Staying Organized

Staying Organized Homeschooling

Staying organized while homeschooling not only keeps me feeling in control and keeps my stress down, it just helps me get things done quicker and more efficiently. Below are my favorite ways to organize my homeschool.

Choosing the perfect 5-Minute Homeschool Space

It's not necessary to have a special room in the house just for homeschooling. In fact, depending on the activity, your homeschool room will be wherever that activity is. BUT, to get that 5-Minute Homeschool stuff (book work) done efficiently, it is good to have a designated space.

Toddlers - For young ones who are not learning out of books, it can be a special rug on the floor that gets good lighting and a special wall that is designated the "learning wall" -- a wall with eye-level learning items on it (that blue painters tape is perfect for putting stuff up without ruining your wall).
School-age Children - This space usually needs to be a table for school age children. The kitchen or dining room table are great spaces for The 5-Minute Homeschool. This year, I have chosen to use a long table as my desk, so I use half of it for my computer work and the other half for homeschooling -- one child can sit with me while I teach him/her.
Independent Learners - My son does most of his school work now on his own. I have him do it at a desk in his room once he gets up in the morning when he can focus the best. I make sure he has a good reading lamp to work at. Later, when I go over his work, he sits with me at my desk.

I learned the hard way that my homeschool room needs to be right off the kitchen, since the kitchen is where I spend most of my time. I think dining rooms are perfect for homeschooling if you have a breakfast nook where most meals are eaten. In my current house, I made sure I found a house with two options - a kitchen that feeds into the dining room AND has a casual family room off the other side of the kitchen that is in the back of the house. I decided to convert that family room into an office-type space for homeschooling.

The Learning Station: My Homeschool Command Center

I have been using the Learning Station since I first started teaching my children as toddlers. It is still an essential part of my homeschool space because it is the Learning Station that transforms ANY room into THE homeschool room! I like to get those cheap bookshelves ($25 ea.) from Walmart or Target (Target ones can handle binder height items) combined with Dollar Tree bins and caddies to organize cheaply. I like to call the one that has my children's learning bins and most commonly used craft/school supplies my "learning station." I put the learning station closest to where I work with them during our 5-Minute Homeschool time. Below are the essential items in the Learning Station.

Learning Bin

Activity Caddies

Video Library

Teacher Resources

Library Book Basket

Learning Bin

The Learning Bin is the most important thing in my Learning Station. Each child has their own. It contains anything needed to do the 5-Minute Homeschool time. These are the essential contents.

To Do List - I write on a dry-erase board with a wet-erase marker (so it only wipes clean if you use a damp rag) a list of To Do's to know what our current 5-Minute Homeschool time comprises. For my son, it lists all his work which he does independently. For my daughter, it lists the subjects she and I have to do together. I use laundry clips to check off what is done.
School Work - whatever that is -- notebook, workbook, pencil pouch, etc. For toddlers, it will have ONLY the learning items they are actively working on (If they are learning letters A through F right now, then those are the only magnets in the bin).

Since my son does most of his work now by himself in the morning when he wakes up, every night I set his learning bin on his desk in his room. Then he brings it downstairs each morning for me to review.

Activity Caddies

I like to use caddies to organize other fun educational activities we may work on that have everything we need handy. One caddy usually has a "busy" activity -- an open-ended manipulative based fun activity, like bubbles, play-doh, marbles, etc. which get rotated around. I also have a caddy for working on Adventurer Club badges and another for my daughter's pen pal stuff.

These "fun" activities are used to convince my little one to sit down with me and ease into The 5-Minute Homeschool time in a positive way. They can also be used as incentive to get school work done quickly or as a break in between assignments to keep them at the table.

Video Library

I have found it saves a bunch of space to just invest in those zip-up DVD organizers. I have one for Sabbath videos and another for Learning/Fun videos. Then I can keep handy our library of videos without taking up much valuable space in the Learning Station.

Teacher Resources

Any books or manipulatives I need or are currently rotating through for reference or teaching stay in the learning station.

Library Book Basket

When I get them fun books to read or videos to watch at their leisure from the library, I put them in a separate book basket.

Computer Stations and The Web Pasture

To help my kids navigate the computer better, I created what I like to call a "web pasture." It's a website with links to all the websites I have selected for them that they can use. I did this in Weebly (super easy to use, just drag and drop). I have a section for Sabbath websites, learning websites, fun websites, and project websites all on one page. I also make a separate page in which I embed YouTube videos for them that they can watch. Obviously we also put parental controls on the web browser, but by making the Web Pasture their homescreen, it gets them started where they can go and totally cuts down on the fighting -- they know if it is not on their web pasture it's not for them to access. My son blogs a little bit on his web pasture site called Shiloh's Space.

I taught my little ones how to use the computer when each was about 4 years old using ABCMouse.com Kindergarten levels 5 and 6 (that's the only grade level I like to do with them because the stories are reality based and there are only 2 instances where magic is mentioned in a couple of letter videos that can be avoided, otherwise, it is pretty clean). Instead of using a mouse, we gave them a keyboard with a mouse finger pad, which was easier for them to control. Since then, my children have had at least a couple of daily assignments on the computer.

My children's computers are on 4 foot by 2 foot Lifetime folding tables adjusted to their proper seating height. They have primary level plastic chairs that they use. These computer stations are in our homeschool room right off the kitchen so I can monitor what they are doing. We use Microsoft Family to help us control their screen time and block sites we don't want them to visit.

My Favorite Links, by age and grade

Ages 4-6

Ages 7-9

Ages 10-12

Ages 13+

Pre-K, K

1st, 2nd

3rd, 4th

5th, 6th

7th, 8th

Ages 4-6

Ages 7-9

Nature

Old Farmers Almanac for Kids

Spiritual

Patterson Kids - Sabbath School Lessons and Adventurer Club Online

Ages 10-12

Ages 13+

Pre-K, K

1st, 2nd

3rd, 4th

5th, 6th

7th, 8th

Organizing the Stuff

Home Library

Busy Tote

Supply Station

Home Library

I keep a whole separate set of cheap bookshelves for our home library, in which I separate my book shelves into two groups -- my books and books for the kids to read. In my library I have all of my teaching books, organizing by subject matter. I also have a shelf I call the "Records Shelf," in which I keep any of my children's school work that I want to save along with their student record diaries (see next section for more details on the records shelf and the student record diary).

Busy Tote

The busy tote is a huge tote in which I keep those open-ended fun activities to do at the table, on the floor, or on the deck to fill boredom time. Each activity is in a bag (zip-lock or reusable shopping bag). Below are some of my activity themes in the busy tote:

Bubbles (bubble solution, different kinds of bubble wands)
Play-doh (play-dough, cutters, stampers, rolling pins and butter knives, etc.)
Marbles (marbles, marble run pieces, gumball machines, baking pans)
Balloons (balloons, pumps)
Legos (legos)
Salad Spinners (yes salad spinners, dice -- I know wierd combination, but my kids love it)
Water Play (scooper tongs, measuring cups, droppers, funnels, dish soap, bowl)

This is mainly for children ages 3 to 10. Right now, the busy bin stays in the garage and I just get stuff out as needed. I try to keep at least one caddy with a busy activity in the Learning Station.

Supply Station

Again, I use the cheap bookshelves to hold all kinds of things, including my craft supplies and office supplies. As with the learning station, I outfit the bookshelves with bins from the Dollar Tree. I organize all the stuff in categories (bead supplies, writing utensils, paper crafting, painting stuff, wood crafts, envelopes, notebooks, small stuff, etc.) and sort into bins.

Record-Keeping

School Record Diary

The Records Shelf

School Record Diary

I start the practice of keeping a diary of my children's learning activities and their accomplishments from the time they are toddlers. I use a simple student planner that has both weekly and monthly sections in it. I don't use it to record things we plan to do. Instead I use it as a diary to write down the things we DID do. This book serves as my attendance record and as a memory book.

I use the "weekly" section to keep track of any learning activities I did with them.
In the "monthly" section, I write down achievements (milestones or learning activities they mastered) AND special activities or outings (zoo, doctor's appointments, play dates, grandma visits, ETC).
In the "notes" section, I write down what classes we completed and what curricula or resources we used.
In the back of the book, I put a miniature version (I shrink the print-out to make sure it fits) of my child's standardized test score results.
In the front pocket, I include any pictures, tickets, or doctor visit summaries, etc. that I want to keep. I try to include one photo of my child from that school year.

The Records Shelf

In my library I have a shelf dedicated to keeping my children's school memories and records. Here are some items there.

A bin for each child in which I put crafts I want to keep (dated)
Old notebooks or workbooks they have completed
Old school record diaries I have filled out

Day-to-Day Time Management with a Nature Time Priority

We are one of those very loosely structured homeschools. Strict scheduling does not help me enjoy or keep up with my day. It also stresses me out if I can't keep up with it. But, I am very much results driven, so I do make sure we have a productive, meaningful day that is in line with my educational priorities. Traditional schoolwork is kept to an absolute minimum because of my personal reading of SOP education principles emphasizing freedom from burdensome studies (i.e. temperance in book/brain work), embracing the nature classroom, keeping a goal on character training, promoting physical exercise, avoiding idleness, and pursuing practical skills training. So, I can get each of my children's traditional school time done in 30 minutes and still meet my educational goals of scoring high on standardized tests and skipping grades.

Since nature is the ultimate goal for us, then hour by hour scheduling hasn't worked in that respect either. When days are great, then we spend more time outside. On days when the weather is not ideal, I still have minimum nature time objectives. And then depending on the season, there are certain hours when it is more comfortable to be outside. Every time I try to make a schedule, it always clashes with keeping up with the changing weather. I have come to conclude that instead of forcing activities into my time construct, it's best for my family to develop a more natural rhythm that mirrors the natural rhythm outside all around us.

I let my children wake up when they are ready (we do have a fixed bedtime) and "run free" doing what they are interested in, but if I suspect they are getting idle and to make sure we are productive all around, I have a daily To Do List that we work from. We don't go in any order. We don't exclusively work from it either. It's just a list of activities that mostly take 5 to 10 minutes to make sure my children's day is balanced with a minimum amount of nature, God, practical work, and hands-on activities. Traditional school is just a tiny fraction of our day, and we all love that. My kids are 8 years old in 5th grade and 5 years old in Kindergarten. As they get older, they will have less and less "free play time" and more time doing practical tasks like chores and one my important goals - working on meaningful projects. Schoolwork will always occupy whatever absolute minimum time we need to do to still meet our educational goals.