Last year I did a series of posts on how I organized our homeschool. That was my first year to use that system, and it was set up as a space saver because we were in an apartment. After we moved to a house, I continued to use the system, and I have to say, it has worked so well. There have been a few changes this year, so I thought I would re-visit this topic.
(Click the photo to view a detailed post of how I use this system)
In my first post, I went into detail about how I organize our sheet work, and weekly schedules. This system was probably one of the best things I ever did. I have once again set up to use this same system. What did I like about it?
- It was easy to set up
- It helped me stay organized, and to stay on track
- I liked having a folder with six weeks worth of work and schedules in front of me, instead of having 36 weeks worth of work in front of me.
- I was able to easily pull work for each child if they went to stay with Grandparents
- It was compact, and easy to add to
- I was able to store all of the items from that week that I wanted to add to their end of the year scrapbook. I simply put the items back in that weeks folder, and filed it away for me to add to the scrapbook at the end of the year.
- When I moved, nothing got lost
Though I will be using this system again, I did have to make a few changes. I still broke down workbooks best I could, and I still have my ABC folders set up. The change is that the items in the folder are more unit study items, and I didn’t end up with as many books witch could be broken down. Also, this past year the folders were set up for me to use to distribute papers throughout the week. However, this year Hailey wanted a little more control over her work. So a compromise had to be made. This is what I came up with.
First I set up the folders as usual. Each week I will remove the pages for Hailey and place them in a folder in her daily notebook. She will have a schedule sheet in her folder so that she knows what needs to be completed. because I know that Christopher will want a folder as well, I will put his handwriting sheets in his folder. Everything else will remain in my folders.
That leads me to our daily notebooks.
I fill these notebooks with the calendar printable’s at 1+1+1=1. Each child also has a weekly schedule. Throughout the year I will add to these notebooks. Things like unit study print outs that we will use with dry erase markers, and Hailey writing workshop pages will be added. A math “help” section will be added to each child’s notebook once I get done creating those pages. Christipher’s notebook includes the sight word pages and Hailey’s does not. Here’s a closer look.
So now that we have covered our notebooks I will walk you through what I think is one of the best things I have ever done for my special needs children, who are unable to organize, or keep up with anything. ANYTHING!
I call this a School Tools Box
I posted about these last year (here). These were our saving grace this year. Each child has their own box which contains basic school supplies, that we use almost daily. The children have a special place these boxes are kept when we are not at the table working. NOTE: The kids have access to other supplies like crayons, markers, and glue, etc. However, these boxes are for our sit down school time. This is so that when I get ready to do work with the kids, they do not have to search for the items they need.
I purchased these boxes at Target. I get the over sized boxes because they hole just about everything needed.
What’s Inside?
- Erasable Ink pen
- Sharpened Pencils at least 4
- Eraser
- Pencil Grips
- Stick Glue
- White Glue
- Colored Pencils
- Crayons
- Markers
- 2 Highlighters
- Dry Erase Markers
- Water Colors
- Scissors
Last year each child had a back pack which they stored their items in. (Read Post Here). The backpacks were awesome! They got there back packs out when we were ready to start school, and put their backpacks up when we were finished. This year we are not using the backpacks. Each child has a drawer with their name on it, which functions the same as the backpack.
That’s all folks!
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