“To be in hell is to drift; to be in heaven is to steer.”
― George Bernard Shaw
If you know where you want to go, then you already have your hand on the tiller.
The tiller is the rod that is attached to the rudder, and that sucker is the one in the water doing to work.
But you…you are in the boat, directing where it needs to go.
Any homeschooling family will understand what it feels like to have periods of aimless drifting, when everyone is interested in a million things and it is a chaos of learning in the house. One side is learning how to solder and build Arduino circuits, while the other is happily sewing a quilt, and somehow you saw someone walk by the other day with a new acrylic paint set…
These endeavors are good and well, but if you don’t get your hand back on that tiller, you are going to find your house covered in quilt squares with LED lights blinking in Morse code and sending signals to the HAM radio repeater attached to the International Space Station.
It’s time to get organized.
First things first: The Books.
I got these baskets from Walmart, and I put all the workbooks and notebooks in these baskets. Every morning the kids can get their basket, and all their books and notebooks that they need are in their basket. Their basket also has a loading dock on the desk, so they know where their basket belongs at the end of the day.
It certainly isn’t perfect…but it is so much better than losing books every single morning. This system has worked fantastically for 6 months, which is fantastic.
This is the cabinet for reading books, binders, history books, science books and some extra supplies like construction paper.
We also have a basket for pencils, scissors, tape, glue, index cards, markers…
And the bookshelf underneath for reading books…mostly for the younger kids. The older kids have their reading books either in their baskets, or next to their beds.
Art supplies also have their own baskets. I put projects in there, like paint, brushes, felt, kits, etc.
Now, I am a creature who needs balance. I need a little bit of new world tech to pair with my old school binder system. Technology isn’t magic, it’s a tool, and I use it like a tool.
Right now, I am logging all the kids’ attendance and daily studies in a binder. I am writing out every day’s work by hand, for every subject. I started this last summer, and it has worked out great so far.
Here is what my Subject Breakdown sheet looks like:
So, I have one of these pages for every subject for every kid.
I also have Yearly Goals:
And I keep a monthly calendar in the binder, just to log field trips or extra stuff we’ve done during the month:
On the plus side, I have a detailed account of everything we are learning on every day for every student in every subject.
On the down side, this is 30 pages of writing every day…and that adds up like molasses. I like this system, but it isn’t practical for 5 kids.
So I’ve been looking for some sort of online organizational package that will take care of everything I have been doing already, but one that will save me time at the end of the day.
And I found this: Homeschool Planet
Every kid gets a page listing what they need to do every day, at what time…and since it’s online, I can put links on their lesson plans to direct them to their computer work!
Sweet!!
Homeschool Planet takes care of attendance, logging daily work, I can create lesson plans for every subject for every kid, and I have a meal planning section incorporated into our calendar, as well as some other neat widgets like the weather app.
This is everything I have been doing already, and I don’t have to spend hours upon hours doing it!!
Plus, at the end of the month you can print out the logs. Because they understand that we ultimately need to put it in a binder and file it away in our records.
This is a great time to reorganize your homeschool room and start the year off on a good foot!
Enjoy!!
I am reading.
fiveintheforest 
Traditions are so precious for our homes during the Christmas season.
They remind us of how our grandparents served green bean casserole, and guide us in how we light candles for those who came before us.
When families bring the traditions of their parents into their homes, they are not concerned about worshiping the past, but rather see the preservation of the future.
I love listening to the endless varieties of traditions which make up American culture.
From the celebration of Advent, to bringing in mistletoe and the endless array of feasting each family brings from their heritage.
I have many friends from many different countries, and I have noticed that we all do one thing similarly:
No, not the tree!
There is one drink we all have, and yet it is called by different names.
For some it is Russian Tea, but for most of us it is called Wassail.
Yet, Wassail is made differently in every house, despite the common name!
So, what is it?? Where did it come from?? Why do we all know the smell of Wassail in the kitchen, but we don’t know who came up with this idea? Is it a new idea, or has this been around for ages??
This is very different from the spiced apple cider tea I would ladle out of my mother’s crock pot!
The tradition I know is sitting in someone’s front room with a mug of Wassail and waiting until it wasn’t lava-hot so you could finally drink it. This is a far cry from the original tradition of wandering the streets with a bucket of Wassail and singing on doorsteps!
With this in mind, how else can we incorporate the different Wassail tradition into our homes this holiday season?