Imagine having a two-year-old crawling under your feet as your kindergartener is reading his favorite book, papers are everywhere, BUT are you still on track. Even when you have a house that is lived in it is possible to stay on target when the madness of the day ensues! Here are “three A’s” for organizing your homeschool efforts to support your young learners.
AIM
You’ve probably heard this before, but aim for what you want your homeschool day to look like. Sure, the day might get off schedule and may even bring about havoc, but when you aim to do or achieve certain things you have a target in mind to help guide you. When we aimlessly go into the day it can often lead to unfinished work, anger, and stress. Aim for a good start with daily Bible reading, continue with pages and activities to complete, surprise your child with a “Fun Box,” and finish with an activity that can help the entire family; for example – get young children and adolescents in the kitchen with you to help prep for lunch or dinner.
ARRANGE
Think about how to arrange and organize your materials. One option is a Workbox system. Each box contains a different lesson with the manipulative, books, and supplies needed. It can reduce time spent looking for books and tools. You might even be able to designate a closet or shelf for these boxes to make them easily accessible. Think about the space you already have and how you could use it a little more wisely. Book shelves, old china cabinets with boxes, or maybe a desk with storage pods, any of these could become a convenient homeschool storage unit.
Our Workboxes
ACT
Just do it, already! Spend an extra ten minutes at the end of the day to create your Workboxes and prepare for the next day. Your days might even get off to a peaceful start because once the Workboxes are in place you and your child will both have a plan for just how your day should go. And remember not to do something so complicated you can’t maintain it. You know yourself and how you like to work, so keep that in mind when you organize your homeschool.
The FPEA website has some helpful logs to help you aim for your weekly target here:
Week-at-Glance and Daily or Week Log
http://www.fpea.com/about-home-schooling/forms-documents/
by Aislynn Holt, FPEA Twitter Ambassador. Aislynn is a newbie to homeschooling her two young boys, and ultimately desires to encourage young moms that need support. She is the wife to her high school sweetheart, and together they serve the youth in their local church. If you want to get to know Aislynn better you can follow her homeschool journey at http://homeschoolmomoftwo.blogspot.com, you can also follow her on twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/acholt21
