A New Year Begins

We begin school on Monday, just two (less than two!) short days away. Oh my!

It's weird starting this early but it is for the best. With a baby on the way, I'll feel better if I can get stuff done ahead of time. I already know that I won't want to juggle recovering from childbirth, learning the needs of a brand new baby, and getting school done all at the same time. So, I'm being proactive and getting as much as a month ahead before the baby gets here. That's my hope anyway.

So, with school starting Monday, I'm using this weekend to get the final touches put into place on my organization. It's rather amazing because I'm already more organized for this coming school year than I have been in any year previously. After reading a few posts at Falling Like Rain, I was inspired to organize our year in a similar manner. I created a file crate like hers. The only difference is that I have a single crate (I actually used a long filing box) for both kids and I've limited it to homeschool items only. Once I had the crate set up, I began filing all of our school work by week, like she did. I have a good chunk of the filing completed. I'll be using this weekend to finish it. I'm really excited about this system because I can see how it will make keep on task and finding everything I need so much easier this year. I can't wait to try it out.

With all of our school work filed by week, teaching each week will be a snap. Each child has a binder to hold the current week's work. Each binder is filled with plastic pocket dividers. Each divider has a pocket on each side so it can be used for two subjects. They are all labeled with the subjects that they hold. At the end of each week, I'll grade, record, and file away the completed the work. Then I'll pull the next week's work from my crate and place it in the correct pockets for each child. All their work for the week will be in one, easy-to-find place. It is also portable. If we go somewhere, they can just bring their binder along. Bringing the binder alone means they'll have the ability to complete language arts, math, and penmanship work anywhere. If we want to do history or science, we can easily grab that subject's reading as well. The binder's cover will work perfectly as a writing surface, too. I'll also put together a pencil box with pencils, colored pencils, erasers, and sharpeners so we have everything we need to go. I love how homeschooling can be portable.

I'm looking forward to seeing how everything works out in actual use. I'll let you know.