Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Homeschool Organization Board

I found a blog today where this homeschooling mom of way-more-kids-than-I-have described her organizational system. It was epic. And it reminded me of my own system from two years ago which worked well but took a LOT of time to put together. Well, folks, all I've GOT is time these days leading up to the start of the new school year. And I also had the materials left over from that two-years-ago system. So I got to work, knowing how much I need a visual reminder of what the CRAP is going on hour to hour around here on the typical homeschool day.

I got out the piece of sheet metal I bought at Lowe's and spray-painted that bad boy with a shade of green I hope will evoke feelings of super-smartness, focused delight, and studious joy.

This is what it looked like after the first coat.

Just four coats later, perfection! And not as much dry-time needed when you're painting in a garage in Las Vegas in August. Maybe the only benefit to our weather: shortened spray-paint dry-times.

Then, using my new blogger-friend's advice to use Post-it notes, one color per kid, I set the whole thing up. Voila!

The times, the kids' names, and the subjects are all written on Post-its. Each kid has a magnet in case he or she needs to show progress throughout the day - they can be moved easily down the list. In most cases, the kids can pick the order they tackle their subjects, as long as two people don't need math help at the same time, or the computer. And don't look TOO closely at the subjects because John's aren't done, and I'm not sure I covered all that everyone else is doing. But it's a start. Once it's done it will be affixed to the wall and the entire year will go smoothly!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I love it! Fantastic idea. We received similar advice from a school counselor - to use post-its, different colors for each subject, and a calendar. The assignments or projects are "planned" but on post-its so the child can move it a day here and there if needed, so they don't "stress" and become so set on the day...just that they are making progress.

Unknown said...

Totally love it! Great idea!

Unknown said...

I have been looking for a way to create a photo display in my office that doesn't require me to buy tons of frames but looks sort of thought out. (I contemplated just sticking them to the wall with blue tacky putty, but that's just not cute...) Voila! James is tasked with going to Lowes today while I am at work and buying me a piece of sheet metal!! I also found magnets on amazon that look like push pins! Easy, cheap, cute. That works!!