Includes tips for organizing in the office, closet, craft room, living room, bathrooms, and bedrooms. Creative ideas for storing kids' toys and other odds and ends.
Homeschool families, like Tolstoy’s happy ones, are all alike: drowning in a sea of clutter. Home schooling a child beats all other organizational challenges hands-down. How do you count the clutter? The books. The papers. The biology experiments on the kitchen window. The six-foot-tall child sprawled on the floor, reading. The record-keeping. College admissions and testing and letters from the correspondence school.
Homeschoolers face tremendous demands on their organizational skills. Frequently creative, hardworking, and goal oriented, they must manage the home, other children, teaching, and the many other demands of a stay-at-home parent. This board is designed to offer support, find solutions, and discuss troublesome situations. Although there are many aspects to homeschooling, the focus, the only focus, of this board is solving organizational problems related to home schooling. This group is a part of the Messies Anonymous website.
Susan Franklin reveals some basic concepts that empowered her to create an organized home and homeschool. She talks about how doing housework first thing in the morning, paying attention to small details, scheduling, and regular habits help create order and cleanliness. Includes her top ten tips for others with messy tendencies.
Clutter seems to have become a way of life, and homeschoolers have a great excuse to collect anything and everything vaguely related to education. This is ironic because, as Dr. Montessori discovered, a cluttered and/or chaotic environment hinders normalization/education. This problem can arise when the materials 'take over' and the attitudes and method fall into second place. An orderly, inviting environment is more important than a large variety of trays and/or materials, especially for young children. It is better to have one or two that demonstrate each concept well.
The National Association of Professional Organizers did a study and determined that the average person spends 80 hours per year searching for papers they need but cannot find when they need them. EZ Pocket lets you quickly and easily organize all those household paper items that need action on a certain date. EZ Pocket keeps papers in view, and sorted, while waiting for the "to-do" date to roll around.
If clutter and outside activities are taking over your life, you need a plan and some routine in your life. Get tips on how to plan and prioritize your work, and to respond appropriately with flexibility when life gets hectic.
Each area of your home has a symbolic meaning with which you resonate on a subconscious level. Clutter and untidiness within each of these areas causes constriction and inertia in the corresponding aspects of your life.
A homeschooling mom shares some simple ways to encourage children to help around the house based on the principle that one should never do for one's children what they could do for themselves. This leads to a more smoothly running household and the children's sense of pride in their own work.
This article offers a smattering of simple ideas to help keep homeschooling materials organized.
Clutter can make a person feel less able to put things into proper perspective, or prioritize important tasks. Stacks of paper are usually formed out of a person's indecision on what to do with some piece of information, or out of fear to put something away because they may want to act on it "later." This article lists some simple steps to take to get rid of clutter.
Do you have too much stuff? Are you having trouble parting with your excesses? Cyndi Seidler offers some helpful advice on how to part with your unnecessary stuff.
TheHomeSchoolMom Planner is a comprehensive organizer for appointments, school assignments, lesson planning, record keeping, and family menu planning. It is free for personal use and can be viewed and printed with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.
An example of an organizational system for a large homeschool family.
Time. It's a homeschool family's most precious resource--and the claims on a homeschooler's time are many and vociferous. Time management is a homeschool parent's most pressing challenge. Includes tips on using a planner and how to get the most out of scheduling.
Record-keeping is an important part of your homeschool. Barbara Edtl Shelton lists the benefits of keeping good records, including the greater ease of evaluating progress, helping to set the direction for your homeschool, helping to preserve memories for the future, and more.
A binder system with logs and forms that can be customized to suit your family's needs. This system can be used for multiple children and offers a simple way to meet any applicable state record keeping requirements.
It is important to keep good records of your child's homeschooled years. This article has a list of helpful ideas for anyone who is interested in creating a permanent record for their child's homeschool work and progress.
Staying organized is much easier if everything is in its proper place. Details the use of plastic bins to aid in organization of your home school.
Find out how to manage life so it doesn't manage you. Organized-Living.com is a rich resource of information, tips, and advice to help create organized lifestyles for the home and workplace.