Organization - The Key to Saving

As I have continued to think about the coming years and our plans, I keep finding resources ALL OVER my house that I bought and stowed away! Videos, thematic units, workbooks, flocabulary study guides, reading books, magazines, free kits, kits she received as gifts....the list just goes on and on. As I stumbled upon the Hip-Hop U.S. History: The New and Innovative Approach to Learning American History (Flocabulary Study Guides) this afternoon I felt the urge to post a message... 

I CANNOT STRESS STRONGLY ENOUGH HOW MUCH ORGANIZATION IS THE KEY TO NOT WASTING MONEY ON RESOURCES!!!!!!

Some handy tips to live by - 

• Pick a location to keep all of your resources and force your self to store them all in one location - ESPECIALLY if it is something you are fairly certain you won't use for awhile.
• Before you purchase something new check that location to see if you already have it or something very similar to it - I can't tell you how many math workbooks I have gotten and then realized "OH that's why it looked SOOOO familiar!" 
• Check with your library before you buy to see if they have it, borrow it and then IF you like and you will use it for longer than you can manage to get it checked out for using yours, your spouses, and all your children's library cards then buy it. 
• Check with a friend to see if they have or have had this resources and what they thought - if they have it are willing to let you borrow it - GO FOR IT!!!
• Think long and hard about how much time your child is likely to actually spend on a particular topic. Although it is really great to have options TOO many options can be overload and cause the child to run and hide just from the mere thought of having to USE ALL of the resources you have obtained!
• Check PAPERBACKSWAP!!!! - I have saved thousands of dollars getting guides, living books and textbooks through this site - it is not just for paperbacks!

What tips do you use when organizing resources? 

Transforming Space

One of our biggest changes this "school year" will be the loss of our "classroom". Really this was more of a work/craft/study/play room, but KM liked to tell people she had her own classroom. With the recent events around here though we have decided to give up this space to turn it into a room for DN.

So in light of this change, we reorganized some small lightly used areas to fit our learning tools...

We moved the spare counter shelf into the corner of the kitchen dining room and that will be used as a display area.

I consolidated the totes and moved around the boxes and shelves to get a more organized system for books and supplies. I set up a "command station" for myself in my bedroom. I also consolidated the hall closet and put some things in the attic to make room for the science equipment and extra books. Finally I use a set of old cabinets from when we remodeled our kitchen, for future curriculum storage.

I have heard from many people, especially those that have transitioned from PS, that they started out with a "classroom" and slowly worked away from it. This has been true for us as well, we have done lessons in various areas of the house since we started, but always had a specific "school" area and had the classroom for this past year. KM has been doing her lessons in her bedroom, curled up on the couch and out in the yard, more and more this summer, so really this won't make a huge difference. The biggest thing will be the lack of schoolly posters and such that will be up on a regular basis. We will probably still make some collages and such, but I think since KM is getting older and not really needing those repetitive visual cues.

We slammed this last week of summer session lessons into yesterday, so now we will have three weeks off. I am just about finalized - hahahaha - on next sessions picks and am looking forward to finishing up my responsibilities in the camper as well as getting into some fun fall activities around here. I will be sure to post a few reviews that I have been meaning to get to, as well as our final curriculum choices.