Getting My Homeschool Organized

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So there I was, browsing blogs while in the back of my mind I kept thinking that I should probably get some grading done, or maybe tidy up my desk. And remembering that our family room still needs to be put back in order, and there's the church yard sale coming up that I need to prepare for... and then I stumbled across the Hip Homeschool Moms blog and this headline: Get Organized in October. Hmmm... somebody trying to tell me something? Turns out October 4-10 is National Get Organized Week. Who even knew that was a thing? I guess it must be, but perhaps it's not a well-publicized thing. It wasn't on the calendar hanging in my kitchen, and wasn't even on my Google calendar, so how was I to know?

Still, it's remarkably well-timed for my situation, so I'm going to focus on getting some stuff - homeschool and other stuff too - organized this week. Lucky for me, I have one tool already to help me out, and that is Homeschool Tracker Online - I'm a longtime fan of Homeschool Tracker and now that I'm using the online version, I'm actually doing a pretty great job of keeping up with grading. Except for a couple of subjects - English especially. For whatever reason I have trouble assigning a grade and staying on top of where the kids are in English. And honestly, I still have the questionable habit of leaving most of the grading to do in marathon sessions instead of doing it each day, like I keep telling myself I should. Okay, so this week, I need to make sure all the grading is caught up.

I think I'll need to get with the kids and see if we can come up with a better way to communicate with each other about where they are in their assignments. They do not need to bring every page to me to check any more, but I do need to know how they are doing, and somehow I need to get those grades entered consistently.

Something else I've got going for me to help in quest for better homeschool organization is The Ultimate Homeschool Planner from Apologia. I received this to review, so you can keep an eye out for my full review for the Schoolhouse Review Crew near the end of the month. Today, starting out with a weekly planning break using this planner, I prioritized the things we need to get done this week and how that to-do list fits into the plans and priorities for this month and for the whole school year. One thing I like about this planner already is that it encourages including family and personal goals and pursuits, so I can see everything I've got to work with. Yes, we have algebra and science lessons that need to be done, and writing assignments to work on, but we also have that yard sale to prepare for and a big Civil Air Patrol event on the weekend that will probably cut Friday's school day short, at least for Landon.

Landon and Kennady both need to stay on top of their assignments and organize their time so they can meet deadlines. Since it's the first Monday of the month, I will be giving them updated assignment lists through to the end of October for some subjects. (I've already updated a couple subjects - big surprise when I'm ahead of the game like that!) We will have a little student-teacher meeting at lunchtime to go over the assignment lists and my expectations for the week and month.

Organizing our homeschool also includes keeping our resources and workspaces orderly. Thankfully, my system of keeping schoolbooks corralled around my desk is working surprisingly well, so a quick tidy-up should take care of the few loose papers and the books that I've left sitting out. But the desk itself... yeah. That still needs a lot of organizing, which I have put on the to-do list for the week.

Organization is a constant challenge for me throughout our home, so this week I'm going to face it head-on and see what I can accomplish if I stay focused and if I have to come back here at the end of the week and publish my progress. At the very least, I need to round up some stuff to get rid of at that yard sale!

I always say that my organizational style is more Creative Piling than Tidy Filing, but my goal is to find a better balance - something more like Creative Filing. This week I'll spend some time making my piles of stuff smaller and tidier, and applying my creative skills to making my filing systems more appealing for me to use.



What do you need to organize during National Get Organized Week?

  

This post is also linked at the Coffee & Conversation Link Party at PatAndCandy.com

Visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog for the Organising Homeschool Round-up, and find more thoughts on this topic from Crew members. This will be live on Friday, April 20th.

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