heartofdakota.com

I know that we don't "have"' to prep anything, it's so open and go. But, I feel like every minute is so precious and I have so little to waste if I'm really going to do everything. Is there anything anyone does beforehand to save those few minutes of looking for things, or gathering items? When I look at the time given in some schedules for completing an activity, it seems impossible. I can see the work getting done in that time, but not with getting the marker board out and the markers, for example. I feel like I'm pretty organized but it still takes time. Does anyone gather all of the supplies for activities or art projects in the younger guides for the week and have them in one spot? Maybe that's what I need to do--or I want to skip because I don't want to take 15 minutes gathering the stuff. Just wondering if anyone else struggles with this and has some ideas of time savers.

The only thing we spend any amount of time looking for each day is pencils. Somehow, no matter how organized I am, pencils disappear.

Everything else is in pretty much the same place all the time, paper, etc.

Then once they get into Bigger and Preparing I make them gather everything as part of their independent work.

Haha. I almost said that pencils were ALWAYS being searched for--drives me crazy. I didn't because I thought surely I'm the only one and there's something wrong with me that we can't find the 100 pencils that are floating around somewhere.

Good idea to have them gather the stuff in independent time. I keep trying to think of more independent things for the youngers to do. I think I have a control issue and don't assign some things to them because I want to make sure it's done correctly. Like, yesterday, I had my Bigger guy do a page of cursive without me first going over it. He did the letter the wrong way because he didn't read the little paragraph of instructions at the top. He is capable of reading it, but I usually do it with him. So, he had to redo the page. Maybe I should always let him do it and if he keeps having to redo he will start reading the directions!

I like to read and follow the Getting Ready posts for Bigger and up. It isn't a lot of prep, but some of the guides need a few copies made, etc. I did it a few weeks ago for Bigger even though it will be a month or more before we start it. Most of these posts can be found on that guide's page here in the main HOD board.

I keep each kid's art and science supplies in a plastic tote marked with the guide name. FYI, Goof Off does a fantastic job of removing permanent marker so I can re-label Also, all general supplies are in baskets or on a tray on a shelf in the kitchen *schoolroom*. I just need to be active in making kiddos put things away...

Essentially, no, there's nothing I do daily to prep for the day.

My younger, non-independent ones keep their guide, all their books, their binder with plain paper where we do the written answers (questions after Burgess, drawings, etc.) and a pencil case with pencil, crayons/pencil crayons, scissors and glue stick, all in a bucket that they bring with them (from the office to the couch) when they are ready to work.

That said, I do the beginning-of-the-year stuff before we start (binders, notebooking pages, dividers, school supplies, a buckets to hold each child's books, a nice book tote for in the living room to all the books I read with the kids, etc.) and every few weeks I spend longer than I like planning DITHOR (next year they will all have HOD book packs!).

Otherwise, the daily things that come up we just do as we need them: copy a worksheet for grammar, find a pencil, gather science lab supplies, grab a sheet of colored paper, find a pencil , etc. I can barely keep on top of the very little correcting that I need to do, never mind prepping for what's to come. And pre-reading, well, that's another story! (Maybe I can read some Extension or DITHOR books for fun this summer?)

Blessings,

Each of my boys has a small desk organizer that has pencils, scissors, glue and crayons. I have a big bin that has all other supplies like playdough, paint, yarn, construction paper, etc. With this, it is just a matter of grabbing what we need. Our marker board is right where we work. I do look at the next day as soon as we finish school for the day and get out any worksheets, etc. I skim to make sure there isn't something I don't have needed (rarely), and make sure everything is put back and organized. That takes 15 minutes or so and then I am ready for the next day.

We are finishing up LHFHG and my older is doing spelling and math from Beyond but I almost always prep everything the night before. I clean the kitchen and lay out all their school books in the order we will be using them. I look at what supplies we will need for any activities and have them set out and ready to go.
It goes really smoothly that way and I definitely prefer starting school with everything all out and ready to go. We eat breakfast and dive in and everything is THERE on the counter, no trying to find supplies at the last minute. Makes for a peaceful stress-free morning...well usually lol. HTH!