organization Archives - Growing In Grace

Tips for Growing Organizing Skills in your ADHD homeschool

November 2, 2022Tracy

Growing and cultivating takes time and patience. Nothing grows overnight. You can’t plop a plant in your garden and hope to pluck the first fruit tomorrow. Growing organizing skills and time management, particularly in a child with ADHD, takes time and patience. There is no “miracle-gro” for these executive functioning skills, and progress looks different for each child. With all that said, I want to walk you through some of the “baby steps” along the way that have helped us in growing organizing skills in our kids and give you an honest look at where each of them are today.

Tips for Growing Organizing Skills in your ADHD homeschool

3 ADHD Organization Tips for Staying on Track

October 13, 2022Tracy

I like to see my people happy. I like to see them succeeding and doing well. But one of the constant pitfalls for anyone with ADHD is organization: managing all the things and balancing the demands for time. Anyone who knows someone with ADHD or has ADHD themselves recognizes that personal time management and organization is a constant nemesis. Organizing one’s day, keeping track of tasks, prioritizing those tasks, understanding and realizing the passing of time or how much time a task requires, then being flexible when this hard-won plan has to be changed— these can seem like insurmountable odds. It’s that Frontal Cortex, that executive functioning that goes offline whenever it wants, reeking so much havoc in the life of someone with ADHD.

We experience this on so many levels. From my kids, to myself, to my husband, we all have our individual battles with this. And I hate to see the struggle and frustration it causes. So my life is very organized and fairly well structured because our routines are our lifelines, our coping mechanisms. So here’s a glimpse into the big picture of how we regulate our various strands of ADHD. In future posts, I’ll break down the baby steps that help us with organizing our ADHD, but for now, here are the ADHD organization tips that keep us on course.

Organizing Home and School

October 9, 2013Tracy

Last year, I used these really cool wall-adhesive charts to organize my life. But unfortunately, my WallPops did not survive the move. (They adhered to the wax paper and would not come off.) So I was left scrambling at the last minute before the beginning of school wondering how I was going to organize myself.

Thank the Lord for Target! I actually made the trip to look for toy bins for Middlest’s room and happened upon these terrific magnet dry-erase boards.

Of course, with my aversion for putting holes in walls, I hung them with command hooks and adhesives rather than the actual mounting kit. But so far, they seem to be holding well. And I do love to feel organized.

I actually use the calendar to record our school schedule, placing the subjects in the Sunday box and filling in the rest of the days with assignments for that day. This system works really well for me because it’s up on a wall where I can quickly glance to know what to do next with each child, rather than hunting down yet another notebook or loose piece of paper.

The larger week-in-view allows me to highlight specific events or appointments that we have during the week. I update it each week from our Google calendar so that I don’t overlook those important items. It might seem overkill for some people, but it has been a life-saver for me. While we were moving, I really felt lost without this item.

{sigh} So nice to see my life again, neatly arranged in little boxes with brightly colored markers. It helps me feel that everything is in its rightful place.

Structuring a new year: organizing daily assignments

August 14, 2013Tracy1 Comment

The last stage of my planning process for the new year was organizing the kids’ daily assignments. I used binders and pocket dividers for the weekly assignments last year. These worked fairly well; I liked that the kids could grab the binder and be ready for school on-the-go if necessary. I liked the independence that came from each child knowing what they needed to do without waiting for me. But the pockets did limit me to some extent with what I could put in their notebooks. Certain activities or crafts just didn’t fit.

Then there was the issue of where to keep the rest of their stuff—books, flashcards, charts, rulers, etc. I was totally fed up with wall hanging organizers and was ready for something new.

Here’s my solution. These open file boxes are economical and sturdy (got mine from Staples). Each child has 8 files; five for daily assignments, one for language charts and flashcards, one for math charts and flashcards, and one for completed assignments (until we can cull through them and throw them away). Plus, there’s room for their binders, notebooks, and school paraphernalia.

Inside the daily files (one for each day of our school week), I can distribute the assignments from my weekly file into their daily file. Reading books that I’ve assigned for Oldest can go inside the file for the appropriate day. Crafts for Middlest can fit in her files.

I’ve also provided each child with one pocket divider inside their notebooking binder; that way, they can easily pull assignments from their file and load into their pocket when we have to take school on the road.

{Sigh} It feels great to have my school room under control again. Let’s hope the implementation is as much fun as setting it up has been.

Other posts of interest:

Duct Tape Pencil Bags

July 26, 2013Tracy

I am loving this new duct-tape movement, with all the fun colors and patterns and creative projects. So, when I was trying to decide on a solution for the kids’ crayons, pencils, and other school accessories, I was delighted to run across this idea of a duct tape pencil bag from one of the young girls in our church.

I used two gallon-size zip-top bags, my hot glue gun, some velcro dots, and some fun duct tape.

First, I hot glued the bottoms of the two bags together. Then, I folded both bags in half and glued all the sides and the bottom.

Next, I placed velcro dots on both sides of the inner divider. This creates four pockets: two zipper pockets and two velcro pockets.

Last, I covered the bag with fun duct tape. If you are particular about your edges and patterns matching up, then I would suggest sticking with a solid color. But if you and your kids don’t care to have everything aligned, just pick your favorites and go with it.

I will add one word of caution. These bags must be climate-controlled. Middlest left her bag outside the day after I finished these. Not only did the crayons melt and create a huge mess, but the zipper of the bag melted and would no longer close. Thankfully, these are cheap and easy to replace, but beware!

Journaling the Journey

April 5, 2013Tracy2 Comments

I’m picking up where I left off nearly a year ago, journaling our journey. And I’m back for more than one reason. Of course, it’s nice to have these little journals, brief summaries of where we’ve been and what we’ve accomplished. But another reason is that I’ve missed having the opportunity to become vulnerable before you, to throw back the curtains and let you behind the scenes of our lives.

It’s easy as a blogger, as I go through my photo archives, to only present you with our triumphs and successes. After all, how many of us remember to grab the camera when the art project flops or our child is throwing a temper-tantrum.

The other side of the coin is that these journaling posts are hard for me to keep up with. I can’t schedule them ahead of time, and I don’t like to force myself into an appointment with my blog every Friday. So here’s the trade-off: I’ll journal our ups and downs as often as I can. Please don’t hate me if I miss a week, just kiss your babies and understand that I had to spend a little extra time that week doing the same.

So without further ado…

In my life this week~

This week has been jam-packed! From wrapping up Easter festivities to preparing for a Ladies Fellowship at our church, it’s been hopping around here. Not to mention that prepping lesson plans for the next nine weeks happened to fall this week as well. And throw in making curriculum decisions for next year while the sales are on.

But one delightful thing that I have been reveling in is the timing of our last unit of Tapestry of Grace ancient history. We’re studying the Roman Empire, the life of Christ, and the early church and martyrs. And in God’s perfect timing, Easter is kicking off our unit. We’ll be looking at “growing up where Jesus lived” and reading about those who gave their lives to share the gospel message.

Though it might not have been the timing I would have chosen, it is great timing.

I’ve also been reviewing a product with the kids that has really been helping Middlest with her phonics. I can’t wait to share with you.

The last thing on my agenda has been overhauling the school room. It’s been making me extremely claustrophobic. Hanging pockets are falling off walls; I’m drowning in kids’ artwork and work pages; and it seems like we have flash cards everywhere. So here’s what I’m asking help for this week.

Please give me ideas on how to organize the flash cards. We have all sizes, and everything on Pinterest assumes that my flashcards are all one size. These are what I have to work with.

Please, oh please! Leave a comment with your brilliant solution. I would forever be indebted.

Linked up to the Homeschool Mother’s Journal.

2012 School Room Renovations

August 14, 2012Tracy

With the demolition of our school room completed, we’ve been working on putting together our new school room and reorganizing for the new year. We decided to take down our old Chicka Boom tree that has graced our wall for over a year, and it left a big empty space begging to be filled.

Finally late one night as I waited to fall asleep, the idea occurred to me (because all the best ideas come before you fall asleep). We needed a skeleton for our anatomy study. I also wanted a Bible verse to center our study and set the theme. I googled, searched pinterest, and finally decided to just make my own. I printed the verse off on a piece of cardstock and got out our paint supplies. Then, we went outside, and the kids decorated our sign with their handprints and fingerprints.

I’ve also been working on organizing my teacher books. I’ve moved my actual curriculum plans to my household planner, but I still had to find a place for all the notebooking pages and activity pages, templates, and collated workbook pages for the year. I picked up some of the new Martha Stewart folders that have tabs on top for storage in a magazine holder (thank you Staples Rewards!).

My other organization problem is that Oldest’s books are getting to heavy for our pocket system. His pockets keep pulling the command hooks off the wall. So I’ve moved his books into a magazine holder on the desk and moved his flashcards into his pockets for convenient storage.