Homeschool Organizing Ideas I'm Stealing This Week

This post will probably end up being rather random so bear with me. They will, however, all be related to making my life easier. 


When I'm trying to work with one of my boys or talking on the phone, one of my children IS going to want my attention for something else. It's just the way it is. My three year old is especially demanding and doesn't seem to understand like the idea of waiting. He and my seven year old can get rather loud when they need me. Tomorrow, I am going to try to find some cute little people clips like the ones at Confessions of a Homeschooler. Or if I can't find those, I may just decorate some clothes pins. And then we will promptly start learning how to be quiet and wait until Mom is available. They will each have their own colored clip that they will simply attach to my shirt if I am busy to let me know they need me. When I'm available, I'll go to them. Sounds good, anyway.

We began using workboxes last school year with NG and IB. NG really liked knowing what to expect, being able to work independently {read: not having to wait on Mom}, and seeing how close he was to being done. So far this school year, I haven't stuck to the workboxes very well but I did change over to the file version for NG and the drawers for IB. Now I am getting my act together and committing to using them again. But I needed some inspiration for tweaking them. I really like the schedule grids for each day of the week at Ginger-Snap-Shots, so you don't have to redo them every night. She has even uploaded the blank grids and activity cards for us to print off. And I plan on adding a chore chart to the ring with the schedule grids just like Homeschool Creations does. They both keep the small activity cards on the grid by just flipping them over, thanks to a small velcro dot on both sides. 

We have an office/school room but it's too small for a table, so we do most of our work at the kitchen table. We have been remodeling our kitchen a little at a time and we're just about ready to paint. My mom got me and Papa Bear Lowe's gift cards, so we're going tomorrow to get paint, curtains, and shelving for the walls. I would love to have a whiteboard mounted on the wall at one end of the dining area but Papa Bear doesn't really want the kitchen to look like we homeschool there. So, in order to satisfy both of us, I would like to do something like this. I'm still trying to figure out where to put the rain gutter bookshelves. I have also been doing some serious reorganizing in our house, mostly in our schoolroom/office today. I'll post pics once it's all done.

Do you have any homeschool organization tips to make my life easier? Have you tweaked the workbox method in a special way?