GETTING ORGANIZED FOR THE NEW SHOOL YEAR!

Getting ready for the upcoming school year can be stressful.   Well, maybe not for some people, like my wonderful husband who lives and breathes lists and organizing everything; but organization is not really my strong suit! Add to that the need to plan for three individual children with individual ideas, wants, grades, and learning styles and the task might seem insurmountable.  BUT, in this past year of homeschooling there are some things that I have learned and am using to make life a little bit easier.  Thanks to these tricks I have the first six weeks of school planned, and it only took an afternoon!

The first thing that I love is Sonlight!  I love that their Instructor Guides or IG’s are organized and ready to go!  All I need to do is gather my supplies and boom, we are off.  The Cores even come with stickers to put on the book covers so I can see at a glance what book is with what Core.  The only problem is that I just can’t bring myself to put a sticker on the cover of my books!  So, I labeled my binders myself so I would know what is what.  This makes it easier for me to grab the appropriate lessons for each child.  Since we live in a state that requires a portfolio, all work goes into the handy binder behind the correlating week and ta-da, instant portfolio ready at any given moment!  Plus it helps me, the person that doesn’t always stay organized, stay organized!

Lovely IG's ready to go!

Something that I purchased new this year is the Homeschool Curriculum Planner.  I love this plan book.  Not only does it have a spot for each day of the week to plan things out, but it also has a place to plan for four children on each page.  Yes, I do love that the Sonlight IG’s are ready to go, but I also enjoy the fact that I can open this plan book and see at one glance what each child is doing on any given day.  It also has a place to list any activities the kiddos do and a place for reading lists!  For me, this was a worth while investment.

This planner is awesome!

I can have all four kiddos seen at a glance!  Wonderful!

The last thing that I started midyear last year that the kiddos really appreciated was making them daily checklists.  Each Monday morning they are given a checklist with their daily assignments broken down.  This makes life simple for me since there are many things that they don’t need my help with and gives them the freedom to take responsibility for their schooling on their own.  Plus it frees me up to deal with each child on their own level and, well truthfully, chase after the baby as needed!  The last thing that I have done is written a letter to each child welcoming them to the school year and telling them just what I expect and want from them! 

A sample of my checklists. Yes, I handwrite them all!

One of my WELCOME to school letters.

Well, there you have it!  I have been working hard to get everything ready, and I do believe that we are there!  We start school on Labor Day!  YAY!  And, yes know that this is a holiday, but we chose to start then so Daddy could be here with us!  I’ll try to check back in and let you know how everything is going throughout the year!  Truthfully, I love homeschooling, even if it challenges me to get organized!