Organizing home and homeschool

Lately I've been bombarded with an overwhelming desire to organize. I know, I know... crazy. But, when I get this feeling I run with it. :)

My particular goal was to organize my family's daily life. I have tackled three different sections so far. They are home cleaning, cooking and organizing our homeschool.



1. Home Cleaning:
My part- I've been doing deep cleaning and organization lately. My latest projects: school area, pantry, dresser drawers and kitchen cabinets.

The boys- Before they only had one assigned chore but I fixed that. Besides, we get to count it as Home Ec. right? *snicker* All the boys all put away their own laundry and clean their own rooms.

Richie's chores
load and unload the dishwasher
vacuum living room
water goats and chickens daily

Devan's chores
bathroom- wipe down, take out trash, restock towels and tidy up
put goats out to graze once per day, bring back in afternoon
feed goats corn daily

Remington's chores
keep common areas free of toys

2. Cooking:
My part- I've decided to give The Homeschool Mom's menu a try. So far it's been easy and is quite the weight lifted from my shoulders to *know* "what's for dinner".

The boys- Richie has really shown quite the baking skills this year. He seems to enjoy making breakfast and dessert the most. He's been quite the little chef.

3. Organizing our homeschool:
The location-
Well, we've been using our attached garage as the official homeschool room but never completed our lessons in there. It mainly served as our storage facility. I became weary of the running back and forth between kitchen, living room and garage. It wasted quite a bit of time looking for curriculum or supplies as well. (This is because it was not organized well.)
So, now I have given in and "set up shop" in our kitchen. The dining room side of our large kitchen, that is. Really though, I've decided there is no point in having a homeschool room in a homeschool. I decided it would be far better to have a homeschool home. ;)




The stuff-
I began analyzing what we really need for each day. It basically came down to this:
somewhere to write
our core curriculum and curriculum items (located in individual stacks, bottom shelf)
reference books
writing items (small basket, top shelf)
books and items for our current unit study (large basket, top shelf)
time line
cork board (to display anything related)
chalk board (just because I like the idea)
manipulatives (small baskets, second shelf)
art materials (small baskets, second shelf)
Mom's books (teacher editions, etc...)
individual daily planners (with individual curriculum items)



All other books go in the new bookcases in our living room.
I'm trying to get back to basics. At one point I was very excited about buying TONS of "educational stuff" to hang on the wall. But, it didn't feel like home. It felt... well, like a school. Then there's all the unused curriculum. I too have purchased curriculum with the highest hopes only to find it wasn't a good fit. For some reason, I have held onto this stuff... just in case. I've now decided to donate, sell or trash unused items. I think this is a good quote,

A book in the hand is worth two on the bookcase.

The planning/official paperwork-
I've been creating my own homeschool planner. I would continue using the home schooler's journal but I've found I require more free room to write. Also, I will begin keeping more notes on Remington's lessons next year and that will take up more room.