For most homeschool families, the new school year means never-ending to-do lists, piles of papers, and more details to remember than most humans can manage at one time. But two powerful tools can help, and homeschool parents can create them using simple supplies (some you may already have on hand).
The first is a powerful way to tame the paper beast. Most households tend to generate a mountain of paperwork, and that mountain seems to grow exponentially when the new school year starts. But a simple box or basket and a few folders can level the paper mountain and make life more manageable.
It’s an idea that comes from home organization guru Lisa Woodruff of Organize365. She calls it a Sunday Basket. To start, simply grab a basket with handles. When you’re just beginning, a laundry basket works well (or perhaps a few laundry baskets, depending on the height of your paper mountain).
Gather every loose piece of paper in your home — from magazines and catalogs to bills and permission slips. Put it all in the basket.
Then schedule a block of time to sit down and sort every piece of paper in three ways: trash (or recycle), file, and take action. Put all papers that need to be filed in a bin, basket, or box, and schedule a later time to file these.
Next, it’s time to manage all the papers that need action. To help with this process, Woodruff recommends purchasing a package of tab dividers with pockets — the kind you would use in a three-ring binder. As you come across papers that fall in the same category, write the category title on the tab, and put all of those papers into the pocket of that divider.
For example, bills might be one category. Another might be medical forms. Another might be field trips or potential curriculum. If you are working on an event or project, any related papers would go in one tab divider pocket. When you’re all done categorizing papers, stand the dividers on their side in a box or basket so the tab is on top, just as they would be in a file drawer.
Loose papers that don’t have a category go in front of the dividers in the basket or box. Then, every Sunday (or whatever day you choose), go through every single piece of loose paper, and glance at every divider pocket, and ask yourself if the action can wait until next Sunday. If it can’t, pull it out and make a plan to take action that week. If it can wait, put it back in the basket.
It’s really so simple, but this system can revolutionize a homeschool family’s organization.
Another great tool for helping families get organized in the back-to-school season is the bullet journal. You may have heard of this concept and seen some of the elaborate ways to use it. If you’re artistic, you might want to scour the Internet for inspiration, but for most parents, creating beautifully embellished pages is more work than it’s worth, but the bullet journal does not need to be elaborate to be effective. In its simplest form, the bullet journal helps keep tasks, lists, and memories organized.
Start with any journal or notebook you like. Allocate the first few pages for an index. In our opinion, the index is the key to this tool’s power. Number the pages of the journal as you go, and title each page. Be sure to include the title and page number in your index as you add pages.
You can use the pages in any number of ways that work for your family. You can draw a calendar and use it as your planner, or you can use in conjunction with your planner to keep track of lists, trips, ideas, lesson plans, and more.
Coordinating an event for your local Co-op? Use your bullet journal to brainstorm themes, write shopping lists, keep track of volunteers, plan a menu and decorations, and so on. Just be sure to title the pages and put an entry for it in your index so that you can easily flip to these pages when you have a moment to work on the event.
Use your bullet journal to keep track of documentaries you want to watch, books your student has read or wants to read, Christmas shopping lists, a list of bills that are automatically paid each month, the curriculum you’re using this year, your child’s extra-curricular schedule, ideas for redecorating a room — the list is endless.
It’s called a bullet journal because it also features the use of bullets that have meaning. An open box would indicate a task that needs to be completed. A triangle can indicate an upcoming appointment. For more ideas on how to maximize the use of this powerful tool, visit bulletjournal.com or search the Internet for bullet journal ideas.
Now it’s your turn! What are your favorite tools for staying organized during the homeschool year?