I have made some decisions finally... (all subject to change at a moments notice)

Kindergarten
Math - Saxon K
Handwriting - Worksheets from Online and some basic books we got at Sam's
Reading/Phonics - Starfall.com, Bob Books other online phonics and workbook pages
Social Studies - will be learning about community and other simple things If I find a GOOD kindergarten text I will get it but....
Science - have NO idea yet

3rd Grade
Math - Saxon 3
Spelling - Zaner-Bloser 3
Handwriting - Zaner-Bloser 3
Reading - Abeka Readers 3
Social Studies - Abeka 3 (maybe) or Bob Jones
Science - have NO idea yet

4th Grade
Math - Saxon 3
Spelling - Zaner-Bloser 4
Handwriting - Zaner-Bloser 4
Reading - Abeka Readers 4
Social Studies - Abeka 4 (maybe) or Bob Jones
Science - have NO idea yet


I forgot

Language Arts
K - just phonics and reading readiness stuff
3rd - Have NO Idea yet
4th - Have NO Idea yet

Nana

Looks like you are doing great! I totally understand the 'subject to change' line.

Looks good!

Lately I've just made sure we have stuff for language arts and math, and use the library for the rest... but doesn't it look good to have it all laid out like that?

Looks good to me.


We don't use an official Science curriculum. Everything is just kind of hands on. We have lots of books with science experiments and the kids read stories that incorporate Science into them, like Arthur Scott Bailey's Sleepy Time Tales

Looks like a great plan, Cheryl!

Have you looked at Considering God's Creation for science? We did that with all the Dc 2 years ago and they enjoyed it.

have a web site for it?

Here is the web site, but I recommend getting it used if you can find it.
Considering God's Creation

Hi Everyone-

It seems I am constantly behind the ball when it comes to planning ahead for holidays etc. I have missed out on several opportunities to do some fun things with the boys!

I am looking for Jan - Dec theme ideas of what we could study and different resources etc. For instance- Easter is in April so I want to plan a mini unit regarding Easter. Please share what you do each year for themes/mini unit studies. Thanks!!

I haven't ever done a whole Easter unit with my kids, we just read about what it means in the Bible and discussed it some...but we did do (part of) a Christmas unit once.

We did the names of Jesus study...it is a great one. We made a notebook, and for the Alpha and Omega I printed out a sheet with the letters of the Greek alphabet and the kids wrote their own names in greek.

There is a symbols of Christmas study that looks neat too.

As for other days/ themes, we haven't done much beyond just discussing why we celebrate that day and making a note on our timeline about when the day originated (4th of July, for example). We do read theme related books around holidays like Thanksgiving though.

For something like Thanksgiving you could do an indian study...and let the kids make indian artifacts and costumes, or dress up like indians and prepare a feast for daddy at the end.

I am currently planning monthly themes for my kindergartener. The theme I am planning for the December is Christmas Around the World.

I plan to include world geography, foreign language (how to say Merry Christmas in several languages), cooking traditional foods, creating decorations, and studying different cultures. I am using Christmas Around the World Coloring Book from dover for my 5yo to color. However, an older student could do more advanced
decorations from different parts of the learn or learn carols in the traditional language. Literature choice- A Christmas Carol perhaps. There are several web sites about Christmas traditions from other cultures.

In January, I am going to do a monthly theme around Time. I am going to teach my DS to tell time and learn about the calendar. With older students, you could study how the calendar came to be, where the days of the week got their names, how clocks were created, and the importance of an accurate clock to determine longitude. A&E did a movie called Longitude about just that and there is a book by the same name. I could get the author for you if you are interested. Field Trips- a clock repairman's shop. Also for life skills, you could teach time management and create student planners for the year.

Hope I was helpful

Jill

I am not very good at unit studies or monthly themes either. Right now we are doing a butterfly life cycle study. Our caterpillars are in their chrysalides right now and the boys are making lap books. So, I guess that's a spring study of sorts....it also goes along with our Botany science lessons.

We have done little studies of the seasons...only 4 of those a year instead of 12....

Sumi....the names of Jesus is a great idea! I've been thinking about doing a books of the bible lap book with the boys ... still thinking on this one as I'm not sure I want to add to our already full schedule.

Let's see...just brainstorming a minute:

April-Easter, Passover
May-flowers (May day), gardening, Cinco de Mayo, Memorial Day (what/whom are we supposed to be remembering?) & do a family tree
June-summer, insects, weather
July-anything related to our nation's history, beaches & lighthouses, take a pretend vacation somewhere.

Not sure if that's what you needed?

I don't think I've ever done a monthly theme. We just discuss things as they come up.

I love the Christmas Around the World theme! That looks so great! These are all great ideas- keep them coming.

I am not necessarily wanting to do a new theme for all month long- just a day or two to a week depending on the occasion. I want to do the Easter study the week leading up to Easter Sunday. I missed the first day of spring- we could have done something about that etc.

This is a bit of what we did this past year as far as the units that related to the season/month. Your months will probably be different because your seasons will probably be different.

January -- Winter (clothes, activities, snow, snowmen, hibernation, animal migrations)
North Pole/South Pole & Arctic/Antarctic Habitats & their animals
Also we do a manatee field trip because that is when they migrate inland here
Colors: blue, gray, and white

February -- Groundhogs (story, watch, study shadows), Valentines (tied with drawing/ making hearts, studying forms of love, family vs friends, feelings)
Australia & the Outback, Soil Habitat (tilling month for us), worms, ants, etc.
Colors: red, pink

March -- St. Patrick's & Ireland unit, Spring (tied to weather, wind, rainbows, kites), new plants lead to our botany study (flowers, plant parts, trees), bird observations, farm field trip (spring babies)
South America & Forest/Rainforest Habitat
Colors: brown, green

April -- Arbor Day, Easter, Earth Day, Recycling, Ecology, continue plant, tree & bird studies, Zoo field trip
Africa & Savanna/Grassland Habitat (big animals also leads to stories about giants & Dinosaurs)
Colors: rainbow

May -- May Day (happiness & peace), Memorial Day (role of Military, remembrance), role of Mothers, Start of Beach Days!
Oceans Around the World, Sea & Shore Habitat -- fish, shells & water experiments (solid, liquid, gas)
Colors: blue hues -- ocean, sky, etc., Cool vs Warm Colors

June -- Fathers (role of, appreciation of), Flag Day (make flags/discuss significance of stars/stripes), Summer, temperature
Pond Habitat, amphibians, tadpoles (frog life cycle)

July -- Independence Day (Birth of America, founding fathers, Patriotism), This is also inside-science experiments month due to extreme temps & thunderstorms)
Desert Habitat & reptiles
Colors: red, white, blue

August (Vacation month, traveling) -- Endangered Species, Landforms, Review Habitats as we see them, Dinosaurs

September (Vacation month) -- Labor Day (Community Helpers), Harvest Moons
Insect Habitat (another tilling month for us), how ants and bees all work together like a family, but also worms, general insects, caterpillars, butterflies, spiders
Asia & Himalayas, Mountain Habitats

October -- Columbus (cultural exchange between American & Europe, exploring, the west), Fall (leaves, leaf rubbings, photosynthesis), Halloween (pumpkins, ghosts, scary stories)
Colors: Yellow, Red, Orange
Europe & the variety of habitats

November -- Elections (purpose, go to polls, mock election), Thanksgiving (Native American study, Pilgrims, being thankful, turkeys, harvest), camping
Colors: Red, Brown
North America & the American prairie, grass & farm lands

December -- Christmas (meaning of, evergreen trees, all kinds of crafts and baking), New Years (time, seasons, aging, phases of life, starting fresh)
Colors: Green, Red, Silver, Gold

If you want more details, I'd be happy to provide.

Thank you, ucfgizmo!!! This is awesome

There are several sites that have a calendar with things for everyday. I usually print them out and then pick what would work with my preschoolers. We also get 'Mailbox' monthly and that is a big help with a theme. I don't really teach around themes, the girls aren't ready for that yet, but I use it for crafts.

Anyone getting portfolios together or getting ready for testing?

I have to order the tests for my boys.... At first I was thinking I would have to do all this testing but then I realized that one daughter is graduating, one went back to school and my youngest son does not have to test this year... so I only have to test my other 2 boys I probably will not get the tests until next month but it is on my mind for some reason right now.... I think we are all getting spring fever!!!!

Yep, I ordered the test for my kids this week. We are testing mid-May. I know I have spring fever. I am ready for this year to be done!

We have testing - through a group - in late April. We too are looking forward to this year being over. It's been good, but we're ready to hang it up.

We do the portfolio thing and will schedule a meeting in may sometime. I want to be almost done before we go.

My son will be doing his group testing the last weekend of April. They have two days of testing; Friday is Language Arts and Saturday is Math.

My two girls are having their evaluations (portfolios) on May 6th. Thankfully it is at the same time. I'll know their results right away, but with my son, it will be a month before I know anything.

I am Mrs. 20 Questions this week I know......but my mind is spinning.

How far in advance do you plan lessons and how detailed is your planning? Currently, I use a teacher plan book and I try to plan a couple weeks in advance. I have just enough room to write page numbers etc. I get all these great things in my head while searching the internet and reading catalogs but somehow am just not transferring them to the school plans. I know I am probably not making sense! I guess I just want to sort of "journal an idea" the way I envision teaching it. Do any of you do very detailed plans? One thing I am thinking of is making a list of things I would write on the whiteboard to help illustrate a point or idea. Do you get that detailed or do you wing it the day of the lesson? Right now I am not doing much teaching, I am handing them assignments, briefly discussing it and then leave them be. I know my 14 yo is bored with that- he wants to be "taught" so I am trying to come up with ways to do that. Sorry for rambling.

14 year olds get bored with just about anything. I know I'm going through that right now.
I plan my lessons about 1 1/2 weeks ahead. Every Friday afternoon I review what has been taught and look ahead and what I hope to accomplish in the next week. But I also have a month plan in mind and a three month plan on the records so that I order things well ahead and do research at the library for books I can use to help out with the subject at hand.

The worst think I have is that the children finish what I thought was a weeks worth of work and I have nothing more planned for them. Its happened all too often. So I have found keeping a research project on the go all the time helps out with the boredom. My children do their research in a lapbooking forum and since its like scrap booking is creative and fun. It seem to me they are always looking for more to add to the project. Take a look at this www.handsofachild.com site to get ideas. Since I don't live in the states ordering from the company would cost me but the whole idea is grand and I use file folder from the business store instead.

For the question: How far in advance and how much detail......

I am working on 2006-2007 lesson plans now. We begin our school year in July so I like to be ready. I do an entire year worth of planning.

I always do this:
1. figure out how many weeks and days we'll do
2. make a school calendar
3. divide each book in quarters, and then weeks
4. make a plan on the computer for each subject. This plan only contains page numbers.

This is my GOAL SHEET. I do not always stick right to it but it helps to have a plan.

After all that is finished, I use a Daily Log (made myself) to record everything. It has the date, hours attended today, total yearly hours, and day number at the top. I did it in all different colors with our school name and address on top. Here is an example :

Date: 3-1-06
Day: 148
Hours Attended Today: 6
Total Yearly Hours: 842

Math: pages 222-223 Dividing Mixed Numbers with Fractions
Did supplement on page 333 #1-10


Spelling: List 25 Did page 89
Wrote words 2 times each

As far as the actual teaching, I do teach each subject except reading. He reads and then tells me what happened in the book. (I read it first so I know if he's read it or not.)

During the summer, I do lesson plans for the entire year....for both my kiddos.

This is what I have been working for next yr. With the move I have been just handing them assignments to do and they want to have teaching lessons (where we read, sing, work through and discuss, have fun together) they are getting bored with just seat work.

As for planning for next yr, I am working on monthly themes and review during the yr, but also trying to make lessons to include my 4yr. on the themes where possible. So I'm using the scope and sequence as a guide from Core Knowledge for my layout and making sure the state requirements are filled for the other two. I'm using Ambleside's curriculum, but making my schedule to fit our needs

I finished a yr planning for American and World history/geography for my little one and now I'm working on lessons for the other two trying to stay with the same timeline, but theirs will be more advanced if that makes sense.

Also, I'm working on Science lessons in between to change gears

Also, adding copywork, Art/Crafts, Artists, Lit, Poetry, Music and Foreign Language as a monthly unit study and as for Math, Language Arts they will have a independent schedule with weekly goals.

So far it looks pretty good, though its just a lot of planning right now, but I think it will be worth it to have my yr planned out ahead of time.

Also, dealing with dial-up takes a bit longer for my research

I have my lessons on word doc. so I can amend changes before I print it out and place in my teaching binders divided up for each term and all I have to is take out their attendance, grade sheets, book lists and project sheets and place them in the next term binder and at the end each child gets duplicates for their portfolios.

I usually just plan week-to-week or two weeks at a time bc life has been a problem with us for the past two years and has prevented us from keeping a good solid monthly schedule. (this is why we are a tad behind where I want to be. )

I am considering doing exactly what Kenetha has been doing. I would like to sit down this summer and plan the entire year and then just assume there will be hiccups along the way and plan for places for us to catch up. I love the planning, actually. I just get overwhelmed thinking about the whole year.

MK, I plan almost everything for the year, but not in detail. For classes that I will have to teach, I do one of two things: if I know the material, I wing it; if I need a brush up, I look over it first.. sometimes I make notes, sometimes I don't.

Some classes just scream for more detail and this year our noisy class is art.

I used HTML to make my detailed plans, but Microsoft Word or Excel would serve just as well or better. Just open up the word processor and start typing. Paste the web addresses that you want to use in the document. Since this is for your personal use, you could probably copy vital parts to the document as well (check web page usage/copyright first). Save the document in a folder for your plans. You can print a copy for yourself, and then when it is time to visit the web sites, open the document and use the links.

I am a terrible planner. I have been mostly "winging" it the past 3 years. We have managed, mostly by the grace of God this year, to get the basics done. I want next year to be different. I am going to plan my goals. I don't want to make to detail of a plan because I want to be able to take a day off if we need one.

During the summer, I plan out the full year for all the core subjects and save them on my laptop computer. Then about every 8-10 weeks I copy and paste the daily plans onto a weekly lesson plan for each of the kids into a Word Doc. I print that out and that becomes what they follow. They each have an assignment binder When they are done with those weeks, they turn them into me and I keep them in a bigger binder for record keeping.

This year is going be a lot easier as some of the math my boys did, my daughter is doing now and the same with Science and LLATL (no change in curriculum for 2 years now in these subjects LOL) So those are already planned out I just have to put them into a daily lesson plan for the kids. Our history, Tapestry of Grace, I plan out semester at a time. So sometime in December I will sit down and plan out the rest of that for the year.

I start by printing out a full calendar of the school year and I write on that any holidays, planned days off, etc.. That always gets messed up so there is some flexibility. If I planned a couple weeks at a time (which is what I use to do) I never get around planning out the rest. 2 weeks comes too quickly for me and we are just so busy with other stuff finding the time to sit down more often is too difficult for me. I plan it out, then look it over a week or so ahead before we come to it. I just have to remind myself that I planned it out that way for a reason and not to second guess myself and change things LOL



We just push everything a day if this happens. It actually happens quite a bit. Things come up. This past year we had an unexpected trip back to the mainland to see my family (my father is not well) We took some books with us (math and science) but the rest had to stay here at home. Also I've had some unexpected doctors appointments this year. So, we just push it all a day but at least I have it planned out and don't have that to worry about as well.

Well for this year we have been winging it and I have been learning as we go. I have page numbers on lesson plans for almost all our subjects done for next year. Each day has a whole page. I made my own personal lesson plan sheets in Word with each subject listed and then all the books that are used in that subject listed with a place for page numbers (it has 3 columns one for the book key, one for page numbers, and one for notes). I just have page numbers and stuff that will need to be copied from each book. I will do the notes a week at a time 2 weeks in advance so if something comes up and I do not get my Sunday planning session the current week is done. Oh I used Donna's curriculum key form for that and it is in a page protector and the plans are not dated. I have a rough schedule in the beginning of my binder.

We are schooling 42 weeks, with 3 weeks of formal followed by 1 week of theme learning to break up the school year and do some fun stuff. I would like to end each theme week with a related field trip on Sat but will have to see about money and weather for that one.

I have never planned it out before we were good with just winging it but then we usually school year round with breaks as needed. But I'm finding that with so many kids and the older ones coming and going. More church and outside commitments that I really need to plan better if we hope to get everything done.

Also I have noticed that the more organized I am the better our school day goes. Noah is also in a much better place emotionally. I really need a break this summer also, to regroup. We are only taking off 8 weeks but then we will have a week at Thanksgiving and about 3 maybe 4 at Christmas, 1 week at Easter. Which gives us 13 weeks off total a year not too bad really.

I have already figured out how many days we have for next year. Then subjects that have 180 lessons are easy as it is one lesson a day. I'm trying even on bad days to at least find the time to do phonics/math and spelling since those subjects don't lend themselves to doubling up well. The things I must figure out are the subjects that aren't' 180 days or I'm adding in for fun.

Plan? What plan?
We work everything out as we go, other than our fortnightly bowling trips, my Sign Language course, and occasional visits to homeschool friends. Oh, and ballet, drama, etc. classes. Sometimes I'll decide I want to finish a chapter in my book in however many weeks, but we don't plan it out.

I loosely plan for the entire year & record it in an Excel spreadsheet. I have one file per child & each tab is a different subject. I head the spreadsheet with the name of the child & the text/texts they will be using. The columns include: The day number (we must school 180 days in Indiana), The date (I pencil in as we go), the Lesson(s), student activity (if it isn't obvious), supplies needed, reference pages (if it isn't obvious from the lesson number, and any preparation that I will need to do.

I don't date the lessons so that I have flexibility for breaks, etc. When they are finished, I print them & place them in the appropriate subject section in their portfolios. I'm contemplating removing the date column since they will be using agenda books. I may just track their days by storing their completed weekly agenda sheets.

I try to plan systematically.

Math is pretty straight forward. Since we use Saxon, I merely need to note the lesson number/test number in sequence. I did add some notes on Latin & additions I'd like Cassie to make to her history timeline when she comes to certain lessons. (ie Pythagoras) Because I already have the texts for next year for math, these lessons are finished.

History depends on which child. Jacob is using Abeka & I assign him a section each day which will require reading & questions and possibly some geography work. I want to be better at knowing which timeline figures he will need in advance to add to his timeline next year. Jessica is using The Story of the Constitution & the Land of Fair Play. I'm in the process of planning the former. She'll be assigned the chapter to read on Monday, Review exercises on Tuesday, Essay Questions on Wednesday, Timeline & Notebooking on Thursday, and Testing on Friday. Cassie will do something similar with Streams of Civilization 2. (She's currently on Vol 1 & Reads the chap on mon, completes vocabulary on tues, completes a study guide that I prepare on wed, reviews with me on thurs, and tests on fri. This is every/other week as she works on projects/essays on the off weeks.)

LLATL is also straight forward. It is sectioned in such a way that we split it into sub-lessons for each day. Lesson 1.1 is mon, 1.2 Tuesday, 1.3 wed... Spelling also has various activities on various day (see Donna's notes on planning for the Natural Speller). I no longer do spelling with Cassie, Jess will be using CLASS curriculum next year, but for Jacob ... I will look through his LLATL lessons & make weekly lists from Natural Speller to correspond to the spelling rules he will learn each week. Vocabulary from Classical Roots is much like Spelling.

Science gives me a bit of a headache. I try to realistically assign a consistent number of pages to read every day. We use apologia. I've not used the Young Explorers yet so I'm excited to see it! The higher levels we read, answer the "on your own" questions in a spiral notebook that goes into the binder, perform experiments & place write-ups in binder, complete study guides & place in binder, and recreate figures from the text for the binder.
etc. etc.

The one thing that I will add to next year is a weekly index for myself. As I put together their agenda assignment pages for each week, I will put together a spreadsheet for me to see what child is doing what on each day. This way I'll be able to be more available knowing who will need me for what. I've noticed we have a lot of waiting-for-mom-so-I'll-goof-off going on this year. Every monday morning I sit down & open their lesson plan file to see where they are and what I'll assign this week according to what our life is like at that particular time. I then simply note it on their assignment sheet, also excel & then print it for them. I used to copy & paste it onto a daily checklist, but I've condensed the columns so that they could have a week on 2 sheets. I'm more or less retyping an abbreviated version now.

Wow. If you read through that I'm impressed. Hope it made sense.

I like to plan. My children need organization and so do I. I use spreadsheets, and put down the page number for each workbook. It is placed in a binder or stapled to the workbook, for each child. Anna is very diligent and always marks everything off. My son doesn't...and he is the one who needs it. I don't mark down a date, because if we have an illness, and need to skip a day...it would just mess it up. This allows me to see quickly, where we are. For science and history, I make a schedule for myself, again, without specific dates. I keep a list of what things I need for projects, so I can plan ahead. We do science and history together ... except, I believe next year, science maybe different. Anyway, that is it in a nutshell!

I sketched out the year on what we wanted to cover in science, social studies, art appreciation, and music. The first two are done with unit studies and have related themes that have to be organized, and library books ordered ahead of time each month.

I plan one month ahead on what math, phonics, reading lessons, spelling, etc we need to cover. I have to do this because I never know how fast we will be able to cover certain topics.

I also plan our field trips one month ahead. We usually do one a week, plus one park morning (2 hours) with our friends. I don't usually have the calendar until one week before the new month starts.

I type up a chart each month, including resources and books that I have ordered on each topic. I have blank lesson plan sheets that I fill out each night when the girls go to bed of what we have covered. Whatever we missed during the day, I make first priority for the next day.

It is half organized, half on the fly. It leaves plenty of room for flexibility.

I enjoyed reading how everyone else approaches things, and I hope you find a system that works for you.

You guys are SUCH an inspiration! I love this site!!!

Wow! Thanks. Lots of great info here. After this thread and a very inspirational business trip Fri/Sat I know what I am going to do as far as organizing AND planning. I am heading out to Walmart after church to get a work table, a bookshelf and some more bins. As for planning I decided I am going to do a general plan in the lesson plan book I already have and then on loose leaf paper I am going to detail the lessons that aren't already detailed in a teacher manual. I will just do 2 weeks at a time. I think for now we are going to keep the kids using their binders and loose leaf paper instead of the spirals. The spirals seem to get trashed easy around here. Thanks again for all the great ideas!

I am overwhelmed by all the school stuff! I was wondering what type of systems some of you use to keep their work together. Right now each boy has a HUGE binder with tabs of all their subjects. I am wondering though if having a separate notebook for each subject would be better. Plus we have some spiral notebooks. I am thinking we should use all loose leaf paper and then things could really be put together better.

Also, do you keep just one reading log or do you have reading logs for each subject?

We use crates, spirals and pocket notebooks, also one or two three ring binders. Every child has a crate and in that crate goes his school items. Then they each have a pocket pouch with pencils, erasers, and so forth. I keep the hard back and reference books on the shelf and each shelf has a topic. The main topic shelves are History, Science, Language Arts, and Mom's. Then we have miscellaneous, a couple of paperback shelves and a couple of shelves for over size books.

I like the 70 page spirals for my lot, they are filled before they become trashy looking. On the front I write the subject, date started and date finished. Oh, and each child has a color Sarah is red, Laura is blue, Esther is green, Yosi is Yellow and Yochi is to be Orange. This way just by colors in the crate or of the item I know who it belongs to. I match all the spirals, pocket folders, pouches, and anything else even calculators, rulers, and protractors. They don't switch colors once they are assigned, Sarah has used red since she was in the 3rd grade when Laura was given blue in 1st. That was 7 years ago.

With five at the table every bit helps.

Okay, well I always like to have people feel comfortable and happy in my home, so I tell them that my house is the way it is so that they will feel good about their own less than stellar housekeeping.

Seriously, we do all of the above and I try really really hard not to keep something when I don't need it any longer. EAsier said than done.

I use Duotangs of different colours for each subject. Since I photocopy a lot of stuff we just have to three hole punch the pages and put them in the Duotang. I have a binder for math.

On the back of my pantry door are plastic hanging letter holders that I got at a business store. They are pretty flat to the door so they don't interfere with contents in the pantry. The top holder is for things to be marked. I can just grad what I need to view when its time for me to sit down and look. Each holder has one or two subjects in it. The lower ones for the junior children and the upper ones for senior children.
The best part is at days end its all away, neat and clean and I can regain my kitchen table.

My kids each have a binder for each school subject. And they each have just one reading log, and those are filed in their portfolios that we have to maintain for the state.

I was trying to have my kids keep one notebook for each subject and have them keep them on their desks in bins. That hasn't worked yet. I really should go get some crates. I think that would work better.

We put everything that is not in a bound workbook (math, phonics, spelling) in page protectors in a 3 ring binder. Each year gets a shelf or more on our bookshelves. I try to keep them separate as it is easier for me. But I do have two shelves with readers on them. I am however looking for something for the teachers manuals so that I can keep them separate they take up a lot of room on the bookshelf. I also think it would be nice if all of my books were in one place. We have a pencil case for stuff like that but it is too full and I need a better idea there. Will be thinking on it. I put our science experiment supplies in a plastic tote. that is working out nicely so far.

I do pretty much the same as wings. Except I didn't color code the same way. Last year when we were starting out I tried color coding by subject. Yuck, didn't like it. I may try to switch to color coding by child next year. We have a storage room that we have made into a school room. There is an old kitchen table for the kids to work at & a desk organizer on it for pencils, pens, etc. We have a shelving unit that runs the span of the room in which I use as well. Each child has a crate turned on its side to house their books etc.

Each child has a history/geography binder that houses their timelines, projects, daily questions, etc. They each have a binder for language arts, in Jacob's binder he also has a spiral notebook for spelling & another for composition. Each child has a binder for science and a spiral for math. There is more, but you get the drift.

I have a portfolio with documents, reports, and lesson plans for each child for each year.

The shelving space is divided into sections, reference, the kids' crates, supplies (we have containers of markers, glue, colored pencils, crayons, paper, art stuff, music stuff, etc.), non current texts/curriculum, free reading, and teaching helps.

I also have a small desk with a 2 drawer file where I keep all of my current teacher's editions and my supplies. I also have 4 stacking letter trays for pocket folders. Each child has a pocket folder for daily handouts, completed assignments (unless in there notebooks), graded assignments that need reviewed, and reviewed assignments that have been corrected and need to be recorded and stored. Other than that I have small stackable containers on my desk holding sharpies, highlighters, dry erase markers & erasers.

I have a small rolling table that stands fairly tall to hold all of our lab supplies. Very useful for my 9th grader in biology.

I think that's about it. I just get this all set up & then we move to an apartment.

I'm tired and have not read all the responses so this may be a repeat.

One thing we do for math and spelling or other things that get written on notebook paper is we have a one spiral notebook for each subject. My kids work in the notebook BUT we don't tear out the pages. When they fill it up we get a new one. This keeps all the work together, in order and easy to keep track of.
I have binders for loose pages, they file every Friday. I put completed workbooks into a box... all of my kids have a box full of work. I don't know why I keep it.... I never kept stuff when they went to school ... I guess I want proof we did something ... in case anyone wonders!

My daughter uses a drawer in our breakfront, she uses a drawer for her school things,then the other drawers are used for art supplies,computer supplies,top drawer is other desk supplies. It also has side cabinets,the right side has board games,the left side has my tools.

I like a lot of everyone's ideas

Lots of good ideas ladies! Thanks!

I already have a rubbermaid bin for each of the boys and one for myself. We are currently doing school all over the downstairs and I really want to get us upstairs in the game room. I want it to be a "classroom" of sorts but everyone is objecting because it is the "game room"- well the game room never gets used. The pool table that hubby and the boys HAD TO HAVE hasn't been touched in eons so I figured it is the perfect room. We actually started school there and ended up downstairs- so we already have a giant whiteboard up there. Now, if I can get all our materials and paper etc etc up there, I will be one happy teacher. I would like to set up book shelves- I love the idea of labeling the shelves by subject.

There are some great ideas here. Thanks! I am organizationally challenged. I was doing so well at the beginning of the school year but I've been letting the stuff pile up for months now.

This changes for us each year it seems. I finally feel this year we are more organized than in the past. My children are old enough now to tell me how they want it. I was organizing their stuff by subject and well, it seems that doesn't work best for them. Their lesson plans were by subject but now it's weekly with all subjects on the same page. We finally went out and bought them a bookcase just for their books. I have 3 children and this bookcase has 4 shelves. 1 shelf for each child and the top shelf holds little wooden bins where they keep their pencils, pens, markers, ruler, etc... It's working great so far! After that they have most of their books with a notebook or folder/paper/binder. I let them keep it the way they want as long as they keep what I think they need (ie enough paper, organized, etc..) I finally took over the bottom shelf of the main big bookcase and all my teacher manuals are there. I have a gathering basket (about 15x10) in the living room where they are to put any books, papers that need to be graded. We have several bookcases in and around the house but the main bookcase are the books we actively use this year. That includes readers, resources, etc.. I have it organized by subject - science is one shelf, history another, geography, art and dictionaries another, etc....

What I did varied a bit from year to year. I never had more than one binder until high school. For a few years in a row, I had tabs for the subjects and these were grouped for each child. I only have two children though, so that wasn't too much but there was still an element of imperfection in the system.

I assigned colors to my children as well.

There are some great ideas for keeping everything organized! I really like the crate idea. Right DS stuff is all over the house, would be nice to have it all in one place during the week.

I do have folders for each subject and the weekly assignments go in the folders. they are the two pocket kind.... so one side is to be completed and the other side is to be graded (I got this idea off of someone on here). I do have a closet (I bought it at Lowes, it has double doors.... one side has a bar to hang stuff from and the other side has shelves and there is a shelf that runs across the top.) on the top shelf I have binders for each subject and then one large binder for his portfolio, also on this shelf are his board games. On the hanging side, I have some evan moor units, and on the floor of that side are things like poster board, rolled up project paper. on the side that has the shelves I have all of the work books and text books. it is NOT organized. I have tried to organize it several times but everything I try fails. I may try some of the suggestions on here.

This was a friend of mines idea but I thought it was brilliant. I scan my kids work that I want to keep and put it on a disk, there for I don't end up with a million boxes of stuff. Some stuff I keep in original form but most gets scanned. Each child has his own disk.

OOOHH. I love that scanning idea, Thanks! I have bookcases galore in our schoolroom, and I have all of the books separated by subject and grade. There are also shelves for their colors, games, all of that. We are not as organized as all of you. I have started a binder on each child, I do like that. SO, we have been filing things on Fridays. We have a 5x7 table that my husband built for me to use for scrapbooking, but I use it for school instead.
The girls all have a plastic bin they keep their stuff in on top of the table. Mine is just stacked in the middle of the table. I keep all my original copies of lesson plans, attendance, grades, all that in a binder I made for me on school.(Got this idea from Gayle Graham's book "How To Homeschool) I have a 4 drawer filing cabinet that I keep flashcards, charts,extra spirals, pens, that kind of thing in. My my husband made me a poster keeper, that I use for all of my bulletin board stuff and big maps. Then I have a 5x8 white board in that room. We got lucky when we bought this house in that it has a room the size of a double garage that we use for the school room. We have a separate area in the same room that we use for art day.

We have one of those boxes from Office Max which you can put hanging folders in. I have folders for each subject. Whenever I print something off the internet I file it that night. Plus I have one notebook for the kitchen table that has print outs and assignments I want to cover for that week.

She has all the fiction books on a huge bookshelf in her room. I have all the rest of the books in our office/library. Her math workbook, Phonics Pathways and First Lang Lessons seem to reside on the kitchen table at all times... its just easier to reach when I need them.

I have two reading logs. One is part of my lesson plan book and that includes all books she and I read; the other is a list of books she reads to me, and those are little sheets which get added to a little 3 ring. Each has ten spots for her to add stamps for each book she reads. Once she reads 10 books she earns a reward.

Her finished work goes in a boot box in order that she completes it. Newest stuff on top.

Hope you find a system that works for you!