From Our House to Yours
Home more? This could be the perfect time to pick a project that solves a problem!
Due to the pandemic, many of us find ourselves home more. This could be the perfect time to tackle a homeschool project! Personally, I like to pick a project that solves a problem. If you are like me, you probably don’t have to look hard to find a problem! Have your children’s homeschool books outgrown their places to put them? This is the perfect time to try a new way to store them. Are all your Heart of Dakota guides and their resources getting jumbled together as your ‘library’ of them grows? This is the perfect time to try a new way to organize them. Are your children’s school supplies overtaking the house? This is the perfect time to tame them by delegating them to a new area. Hopefully your wheels are turning now, so let’s take a quick look at each of these projects!
Project #1: A New Way to Store Your Children’s Homeschool Books
Do you find your children’s books left out at the end of each day? Well, this could be because their books have outgrown their places to put them. When my children were younger, their books fit in a canvas cube or two. I’d have one cube for books they were using now, and one cube for books they’d use later. However, my upper middle school and high school students outgrew their cubes. So, to solve this problem, we put my youngest son’s books, notebooks, etc., in a pie safe in the living room. We put my middle son’s things in the bottom of the armoire we have in our dining room. My youngest son’s work table is in the living room, so the pie safe is conveniently close. My middle son works at the dining room table, so the armoire is convenient for him too.
Project #2: A New Way to Store Your Heart of Dakota Guides and Resources
When my children were little, I only owned a few guides. As my children grew, so did my number of Heart of Dakota guides and resources. Things started to get confusing! The boys each had HOD books they especially loved. When they were done with these books, they would disappear in their rooms among all of their non-school free reading books. Pretty soon, there were way too many books all mixed together.
So, to solve this problem, I bought a bunch of white address labels. On the right side of each address label, I wrote each guide’s acronym (i.e. CTC for Creation to Christ) and an abbreviated package title (i.e. DITHOR B 4/5 for Drawn into the Heart of Reading Boy Interest 4/5). Then, I wrapped the address label around the spine of the book (with the written part showing on the cover) and put clear packing table over the label. Now, I can easily look at my sons’ free reading bookshelves and round up missing HOD books. They all have white labels on the spines! I can also easily sort them into each year of HOD’s guides. Even the kids easily do this!
Project #3: A New Way to Store Your Children’s School Supplies
When my children were younger, their school supplies fit nicely in a tool turnaround. As they grew, however, so did their school supplies. Maybe you are finding the same to be true for your children as they mature and move through more of the guides! Each child still needed his own mobile tool turnaround of general supplies (i.e. crayons, colored pencils, markers, glue sticks, pencils, and scissors). But, one designated place was needed for the other supplies. For example, supplies like index cards, watercolor paints, paintbrushes, cardstock, paper punches, glue guns and sticks, colored construction paper, etc., worked better at one common location. So, my new project became clearing a portion of a main floor closet and organizing these supplies there. This is a project I revisit organizing every year or two! I hope one of these projects gives fresh inspiration during these days spent indoors!
In Christ,
Julie
This Post Has 2 Comments
How do you store all those beautiful notebooks they have made? My 2020 senior has a lot of notebooks.
Tammy
Good question, Tammy! I just worked through this project myself. In our basement, I put a few bookshelves I purchased very inexpensively (they are particle board). Each son has two shelves for his binders, and I lined them up from LHTH to USII. I stored any special over-sized projects that the boys wanted to keep on top of the shelves (i.e. their Beyond, Bigger, and PHFHG timelines; their CTC watercolor paintings, etc.). Another thought is to put the binders in a large clear plastic tub, turning the binders opposite ways (i.e. spine up, then spine down, etc.). As long as the binders fit snugly, they hold each other up nicely and stay well preserved. I did that for awhile with Wyatt’s things too! Hope this helps! Have fun with this project for all your son’s beautiful notebooks!!!
In Christ,
Julie