Homeschool Organization

Hello.  My name is Shannon. I am a perfectionist.  Yup - there it is.  While I am admitting things - I also have an issue with some OCD tendencies.  Things must be alphabetized, color coordinated and specifically organized.  Sadly, I also have the tendency of not putting things away, so when things become a mess, I pull EVERYTHING out and reorganize.  So how is it that I keep our home school stuff organized?  This has been a question I have been asked numerous times and I finally am going to answer!

My notebook:

The first thing I have done is created a notebook for me.  It is a three-ring binder with a clear plastic cover on the front.  In that cover is a copy of the "schedule."  I use that term loosely, because though there are times on it, we use it more as a routine that an actual schedule.  The schedule is color coded by child.

When you open my notebook, I have our attendance sheets.  Behind those is a regular sheet of paper, where I write our field trips down.

There are also multiple tabs.  I have a tab for each of the four children I school, a tab for extra copies of my planner sheets, and a tab for field trip information.

Here are the planner sheets in MY binder for each of the kids.  Each one is color coded - DD4 is pink, DS6 is blue, DS8 is green, and DD10 is purple.  On these sheets I write what is expected of them for the week - such as what chapter they are to do for math.

Kids' Notebook:

Each of the children also have a three-ring binder.  In there, I have THEIR planners.  These are broken down into the days of the week and the subjects.  I write out for them what they are to do.  There are ten subject boxes for each day - I write them in order of their workboxes.

Workboxes:

Below is a picture of our workbox system.  There are ten drawers.  The first drawer for each of the children is for devotions and supplies.  The rest of the drawers hold the books and materials for each of their subjects.  For example, all of the children do geography as their first subject after our morning devotions, so in each of their second drawers is their material for geography, be it flags to color, their passports, etc.  On the front of the boxes, I have numbers velcro-ed on.  When they are done that subject, they take the number off their box and put it on their laminated sheet that sits on top of their boxes.  This helps me keep track of where they are in their day, without me disturbing them if they are busy working.  For the younger children (all but DD10), I also put potty breaks on their sheet, so they can be reminded to go before the urgency hits, lol.

Hopefully all of this made sense.  If not, please feel free to ask me to clarify!!!!