Keeping It Simple

Being the organization junkie that I am, when I see an idea that seems brilliant (and involves a nifty crate that I actually already own), I am game to try it. My take on the system --- Each month gets a hanging folder. Each hanging folder has three manila folders. It works like this: The first manila folder is labeled with the month. In that folder, any general ideas that I have for that month can be stored. For example, I have a sheet on President's Day filed in February's folder. The second manila folder is labeled "liturgical". Our church year follows a calendar that includes many holy days and special feast days, so this is an ideal way to have notes, handouts or project ideas on hand to help us learn about and celebrate those days. The third manila folder is seasonal. For example, my January folder has a sledding page by "Draw Write Now" that was offered as a free download. When I get to the end of a month, that hanging file gets moved to...

I am breaking protocol here. When I set up this blog, I had a definite purpose-- to share a bit about our homeschool. I have a family blog that my children and I share with immediate family, so our personal "going ons" go there. However, when my daughter came across this site today, I felt that this would be a nice opportunity to share and possibly help someone. Our lives were turned topsy turvy last summer when dd #3 (the Star Trek fan that she is, calls herself "3 of 7" :)), became ill. This strange illness, Lemierre's Syndrome , had gotten a hold of her and gave us a run for our money. So, I want to share this website with you. http://www.lemierresyndrome.com/index.html I would also like to add my own warning: The time to be especially wary is when you or a loved one has strep throat--- please never take a diagnosis of "strep throat" at any time without a test being done!!

I purchased Family Math almost 20 years ago for my oldest three girls. At the time, having freshly pulled the girls out of the school system, I did not completely understand that math did not have to come from a textbook. Fortunately, the textbooks we used were high quality and not too tedious!! (Open Court) Although I made photo copies and set up a "Family Math" binder, we never got much use out of this book. After salvaging it from my mountains of school things I am attempting to purge, I am going to try and get my money's worth out of this book. ;) The reason for this post--- if you are interested in this book, you can print out several activities from this series (it is a series now!) from here . There are just a few activities from each level, but it would be enough to give a good idea of whether you and your children will enjoy using the book (or others from the series). Just scroll down a bit to "preview this book" on each page. You can jump to the ...

One of the things that I love in our homeschool is that the older children can ( get to ) work with the younger ones. There are two angles on this: 1. I get a break. Always a good angle. ;) 2. More importantly, just like we, as adults, learn so much from teaching our children, the older children learn when they teach too. Nothing cements a concept like teaching it! One more plus-- some of these "little kid" projects are really fun, and this format allows the older children to participate without doing "little kid school". They take pride in being the teacher. In this setting (doing a sink and float experiment back in January), Mark (9yo) is more the facilitator than the teacher for his little brother (6yo), and he is doing a great job. He brought a lot of enthusiasm to the project that I probably would not have. After the official experiment was finished, the boys continued, in one form or another, to play with this on and off all day. :) *I s...

I planned to do a full update when we complete level 1, but I thought this comment by Mark (9yo) was a good indicator of how things are going. "Mom, you know I think we are reading lots of things better since we've been doing that new spelling thing." I have to admit that I don't quite get the connection. We are just in the beginning baby stages of the program. The concepts are basic K-1st level, but Mark's comment is true. My boys have not been very interested in reading for reading's sake (like my daughter who would read the toothpaste tube if nothing else was available ;)), but they are reading everything . Street signs, cereal boxes, the calendar ("hey, mom, we have park day today!"),... That is how it is going so far. I am happy with our purchase, the boys don't hate doing it (a plus), and I believe there is a marked improvement in the boys' spelling and reading. We are on "Step 11" out of 24. I'll let you know what we...

This does not have to do with homeschool organization, but when other parts of my life are in chaos, homeschooling tends to suffer, so I thought this week I'd share our uniform organization. As it is, laundry is the bane of my existence. In case you think I exaggerate, I have been married for almost 30 years and I still struggle daily to keep up on the laundry!! You can imagine my trepidation facing baseball season-- add the already mounding pile of laundry that needs to be washed, folded and put away, uniforms (mostly very dirty) for games and practices several times a week. My biggest fear is facing that last minute "where's my ______?!" as we are suppose to be leaving for a game. So, I converted this hanging daily organizer cubby in to a baseball uniform cubby ! I have very little hanging space (it is in my closet), so it is a sacrifice, but worth well it to have all the uniforms on hand. As with any system, it only works as well as it is maintained, so I have b...

I mentioned back in February, when my lovely dd made some changes to my blog for me, I don't take well to change. One of the things she encouraged me to use were these "pages". I wanted nothing to do with it- to be honest, I was not sure what in the world she was talking about. :) Computer savvy I am not! After seeing others in blogland utilize the pages option (and having dd explain how to create them), I decided to give it a try. The reason I am pointing this out is that I have moved the homeschool resource links from the sidebar and put them on a page. This was a bit painful. ;) I love all of the resources I linked- honestly, I only posted resources that we love and use (or have used). I don't want them to be "out of sight, out of mind". Just to note, most of the items I have listed are free online resources or resources that are available through the library. Investing in solid homeschool curriculum is worth it to me, but I am always grateful to find...

For years, I held on to a list of books from one of our "cowboy phases" with the idea of sharing our favorites on amazon. Sadly, I misplaced it!! I did manage to find a few old library receipts. Between those and our memories, we have managed to get the list started. So, if you have a Cowboy enthusiast, I have created a Cowboy Book List on amazon with some of our favorite cowboy picture books---I have also included the link on the Listmania page above.

We love games around here- the kids are always excited to see a new game sitting on the shelf and this one was no exception. They have been waiting over a week for me to find time to play this with them. (my poor neglected children!) Most of our most successful school games are the ones that I make using ideas from the Internet or Peggy Kaye's math games book. But, I am always holding out the hope of finding a premade, store bought variety that we will love. I am not sure that we all love this game, but I think it will be a standard around here for at least a few weeks. As the player moves around the board in the game, he may get to pick a "choose it" card that gives him a multiple choice question, a "show it" card that will have him use the Noodle-O manipulatives (colored, plastic cheerios), a "write it" card that will have him write the answer on scratch paper, or the "doodle it" card that directs the student to draw his answer. When a ...

I love to organize- that does not mean that I am organized. I just love the idea. And, I love nifty little boxes, crates, files... Give me a Storables Store over Macy's any day of the week!! Anyway, I live in a house that is less than 1000 sq. ft. My idea of decor is more of a Better Shelves and Boxes theme than Better Homes and Gardens any day of the week. I have no pride when it comes to finding places to put things. I thought I'd try (just try- I tend to be flop at follow through) to post one of my organizational tools, gadgets or ideas each week. I may run out of ideas or I may forget to post, but I am going to try. This week I thought I'd share our Rain Gutter Shelves . Does everyone have those already? Years ago, when we installed them, my then preteen daughter walked in and gasped, "you've turned our room in to a library!". She was truly horrified. I was please as punch. It is hard to tell from the pic, but this area leading in to the kids' room ...