A little about our home school organization.
November 2, 2017
Home School Organization
So I’m one of these crazy people who can’t stand anything to be out of order. I use to freak out trying to keep the house looking like a picture in a magazine…
This was until God smashed me with the realization that while life is in my house, it will never be perfectly clean. (Note to self: NEVER be PERFECT!)
We also homeschool. This means in addition to the normal kid toys, clothes, and assorted paraphernalia, we also have a stupendous collection of schoolwork items. This all has to stay organized. (Organization has paid off repeatedly as the girls move into high school level courses and dual enrollment.) So I looked for an easy way to keep organized.
My first step at this organization was the purchase of three letter envelope sized Boxes upon which I wrote “Christina’s Schoolbooks,” “Rebeccah’s Schoolbooks,” and “Kimberly’s Schoolbooks.”
These boxes hold all current textbooks, notebooks, and school “tools” (pencils, pens, crayons, etc.) for that student. I only had one “student” at the time, but the littler girls felt big to have their crayons, art supplies, and activity books in a “school box” too. They also aren’t too heavy for a 5-year-old to tote around.
The students are responsible for their box and keeping their books and supplies in good order. (Mom “issues” normal supplies like notebooks, primary crayons, pencils, pens, erasers, mathematical instruments, and books. Usually, they like to buy their own “extras” like markers, colored pencils, or work pens inscribed with their name.) This helps with responsibility.
Bingo! I scored a short, sturdy wooden bookshelf that held my boxes perfectly! **One (Jaquline’s) is missing in the picture, but that’s because she was using it!**
This allowed me to add the next 2 boxes (they were only 1 and 3, but Jaquline kept asking about her school box) and a third set for notebooks, charts & flashcards, and shared coloring & art books. (Granted, we have a full-size bookshelf with art supplies and games and three full-size bookshelves with the supplemental school books – mostly history, science, technology, readers, and encyclopedias.)
Later, Rebeccah decided we needed a “non-reader” system on our boxes so we added “pictures” to the labels. She likes everything organized too.
I created a book I call the School Planner. (Rebeccah calls it “The One Book” as in “The book to rule all school!”) **Deceptively plain, isn’t it?**
It has everything school related in a very easy, homeschool-mom-friendly format. (This means I can quickly enter information and file papers within my 10 or 15 minute time crunch. I love organization, but hate spending time on it.) One file drawer turned into the workbook paper file with one file for each student’s work by school year. They look like steps and Kimberly has called them “the steps to college.”
Our School Shelf still holds everything current for 6 students (okay, Lucas isn’t a student yet, but he does have a backpack, crayons, and two coloring books in his school box). Our School Planner sits on top of the School Shelf, and two sturdy boxes (perfect size to keep the workbooks snug and dust-free) sit on the other side against the wall holding all of the “next-ups.” (Core curriculum workbooks to be used by the next student.)
Our School Planner is organized by student in 4-week snapshots on each page.
On these pages, I keep a running list of reading books completed, courses completed and their GPA & weight (for high school-level), extra-curricular projects completed, and educational extras like field trips, community service, or practical learning. The first page in my planner is my “base grade level guide” (texts I expect each student to pass at said grade level).
At the end of each school year (for us, the last Friday before our annual evaluation), I spend about an hour or two and compile all this raw data into a concise one or two page “report” I call a school year summary.
I attach a reading book list (gathered from the same data!) and if any high school level courses were completed, I add them into the student’s high school transcript.
For portfolio evaluations, I just grab the School Planner (reports go in the front in age order) and the file folder for each student for that year. It’s easy and keeps me mostly stress free. After evaluations, I rubber-band the School Planner pages together and set them in the file drawer with the previous years, print out the new pages with the changed dates and continue… the story of each school year in less than 1.5 inches of paper. The copy of their evaluation report (the copy of the official report on file with St Johns’ County) goes in a file folder with their name on it. This has all evaluations and communications from the school district. (This was a life-saver when the county changed computer systems!) **Lucas’ folder doesn’t have his name on it yet because they get to pick their colors**
Everything important with our school is in one long file drawer and one shelf. This makes school time fun and easy – and organized!
Thanks for reading!
Type at you next time…
~Nancy Tart
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