Clearing the desks ~ Homeschooling Life NZ

As we (slowly) prepare to begin a new year of homeschooling there are a few things I’m finding helpful to do.

1. Set Goals

I already mentioned this in a previous post – it’s a great time of year to set some character and skill goals for each family member to work on.

2. Clean out desks

Not every homeschooling family uses desks, but in our family both the kids and I each have one to keep our stationery and as a base for our work. Yesterday’s task was for every person to literally clean their desks, empty them of rubbish and put everything back tidily. It’s such a great feeling to start the year (and term) clean and tidy!

3. Clean the homeschool room

Ridding the homeschool room of excess clutter and debris, changing the wall displays (actually I just switched the photos above my desk), and working through the built-up chores (items to scan, filing to do etc) really does improve the work environment. I love orderliness!

4. Clear out the work boxes

Each child in our family also has a box for their school books – which inevitably gets in a big pickle and accumulates random drawings, rubbish and pencils/pens etc (thankfully you can’t tell from the outside as they’re in square woven baskets). I quite often ask the kids to reorganise and tidy these, and that’s what their task is for today (they hate it). I’m also considering whether, like at an actual school I should replace all their exercise books in a new school year, to give them a feeling of a fresh start at being neat and tidy… Up until now I have just got them to continue on where they left off since it’s more economical and less wasteful, but perhaps it’s time to rethink that..

5. Planning school work

To be honest, planning school work has never been my strength – I tend towards a more flexible approach. That’s why I appreciate curricula like Math-U-See which the kids just keep working through at their own pace! I also tend to change my approach from year to year, in the never-ending quest for the perfect solution. But today while the kids sort out their boxes I do intend to get at least a basic level of planning done.

This will include:

a long term overall plan for the year, with expected progress in each subject and topic ideas
- e.g. for Maths this year Alex will continue with speed tests, complete Math-U-See Epsilon, sit a Cambridge progression test each term and one day a week work on an Excel book to fill any gaps)
a basic timetable
deciding on whether to continue with checklists for the kids or having a more regimented timetable (this has never been successful for me before so probably not worth contemplating!)
for Term 1, (and at the start of each term) I hope to do a bit more specific week-to-week planning for Science and History, because I have found that just deciding to do e.g Habitats in the term without actually thinking through a definite schedule means it gets left out

I personally find that it’s quite hard to find the time to do much in the way of planning, and even harder to follow through when life gets busy! I suppose that’s the way of things with 5 kids at different ages and stages. However a new year is a good time to try some new strategies and I’m aware that my eldest is entering her intermediate years, which is both exciting and scary. It’s not long until high school, and I want to do my utmost to prepare her and the others well before they reach their teenage years.