January is National Get Organized month. And, most homeschoolers look at January as the beginning of the second half of their school year in which to finish what they started at the end of the summer. It’s time to look at what needs to be completed by the end of the school year, what’s working, what’s not working, revamping the schedule and curriculum, and organizing the house to make all the second half of the school year a smooth one.
Organizing the homeschool usually means organizing books and curriculum, as well as a family schedule that includes school and everyone’s activities. This article addresses organizing school and family time and outside activities, with some suggested resources to help you get there. For organizing your homeschool space and materials, read the article Organizing your homeschool space.
Organizing family time, commitments, and school time is more of a challenge. The first step is to examine where your time has been going the first half of your school year and reassess time spent.
If you feel the need the need for more of a structured schedule and unschooling or relaxed schooling is not for you, determine what hours you will hold “school” and stick to it, most days. Then determine how much time on what days you will study which subjects. Then work the rest of your schedule around and after that.
Look at what extracurricular, volunteer, and church activities each family member participates in and have each person determine their top one or two activities that are most important to them. Only actively participating in those full time activities will allow more relaxation time for everyone.
Another option is to have one full time activity for the year, and choose various seasonal activities or activities that only occur once or twice per month to fill in here and there to add a second activity. This allows for a more balanced schedule and not a continuous hectic “always running around” kind of routine.
Hanging a full size “mommy planning calendar” with lines and large spaces for each family member’s name and activities keeps everyone organized. These calendars usually have a pocket on the back flap to store important papers such as permission or registration slips, or activity schedules and information, always at your fingertips. Heavy duty metal clips with a magnet on the back makes these calendars easy to hang on the side of the refrigerator out of direct site.
An alternative to this is a desk calendar with larger boxes to write in with perforated pages you can tear off at the end of the month. Saving these pages and the pages from the calendar makes a great record keeping system to record your kids' activities and various health appointments for those transcripts, homeschool records, and annual appointment keeping.
Once school and activities are scheduled on paper, how do you homeschool and keep up with the house? One idea to manage your grocery list and avoid repetitive trips to the store, keep a magnetized pad of paper on the refrigerator with a handy pen to write down items you notice are needed or running low. When it comes time to go shopping, writing your list will mostly be completed.
Designate times in the day for the kids to do an independent activity where you can complete a quick chore. One quick chore each school day makes a big dent in keeping up with the chores. Creative multitasking is the key. Fold laundry while your child reads aloud to you or while you orally quiz them on spelling words. If your child needs to read a chapter of a book or do a math sheet on his own, you can quickly clean up the kitchen or do one bathroom. Assign yourself a certain task for each day of the week to correspond with an activity your child will do for school work that day.
At the end of each activity, have your child immediately return that material to its “assigned home” in your homeschool space to eliminate clutter build up during the day. Otherwise at the end of your school day, have a clean up 5 minute window to put away everything used during the day before any other “free time” is allowed.
For some scheduling ideas and forms to assist you in your organization, take a look at the following websites.
If you have any time organizing tips in balancing schedule and home life, please share them with us!
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