My Imperfect Homeschool.

 The folks at Sonlight are hosting a blog party!  I thought perhaps I shouldn't participate, because the theme this month is, "share your best homeschool organization tips."  And I just don't organize all that terribly well.  I can find everything I need (important skill to have!) but I just don't have a dedicated school-room, storage cubes from IKEA, and cute colour-coded themes for the room, posters on the wall, that sort of thing.

But I decided to go ahead, make the jump, and blog what I'm really up to here anyway.  And the reason for that is simple:  I know myself.  And I know people like me.  If I'd've seen the expensive get-ups "everyone else" has for home-educating their children, I might've been a bit put off the whole idea.  So I want to encourage you if you're thinking about homeschooling, that you really don't need that much stuff.  Some books and worksheets, yeah.  But nothing super-elaborate in terms of organizing and filing things away.

I've been homeschooling for over nine years now, so if I were ever going to get my act together and splurge on something like that, I'd have done it by now.  Instead, I use a bookshelf for our "daily" things.  Because I've homeschooled for quite some time and my older children are done with expensive materials, stuff for future years is stored in Rubbermaid containers.  Ever see Hoarders?  Not that bad.  But just imagine several of these in my basement.

Woodjie and Rose's folder.  Emperor's folder is above it.

The one thing I did get from IKEA are the magazine holders you see in the top picture.  That's it.  I use them to hold the textbooks and things we use on a daily basis.  I spent maybe $10 on those.  We work through workbooks and I pop loose sheets into a binder so I can prove I wasn't just sitting around all day with the kids watching Wild Kratts on TV.

Yeah.  A tote basket in the corner holds little crafty things, and I pop dry-erase boards behind it.  It looks a little messy but it works for us.

Games!  And assorted educational "manipulatives" and stuff.  (And unburnt candles.  My system for figuring out where everything is is probably different from the one you'd use in your home...)

My dining room table without schoolwork.  But you can see Woodjie's soft "woobie" cloth and his weighted vest.  (He's autistic and these things help him concentrate/ not pull his hair sometimes.)