Like it or not, I'm mentally (if not physically) gearing up for the new school year. The weather is finally, finally nice, so this week is chock full of summer type activities. Like playing outside. Swimming. And picking blueberries. As far as school prep though, here's my list of what to do so far:
*Clear out school cupboards. I plan to empty these out and only put back in what we will be actively using this year. These cupboards are in our dining room, so anything not currently in use can be stored elsewhere.
* Sort big kids school stuff. For the last couple of years we have used magazine holders to sort each child's school books, but for my high school/ and middle schoolers they are just too small. So, I plan to store their books in the dividers in the living room shelf Chuck built.
* Find a place for our art supplies. If anyone out there has any suggestions on brilliant, efficient and/or visually attractive ways to sort school supplies, please, let me know.
* Make photo cards of kindergarten activities. This will be mainly for Avi and Tucker. I want to be able to slip a couple of cards into their school bins so they know what to do. My three highest-need students won't be in our little homeschool this year, so I really want to focus on getting these two off to a good start.
* Get an "inbox" for work that needs to be checked.
* Get school boxes for little kids. Find a place to store said school boxes.
* Write down academic goals for each child. These will be printed and placed in my school binder for my reference.
* Orgainize school planning notebook.
* Finalize list of books and curriculum to order.
That's my list so far…I also want to have the first month of school planned (worksheets copied, etc) before we begin. And thinking about the new school year has me thinking about a couple of posts to recommend resources, etc.
Is there anything you would like to know about? Any questions you have as I get my "back to school" posts up and running? Leave a comment and I'll add it to the posts I'm working on. Have any suggestions, awesome tips? Leave a comment. If you blog, feel free to leave a link to any posts that relate.
Oh, and be sure to enjoy the rest of summer!
I’ll be waiting to hear on the art supplies ideas too. I want them to be available to my kids but far too often, I feel like they’re just all over the place.
I had left a comment back a few months ago re: my newly adopted 3yr, 6yr, 7 and 9 yr olds. We are homeschooling for the first time this year while my other 4 foster kids are at public school and the 1 yr old is home with us. I have decided to start everyone off with 1st grade. The 6 & 7 yr olds would be in 1st anyway and I want to be sure the older one is up to speed.
The school books arrived and now I am feeling a bit overwhelmed…How do I get started? Any advice would help.
Can you provide me with some resources about your reasons behind delaying formal eduction? I’m thinking of homeschooling my now two year old, and am wondering if I should begin or not.
Feel free to disregard this as I have no suggestions and you don’t know me from Adam. Reading this post kind of caused me to wig out a little. This will be my first year homeschooling. And I feel sooo unprepared. Our daughter is 6 so I guess you’d call it Kindergarten. I feel as though I have no idea what to do aside from Math Skills and she can’t wait to read. Do you have any pointers? Could you possibly do a post about Kindergarten for all us novices?
I would love to know more about your school boxes for the little ones. I am a homeschool/missionary mom and I have several small ones that need lots of attention. I would love to hear more about what you do to occupy/teach little ones while you are working with the older children.
Hi Renee,
I am going to be starting my very first year of homeschool. My six year old is doing a k-1 program with me, and although I am a “certificated” special ed teacher by career, I am now home and feel called to be with my children as they embark on their education journey, verses sending them off to someone else for 7 hours a day. I guess my main question is, how will I be able to homeschool AND care for a very busy two year old boy AND be pregnant at the same time AND find a way to lead my four year old along the journey, even though she is not quite ready (or willing) to formally learn??
Slightly Overwhelmed, Highly Motivated-
Rebecca
PS I have some stackable, primary colored, mesh-wire boxes you are free to have if they will help in your organizational efforts. We are right by Lake Padden if you are interested…
Not brilliant or original or visually attractive, but I use two things to store a huge amount of art and craft supplies at my place. The first is that I have one of those shelves divided into cubes, rather than single shelves. And in each cube part I put shoe boxes wrapped in nice paper and other stuff. Then I can label boxes and switch things around and some shelves can be for art books while others are for supplies.
But when I taught in a school the thing I found best was sets of those plastic drawers (like here http://www.crazysales.com.au/bargains/plastic-drawers) Kids can see what’s in them and you can see what’s in them! And they come in different sizes. And of course, I found this great website for lovely pencil wraps http://bakersdozen.typepad.com/a_bakerss_dozen_daily_lif/2008/12/sewing-fun.html
I like the ‘inbox’ idea. This is always my downfall… forgetting to correct the work that was done that day. Inevitably I spend far too long on that task because I let it pile up. A place for my children to put their completed math and English when they are done would be excellent.
I also blogged about my thoughts on getting ready for school: http://ordinary-time.blogspot.com/2011/08/fall-homeschooling-plans.html
We have a small cupboard we purchased from a defunked daycare.It has five shelves behind two wooden doors. On the top shelf we have boxes, often used for pencils that have a hinge on the back. The top is colored but the bottom of each is clear. One has crayons, one with markers, one with colored and regular pencils, one with assorted scissors and paste. Next to that we have taller square bin that hold bottles of glue. One the next shelf down there’s beads and lacing materials. Also on that shelf is dyed pasta for projects. Construction paper and scrapbook paper (bought dirt cheap at yard sales) is next. The final shelf hold stencils plus dry erase boards with markers and handheld chalk boards with chalk. We have two two drawer plastic bins on wheels. One bin has playdough and related accessories. The other two drawer plastic bin has an open topped plastic tray that holds the paints. There’s also watercolor sets, paintbrushes amd rollers, watercups, sponges, and paint smocks.
Renee Costco has a large black rack with grey bins in a variety of sizes. We use this to store our school/art supplies. I can’t remember how many bins are in it the shelf but it is ALOT! The biggest bins hold standard paper and the smallest bins are great for pencils, paint brushes etc. The bins are very long. If you want I could take a picture of it for you.
We are also gearing up for our new homeschool year. Art supplies are the main thing I have left to organize. The last couple of years, we have used dish pans to organize the main supplies. Paint, brushes, paper plates (pallets), cups (for rinsing brushes), etc. in one; finger paints, pastels, colored pencils, pastels, etc. in one; art smocks (dad’s old shirts turned backwards) in one; and so forth. I liked this system, because it lets me keep the messy stuff up high out of the little ones reach. It’s also great for quick-company’s-coming cleanup: just dump it in. The pans would get cluttered by the end of the year, but from a distance they still looked neat. Also, we use a small dresser to sort crayons, coloring books, craft books, clean paper, and finished art work. I’m also thinking of keeping a small broom near the art supplies, so they can sweep up their little scraps of paper when they are done. Good luck with your organizing.