Staying Organized As A Homeschooler

ACK! Another year is upon us and am really excited! I love homeschooling. I love the books, the plans, the supplies, the eager little morning faces still in their pj's with uncombed hair ready to start each day, and I love the soul expansion that we all experience on this journey with our little ones, who are ever growing.

What I don't love is the clutter that will always be my house while I have these little homeschoolers. Most of the people who read this blog are homeschoolers, whether waldorf, montessori, eclectic, unschoolers, or one of the many other *types*. And we all realize that our children are with us 24/7 so we don't get those windows of time to declutter or clean up as we would if we were SAHM's with kiddos in school or even a working mom who could afford a housecleaner! (OK I admit I fantasize about how immaculate my house would be if my girls were in school sometimes - but I wouldn't have it any other way!). Anyway, add to that all the supplies that would normally fit in a large organized classroom - and, well...welcome to my home - and many other homeschooler's homes!

Yes, the girls do have chores, but I want them to experience their childhood to the fullest, so many days our house is full of everything imaginable, being used in their play. Some nights, I'm too tired to insist we all clean up. For our family, that's OK. I'm just not going to have that *perfect*, *not lived-in* house. I have a home.

At the same time, I realize that it can't be completely trashed or we can't function in it, so I do my best to keep us on schedule with our regular chore chart and a meal chart, which I don't always stick to, but I try to. I have found that just having one really helps. I can see what we did this week and what we forgot to do and I'm happy to see that I didn't set my standards too high and we can keep up with it, even if we skip a day here or there.

Daddy works a ton of hours, so he is exempt. But the girls and I each have one cleaning assignment per day. Mine are bigger than the girls, but that's how it should be. We work together to do what we need to.

So once that flows smoothly, it's much easier to add the additional duties of teaching (or learning together, as I prefer).

I am a bit OCD when it comes to organizing. It is my drug of choice - I just love schedules and calendars and plans - though I don't always stick to them. I tend to over communicate - can you tell? LOL!


For me, I need space to write out my thoughts. I create a 12 month calendar and start filling out important dates and things and I keep it handy. The way I broke down our Grade 2 year this summer with this chart was to:

1. Write at the top which block we were doing and which general theme (ie: for Sept, we're doing a 2 week form drawing review and a 2 week math review which will be tied into our studies of the Chumash people that inhabited our area)...That way, I can easily flip to a month and see which block we will be doing that month.

2. Immersing ourselves in classical books is one of the most important things to me so each month, I have chosen one or two books/novels that I will read to the girls that is somehow tied into our studies, the season, or their development. And the books are listed in the upper left corners before the dates begin for each month.

3. I filled in the festivals, birthdays, visitors, and important activities for each month, knowing more will be filled in with field trips and play dates throughout the year.

4. I also decided that this year, I would cover a story listed in the "Five in a Row" curriculum every two weeks for fun. I had purchased a bunch of the books when we first started homeschooling years ago, but found it was way too heady for 4 or 5 year olds (geography and the like), but I do think it can be a wonderful supplement for elementary aged children. I'm not knocking it, by any means, but for the delayed academics we honor in waldorf schooling, I found it conflicting if started at too young of an age. So I picked books and fit them in seasonally. We'll read them for fun and maybe pick some of the activities to do together.

We will add some more activities along the way - I'd like to do a daily meditation (or just quiet time) with the girls, some stretching, a daily evening walk with the dogs and my girls, pick up ice skating again, and things like that. Also, I need to plan out our foreign language and music program (still working on it) as we didn't jump into enough of a routine with it last year. We'll continue with the AMHC music program and I'm excited to start Jodie's Mesler's program, as well. The problem with foreign language for me has been deciding which one! Seriously - Spanish is so prevalent in So Cal that it would be practical, I want to move to Italy some day and my husband is 1/2 Italian, so we have that heritage, and then there's French (sigh) - the language I took in high school which I feel most comfortable with. Charley wants to learn French, so I need to find a way to weave them in without confusing the girls. We had done all three languages on and off together, but Spanish and Italian are so similar, that the girls would confuse them...so if anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears!

Back to the plan...


Enough of the skeleton of Grade 2 is in place for us to begin! I know for some people, they need daily lesson plans and scripted curriculum to be comfortable, but for me, I get stifled if I have too much in place. Just having my skeleton is enough for me to focus on one month at a time, one month in advance to present my materials. So I am ready for Sept and once Sept starts, I will start planning what we will do in Oct. That way, I can change things up if someone gets a long illness or we don't get to everything we wanted to, or if something doesn't work, or we breeze through it, I can punt a bit, etc - and not feel frantic that I'm not "on schedule"...

So, for staying organized, I love my bookshelves...and baskets...easily accessible and not cluttered so that things are easy to put away after school or play...

Since we are starting with the Chumash people, I raided the library this summer to find books and to learn as much about them as I could in advance.

I made a pile of the ones I am going to use and returned the rest.

Realizing that someone else might be in line to check them out after us, I wanted to keep track of what we used and what we liked. This will also help us when we really delve into our Native American studies in a few years. For now, it's a basic understanding and introduction through stories and culture tied into our form drawing and maths review.

So I am a list person and I LOVE lists. There's a wonderful FREE site that has a ton of different styles and things that you can print out and use on your own. They are by Donna Young and can be found here.

This lady has lists to end all lists! There are so many great ones that you are sure to find one that fits with your temperament and organization style - and they are very well organized, I might add! I use many of them - the calendars, attendance records (as we need that in CA when we file independently as a private school), field trip lists, library book lists, reading lists, weekly planning pages, etc, etc, etc...

In fact, after trying out many through the years and even making my own, I have settled upon this one as the one that works for my weekly planning. I print out one per block and on the right hand side, list my resources under the "List" section, and a general plan throughout the month under the "Plans" section. Then, I write Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc down the five small blocks and then I copy it three more times (if we're doing a four week block) and that way, I don't have to rewrite everything each week.


Then I can fill out what we actually did each day under each section and they store easily as a record for our year. I have binders with those page protectors and everything is filed away neatly!

I've got all of our homeschooling things in bins, baskets and cabinets within easy reach. Math baskets, as suggested by Our Little Nature Nest, was a fabulous idea which we've carried over into other subjects, which can be switched out each month, if needed (though we'll be doing math daily now that the girls are in Grade 2).

Our supplies were ordered over the spring and summer in batches to cut down on costs and so that we could try to snag the best prices possible. I have several suggestions which I'll list below which have been helpful and cost effective for us, but I'm always looking for competitors, so if anyone has any places they like to shop, please post it in my comments section - I would appreciate it!

Vendors we've used:

Paper, Scissors, Stone - chalk, boards, pencils, crayons, misc supplies.

Bob & Nancy's - waldorf books (cross check prices with Amazon and other Steiner bookstores first, but usually B & N's has a nice selection and good prices and shipping is set, no matter how many you order, so I usually try to do one big order a year).

Amazon - always check here first as they give free shipping for $25 qualifying orders and have a nice used selection (save trees and money)!

Green Tara Yahoo Group - Michelle runs sales on Mercurius/Art Makes Sense items, so we were able to purchase beeswax, modeling beeswax, and Stockmar watercolor paints very cheaply this year. She also runs sales on Kinderkram, Evi Dolls, Ostheimers, and more which fit into our children's play, along with various natural living clothing and lifestyle products, fair trade/organics, you name it! She is the owner of Green Mountain Organics.

Waldorf Curriculum Supplies Yahoo Group - this is a fantastic, large group of homeschoolers selling their used waldorf curriculum, toys, readers, and sometimes, other homeschooling books from other methods. We have been lucky enough to purchase much of our curriculum for Grade 2 through this group - again saves trees and money.

DickBlick Art Supplies - this is a great place to get things like watercolor paper, pads for your MLB, chalk, etc. You can make your own MLB's using high quality paper at a discount from Dick Blick.

Syrendell - play silks, wool, and fun ebooks.

Note: I was not happy with the quality of silks I ordered through Paper, Scissors, Stone as it was not nearly as silky/soft or as beautiful as the ones I've ordered from Syrendell. I have the rainbow from Sarah's Silks, but even that pales in quality compared to the beautiful, hand dyed ones that Syrendell makes. I highly recommend convo'ing Jennifer if you need her to make up some for you! Her prices are wonderful, too, for the high quality you receive.

I'd also love to give a shout out to my friend, Lynn, who used to blog about her lovely circle time and waldorf lifestyle and has now branched off and has an amazing etsy shop where she and her oldest daughter make the most gorgeous wool and yarns. Her shop is called The Princess Rooms.

So that's a wrap for now! I'll share a secret - I'm in the process of making a one-of-a-kind surprise to give away in celebration of this next school year! Stay tuned!

AMHC Phase I: Pentatonic Color and Sound Therapy

I have been meaning to post about this wonderful program for a while now, yet every time I sat down to do it, I would get intimidated, wondering *how* I could properly do it the justice it deserves as it truly encompasses so very much - how can I wrap it up into a neat little blog post, but I'll do my best...

I have heard it said before that in a Waldorf school, "Music is the thread that weaves the academic day together." In the early years, the child is exposed to singing and music through the mother, caregiver, or teacher. In Grade 1, introduction to the pentatonic instruments usually begins - via the pentatonic flute.

In Grade 1, the student receives two languages in a Waldorf school, usually Spanish and German. One of the best ways to teach a second language to a child is through song. As homeschoolers, teaching music and foreign language can seem very intimidating at times.

The AMHC Program, created by Naturopath Dr. Aurore Henze does just that - teaching pentatonic music and foreign language, with the added element of color and sound therapy woven effortless into the lessons. We are so enjoying this program! It encompasses songs in Spanish, German, and French...

Dr. Aurore Henze spent years studying and mastering alternative therapies. As a musician herself, it was only natural that she founded the AMHC and created a healing and holistic music program which encompasses color and sound therapy, along with foreign language and music appreciation and development. She is a waldorf inspired homeschooler to three lovely children. There is much to this program, though to implement it, all you really need is a few basic materials - mainly the book, some stickers, and a pentatonic instrument (glockenspiel, flute, or lyre are the ones she recommends) - though a complete list of recommended supplies is included in the book. Most waldorf inspired homeschooling parents will have block crayons and watercolor paints, etc.

The program is easily laid out with each note of the pentatonic scale being assigned a therapeutic color based on the scientific research of color and sound by Dr. Darius Dinshah, author of "Let there be Light".

Marking each note on the pentatonic glockenspiel (ours is an Auris from Sweden), the child can easily follow along with the sheet music, which is also color coded. They say the notes and then the colors as they play along.

And then they can sing the lyrics once the song is mastered.

We had purchased these maths blocks and they work very nicely with the program as manipulatives that the child can place alongside the notes to reinforce the colors and songs they are playing, as recommended in the program.

They can also be used for math or for free play and building.

While neither of the girls is receiving piano lessons just yet, they love to tinker around on the piano and Charley is beginning to make up her own simple songs. I do feel that as we make the connection from the notes of the glockenspiel, to the piano, to the pentatonic flute - there is a comfort and a confidence that is newly emerging. This program does a wonderful job of not intimidating the child and allowing them the pleasure of being able to *read* the music to play a song which sounds fantastic thanks to the perfect pentatonic scale.

While we made our way through the pages in the Phase I book, I got out a pentatonic flute book I picked up at the Steiner College Bookstore which I absolutely love called, "Waldorf Teachers' Companion to the Pentatonic Flute" by John Miles.

Using Dr. Aurore's color therapy suggestions, I made crayon marks under the notes to help us learn to play these songs with the glockenspiel.

And then we learned the song on our Choroi Pentatonic Flute.

So I love that this program can overlap with other songbooks so that it grows *endlessly* with the child (keep in mind that there are two additional phases!). While I admit that I have not done much research on color therapy, I have heard some rave reviews about it from the holistic community. Seeing how well my daughters are taking to it and the success that Dr. Aurore has had with her own children (including her son who was not only healed from a diagnosis of autism, but was the youngest American musician to be invited to study at Interlochen in 2005) I feel very positive about the merits of this program.

If you are a Lifetime Member of Kristie Burns' Earthschooling program, you can access Phase I, including a video showing Dr. Aurore and her talented children as they showcase the program. I think that the program is going to be offered soon via amazon, as well. It can be purchased here and I'm sure Dr. Aurore would be happy to answer any questions about it!

I particularly loved one section where she compared Memorization to Comprehension in relation to Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, her teacher, who insisted upon true comprehension. In music, there are many children (including myself as a youngster) who could read music and play the piano, but I did not really *understand* it, as I can not sit down and create it with that ultimate trust and surrender to the true comprehension that is music. I love that in early Waldorf education, the child learns by ear, by imitation as s/he hears and sees the teacher/parent leading. This program encourages this through humming as the notes are learned - matching pitch and can be taken further with harmonies. The confidence it will build through the years can not be underestimated as within creation of any kind, comes true happiness and satisfaction. I believe this program strives for true music comprehension. There is much more to be said, but then I will be writing a novel - lol! If you have been looking for a program to enhance your music and foreign language studies, this just might be what you're looking for!

You can read more about Dr. Aurore and Color Therapy at her website here. Dr. Aurore's blog can be found here. She has also written a book called, "Beyond Natural Cures" which can be found here.