Help for Mom: Ideas?

Do you have a catalog of your books at home that helps you?

I don’t though it would be nice. What I have done is sort books by general topic and then store some topics away in the attic. For example, we are studying ancient history this year so I have boxed up most of our books that are for more recent times (middle ages, renaissance, and modern times). The books that are on our shelves are not in specific groupings unless they are books we plan to read this school year, those go up on a shelf the kids know is not for free reading.

Do you make or use a lesson plan for your kids and yourself? Does this help?

Yes and no. I start the year out with a plan. Some things are easy, you just do the next thing in the book (think math book, high school science textbook). Other things, like history, I may choose all the books I hope to read and then put them in order (Ancient Egypt before Greece, and Greece before Romans). Then I know that we work through the books in that order but I don’t sit down and plan out “We’ll read this book from December 2nd-December 20th, that book from January 4th – February 2nd.” I just know that on history days we read another chapter or two and talk about it. For my younger kids science we have a book that frames our study. Right now we just started God’s Design for Science: Human Body. So each day we do science I pull out the book, we read the next lesson, and pull out any books on that topic that we have on our shelves set aside (ex: it covers skeletal system before muscular system). Again, no real ‘lesson planning’.

One thing that might fall under this that I DO is give each child a weekly assignment sheet. For December we’re on a light schedule. My 9th grader got a page today for this week and under each day of the week are check boxes for the following:

½ page of Math

Biology with Mom

1 chapter in The Odyssey

My 1st grader got a list that says this under each day of the week:

½ page of Math

Science with the big kids

Reading lesson with Mom

Each day the kids know once they’ve checked off the items on their list they are done. Sometimes they have to seek me out to work on something, other times they work independently. This has been priceless because I’m juggling so many kids. (9th, 5th, 4th, 2nd, 1st, PreK4, PreK3, Toddler, Newborn). I can see at a glance what they’ve done today and what needs done, and so can they. I don’t have to constantly answer “What do I do next?” because they can consult their assignment sheet.

We do not have a school room. We have a large bookshelf in the dining room, a large metal shelving unit in the dining room with tubs of school items and games, book shelves in most other rooms, and strict rules about putting away what you get out. One thing we did this year that really has worked well is each child has a backpack or bin to hold their school materials (math books, pens, pencils, coloring supplies, scissors, glue sticks, notebooks, current literature book they are reading, etc.). This means they can find things easily. If a subject is done as a group the books stay on our school shelf.

I’m not the most organized person, so maybe I’m not the best to answer this question.  😉  I also have 5 kids (ages 13 to toddler).  Our schoolroom is fairly organized.

Do you have a catalog of your books at home that helps you?  I don’t.  I do keep a list of books in my purse that I’d like to purchase for next year or two.  This helps me when I come across used books and can’t remember which ones I already have.  I organize our books somewhat by subject.  I like having a list of books used in our curriculum and where to find it…this is especially helpful with e-books that I often forget about.

Do you make or use a lesson plan for your kids and yourself? Does this help?  I have a lesson planner and this year my oldest 3 each have their own student planner.  Their student planners include which chapters they need to read on their own, their math lesson, and a reminder to practice piano.  This is still a work in progress, and I constantly have to remind them to do their work.  My lesson planner is a tremendous help.  I like having everything written out ahead of time.  For subjects where we just complete the next lesson, I don’t have specific plans written out (like math, copywork or phonics).

Do you have many kids at different age groups? How do you work around this with school?  I have a wider age range each year. So far they’ve worked mostly together, but that will probably change when we have a high schooler next year.  We have taken 2 different approaches to the 3Rs.  Some years I’ve worked one-on-one with each child having their own time.  Other years we’ve worked by subject, for example, everyone working on copywork at the same time.  This is what we are currently doing.  Each approach has its good and bad points.

Ideas for keeping and organizing school and books if you don’t have a school room.  We have a dedicated school area, but haven’t always.  In the past, I would only keep out books we were currently reading and basic school supplies.  Usually I had a cabinet to keep them in, but one year we used bins on a small bookcase.  Currently we keep dishpans organized by subject: history/geography, science, fine arts/extras, language arts, phonics, math, and Bible.  I only keep the books we are currently using in these bins, and they are stored on large plastic shelves.