work becomes futile.

One last hint for organizing your students, have your children learn to write their name and date on their schoolwork, even if it is their workbook.  This is a "school skill" that many home educators ignore since they don't have a classroom of 30 students.  Yet, it is a needed skill.  When they go anywhere else, a co-op, church, a party, an outside class--they need to know how to write their name on their papers.  Why write the date?  It is nice to know when things were accomplished.  In Florida, the law states that we need to show progress for the school year.  That can be difficult when dates of work are not established.