The "Spiral" Method of Homeschooling

Homeschooling can get messy.

With more than half a dozen subjects per child, the sheer volume of written work that needs to be organized and graded can be overwhelming. Until this last school year, my kids would write out any written assignments on a loose sheet of notebook paper. The paper would then get shoved into the workbook itself, it would magically find its way into a 3-ring-binder, or it would get hopelessly lost, never to be found again. Obviously this method was not an efficient process (and had a negative affect on my sanity).

Then last summer I happened upon a clearance sale at Target. They were clearing out tons of spiral notebooks, and the price was ridiculously low — less than 2 cents per notebook!

So I decided to clear them out of their stock and purchased over 100 notebooks (spending less than $2).

When I got home I separated the notebooks by color, pulling out the blue for Jerah, the green for Jaden, and the purple for Joely. Then I wrote the subject names in large, bold print on each notebook: science, math, history, Wordly Wise, grammar, writing, logic, and Lightning Literature. When school began last year and my kids had to write down answers or notes in any of their subjects, they just grabbed the appropriate spiral notebook.

I have to tell you that this method was such a lifesaver for us. Fewer papers were lost, and all their work in each subject was kept neatly in one place. It made checking their work a thousand times easiery. Seriously, I really don't know why I hadn't thought of doing it that way before!

But I do know we'll be continuing with this "spiral" method from now on. And I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for some more inexpensive notebooks. After all, this is all I have left for the upcoming school year — only 42 notebooks — and I know my kids will complain if I don't have enough of their colors …

Now it's your turn to link up. Do you have a homeschool- or education-related post? What has worked for you in educating your children? What did you do this week to satisfy your kids' thirst for knowledge?

And remember, you don't have to be a homeschooler to link up; all parents take part in educating their kids. Link up below. I'm looking forward to reading what you have to say.

How to Participate:

1. Please include your name and a short description of your Thirsty Thursday post in the Mr. Linky below.For example, Joy @ Five J's {Choosing Curriculum}
2. Please link to your specific post and not to your home page. That will make it easier for people to find your post.
3. Make sure you include a link back here from your post. You can link to my homepage, to this specific post, or to the Thirsty Thursday category itself (http://fivejs.com/category/thirsty-thursday/).
4. Including the Thirsty Thursday banner in your post is not required, but it is requested. You can grab the banner here. I ask that you download the image to your own computer; please do not link directly to the image on my blog.

Tagged as: Homeschooling, Thirsty Thursday