Creative Organization

I will admit it. Lately I've become a Pinterest-aholic. I can totally lose myself in the overabundance of ideas and creativity--from food to school to home decor, and so much more. Perusing the site the other day is actually what inspired this post. So, I thought I would share some of the fun ideas for some creative organization, not just for our homeschools, but for our home as well. 

Idea #1: A Chalkboard/Whiteboard Wall

I am so doing this when we get our house. Pick a space on the wall...or the whole wall, and turn it into an all purpose instrument for education and hours of fun. Man, with all the chalkboard ideas I've seen lately, my whole house could be a chalkboard. My other two favorites were the refrigerator door and the coffee table. 

Idea #2: Use Common Items to Separate and Store Art Supplies (and whatever you might find useful)

I keep seeing all these cute decorated sorters. People use soup cans, cheap plastic cups, flower pots, etc to store their crayons, markers, pencils, beads, buttons... You get the picture. I liked the idea I saw where they posted the cans on a painted strip of wood and attached it to the wall above the child's desk.

Idea #3: Creative Jewelry Organizer

Ever since the hanging heart my grandmother made me broke about a year ago, I've been searching for the perfect item to store my jewelry...and I finally found one to make! First, head to the hardware store and pick out a variety of hooks, knobs, and pulls, along with whatever size light-weight board you would like. At home, cover the board with any sort of decorative cloth you like, and then start screwing in the the hooks, knobs, and pulls in a fun arrangement. The knobs are for necklaces, the hooks for necklaces or rings, and the pulls for dangling earrings. Fun, right?

Idea #4: Fun Calendars

Every family needs a schedule, right? Especially busy homeschool families! I've seen a host of different ideas, from the typical wall/refrigerator calendars to large wall calendars. I like the fun ones that tend to be decorative as well as functional. I saw neat idea of buying some cheap picture frames and printing out a page for each day of the week. Then you use whiteboard markers and keep your schedule up for the week in a fun picture pattern. Don't forget the fun of picture/scrapbook calendars.

Idea #5: Flylady Steps

If you've never visited the Flylady site, you need to hop over for some great ideas. Two concepts that have been lifesaving for me: It doesn't have to be perfect (what!?) and you can do anything in 15 mins. One of my favorite exercises to do is to take three boxes into a messy area for TRASH, GIVEAWAY, or KEEP (but it goes in a different room). Then I spend 10 mins cleaning, and use the last 5 mins to put the boxes away. Trash goes out to the trash, Giveaway goes out to the garage, and I put all the stuff in the Keep box back where it belongs. Voila!

What fun tips and tricks do you have to share?

Seeds of Wisdom --- Read Alouds

Reading aloud is critical for helping children learn to read, so today, we share with you our favorite read-loud stories and activities that we use when we read them.

Aurie

Sophie loves all Thomas the Train books. She knows all the words, so she can finish the sentences and knows when I skip a word! Bella likes Goodnight Gorilla - which is so fun since there aren't any words to the story!

Beth

Goodnight Moon-The text is very poetic and children enjoy the way the words rhyme. If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff is also one we enjoy. You can use the "If You Give" books to teach alliteration, the repetition of consonants at the beginning of the words. A fun activity that you can do with elementary and even as a creative writing activity for middle schoolers is to rewrite one of the stories and choose their own words using alliteration. For example, "If you give a penguin a popsicle, he'll want to share it with the polar bears. You'll have to take him to the market to buy more. While he is there he will see a new scarf for his mom..." And so on. You can even throw in some art and illustrate the rewritten story!

Dorie

Over the years, we have read many great books, including some of the titles already mentioned. We like a variety of books, including classics, poetry, biographies, and historical fiction. Somehow, whatever book we are currently reading becomes our favorite for that time. However, my favorite books to read to them (so far) have been The Wheel on the School and The Wind in the Willows.

Jessica

I enjoy very lyrical books, like "The Big Red Barn" by Margaret Wise Brown and "Stellaluna" by Jannell Cannon. My favorite thing to read out loud to my children include poetry or non-fiction books, like "The Llama Who Had No Pajama: 100 Favorite Poems" by Mary Ann Hoberman, and the Usborn book "World Of Animals." Our favorite activity always seems to be discussion - my children are still talking about "Jabberwocky," the poem by Lewis Carrol that we read our first year of homeschooling together. I also like to have the children make a drawing of poems or animals from the books, and often their copy work is taken from something we are reading. My daughter recited the poem "Hippopatomus" from Mary Ann Hoberman's book for the party at the end of her kindergarten year - we had read it so many times, she just knew it by heart!

Marla

We LOVE read-alouds!  We read a variety of books, both fiction and non-fiction.  Our favorites are the Bible, the Brown Bear series books, the If You Give a Mouse series books, and the Berenstain Bears.  We like to color or paint pictures related to the stories.  We also do sequencing activities with the events from the stories.

Sam

We love choosing chapter books to read each evening. We vary between classics and more recent books. We also read Bible stories. One of our favorite non chapter books is "The Little House" by Virginia Lee Burton.

Tracy

Lunch time is often our read-aloud time, and I love choosing classics or children's abridged classics. We loved Charlotte's Web and Around the World in 80 Days. One of my children's favorite books (that I have memorized) is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. We have a Chicka Boom tree in our school room and add letters as we learn them. My favorite childhood memories are of my Mom reading to me. I hope to pass that to my children.

What are your family's favorite read-aloud stories?

Aloha!

Many, LORD my God,
   are the wonders you have done,
   the things you planned for us.
None can compare with you;
   were I to speak and tell of your deeds,
   they would be too many to declare. (Psalm 40:5)

I had a lot of ideas for this post.  I thought about sharing with you an idea for a game that will teach your children about electricity. And I never did finish my post about Making Good Memories.  So, this is going to be kind of a combo post, as well as my final post.  I have really enjoyed working with the ladies who contribute to Growing Your Homeschool.  I know they have been a blessing to me as well as many others.

I have learned so much in the last six months.  I have a degree in education and taught at a public school for two years, but homeschooling is a whole other can of beans.  When you are teaching in a classroom setting everyone automatically assumes you know what you are doing. (Well, for the most part anway.)  When you homeschool, everybody automatically assumes you don’t.  It can wear on you after a bit, especially when people close to you don’t get it. 

I want to encourage anybody that is new to homeschooling this year.  It is the end of October, almost November, and I am just now starting to feel like I am gaining momentum and pulling it together.  It takes time to work things out and figure out who you are as a homeschooling teacher, and also who your children are as learners.

Today I received Life of Fred, a math curriculum that combines literature with mathematics principles.  I had been really struggling with how to teach my son math.  I know what I would do in a classroom setting, but that was not going to work with him, so I had to find something new.  I am really excited about this new adventure, and I hope he will be too! 

I want to at least mention what was potentially going to be my third installment of Making Good Memories.  If you didn’t get a chance to read Part 1 and Part 2, just click on the highlighted links.  Morning and bedtime are really important times of the day.  I am still learning to be good at this, because usually I wake up dragging, and go to bed dragging.  But I endeavor every morning to tell each one of my children “Good Morning!” with cheer in my voice.  And before they go to bed at night, I pray, and sing them a song, and make sure they know I love them with a word, a hug, a kiss, and a big ASL “I love you.”

I have enjoyed so much writing for this blog.  We are moving soon, so I felt compelled to quit at this time to focus on my family.  I am very thankful for the opportunity to share with you some things I have learned along the way.

Many blessings to you all as you travel on this homeschool journey with your family.  I know God has great things planned for you!

In Christ's Love,

Beth