Homeschool organization: Workboxes and How we do Chores

You have heard before that if you fail to plan that you plan to fail.  This is especially true in home schooling. 

Organization is not always something we are born with, sometimes it is just survival.  When you home school, and have littles running around, organization is the difference between getting your goals accomplished and pulling out your hair!

I am sharing with you about two things I have implemented to get and stay organized, even though I use way more than these.  

One thing that has helped our home school day tremendously is Sue Patrick’s Work Box system.  I have pictures on my blog that show how we have made this work for all five children that are doing school.  Next year we will add another at school age, and that will leave just one baby to manage whilst doing school.  

In a nutshell, the workbox system is simply a $12 shoe rack from Target or Wal-Mart, with 12 clear plastic Sterlite shoe boxes without the lids at about $2 each. For about $40 including tax, this gives you twelve places to store their school things. You use one for each task or subject that you would like them to accomplish.  They are numbered, and you include any items needed to accomplish what you set them, so there would be a pencil in every box that contains worksheets.  

The idea is to get them to function as independently as possible.  If you have multiple kiddos to teach or occupy this becomes absolutely invaluable.  At least until evolution catches up with our need for eight arms.  

Your upper grammar aged children (around 8 to around age 12) should be able to do a great deal of work on their own, with you possibly giving instructions or a short lesson and then setting them on task.  This takes a great deal of training, especially if you have accomplished school in another manner up till now, but it is really worth the investment!  The author says she trained hers at 18 mos to use these; I have not started that young, but definitely by age two & ½ or three.  These tasks are more like coloring or a quiet activity they can do with little help.  Again, the training is time intensive at first, but you really reap great rewards! 

You can mix up the boxes with self directed tasks and tasks that require mom intervention.  Since I work with more than one student, I try to put a few independents in a row, and then a mom’s help is needed here box, then at least another independent box.

This system works well with any age and any curriculum.  But what if you have a student that is dyslexic or an older student that this is too juvenile for?  

For my older students, I bought Sterilite 6 drawer craft carts on wheels, and didn’t install the wheels.  These have attached lids, and are 12x12, so larger books and projects fit nicely.  For my highschooler, I stacked one on top of another to give her enough drawers.  For my two fifth graders they each have one set.  

These are pricey, at about $40 each, but well worth it.  When the baby comes by and pulls out a drawer, the lid is on it and clicked closed so it is very unlikely that anything falls out.  

The benefit of the workbox system is twofold; one, it keeps your student on track, and they can see how much they have accomplished that day and how much more they have to do, and two, it forces you to decide what you want them to do each day. 

Keeping your home tidy enough to do school in is just as important as planning out your school day.  This has derailed us many more days than I would like to admit.  It is hard to do school when you have jelly or syrup on the table and dishes stacked to the ceiling.  And who can snuggle up with all those great Sonlight readers when every couch and chair in the living room is covered in laundry? 

The best book on chores that I have found is Managers of Their Chores.  This has been an invaluable tool in our home, and despite my fears that the Maxwell’s would be way stricter than I could ever maintain, this system has worked well for us for the past three years.  When I got this book, I dove into it like a desperate woman pregnant with baby #6.

Essentially, every kiddo has a “chore pack” that they carry around with them while doing chores.  In the pack are the paper cards that tell them which chore to do.   They look at the card, do the chore, and then move the card to the back of the pack. When they are done, they move on to the next one, repeating till they are done with all their assigned chores.  

The beauty of the system is that there is no longer a need to nag them to do the next thing.  You spend a goodly amount of time instructing them on the way you expect the chore to be done, let them practice till they are confident they can do it alone, and then turn them loose! Of course there are consequences for not getting the chores done.

Also, Mrs. Maxwell tells you to only keep your house as clean as your husband expects!  This was so freeing to me!  Perfection goes out the window, and reality comes to shatter the all or nothing attitude that keeps most of us frozen and walking around in chaos.  She also lays out safety tips, and what you can reasonably expect out of children at certain ages.  

What this looks like at our house: every morning the kids get up and come downstairs to get their chore packs.  They do roughly 13 chores each before we start school at nine (hopefully)! They look like this for my nine year old:

#1 make your bed

#2 get dressed

#3 put away your pj’s

#4 brush your teeth

#5 brush your hair

#6 wash your face

#7 bring down your dirty clothes

#8 get breakfast and help your buddy get breakfast

#9 unload dishwasher

#10 mop kitchen

#11 tidy upstairs bathroom

#12 feed chickens

#13 be ready to start school by 9am!

Then they have afternoon chores to get done before dinner time.  This keeps our house livable.  Not spotless, not really company ready, just livable! And my husband doesn’t wonder what we did all day. 

A few extra things that I use to keep myself organized:

• I keep a mom notebook with general stuff that I use nearly every day, so that I don’t have to hunt it down all the time. 

• I keep a teacher’s notebook for our curriculum, things like answer keys to the maps and quizzes, teacher’s notes, etc. 

• I keep a clipboard with me at all times, with my to do lists, grocery lists, menu for the week and even what clothes I need to buy for each child.  You would think I could remember, but with seven, I can’t.  This clipboard is my external hard drive.  Yes, it is a scary time when I lose it.  I even take it to bed – it lives on my nightstand!

• I also keep a yearly planning binder, with the broad picture outlined for the year.  Mostly this is high school stuff, with credits, course descriptions, semester plans, a master calendar, etc. 

Lastly, always have a backup plan! When your day goes south for whatever reason, make sure you have things to help you make the most of whatever mess you find yourself in.  These would include: Bill Nye the science Guy DVD’s from the library, books on tape, geography puzzles, arts and craft supplies, and educational videos. 

Free planning sheets and lots of other printables at www.donnayoung.org