WFMW - Homeschool Organization

In my "Glimpse into Our Week" post, there were a few pictures of one of our organizational systems that caught the attention of my friend, Heather! (Hi, Heather! *waving*) She asked, so I thought I'd share a little more about it.

My two oldest boys (ages 10 and almost 9) have several subjects that they now do independently - these are Math, English, Reading, and Bible Study. (OK, just for full disclosure - Isaac no longer does the formal reading curriculum, but has Handwriting which he does independently. Ezra struggles a bit with handwriting so he does a different program, which requires my involvement. Anywhoo...)

Since they started independent work, they've had their own totes to keep their work in:

I used to keep all my Teacher's Manuals lumped together in a crate (those plastic milk carton crates are my best friends!). When it came time to check their work, I'd have to dig through their totes to find their workbooks, and then dig through my crate to find the corresponding Teacher's Manual. It wasn't a very efficient process, and often just lead to me leaving everything out on the table all the time. Which is efficient, until you want to use the table for something else... say... eating, perhaps? So, I brainstormed for a better idea.

Then, while walking through the office supply section of a store one day, I had one of those "lightbulb" moments! This is what I came up with that is now our current system - much neater and more efficient than the old one!

Each boy still has their tote to store their books and notebooks in. When they've completed their work, they put the completed work into their magazine holder. They each got to pick which color they wanted, and then I got a second one of the same color and use the second one to hold the corresponding Teacher's Manuals.

So when I need to check Ezra's work, I pull out his magazine holder, pull out my matching magazine holder, go through each workbook, meet with him to go over it, and then he puts his workbooks away in his tote again, leaving his magazine holder empty until the next day. And I put away my Teacher's Manuals. Tada! Nice and clean and organized! And if I haven't gotten a chance to go over any work, or have to stop part way, I can tell because those books are still in the magazine holder. Kind of like the "in" and "out" boxes they used to have in offices. (Do they still? I figure it's all electronic now!)

Oh, and I'm sure you've noticed that extra magazine holder - the (not so) inconspicuous black one? That one holds Teacher's Manuals for subjects that they need my one-on-one attention for (such as Spelling, Writing, and Ezra's handwriting). They can't do them by themselves, but they're also not subjects we do as a group, so I keep those Manuals separate, as well. (Also, those blue boxes in the middle are used for Spelling). Clear as mud? Hopefully this all makes sense! ;-)

So... there you have it! That's what works for us in keeping some of our homeschool things reasonably organized and flowing smoothly. Check out what other Works for Me Wednesday posts at We Are That Family!