Systems for schooling at home seem to have an ebb and flow to their functionality. We try one fantastic way of doing things one year and then for one reason or another it is superseded by the next fantastic way of doing things. So this year I'm lovin' a small new part of our system that seems to have risen to the top.
These are our pencil bins. I know what your thinking, every school has those! Yep. But when all your supplies are commonly shared somehow this way of convenient organization seems a little over kill. I was wrong. This is sanity at it's finest, either with a class of 30 or just 4.
Inside they have minimal necessities but the ones that always get lost in the shuffle again and again. The older two received their own private set of excellent coloured pencils which they keep in pristine condition because they aren't at the mercy of "community usage" any longer. To that I added one good drawing pencil for art class. And for everyday writing they chose a mechanical pencil each with a different grip color. Knowing who's pencil is who's may seem like a small detail but it has saved many a days job of claiming a lost pencil's owner.
George is still using a classic Ticonderoga yellow #2 along with a new pack of crayons. Although I can see him making the coloured pencil leap before the year is through. Annika still enjoys the jumbo size and is quite effective at bringing every point down to a stubby nub of a crayon.
Unintentionally I purchased clear and easily stackable boxes. I have loved that aspect more then I thought. They are stored on a shelf among books so I decided to number the ends for quick-glance availability. It has made them a very fluid part of getting the tasks at hand finished smoothly.
Not to be out done, our binders got a face-lift this year as well. I wanted the visual aspects of organizing our work to be just as inspiring as the pages that would fill them. Clean and simple seems to have fit the bill. Nicholas' subjects are in black lettering and Peter's are in red. George and Annika each have one binder. In years past I haven't started the binder system till grade school but boy do they love collecting their creativity just as well!
They best part is it's all reusable for next year. And I do believe that this fantastic system might just have some staying power for years to come.
