While I cannot say that I was the epitome of grace under pressure, I certainly did not have any homeschool poster children, either. There were thrown pencils and thrown fits. I did not throw the pencil. I refuse to comment on the latter.
But, there were good times, teachable moments, and between the tears, laughter and learning.
It certainly wasn't all sitting pretty in desks, but that's not really what homeschool is all about. We like to get up and move around. Some of us more than others. That may have led to some fit throwing.
I did finally find a system that really seems to help with organizing papers each week, though. I'm very excited about it and thought I would share.
Each of the three big girls have a weekly page of work for each subject. This way, they can learn to work independently and take some responsibility for getting their own work done. So far, only Jonah does this, but hopefully the younger three will soon learn that they can work at their own pace. There is a row for every subject we cover, including a row to jot down what books the girls read each day.
The sheets are filled out by me at the beginning of each new week and placed into our schedule folder.
As the girls complete their work, anything that is not in a workbook is placed onto thier tier on a bookshelf.
As the week draws to a close, I take each girl's portfolio and and in it place the weekly homeschool record and the stack of papers from their tier into the appropriate weekly tab.
It takes less than 5 minutes to file a week's worth of work for 3 children. And I use the completed week's page, plus our master schedule to prepare the next week's lessons.
