Get Yourselves Organized Down There!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9QeosTh7w

A Wallace and Gromit quote favorite. And while it is in a ridiculous scene, Wallace sure does have a point.

I’ve taken the opportunity for this past week during our Christmas break to reorganize our homeschool world. We had fallen into a rut in school and I wanted to freshen things up and be more intentional in some of our studies and my planning.

I’m not sure if any of you have faced this, but I’ve found that this year we have hit the “no, we can’t do that” phase of homeschooling. Let me explain. Now that Rachael is biting off more substantial curriculum in first grade and there are more children than I have hands, our schedule can no longer be flexed around play dates, errands and field trips. Oh don’t get me wrong, we still have flexibility, but I’ve found the reality of a set schedule as being both grounding and helpful in our pursuit of well-balanced education. I feel like I’ve grown a lot this year in homeschooling and mommying. I’m not as stressed as I’ve been in the past and yet, in many way more stressed in the larger workload. So it was time to focus in on some areas of stress in our daily world and clean them up.

Since I’m a visual person, I made a glorified wall-mounted filer from my existing material stash (most of which is donated from my Mother’s overflow – thanks, Mom). It took me a day and a half, but I busted out a functional pocket organizer to display our core subjects and a modified “workbox” idea for our family. What I’ve discovered is that I need more advanced planning than the traditional workbox system. I need to see and stock for more than the system’s “one day at a time” method, hence my addition of subjects into the workbox idea. I also really enjoy collaborative learning amongst ages, so it’s helpful to have a subject heading for those subjects I group teach. It’s a blessing to do things together as a family from my first grader all the way on down to Ms. Six Months. I really love seeing them all together, enjoying life.

But beyond the sheer functionality of the space, I have found myself grasping a greater organization of our purpose. Beyond the Math manipulative and the workbook pages, I have revamped our day, keeping what has worked and discarding the rest.

So cheers to new beginnings. Cheers to greater intentionality in school, chores and play. Cheers to more laughter during homeschool and more light in all our eyes. And cheers to a six year old, four year old, two year old and six month old learning, growing and sharing, that Christ would be realized in our home and overflowed outside.

I’m excited. And I’m ready. This has been and will continue to be a GREAT school year. =)