Category: Organization

Planning... it's a journey

10/26/2016

So.... planning. It's something my son covets dearly. HE LOVES to know what is going on so he can plan his life out around mine. Do you have a child like that in your home?

ONCE he knows what is going on, he's content. He will frequently double check as the day goes along... but overall, once he knows he's content. It's been a work in progress and I CANNOT tell you for sure if this system will even work for him. What he wants is a scratch paper write out, but I find when I do that, then either I put too much on the paper (cause I write everything down we want to do) or I forget things and the lad gets stressed because I'll say "OH, I forgot about "X"" OR I just don't get the list written. Which means tons of questions all day long.

I am hoping that this method works better than that the one I was hoping to do this year (Mama Planner) and is less labour intensive than this paper method I tried.

Mama Planner was a no go... one lad thought it was too much writing and looked like way too much work to do when I wrote it out in columns.. and when I asked if he could write out what he needed to do generated looks of horror and being backed up by dad. :)

The paper method kinda worked. Really it did. It went through several metamorphoses...but the checking things off and getting confused about meals and stuff... it was WAY more work that what either of us wanted.

This calendar method is rather simple and works around my needs and around the lads. :) It follows mostly the schedule we've been hashing out for the last month and a half. He's happy with routine, but is pleased to switch it out if it benefits him. :) For instance sometimes we don't do art because well.. yard work or a museum/field trip awaits or sunny weather let's go pokemon going!!! happens. :)

You may be able to see that I colour coded it.   Grey for the dailies, Pink for astonomy, blue for veritas press, green for math and such like.   We've needed to work things out.. like astronomy and German only happen three days a week.

Because Friday are our co-op days having our Fridays be a do it differently day works best for us, means no change in routine for a routine oriented lad, all that changes in location. :)   We do almost everything different on Fridays except the lad likes to do his Veritas Press studies every day. :)

I don't write down specific lessons since one thing simply follows the next. Do one lesson, then do the next, it's just how life goes. If you don't understand something in the next lesson, then go back and do the last lesson again until you know where you misunderstand things, or remember to ask questions, and then proceed on to the next thing.   The lad knows I or Dad are always available for the asking of questions so no excuses for not being able to get help. :)

But I digress.   I just used a $10 calendar from Costco. not too expensive, easily dumped if doesn't work, but I genuinely think that this will give him a good overview without causing stress, and letting him know what to expect for the next day.

Hopefully all hearts will be happy. :)

Tell me though...just in case it doesn't... what do you non-organized type of mammas do with your routine oriented children to keep the household sane?   More ideas are always good. :)

Organized Chaos pt 3: One way to organize your books

10/21/2016

I don't know about you, but there is something about educating your children at home that seems to add to the number of books contained within a house. It's always a battle to keep them under control AND in a place where you can find them easily. I have to admit though...that I just plainly LOVE books. :)

I thought it might be helpful to show you how I've corralled our resources.

I had a desire when I was young to keep every book I had ever read/bought, picture books, chapter books and all the way up to adult fiction and non-fiction. It was a dream that was VERY VERY hard for me to let go of. I have moved so many times with all my books.. I learned the best way to move them and all that. BUT living with a pastor hubby and combining our books was proving to be way too much for our three bedroom home. So winnow it down I learned to do...and am still learning how to do.

Since we have an impending move I was rather forced to make an even more drastic cull of my books. My criteria became rather simple...is it mine? Do I want to move this book? If the answer was yes and no the book went into my for sale pile. This is the result of my purge and organization.

My son is slowly turning into a book lover as well. He often asks "What can I read now?" These green shelves house the books that I want him to read. They are either books I loved as a child, or books that it would be good for him to read. Treasure Island, Soldier Dog, Horrors of History, Black Stallion and more.

This is the start to our fiction book collection. We have them stored alphabetically. These are predominately fantasy/sci fiction as both my hubby and I love them equally. I have two shelves out on the landing and two stacked shelved behind our tinker supply section. This is down a good half of what we used to have.

My mom's old tv cabinet has become our art supply and current year schooling unit.
Books that we are currently reading, or planning to read together. Curriculum, binders, and various useful resources are kept here.

On the top shelf that you can just glimpse we have all our living history books.
Second shelf under it contains books like dictionaries, thesaurus, etc.

The brown section is small art supplies.

The three shelves central to the picture have our curriculum, books currently being read, narration books, and our studies in Canada. The bottom shelves hold bible resources as well as art and music supplies.

History, Geography and Science are favourites in our homeschooling journey and so we have a rather extensive collection of such helpful books. It's hard to let them go so we keep them EVEN IF it means I'll have to move them. Just can't let them go... (at least not yet).

Anyways, I think that about covers it. Hopefully sharing what we do, helps you figure out how to store your books. :) If not.. ah well.. it was fun sharing it with you.

To read more in this series go to science materials and joy of plastic bins eh?

Chaos Organized, pt. 2 - The Joy of Plastic Bins

9/28/2016

Don't you just hate it when you are looking for a pen or pencil and you just can't fine one? Or if you have a child constantly saying, "MOM, do you have jar I can use to do _______? Do we have any wood in the house mom??" or "HUN! I need tape! Where is it?!?!" All these questions....repeated constantly....with the needful demand behind them, and sometimes I felt like I couldn't keep up.

UGH!!!! It drives me crazy, so over the years I decided to create a full proof system.. and it's WORKING!!! Even hubby can find pens and tape when he needs them. :)

So what is my system? It's a bin organized system. Lots of bins. :) Mostly see-through which is a very good thing, as it means anyone can see what's inside without having to open bins you don't really want to waste time opening. :)

Pencils and erasers in one drawer.
Scissors in another.
On top.. our cardstock... useful in the making of minecraft figures, and other papercraft items. Useful to for making unit study/modified colour lap books.

Pencil crayons and pens.. all in one spot. Markers and compass kits. Sorted and easy to locate.

And our Lego.. not the neatest right now and my giveaway pile of books is sitting in the way, but when it is organized we have room for lego creations to sit on top, and pieces are sorted by type and size. Makes it SO easy to build lego which makes me happy.

I used to scrapbook. I don't do it anymore, but I still have my scrapbooking drawers. :) Some of them still hold the remnants of my scrapbooking, which unsurprisingly, are useful with creative children.

I've added two rolls of tape drawers, and a paper cutting drawer. oh.. and I think I have stencils drawer in there somewhere too.

The sticker and paper drawers remain (though their supplies are getting reduced). I do not consider that a bad thing.

Between the table and the window I have my large storage bins. When you have a child who can and will make items out of anything, having "stuff" to make it from comes in handy. :) It goes up and down in the amount of materials available as I regularly purge it (or bring it along to craft based co-op days), it works...and keeps it all contained. A good thing that eh?

The thing I like about plastic drawers is they are portable, it's easy enough to move them from room to room, it's easy to shift drawers around as you don't then have to shift everything from one drawer to another.. you just move it! :)

So tell me.. how do you store things such as legos, pens, pencils and what not. What have you done to ease the craziness?

More in this series:
Part One, Organized Chaos - Science Materials.

Finding Your Own Way in Planning

9/8/2016

The Homeschool Review Crew regularly does round up posts where we all talk on one topic. Pretty neat huh? It's a neat way to come up with a blog post without having to search out ideas. :)

The topic for this month is
Schedules, Routines and Extra Curricular activities

Which one works for you ?
How do you make a Schedule / Routine ?
FREE Schedule / Routine printable resources.
What do you add to this schedule and why ?

Now I don't know about you, but I am not much of a schedule planner, make a list of what needs to be done ahead of time type of person.

I do have a lad who is though. He loves having a list. And my sweet hubby .. well, he thinks I should plan things out more. :) I am learning slowly that planning somethings out ahead of time is not a bad thing.... but I do lose details, it's horrible.

So this topic leaves me feeling a bit AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I did think I could tell you some of the things that we actually do though.

For instance, you see this scrap of paper?

I have learned to ask my lad what he hopes to accomplish in the course of a day. That way I know what he wants to do and how to encourage him to plan to get there.

I have also learned to tell him what I want to do, and then he knows what I might ask him to help with and if he needs to make some adjustments. Knowing what Dad needs to do outside of the home whether it be for work or the family helps us in our planning as well. Doing this day by day helps us to get done what we need to do.

We cross off what we have done so by the end of the day we know what we've yet to do that we can consider doing the next day.

A NEW thing we are trying this year is getting my lad to keep track of his homeschooling using the HEY MAMA Planner. You can review my review here.

I am hopeful that if we organize his schooling, he will get done
1. what HE is most interested in
2. what I need for him to do
3. for less fuss because he'll be able to move things around, work ahead, and so forth.
4. We can actually see what a PLANNED four day week will look like.

Just so you know, if you join SchoolhouseTeachers.com (affiliate link) you are able to download that planner for free? Seriously, the Schoolhouse is doing a great sale right now. You can buy a year and then get a year free! Mind this only is good til the end of the month, but isn't that great? Each year you get to download the planners and have access of over 275 courses!!!!!

But that planner aside, it's great for planning out what you need to do now or in the future, you may find yourself wanting some more specific planners.

If you need help with lesson planning As We Walk Along the Road can help you.

For instance you may wish to make a unit study: here are some link that will help you in the creation of your very own. :) Living Montessori. Our Journey Westward.

Planning to one extent or the other is something we all need to do. Whether it's long term planning, by the month or just day to day. With an official planner or on a scrap piece of paper. Just do what works for you. Try out different things and see what fits you best. And just so you know... if you aren't a planner, it's good. Listen to your children's needs. Figure out what works best for them and/or if they need to learn a new skill. Just work with it. Don't let others pressure you into doing something that doesn't fit well for you. DO NOT though let discomfort close the door on a skill that might prove very beneficial to you in the long run. New skills...even in planning, aren't a bad thing.. really! :)

Link goes live on Sept 10.

Review: Hey Mama Planner from The Old Schoolhouse

6/2/2016

There's a new planner in town, it's the Hey Mama! Print Schoolhouse Planner 2016-2017 published by The Old Schoolhouse. Can I let you in on a secret? I am SO not a user of a planner... I actually HATE using planners... but you know what I have?

I have a son who IS a planner, who LIKES having things written out... and the thought of having blocks to cross off actually DELIGHTS him.

Guess what I am learning to do?

YUP... use a planner (even though I'm kicking and screaming all the way). :)

Okay... so perhaps I'm not screaming. :) Seriously I'm not.
What I have before me is a coil bound book that opens flat, can be folded back upon itself without damage and with large blocks to write in, and lists. All kinds of ways of doing your planning.. my son is delighted.

The Old Schoolhouse delivers with this Hey Mama Print planner. It has SO much in it that you will find a boon to your planning life. With room for up to five children to plan for it should fit most homeschooling families AND if you need to copy pages to stick them .. do it for those larger families. (I'd just be plopping a manilla folder in as the planner is big enough for that).

So what all do you get.

Three years of calendars.
Monthly calendars starting with July 2016 running through June 2017.
Hey Mama! Letters of encouragement.
Weekly planners
Monthly Goals
Semester Goals
Yearly Goals
Attendance Records (180 check mark boxes where required)
Books read
Curriculum planning sheet
Homeschooling Contact List
Then you get lists for: writing prompts and story starters, list of the presidents, inventions, USA government, USA States and Capitals.
Helps with creating a transcript.
The planner closes with a list for other courses taken.

What Do I Like?

Throughout the book are writings, called "Hey Mama". Longer ones that start each month, shorter ones scattered throughout. Learning opportunities await, such as this one pictured below. I love these learning times, just adds a homey touch.

I find the paper easy to write on, it's a good solid paper. I will be writing in planner in pencil as things are apt to change, and my lad likes pencil and since this planner will predominately be for him it's all good.

What would I like to see done differently?
As a Canadian I would like to see a broader focus to the information pages. I would LOVE to see the stateside specific information be left out and more generic information be put in like.. weights and measurements, notable people in history, maps to world, different types of government and such like. It would provide a broader feel to the planner and would be good information for all people, regardless of where they live, to have on hand.

If you would like to get your own copy of the planner, you can find out more here. Until July 15th, use coupon code CREWCODE which will get you $10 off the print copy! The Digital version is available through Schoolhouse.com with your membership.

With that said, the TOS crew has been busy working through the planner and they have lots of say about it.. Check them out below.

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Our Home for Lego - yes, it's organized! :)

1/23/2016

As a child I loved to play with lego. So many pictures were taken of me playing with lego.     But I hated tye searching through a bin and trying to find the little pieces that I needed.     It seemed to take forever and I just wanted to be able to build and play.

I have to admit it.. I am STILL that way.   :)

So I have a boy who likes playing with lego.   Building things and playing with them.   I like playing with him.   But since I am older now... I can choose NOT to fight with lego pieces so I decided I would organize them.

I used to have all the lego in one bin and thought I was kinda stuck with that, then one day I ran across the blog of a lady who put her lego into clear totes and had all her little stuff divided into a smaller version of these plastic shelf/bins. I said to myself...OOH!!!! I Could do that.

I promptly went out and bought three of these and then the next week got a fourth (what can I say we have a LOT of lego). Did you know I have a dream to build a lego town? It would be SO much fun to do so, and then to have a train track running around it... ah... some day! :)

So how does it work for us?

The largest bins hold the larger items... which we have divided by type. 1's, 2's, flat etc each have their own bin.

We have a bin for the odd ball pieces and a bin for mini figures and their gear.

I made a point of putting all those little, hard to find pieces all in one bin.

Our manuals all have a bin of their own as well.

We have a few meccano pieces as well. Some we got free, others I got cheap. My lad is not highly impressed with them but is reluctant to give them away, so stored they are in a smaller shelf.

Try as I might, I could not figure out how to put our K'nex into the bins as well. I used to be able to before we were gifted with a large amount, so they now have a bin of their own.

We used to have our lego set up on the main floor of the house, and have since moved it upstairs to the book room. To that end my lad had to pack up all his creations and they are currently waiting to be unpacked. Normally we have a white shelf sitting on top of the bin/shelves for his creations to sit on.

It makes it so much easier to add lego to our schooling.days, which of course makes the learning go SO much easier indeed. :) Check out our day here. :)

So tell me.... how do you organize the lego in our house??? I'm curious to know how others do it.

Homeschool Organization: Supplies

1/5/2016

Lisa, over at Canadian Homeschooling has issued a challenge. Can we take 20 days to organize our homeschooling?

Week one: Supplies!

I thought it would be fun to do a post walking you through how I organize our homeschooling. Week by week.

The picture below shows how I USED TO organize our supplies. I still use the same containers but I've switched things around a bit. I used to put them up on a cupboard behind our table but two weeks before Christmas we started to renovate our living/dining room area so while hubby painted I worked on the bookroom so as to make room for dining room rejects and I actually get my CURIO cupboard OUT of the bookroom. Took a lot of doing. :)

Needless to say our pens/markers etc drawers needed to make a move. :)

So, anyways, that's where I had them last year. Now that I've moved them they are next to his table/computer. Immediately to the right of this is his table. If he turns his chair around he is sitting next to me at the big table where we do our joint work.

These drawers hold our rulers scissors, pencils, erasers, shapeners etc.
Our papers on top are cardstock which my son uses to make his many papercraft figures, we also use the cardstock for doing unit studies and lapbook type studies.

Stencils, markers, special crayons for our daily activities board. Pens and pencil crayons next door.

Tape and crafting blades are on the opposite side of room. I've had the tape in these drawers for a VERY long time and it amazes me that my boys repeatedly ask "where's the tape?" Does make me smile and shake my head at them. Smiles are good right? :)

I am thrilled that I've managed to contain our glue into one container.   The fact that I often have to track down the drawer is a completely different story.     Glue gun sticks and a crafty boy means the drawer travels. Currently residing in my lad's room. :)

So come join the challenge.   It's up on Facebook HERE.   If you are Canadian you can join in on the challenge and enter a draw HERE.

If you have organized your writing supplies... and tape and rulers and what not... let me know. Link up in the comments and I'll come visit and tell you want a marvellous job you have done. Deal?   :)

New Routines, New Materials

9/9/2014

We homeschool all year round in this household, but that doesn't mean we homeschool intensively all year round.

Over the summer we do the basics plus fun stuff.. the basics are .. Math, English and the various books we read.
The fun stuff this summer was... doing some music, working on some science, Veritas Press history and enjoying God's creation.

About six months, off and on throughout the year we work harder, we add in geography, focused science, Phys Ed, history n(reading/hands on etc), arts and bible.   One month here, two months there and such like.

LAST year we homeschooied in bits and pieces throughout the day. So we'd some reading in the morning, take an hour to do whatever, then we school a bit and then do whatever .. so our schooling happened but it was very spread out.. and that at times proved to be problematic in that if something came up.. we'd miss out on doing work. Not so good for our long term goals.

This fall semester we have an international student living with us, this forces us to be up and at 'em earlier in the day, and take in turn allows us to be more focused on getting work done before lunch. (WOOT WOOT).

Today was a bit tough.. I had some rebellion going on, but I introduced the lad to some changes.     For some reason this helped. :)   Go figure.

1. A new list.   I bought this whiteboard, meant for going into lockers, with this wipe off crayons.   I can put our task list on these boards and they can be wiped off when completely. See that blank spot.. that's stuff wiped off already.   Dailies are done in black, cleaning in orange, changes daily in read, and hope to do in green and blue.

The fun past is I bought TWO of them. So my arty boy can draw things while I read books or instructions and keep the wigglies out. :)

See we hate schedules in this house.. we really do. BUT we like lists. :)   So we can make our lists, colour code them so we know what's most important, and then it works! At least for us it works. :)

2. Our most used supplies are right at hand. Solutions was having a "we're closing this store and moving to another site" sale so we got these handy little drawers. one in black, the other in white so we can tell them apart. My crayons for the boards go on the top of the black one (they were currently in use).

Everything is right at hand. Pencil sharpeners, erasers, pencil crayons, pencils, cutting tools, pens (and white out), and markers. It's so handy the lad was quite pleased. "I don't have to look for things anymore mom!" :)

3. Another change is we'll be dividing our time up. So no more doing ALL our computer work all at once. We'll do some computer stuff, then do the breakfast dishes, then do some our black and red list upstairs in the bookroom, then have lunch and if there is any computer work left do that right after lunch (or before lunch if we have time). I hope this will keep us more focused and keep the boy moving so he won't be feeling weighted down by "I have to do all this stuff and don't get a break for nothing).

It overall worked well once the lad got into the groove of schooling again. The lad seemed quite pleased by the end of our day. :)

The flood

9/26/2013

Had a flood on the weekend in our basement.

Therefore we've been working hard cleaning it up.

The lad's schooling has consisted of learning what even three inches of water can do and the amount of damage it can cause.

He's learning that spiders don't swim well but they do climb well.
He's learning that cats don't much like jumping into water (at least ours don't).
He's learning how to whittle a sharp point on a stick to make a spear.
He's learning it's harder to catch bugs for his captive spiders when the weather is cold.
He's appreciating our hot weather this week and spends most of his days outside with his toads, sticks and bugs, except when I call him in to help me with something.
He started KIDS club this week.

I am so pleased that he's a willing and helpful worker. :)
I am very pleased he's able to entertain himself with actual activity and doesn't want to be glued to the TV.

I am pleased that I am gaining headway on the work of cleaning up. I'm using it as an opportunity to rearrange the basement as well. :) It's a big job but one day at a time and I'll get her done. :) When I get things done, perhaps I'll take pics to show off the finished work. :)

Cheers... I simply MUST get back to work. :)