Real Life has been happening around here in the form of Back to School busy-ness. For the first couple of weeks, I hit the floor running and don’t stop until I collapse into bed at night. I like to start the school year with most of our work organized, but the days leading up to the first day of school can look a bit scary.
This was my desk, piled with (some of) the work to be sorted & filed:
I am going to turn the tables and ask YOU about Real Life and back-to-school.
Do you plan out your year, or just wing it?
I do a little of both. I divide up our books/workbooks by weeks and map out a general plan, but then give myself the freedom to add things or rearrange throughout the year.
Do you have to make a mess to get organized, or does the chaos drive you crazy?
I need to have everything piled up in front of me before I can start putting it in order.
How long does it take you to get back into the swing of things?
It takes us about two weeks of everyone moaning on the couch each morning before it becomes routine.
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I’m still reorganizing my bookshelves! I have to make a gigantic mess first and then do the sorting. The only fun part is finding books I’ve forgotten about and would like to use this year. We won’t even talk about my filing system or file cabinets . They are next on the list. Can you hear the sound of groaning? That’s me. Oh, how I long for a homeschool space that looks neat and tidy like the ones you see in magazines and blogs. My reality? I like things in their place. My kids? Lets just say nobody will be snapping photos of their bedrooms or bookshelves for a magazine shoot!
Every year I discover books that I have forgotten about!
I’m the same! I don’t know why, but everything get extremely chaotic and messy during the process of trying to get organized! I love to make plans, but I’m finally realizing that things often don’t go the way I plan, and that’s ok! Now, instead of trying to map out my plans on a daily schedule (which never lasts very long around here), I just made a list of the things I want to do with the each of the kids and I can check them off as we do them. I guess I’m getting more relaxed and not worrying about it as much as I did when we first started, which is much nicer 🙂
I had to back off of a strict plan too. Now I organize mine by week # instead of date so I haven’t messed up the whole year if we miss a week due to illness or something. Relaxed is better!