Homeschool Organizational Bits

I added some new elements to our school room this year.   This will be our sixth year on this journey, if we count the year we did preschool with Luke.  I find that reassessing our organization each year helps me discover ways to improve how we do what we do.  I'm a huge fan of making things run smoother if at all possible.

 I've loved our green bins but really wanted to add labels to them.  Simultaneously, I did not want to commit to labeling them.  What if I decide to use them for something different in three months?  While pondering this (whining about this) with my husband, he made a suggestion that absolutely rocked.

Painters tape and a Sharpie white paint marker.  Brilliant.  It's something I can easily change, but they stay in place just fine.  My husband is awesome.  For those who aren't familiar with my bins, each one has a subject in it.  (WWE=Writing With Ease; FLL=First Language Lessons; HWOT=Handwriting Without Tears) Each day the boys look at their schedule to ascertain which subjects they need to complete.  Grab the bin.  Move to a workspace that isn't the same as your brother's workspace.  Work.  Replace bin when finished.  Having them labeled has helped SO much!

Then I prepped the binders for the year.  I do these at the beginning so that we can fill them up as we go instead of putting them together at the end.  It works well.

 The card stock background just makes it easier to insert the spine label.

 I don't usually get this cutesy with the labels, but I had time this year.  The boys were at the cabin with Grandma and Grandpa during the four days right before school started.

 Yep.  I had more time than usual this year for sure.  These pencil pouches are meant to ensure that everyone's stuff stays reasonably close to their school work.

I decided to try something new with my pencil pouch.  I had never actually purchased a pencil pouch for myself, so that was new.  I highly recommend it.  I often find myself sitting on the couch with the boys, reading something awesome and needing a pencil to write a narration or what have you or a pair of scissors to cut out a timeline figure.  I always have my Instructor's Guide with me, but I don't always have writing utensils.  Until now.

Look at this!  I put my pouch IN the Instructor's Guide facing the current week's schedule.  Perfect!  Sometimes it's the little things that make life SO much easier.

I guess that's it for organizational bits for our start up.  I will do my next post about our actual first day of school.  :-)