Kendra,

What do you do with all of the paper generated in your household from homeschool?  How do you organize it? 

Sincerely,

Debbie

Hi Debbie-

Paper, paper, paper!  It's everywhere.  And if you've read this blog for any significant amount of time, you'll know that I am a merciless tosser of stuff.  I just don't handle clutter well.  I felt rather guilty about that for years in regards to school papers until I noticed a gigantic dumpster at the school where our church meets filled with beautiful projects and lengthy type-written papers at the end of the school year last year.  Well of course!  Where did I think all of my school papers ended up? 

So the short answer is: I toss a lot.  I smile brightly when handed a new drawing (this is a daily occurence) and I praise lavishly for work done well.  I maybe display it for a day or two, sometimes a week or more.  Then if I don't have another immediate use for it (turning it into wrapping paper or notecards for Grandma), I quietly slip it into the trash.  They've yet to notice

My system for keeping significant work is probably not the best or most efficient method, but so far it has worked for us.  We are part of a cover school that does not require us to keep anything, but I do like the idea of a portfolio for grades K-8.  Each year I save just the nicest work or the papers that represent the best work the child has done in each subject.  Then when they reach the end of 6th grade, I have a young woman friend who makes it all look organized and neat and then scans and burns everything onto a disc.  Voila!  A digital portfolio and I can toss the papers to my heart's content.

Hope that's helpful-

I have a secret.  We still haven't "officially" begun school.  We're reading aloud, reading alone, working on projects, having lively discussions about history and current events, and doing some bookwork, but it's all very unofficial.  Whatever that means.

Actually, the reason we haven't officially begun has to do with the past ten weeks of morning sickness and my inability to function, which means I still have a few planning odds and ends to tie up.  So we'll get really going around the first of October.  And does it really matter?  We educate at home because we believe in education, not schooling.  Believe me, lots of education occurs around here every day.

But this post is about free time.  I was sitting down this morning making a list of all of the acceptable activities my children can do in their free time, when it occured to me that I ought to share it with you because I'd love more ideas.   If you have a good idea that isn't on the list, would you please post it?

Our list is a compilation of several lists made over the years, but I still think we could be doing other meaningful things with our free time.

·         Ask Pop Pop or Grammy if they have jobs you can do to serve them

·         Practice piano or guitar 

·         Practice Medieval Martial Arts

·         Read

·         Swim laps to improve strokes (breast, back, freestyle- 10 laps per stroke)

·         Run 10 laps around the circle, increasing to 20 by a certain date (you choose)

·         Typing program (30 minutes)

·         Write a letter on the following rotation-

                        1. Grandpa Bee

                        2. Adams 

                        3. Aunt Cynthia

                        4. Eric, Ian, Hudson, and/or Corrie

                        5. Carson, Dan, and/or Josh

                        6. Elise

                        7. Ethan and Ben

                        8. Toni Kumar

                        9. President Bush, our congressmen, senators, governor

·         Knitting

·         Puzzle (ask Mom the best place to begin this.  Only begin what you’ll work diligently on)

·         Origami

·         Carve wood

·         Nature Notebook

·         Organize a cupboard (ask Mom)

·         Memorize Scripture

·         Draw (we have lots of drawing books)

·         Drawing class video

·         Ballet class video

·         Jump on the tramp

·         Ride bikes

·         Skateboard

·         Roller skate

·         Sidewalk chalk

·         Play a board game

·         Research a subject you’ve wanted to learn more about and begin a notebook page on it

Unofficial School- Calvin and Hobbes contains deep philosophical study

PRAY FOR KAREN!  http://www.welovekaren.blogspot.com/

Dana asked me, "What's on the clipboard you carry around?"  Well, I don't remember as I've been clipboard-free all summer long!

Alas, school is creeping up on our household, and once I start to feel better I will also have to reclaim responsibility for all the household tasks I've pawned off on my (mostly) willing family members. 

So, what is on the clipboard?

1. A copy of our current schedule, safely ensconsed in a sheet protector.
2. The week's tasks as already thought out by Motivated Moms.  I also jot down other things on these sheets that we need to accomplish.
3. Each child's list of schoolwork for the year.  These are simple lists that just remind my muddled brain of who is studying what and in what book.
4. A list of chores that can be used as discipline.  Off the cuff I can look at this list and assign a little extra work to a child who has earned it.  Sample jobs are cleaning the mailbox, cleaning the garage and front doors, and assembling a snack for the preschoolerer for after her nap.
5. Anything else I add for the day that I want to be constantly reminded to do, such as thank you notes or phone numbers for calls I need to make.

In short, the clipboard is my mobile brain.  I think I've mentioned this before, but thinking by the seat of my pants isn't one of my strong suits.  I am a planner (could ya tell???) and when the kids are all talking at once, the dog is barking, and dinner needs to be made, I. just. can't. think.

Cristy is a neat mom I know from church.  Her blog is specifically written for and about families with autistic children, as Cristy's son Scotty has autism.  She emailed me the following questions last week:

Dear Kendra,
I have been meaning to write this question up in your blog but always 
forget.
I want to get your advice on all those papers, worksheets, artwork 
that your children have done. Where do you put them?
Do you just keep a few in your folder? What about those notes and 
lesson plans you write?
We use notebooks a lot. They have 5 notebooks each every yr., and I can't bear to throw them away. Do you keep any?
I'm attempting to unclutter our homeschool  before we start school 
again...
Thanks,
Cristy

How Can I Homeschool If I Can't Even Keep My House Clean?

Maybe this question is haunting you as it has me in the past.I was one of those teenagers whose mom kept the door to my room shut and feared to enter the place. True. I am a born slob. To my knowledge there is no 12-step program for the organizationally challenged. Although the Attention Deficit Disorder label seems to have a striking resemblance to this problem, I can't use it as an excuse since in my case it is more of a lack of training and result of laziness than a clinical “disorder” (No pun intended.)

And as you can imagine, life as a housework “phobic” with small children to care for, a household to manage, outside responsibilities, and a lovable neat-freak husband with whom I desire to maintain a joyous relationship has, at times, been overwhelming and, unfortunately, chaotic at times. With the decision to homeschool I have had to look realistically at my home management skills, personal discipline and ability to motivate my children in a positive manner. Obviously, if I couldn’t convince my son to make his bed, I pondered, how could I make him do math problems and learn to write a complete sentence? Certainly, I couldn’t use negative things like spanking or other punishment to bring about a harmonious compliance with my rule as benevolent Queen of the home.

Using my infant and toddler as an excuse, I felt pretty smug about being “too busy” to keep the house organized and clean on a daily basis until a dose of reality hit me in the face with the truth that this was not a valid excuse.

A few years ago we had a play date with a neighbor and mother of three children, the two youngest of which were about the same age as mine. She was obviously a naturally organized person, and a total enigma to me. It was a dose of reality to be in her home for over an hour at 9 a.m It was almost unnerving but gave me hope to see the order and cleanliness that reigned undisturbed in her home. My son noticed the difference, too. I was mortified to hear him say upon entering our den of disorder afterwards, “I like their house better.” Her house itself had the exact same floor plan as ours and was nearly identical.

I turned to a veteran homeschool mom at times for advice. She told me to teach my son to pick up his toys at night by setting a policy where any toys left on the floor at bedtime are thrown in the trash. She vacuumed each night, which was a foreign concept to me. This was a big step in the right direction and obviously meant I had to pick up and clean up at night, too, if I expected my 2-year-old son to start developing this habit.

About a year ago I was face to face with the reason I did not sometimes enjoy my job as a full-time mom and homemaker: I was not doing it well. The process of taking charge of the home front in such a way as to feel comfortable in the place where I live and work all day almost every day has, I will admit, has been slow, but rewarding and energizing. Every small step has had its own reward.

I started looking at schedules of other homeschool families (most were in the book KONOS Compass by Jessica Hulcy)and discovered to my amazement that doing household chores first thing in the morning was a common practice among homeschoolers.

Ohhhh.

An idea I had never seriously considered before. Almost a – pardon the expression - revelation.

After another humbling experience, living with my mother-in-law for a month, I began to see me how regular, habitual attention to small details and simple concepts like doing laundry when you have the time to put it away as well helped me understand a little of what I was lacking.

I was lacking the habits necessary to keep a house neat and clean. I became determined to raise my standards and get organized.

So, I painstakingly studied schedules and worked out a weekly schedule focusing on the “school” aspect, blocking in times for each subject in preparation for the time when I would have two school age children. Scheduling helped me get focused on what I needed to do. At this point I planned to do basic chores during a block of time each morning and spend one day a week doing detailed cleaning chores.

But still I was overwhelmed and my husband, dear that he is, saw how overwhelmed I was at the whole task and pitched in to help with kitchen clean up and others chores each evening.

However, now, almost two years later, my husband does very little housework and I manage it just fine without his help or playing the martyr.

Here are my top ten tips for others with messy tendencies.

1. Put things away when you are finished with them. Never set anything down where it does not really belong. Get rid of stuff you don't use regularly.

2. Rise every day early and dress, put on shoes and get to work with household chores. Work toward a goal. Don’t expect your habits and house to be perfect right away. This is a process. But don’t leave the house until your morning chores, whatever you decide they need to be, are finished.

3. Get help. Many who are like me have no training in how to do housework. Two books have helped me a great deal: Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson and Side-Tracked Home Executives: From Pigpen to Paradise by Pam Young and Peggy Jones. Home Comfortsis a wonderful guide to everything related to keeping your home. It is replete with diagrams, personal stories and history of homemaking tasks. It tells not only the why but the how of doing things from setting a routine, neatening up and cooking to proper disposal of waste and caring for household furnishings

Side Tracked Home Executives was written by two sisters who got together to reform their slob ways and built a system of household organization based on 3 x 5 cards. This is a must read. They have a website and now sell a planner based on the original system. Check out their website, http://SHEsintouch.com. Another website on the same subject is http://www.organizedhome.com. You’ll find instructions and free forms to print for a household notebook to get you started.

4. Subscribe to FlyLady’s daily emails at http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/flyladymentors. These email messages are a form of brainwashing inspired by the side tracked sisters philosophy. See her website at http://www.flylady.net. If you can stand the number of emails and direct approach they really work. Yesterday after reading Kelly’s Counter Rant email I cleared my kitchen counters of five small appliances.

5. Lead your family by example. My son begs to dust furniture but has to wait until his own chores are completed before I let him. Need I say more?

6. Build habits by establishing a morning and evening routine. See the FlyLady link above for her sample routine. Replace the television habit with reading before bedtime and doing daily pick up and prep for the next day as a family.

7. Think and be professional about your responsibilities as a homemaker, even if you work outside the home. This includes hiring someone else to do it, if that is within your means.

8. Open windows and let fresh air and sunshine it early in the morning. Cool fresh air and sunshine promote a cheery chore time and helps to me see what really needs to be cleaned and wakes everyone up.

9. Think through all your responsibilities and decide which ones are important. Make out a weekly schedule as a guide, but not a taskmaster. Take seriously the impression your home makes and the way an orderly, calm household quiets the spirit.

Schedule fun with your family and time for yourself as well as time alone with your spouse into your weekly schedule.

10. Maintain a positive attitude and resist the temptation to play the martyr over doing housework. Once you see gradual improvement in the way your house looks and the difference it makes, you won’t want to go back to living in disorder.

So how is this former slob doing now? Well, here's just a sample of how life has changed in our home. Yesterday I began training my five-year-old son how to vacuum. He considers it an honor. Today after some play time and other fun, we straightened up the living room and dining room and vacuumed before lunch. And get this. My two-year-old fights with him over using the swiffer on our floors in the morning. Nirvana at last.

This is my best girlfriend (she's on the right).  I gave a little history of our almost-20-year friendship in an earlier post, and if you're really bored you can read about it... but the long and short of it is that God has graciously given us both the sister we never had.  Our husbands are best friends, too.  We have matched each other child for child until my miscarriage, but I'm catching up.  Our husbands serve as elders in the same church.  And we both casually classically educate.  Oh, and we both would live entirely on Scharffenberger chocolate if it were an option.  Or Phish Food.

The reason for this post is not to bore you (or maybe I already have) but to give you a little intro to the planning weekend we had last week.  Our husbands gave us from Thursday night until Saturday night to plan the year ahead of us, and some of you have asked how we went about it.  We certainly did not get everything done- we had unrealistic expectations- but we did accomplish some good chunks and ate some pretty fine chocolate in the process.

The week before, I packed up every textbook, coloring book, workbook, and resource I thought I would need.  I also made a list of what each child would be doing in the fall.  I felt I at least had a battle plan going into the weekend.  We stayed at Lisa's house and sent her husband and all the kids to hang out with mine.

We spent most of Thursday night discussing the year ahead for both of us, and Lisa wanted to really pick my brain about several choices she was facing.  Should she start her 8-year-old in Latin this year (my thoughtful answer was no, for which he thanked me this week), which Omnibus I selections should she have her 12-year-old tackle this year, should she concentrate on non-academics with her only daughter?  Her questions inevitably led to some of my own, and because we know each other's hearts, lifestyles, vision, and children so well, we can count on solid and realistic advice from each other.

Here are some tips on putting together your own planning weekend:

1. Consider asking a teenager to help you with the nursing babies.  Our French exchange student came along and helped Lisa with her five-month-old.  She even made us lunch.

2. Speaking of Elise, we would have utilized her better had we been better prepared.  We would have had her make photocopies for us and perhaps other paperwork.

3. Ample countertop or table space is important.  I have five students this year and Lisa has four plus a preschooler.  We need to be able to spread things out and make individual stacks for each child.

4. Access to two computers is really helpful.  Consider borrowing a laptop if you don't have one.  Just make sure your essential documents are on it.

5. Access to a printer goes without saying.  And if you plan to use it for all your photocopies as well, make sure you have extra ink cartridges as back-up.

6. Lists... make lists.  Make lists for everything from read-alouds to field trips to copywork.  The point of lists is not to tie you to them like a noose, but to give you something to fall back upon if need be.  During a planning weekend, you have the benefit of someone else's brain to help you make complete lists that will allow you to not be so rushed or stressed out during the school year.

7. Consider binding papers.  Lisa and I both use binders for different subjects but particularly history.  We are both not a little fed up with loose papers- somehow between filling out and coloring, the papers never quite make it back into the binders.  So Lisa came up with the brilliant idea of comb binding everything this year. 

8. Chocolate.  Scharffenberger.  Godiva.  Ben and Jerry's.  Or Lisa's favorite- dark chocolate caramels from Trader Joe's.  Make a place in your budget for chocolate and you won't be sorry.

We school year-round but take a decidedly laidback approach to summer.  I don't know about you, but I am SO done with school right now.

We continue a light touch on math each morning, and some of my kiddos haven't finished up subjects from the school year so they'll be getting those done as well.  But then I always let them choose a subject or two and a project they want to pursue for the summer.  This year my middle daughter wants to learn how to jump rope, so we even put that down on the schedule.

This is what summer's school load will look like:

11-year-old

Math Drill

Free Choice Reading

Theory (his choice- he plays the guitar)

Guitar

8-year-old

Math

Free Choice Reading

Legends and Leagues

Greek (his choice- again, gotta love these homeschoolers!  You should have seen him the day this arrived in the mail.  It was as if the mail lady had delivered a giant vat of ice cream- he was THAT excited!)

Piano

6-year-old

Math

Continue Pathway Readers

Young Lady of Valor and Ruby Doll Kit

Cursive (her choice)

Signing Time

5-year-old

Counting With Numbers

Preschool Workbook

Learn to jump rope

Signing Time

Learn to swim

2-year-old

Be cute

Make us laugh

Signing Time

We can finish breakfast, Circle Time, chores, and school all before lunch.  Then after lunch we swim, I read aloud for an hour or more while they play Legos, draw, or otherwise keep their hands busy.  Swim some more, swing on the hammock, swim again, then make dinner. 

Aaaaaah.  I love summer!

Sometimes things need to change.  Typically I'll affect change in some area of our lives because what we've been doing just isn't working anymore, but I rarely change an entire schedule so near the end of the official school season.  Until today.

When my husband called on his way home last night, I said, "We have a lot of kids."  Yesterday was just one of those days when I can't recall sitting down longer than 8 minutes.  I think I ate lunch standing up but I don't remember.  I was also in a bit of a funk because I realized that after three different handwriting curriculae (HWT, Italic, and Classically Cursive), my 11-year-old still has chicken scratch penmanship.  Not that it's of monumental importance, but it is a reflection of the sloppiness that marks nearly everything he does. Sigh.

In my typical fashion, I received a "light bulb" moment at about midnight last night.  I dug a piece of scratch paper out of the bedside pile of books and wildly scrawled a plan for next year.  The new plan includes one-on-one time with each student so that I can better monitor things like handwriting.  Initially I wondered what the others would be doing while I was with one child, as chaotic free-for-alls undo me.  But I was quite surprised by how quickly their time was filled with meaningful pursuits like instrument practice, chores, a sign language video, and math, which their father teaches and oversees.

The new schedule looks like this:

	Mom	H (13)
7:00 AM	Quiet Time	Morning Stuff/Bible
7:30 AM	Dress	Morning Stuff
8:00 AM	Breakfast	Breakfast
8:30 AM	Clean up/Circle Time	Clean up/Circle Time
9:00 AM	With C	Chores
9:30 AM	With A	Math
10:15AM	With J	Math, Latin
11:00: AM	With N	Logic, piano
12:00PM	Lunch prep	Lunch prep
1:00 PM	With H	With Mom
2:00 PM	History/Science	History/Science
3:00 PM	Clean-up/Projects	Clean-up/Projects
4:00 PM	Free	Free
5:30 PM	Evening Tidy	Evening Tidy
6:00 PM	Evening Chores	Evening Chores
6:30 PM	Dinner	Dinner
7:00 PM	Clean Up	Clean Up
	Family Worship	Family Worship

N (11)	J (8)	A (6)
Morning Stuff/Bible	Morning Stuff/Bible	Morning Stuff/Bible
Morning Stuff	Morning Stuff/Bible	Dress 2yo
Make Breakfast	Breakfast	Breakfast
Clean up/Circle Time	Clean up/Circle Time	Clean up/Circle Time
Chores	Chores	Chores
Math	Math	With Mom
Guitar	With Mom	Math
With Mom	help girls pick up, Signing Time	help girls pick up, Signing Time
Lunch/Clean-up	Lunch/Clean-up	Lunch/Clean-up
Quiet Hour	Quiet Hour	Quiet Hour
History/Science	History/Science	History/Science
Clean-up/Projects	Clean-up/Projects	Clean-up/Projects
Free	Free	Free
Evening Tidy	Evening Tidy	Evening Tidy
Evening Chores	Evening Chores	Evening Chores
Dinner	Dinner	Dinner
Clean Up	Clean Up	Clean Up
Family Worship	Family Worship	Family Worship

C(4)	An (2)
Morning Stuff	crib
Morning Stuff	up and dressed
Breakfast	Breakfast
Clean up/Circle Time	Clean up/Circle Time
With Mom	Chores w/sibs
Chores	Tape Time (room)
Table Time	Table Time
pick up, Signing Time	pick up, Signing Time
Lunch/Clean-up	Lunch/Clean-up
Quiet Hour	Books then Nap
History/Science	"
Clean-up/Projects	"
Free	Free
Evening Tidy	Evening Tidy
Evening Chores	Evening Chores
Dinner	Dinner
Clean Up	Clean Up
Family Worship	Family Worship

We'll start on Monday and see how it goes.  Eventually I'll make a relaxed summer plan, but until the end of May or so, we need to dig in and get a few things done.

Doesn't this look like a cozy place to read?  It is the home library of my nerdy friend Lisa.  Now before you get discouraged and think, "We'll never have a library like that!", realize that this home library was years in the making.

When Lisa and I were first homeschooling (1997ish), her home library consisted of a few bookshelves under the kitchen countertop facing the family room.  It has taken her almost ten years to build her library to what you see today.

Lisa has taken the plunge into Dewey labeling.  Here are her books up close:

The labels say "The Kjeldgaard Family" and have the appropriate Dewey number listed as well.

So what are you waiting for?  An organized home library starts with just a few books.

I admit it.  I'm a nerd.  I like that my spices are alphabetical- makes them easier to grab when the baby is crying and the phone is ringing and the oven timer is beeping.  I also like my books arranged alphabetically by author, at least the fiction titles. 

My nerdy friend Lisa (she admits it) got me started on taking book organization seriously, and as you know we homeschoolers can amass a lot of books in a short amount of time.

To begin organizing your books, you must know what you have.  You can track your library acquisitions using software like Readerware.  Next, get serious and label or otherwise mark your books using Dewey's system just like the "real" libraries.  This is a fabulous project for a high schooler in your home.  Because my kids were little when I started cataloging our books, I made little stickers for the spine of each book that would identify which shelf they should go on (see- told you I'm a nerd).  But I have my eye on the 13-year-old and will soon hire him to make labels with the proper Dewey decimals. 

After getting everything on the shelves and organized, I then bought tab labels for each shelf.  You can get almost anything library-related from Demco.

Organization can be easier if you know what resources are available to you. 

Puzzles can be a tricky thing to organize, but racks and other such storage units can be purchased.  We bought ours from Nasco.

And don't feel bad about spending money on organizational tools- they can help bring peace to your home.

Yes, those are missing pieces.  Doesn't it make you feel better to know that other people's children lose things?