Many ladies have already begun the new homeschool year, and some, like myself, are getting ready to begin, later this month. I think it is important to make sure that each child has easy access to their assigned schoolwork for the day, and that you do, too. Here's what we've been doing for quite a few years now, and it works great...
I have a little set of wire shelves, with four shelves - since I have four children. Each child gets their own shelf. Each morning, after they are done with their room chores, but while they are waiting for breakfast, they can go to their own shelf, and grab some schoolwork that needs to be done for the day, and begin.
As the day progresses, the kids put their completed work back onto their own shelf. After lunch, I grab the completed work from their shelves and start looking over their work. I then start setting up the next day's work, and that goes onto their shelves. By the evening, all schoolwork for the day is done, and put away, and all schoolwork assignments and lessons for the next day are set up, and on their shelves. This way, we don't lose books, and they stay in good condition, because they are not just thrown around. Further, I can look in their shelves in the afternoon to see how much they've gotten done, and they can just grab their work and start early in the morning, before the breakfast homeschool meeting, if they want to get a head start on the school day.
What about books that are used a few times a week? For example, we do grammar two days a week, so where is the grammar workbooks, when it's not a grammar day? Well, I keep the grammar books on their shelves, but it will be more at the bottom, and no new lessons will be circled in it, yet. In addition to putting their books and assignments on their shelves each day, I also include a day's assignments list on the whiteboard, which is by their shelves. This way, they can look at the subjects/assignments list on the whiteboard, if they are unsure if they have grammar that day, or Latin, or cursive, etc.
I put printed out worksheets that are independent of workbooks on the very top of everything on their shelves each day.
As for group lesson text books, those go on another set of shelves that I have, in the same area. This second group of little, wire shelves have three shelves. The top shelf contains stuff we use daily, such as our read aloud books, an extra Bible, our devotional books, etc. If there is room, I'll keep some of our main group lesson textbooks, like the history and science books, on that shelf as well. The top shelf is also where I usually keep the teacher's guides for grammar and math. If the top shelf gets a bit crowded, then I move the history and science textbooks to the top of the second shelf.
The second shelf contains group lesson books that we mainly use as supplements to our main lessons, or as references. I also keep our anatomy, geography, and spelling pages on that shelf. The bottom shelf gets anything else we use on occasion, but not every day in our school week.
Now, you may be wondering where I keep teacher's guides and books that are not in use for the current school year, but will be brought into use in an up-coming school year. I keep the ones that I know we will be using in my bedroom, in a dresser, with each drawer organized so that I can find the next year's teacher's guides, etc.
Books that get used here and there, on and off through the years that are not official textbooks or workbooks, are on a third set of shelves in our homeschool area. These are the biggest shelves in that area. It is a wooden bookcase, which has three long shelves. The other extra books go there, which also includes some of the books from the children's reading lists (some of their reading list books are in e-book format, and are read on their tablets). On top of that short set of shelves we have an old-style, school pencil sharpener, attached to the bookcase for ease of use, extra pencils, colored pencils/crayons, a dictionary, a history timeline book, extra erasers, extra paper, etc. It's our homeschool supply central, basically.
You do not need a whole room in your home dedicated to homeschool. We never have, and I've never wanted to do that. Of course, if you want to do that, that is fine. You should school your children where you feel comfortable. Our homeschool classroom is in our dining room. Group lessons are done at the family table, and then the kids are free to do their individual assignments at the table, in their bedrooms, in the living room, sitting at the breakfast bar, or wherever in the house (and sometimes back patio) they want.
In the center of our dining room/homeschool "classroom" is our six seat table. Against the far wall of our dining room is my treadmill. The homeschool bookshelves are along that wall, next to my treadmill, and on the wall above the shelves is our large dry-erase whiteboard - easily viewable from the table. Perpendicular to the "homeschool wall" is our breakfast bar, complete with two breakfast stools, giving two more options of seating while in our homeschool room/dining room. The other two sides of our dining room open up to the foyer, and the family room.
Before closing this particular installment, I think I should mention a moral issue... I'm a proponent of HOME school, and not public school at home, as you have likely taken note of through this series. Some homeschool families like to pledge allegiance to the flag at the beginning of their homeschool day. We don't do this, nor do I recommend this. Now, some people automatically have a knee jerk reaction to hearing that, and assume we are unpatriotic, or worse. This is not the case. We don't pledge allegiance to the flag, because as Christians, that is wrong to do.
As Christians, God MUST be first, even and especially before the country in which we reside. How can we expect or hope for our country and our homes and families to receive God's blessings, if we don't put Him first, and do what He commands?
Here's the cold, hard truth, brethren: Pledging allegiance to the flag is a form of idolatry, and is breaking at least two laws given us by God to follow. First, it's breaking a specific rule that Jesus gave us, and that James reiterated. As Christians, our 'yes' should be 'yes,' and our 'no' should be 'no.' To have to go further than those are of evil. Pledging is more than just a yes, and should not be needed by a Christian, for we should have the utmost integrity.
Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne: Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King. Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. -Matthew 5:33-37
But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation. -James 5:12
Pledging allegiance to the flag - 'pledge' - according to dictionary.com, a pledge is "a solemn promise or agreement to do or refrain from doing something."
'Pledge' is synonymous with promise, swear, and oath. The two above scriptures are explicitly clear that Christians are NOT supposed to do that. Therefore, we cannot, under the Word of God, pledge allegiance to the flag.
Yes, this also means we are not to sign contracts where we say we swear to something. We can legally cross out the word "swear" or its synonyms, and write in "affirm," initial that change, and then sign the contract. We are also not to swear in a court of law, but we may affirm that we will tell the truth.
Okay, so what about 'affirming allegiance to the flag,' then? Change up a few words? Nope. " Allegiance" is synonymous with "homage," "devotion," "faithfulness," "obedience," and "consecration," etc. Our allegiance is to be to God. We can be law abiding citizens, but our allegiance goes to God. If this land's laws try to force us to disobey God's laws, then we are allegiant to God. If this land's laws forbid us from doing something that God commands, then our allegiance is to God.
Pledging allegiance to a flag is a form of idolatry:
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them -Exodus 20:4-5a
If we want God to bless our home schools, we need to make sure we are following Him, and His commandments, regardless if our church is, regardless if anyone else around us is. God first.
In the next installment of this "Homeschool Plan With Me" series, we will make homeschool notebooks for each of our children. (This is going to be fun!)
