Our New School Year Begins

Yesterday we started our second year of homeschooling. Though last year went well, we had a few technical problems that I’m hoping to avoid with a little organization this year.

Our biggest problem last year was missing school supplies. You see, we’re very relaxed about where we do school. We read books on the bed in the master bedroom. We do math at the kitchen counter. Hannah likes to do her independent work in the spare bedroom. And at the end of the day, the school supplies would be all over the house.

That wouldn’t be a huge problem, except for the fact that the next morning, we’d have to get out new pencils and notebooks, because the kids couldn’t find the ones they had been using. That’s very un-frugal, not to mention terribly unorganized.

The second problem we had was that I’d be working with one child, and the other child would finish a subject and need me to tell him what to do next. At times that really disturbed the flow of our schoolwork.

This year after reading tons of forums, I made a few adjustments to address the problem. Though we use this system for school, it would be easy to implement for any routine you want your kids to follow.

Chores

In the morning after breakfast, the first thing the kids do is their morning chores. After chores, they do their schoolwork, and then after lunch we finish school and do afternoon chores and have free time.

I made a little chore chart with laminated chore cards, so I could assign their chores the night before. In the morning after breakfast, the kids look at their chore chart to see what they need to do. When they complete a chore, they pull off the card and place it in the envelope. Seeing the cards disappear is very motivating!

In the afternoon, if I’m still working with a child, the child that is finished can begin his chores without any instruction.

Schoolwork

We implemented a similar system for schoolwork, based on Sue Patrick’s Workbox System. Each child has a set of eleven drawers with laminated and velcroed numbers on the top.

Each evening I put the next day’s work in the drawers, separated by task in the order I’d like them completed. I use the drawers for independent work only.

When we’re finished with our group work, the kids head over to their drawers and begin the task in the first drawer. When they are finished, they return the books to the drawer, put any papers to be corrected in my inbox, and put the number back on the chart on top of the drawers. Then they go on to the next drawer.

If one child needs my help while I’m working with another, she can go on to the next subject until I’m available. And again, the visual of the numbers disappearing as subjects get completed is very motivating.

School Supplies

And about those disappearing school supplies? Well, we worked out a system for that, too. Each child has three pencil boxes full of school supplies. The biggest box contains commonly used supplies, such as pencils, pens, colored pencils, and a ruler. The two smaller boxes contain math supplies and art supplies.

Each box also has a list of contents. The kids are responsible for returning their school supplies to the boxes when they are finished using them. If the school supplies go missing, they can buy new supplies from my stash.

Hopefully our new organizational system will help us make better use of our time and resources this year.