It’s important for scholars and their families to stay organized when choosing to learn from home through online education or homeschooling. Are books, videos, games and other school supplies starting to invade every room of your house? We’re sharing a few tips to help rid your home of clutter, organize your supplies and improve your time management throughout each day.
Here are a few ways to stay organized when school is at home:
Build A Calendar
Start by building an academic calendar. You can choose to build a calendar by weeks, months or even semesters. A basic calendar should include a topic of focus for each subject, test dates, project deadlines and field trips. Keep your calendar easily accessible and if possible, set reminders for each event to help your scholar stay organized. Once planned, try to avoid rearranging your calendar to avoid confusion and maintain a steady routine.
Create a Daily Schedule
To successfully learn at home, it’s important to create a daily schedule. We suggest that scholars start their day in the morning with a good breakfast and a change of clothes. When it’s time to start learning, try using a timer to give each subject an equal amount of time. A timer will also help give your scholar appropriate breaks throughout the day. You may want to consider focusing on the more challenging subjects in the morning when scholars tend to be more focused. While every scholar has a unique learning style, a semi-structured day tends to help them become more independent, self-motivated and responsible learners.
Create A ‘Classroom’
It’s important to eliminate distractions when learning at home. Consider creating a designated ‘classroom’ for school. Your ‘classroom’ should be well lit and clean to help your scholar stay focused. Try to keep most of your learning materials and lessons in this area of your home, it will help you and your scholar stay organized. Use your space wisely! Find creative ways to store your supplies, but make sure certain materials are easily accessible to your scholar. Your ‘classroom’ is also the perfect place to display your scholar’s work, like a painting or a high test score.
Color Code By Subject
When learning from home, try to avoid stacking paperwork for every subject into one large pile. Binders, notebooks and folders are great tools to help organize your paperwork. Try using separate folders or binders for each subject and color code your materials for each subject to stay organized. Storage drawers are also a very helpful tool because you can separate your materials for each subject into different drawers, and they don’t take up too much space in your ‘classroom’.
Bookmark Important Resources
Families that choose online education or homeschooling for their scholar typically have a variety of important resources to maintain. Try saving online resources, like websites, in your bookmarks tab so that you can easily access them on your computer. You may also want to consider keeping a physical record of your important resources. Write your important passwords and websites inside of a small notebook, then use that notebook when you choose to work outside of your home. Of course, guard this notebook carefully because it holds critical information.
Record Keeping
When learning from home it’s easy to let the paperwork build up. Try to avoid turning your graded papers, tests, post-it notes or projects into giant stacks of paper in your home. Instead, consider implementing a routine for processing. For example, have an “”inbox” of all the paperwork that needs your attention and sort through this box on a frequent basis. As you sort through your inbox, decide which pieces of paper need to be neatly filed away, displayed on the refrigerator or disposed. Of course, be sure to log important grades or scores to create report cards or transcripts later on.
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Interested in learning more about online education or homeschooling through Compass Charter Schools? Check out our academic programs, here. Or, contact our enrollment team at enrollment@compasscharters.org or (877) 506-8631.