Home School Room

I was contacted late spring and asked to complete a home school room for a Mom who planned to begin homeschooling 2 children that would enter 2nd grade and 5th grade. Above their garage was a room that had been a catch all and she wanted it to be transformed into a classroom over the summer! Most people work a home school room into their dining room or a side of their family room or a side of a home office so it was very exciting to work on a room that would be 100% used as a classroom!

She wanted a central work space, lots of storage, two desks as they would each have a computer and wanted it grown up, nothing too elementary as she has older children as well and knows how quickly they grow out of the 'kid' phase! She needed this room to be durable and did not want laminate furniture but also did not want to spend a fortune. She knew what she wanted but she had not had time to look for anything so she did not have any furniture chosen and needed me to select everything! The only thing staying was the couch. Yup, Dream Job!

The room is large, 19 feet x 12 feet. When you walk in, you are opposite from the large window and it is just one big rectangle! Here are two pictures of it before.

You can see lots of boxes and that would be solid wood furniture that I found from Ikea! Yes, solid wood! It is there, I swear! There is a perception of a decreased quality from Ikea but for their price point, they are in fact quite superior to many middle grade brands and have very ingenious ways of construction even the simplest product to last longer than other items that appear the same on the market. I am with most of you who would not choose Ikea for your Family Room or Master Bedroom but for a kids room or work area like a craft room or home school room, I think Ikea is perfect! The parson chairs, desk chairs and laptops were all very affordable options from Walmart!

I focused on zones to plan the space. When you walk in, the desks and individual areas are on the left, the work area is in the center, storage for Mom is on the right and in front of the window is a reading center.
Here is the desk area where they each have their own laptop.

In between their desks is a bookcase where they have a printer that they share. One of my 'tricks' for craft or work spaces for kids is to use a utensil caddy for craft tools. You can see 3 here. If a pen breaks or marker leaks, this will wipe right down and can even go in the dishwasher!

they each have a map above their desk, one of the world and one of the United States.

Right in front of each child is an in basket which is where they put the work that they have completed.

In the bookcase, they each have their own storage bins and set of notebooks and Mom grades their work and then files them here. If it is daily work, it goes in the subject folder, if it is a grade or represents that they have completed their required curriculum, it goes into their portfolio.

The low cabinet on the right holds baskets and storage boxes perfectly for LOTS of storage yet every spot holds something specific so she can find anything she needs quickly.

Here is a close up of the baskets and boxes--they are huge!

Here is another view of that area while standing from the window end of the room.

On the wall where the main entry door is, I have added a display area for their work. They both love creating art for their display wall and filled this up quickly! In front of the couch on the wall is a small bookcase that has all their books on it and they sit there daily to read while watching for the eagle that lands on the ledge outside the window. Their experience homeschooling is going very well, in large part to their ability to dedicate an entire room to becoming a classroom and it was an honor to create this room for them!

Warning, this is boring

BUT, it could be essential to a few of you so I will torture the majority to help the few who I have been told need some help! I was recently asked how to manage paperwork for a child with a medical issue. Depending on how far back you have gone on my blog, you may know that I have a son on the autistic spectrum. The amount of evaluations, tests, reports, diagnosis’, etc. is unbelievable. The challenge of how to manage this began for me when he was 3. We had gone through 1 ½ years of figuring out what was going on, what seemed like a million assessments, pages and pages of reports and then ended up entering him into a program through out school system. Their evaluations and findings and then their plan for him was a stack in itself! For those of you in the loop on this, you know I am talking about IEPs. Now, I don’t know if this has the same name in every state but in Florida, that is my son’s Individual Educational Plan and I’m sure every state has something similar. It outlines what the school will do for him, how, when, by who, and on and on. Also outlines what they expect from him so I know what our current focus is. It must be done once a year but based on your child’s progress, they could do many a year. These forms are on top of every other assessment and testing that it done! James is going into 5th grade and we will be doing his 13th IEP at the start of school!

As an informed parent, I want to be able to provide input in my son’s meetings. I want all his information at my fingertips and I want to be on top of it all! BUT, I don’t want to be crazy. I don’t want bags or bins or books of paperwork and I don’t want to be overwhelmed by it and looking for things while others are waiting on me. And it takes a while to get to the point I’m at but I don’t want his paperwork and issues to be a constant ‘thing’ in our lives. If I had to see his paperwork all the time, I would think about it all the time. I need it when I need it, otherwise I want it in order and out of my way!

So, here’s my system. I will assume that you are into this many many years and will talk about how to catch up with yourself.

First, in order to reach an end goal, think about the point. Why do you keep the paperwork? You want to know what from it? Many questions come up over and over that you just need at hand like his birth (preemie? Issues? What medications did he have?) and diagnosis (who, when, what exactly) and then of all the evals and tests and IEPs what stands out as the important information?
-Change in services, label, therapist
-Need that was pinpointed for the first time
-specific scores from a test
-quote from a report that carries some weight
Determine when you look at each piece of paper what it is you need from that piece of paper. What sets each IEP or eval apart from the others.

Here is where you want to start-

• Buy a notebook or folder that is Large and Durable
• Pull out all your paperwork and sort it-this is the hardest part. Make stacks doing the following:
  -Keep anything that has specific DATA pertaining to your child. You want to toss anything that is generic. For instance, the letter that was sent home to schedule the IEP and the legal document they give you at every meeting. Sure, keep one of those if you want it (it’s online if you need it) but it is not pertinent to your child’s history. Get rid of anything that is not specific about your child! Because we don’t want to do things twice, if you have a lot of paperwork, as you look at each document, highlight the date and the info from each that are most important and set that document apart from the others.
  -Sort Chronologically. After glancing at each paper, first set in a stack by year. If you have lots of loose papers like a 5 page IEP, make sure you sort it so they stay together. Once you have everything sorted by year, sort again so that you are now chronological.
• Recap this Data. Now that you have your crazy stack (or stacks if one will fall over!), go to your computer and open a new document.
  -Call it something that makes sense for you as you will use this file for a long time—mine is called James’ Overall Medical History. The goal is to have a chronological list of everything that is pertinent. If you fill this with things like “5-5-07 went to speech therapy” this will not work. The only entry you would want for speech is a start date with a specific therapist, test results, something huge that may have occurred and an end date with that therapist. If you are asked ‘When was he in speech therapy?” you can answer this quickly.
  -Start with your first item (oldest) as your first entry. Keep it short. This is not a story, it is a collection of data. For an example, here is what James' first entry looks like-
  March 26, 1999
  Born five weeks early. RDS. Ventilator for 5 days. Nicu for 2 weeks. Had pneumonia—treated for seven days. Jaundice—phototherapy for two days. Slight heart murmur—presumed normal. Reflux—started on Cisapride (propulsid) and Zantac. Hearing test completed and was normal
  -Put that first document in the folder. After your entry, that paperwork (my example, this would be only his final discharge paperwork, not the daily reports or receipts or charting info or extra paperwork, just the recap report) goes in the notebook, so it ends up in the BACK! When you open your book and you are done, the top item under your recap is the most recent item.
  -Make a tab for this item, if you think you will need to refer to this often. This is the only thing that I don’t have a clear ‘rule’ on. If it’s an IEP, I have a tab for it (label says, for example, 7th IEP, 9-05), if it’s a big test like IQ, I have a tab on it. If it’s a final report from an SLP that has nothing very interesting on it, I recorded the data, file it in order but didn’t put a tab on it. If I need it, I can see it on my chronological recap sheet and find it easily.
  -Keep going, recap and file, recap and file.
• Print your data recap and put it on the top, when you are done and it is ALL there. This is how my document looks. My header followed by each entry with date and then 1 or 2 sentences detailing each item.



• The next time you have a meeting, take your notebook and answer any question within seconds! Here is how mine looks with the tabs. You can see that it's simple, not grand but easy to follow and easy to find anything I need.





• Behind all this, I have his year end report card in a page protector sleeve. Each sleeve has a grade on a file label sticker. My son is entering 5th grade. When I get his 2nd grading period report card, the 1st one is garbage as the 2nd one covers that too! By the end of the year, you do NOT want 3 or 4 report cards as long as the data is retained in the final report card—throw the extras away! So the 4th grade sleeve has the final report card (shows all grading periods), final IEP report card (FL has a separate one), and his FCAT scores report. That's it! Here is a picture of my grade sleeves. If you look closely, you will see that I have an empty sleeve ready for 5th grade so what you see is the 4th grade sleeve behind it. Simple with not a lot of paperwork at the end of each year.

• If your book is being made for a younger child or a child who visits other therapists and doctors with this notebook, you will want other documents. Use another page protector so that you can get documents in and out of it easily and copy his birth certificate, social security number, immunization records and insurance card. Those things are always asked for so have them available! Now that James is older, I took that stuff out but I had it in there for years.

How to move forward is your next question right? This should be easy now. When I get a new IEP or document, I enter it and make a tab and reprint my recap document. When he gets a progress report, I may just stick it in the folder for now but the next meeting I file it correctly and am updated within minutes. All documents should go here and you should continue with this format and it will always be updated.

To help you determine how to write your recap, here are a few entries from mine. You can see they are short, precise, specific. In order to be respectful of his privacy, these scores are quite old and I'm sharing generic stuff from the last several years! There are entries with some pretty serious tests listing lots of scores and they are very at a glance so I and any professional can quickly grasp his results. In case you wonder, he is mainstreamed, very smart, adorable and a bit quirky but hey, I think I am too so whatever! He is the sweetest child you could meet and one of the reasons he is doing so well is because of these insane reports and all the school does for him!

October 26, 2001 Arnold Palmer. Updated Speech evaluation completed using The Rossetti Infant-Toddler Language Scale. Completed at 31 months. Findings—Pragmatics 18-21 months 100% (highest level of test), Gesture 24-27 months 100% (highest level of test), Play 33-36 months 100% (highest level of test), Language Comprehension 21-24 months 100% (same as before), Expressive Language 9-12 months 100%, 12-15 months 92%, 15-18 months 86%, 18-21 months 66%. Goals include identifying action words in pictures, understanding size, saying two and three word phrases. Email to family of progress included with evaluation for further detail. New OT evaluation also done. His play is at the appropriate age but he is behind due to lack of attention span and very low frustration level.

February 13, 2003 3rd IEP to add OT and update his speech goals. He is using sentences, though difficult to understand, and has many words. The SP added precise goals regarding specific things she sees a pattern of (velar fronting, syllable reductions, stopping). His OT goals include working on writing skills, fine motor with buttons and zippers, new foods, and less pushing as this relates to sensory input.

September 14, 2005 7th IEP. Major change was for testing. Lots of accommodations—increase or decrease in time, variation in instructional methods, seating, get his attention before giving directions, outline of activities, break assignments into segments. Also special testing papers. Also flex scheduling, setting and presentation on and standardized statewide test. Goals increased to age level but the accommodations were the basis of this change. No Modifications made—full curriculum is required of him.

April 24, 2006 OT evaluation. Pediatric Potentials Rehab. Poor visual tracking. Vestibular processing difficulties. Low kinesthetic awareness. Hyporesponsive to tactile, taste, vestibular and proprioceptive input. Hypersensitive visual and auditory input.

November 26, 2007 Auditory Processing Evaluation. Disorder identified, mostly in right ear. Given a FM amplification system which he started using late December.

December 3, 2007 10th IEP. Added alphasmart which he has been using in the classroom for a few months.

You can see I'm not redundant with issues. There was a LOT more on his 10th IEP but it was nothing new. For us, All IEPs talk about how he has organizational issues but the only time I mentioned it is when a solution is being implemented as that is the one time that it really was relevant and not just everyday info about him.

I hope this makes sense and was helpful! Sorting and getting it recapped in a new document will be the hard part but maintaining it will be a breeze, I promise!!!

Teacher Appreciation Week--through a PTA Mommy's view

Wonder what I've been up to? Well I have been working lots first of all! Lots of decorating and 1-2 days a week helping a mortgage company organize and create new processes after a few years of neglected file and system management. But when I'm not working, I have spent lots of time this past month doing another 'job' I do--Hospitality for PTA at my children's elementary school!

I have held this position, co-chairing with my friend Kay, for 2 years and this was our last official event! We decided to do an Italian theme but dump the red and white checkered tablecloth and bring on a Tuscan bistro feel!

Here is the centerpiece on the drink table--tea, diet lemonade and raspberry lemonade were the options.

Focal point on the buffet table. I need to now refill these jars with my cotton, sea salt and sponges in my bathroom! The entree was lasagna made by an amazing local restaurant and salad with Olive Garden dressing. To my friend Kim if you read this, the sign in the middle says "Mangia, Mangia!" Thanks for the fast Italian help this morning!

Here's the start of the buffet-rolled silverware is just so much better than bins of silverware with napkins, don't you think?

The tables where our teachers and staff sat had fresh flowers and more food! Macaroni Grill bread, with pepper mills we bought from their local supplier and olive oil, was served hot to the table along with fresh grated parmesan.
When you were done with that, then you headed to the other side of the room where we had an ice cream buffet set up! Oh yes, how fun!!! I have done this for a couple birthday parties too and it's so fun and easy! I have lots of pieces from the Southern Living at Home, Gail Pittman Sienna collection and this is the first time I used this much of it and it worked so well!

Here is our president during the last week of her reign of two years! She was our hostess, handing out our gifts! She's off to middle school and we will miss her!

Here's the room (we took over the music room since there's no furniture in there!) with some of the staff on their break! No running lights were on--just lots of Christmas lights and it was a very nice atmosphere.


A few of us during a moment where we weren't running, enjoying ourselves as everyone on our board is awesome. Don't be crazy jealous, but we have lots of fun during our PTA event too! I know this isn't the case everywhere so had to tell you how lucky I am to be at this fab school! Oh and yes, we are crazy where we assign a dress code for our volunteers to fit our theme so the all black was on purpose. Don't they look great? Last holiday, we did a Christmas Morning Brunch and yup, we all wore our PJs! FUN!!!


Here is everyone, except Christine! Thanks for taking the picture!

Here are Kay and I, at our last event together as co-chairs! We work so well together as I just fret about all the decor and do nutty things like sew table runners and craft labels and fill all my jars with pasta and she works her tushy off pricing caterers and making schedules and lists and it was a perfect match! We will both be on the board next year but I'll be doing 1st VP (fundraising) with another friend and she will be doing newsletter! I have been asked to share pictures from our past events and I think instead of spending time emailing them, I'll spend time uploading them so I can share them with you all too! I know this isn't organizing but it is being creative so you'll deal with it right?

Oh, Kay got Macaroni Grill to give us tons of their paper! So we wrote a note to the teachers on each table, hoping they would scribble, play tic, tac, toe or do whatever and what did they do? Wrote us sweet Thank You notes! See why we do this?? I took lots of pictures but here are just a few examples of their notes to us!

We all read each one and many of us took pictures! Their sweet notes meant a lot to us!

My System for sorting Mail and School Work

I promised that I would write a blog about how I sort my 'stuff'. Whether I am chit chatting with friends or problem solving with clients, many topics come up that appear to be an ongoing issue and one is paperwork! Whether it is mail or school work or church and organization flyers, it is hard to manage. The number one rule is 'touch it once' and that requires strict sorting discipline! It sounds like 'work' but it is very exciting to see a stack of stuff and turn it into a few things and be done with it. I promise! So, last week I promised that when I came home from helping my sister for 3 days that I would show you my stack of stuff that arrived while I was gone and show you how I knock it out! You won't find stacks of mail and paperwork at my house but if you look around you will find several different organizing tools that help me accomplish the same things we all have to accomplish. Bills, school paperwork, filing, tax items, school art work that I want to keep, things I want to hold onto but don't need to do anything with, magazines and catalogs that I want to read and on and on and on . . . They are all here but they have a place and I am very picky about what stays and what goes.

So, here is the stack that I came home to:

-A box from the scout store

-many catalogs including walmart and Tiffany, what a contrast in my mailbox!

-Bills, a check for scouting as I am treasurer, Christmas card and lots of junk mail

-School Papers and a receipt that I paid for a fieldtrip

Okay, you must sort everything now! It's a couple seconds when it comes in the door but if you stack ALL the bills and have to sort all of it at the end of the month, the 'bill paying' chore will seem large. It only takes me a few minutes to pay bills with this system. Here's what I kept and what I tossed.

-Tossed all the envelopes from bills, all I need is the bill as I bill pay online

- kept reward check, like a gift card
-kept scout shirt
-catalogs that were boring I flipped through quickly and tossed
-magazines and catalogs that I want to really look at go in my magazine bin. Once I read it, I recycle it but until I read it, it goes in my bin!
-kept Christmas Card
-kept money for scout account
-Tossed school items that were uneventful, 1 item had a lot of writing so I wanted to keep that.
-kept a magazine from school for my 4th grader

Here's my first secret. This table is rather large and is in the center of my family room. The white bin with the ribbon is my magazine bin and I read them and look at the catalogs when I watch tv. I have parties and no one has ever even noticed one of my biggest organizing secrets sitting right here, under the table.

TAKE A PEEK!

Bend down a bit and look under my coffee table.

Here they are in full view for you. They are actually 'containers' that I think were intended as planters from Southern Living At Home, aren't they pretty?

Well at my house, the big one is my trash can and the little one is my urgent TO DO bin. Whatever comes in that needs 'action' within the next couple days goes here. I look in it daily and do what is needed and it's small and never full. My office is not far but to make life simple, there is a pen, pencil, checkbook and pad of paper inside for me!

Nothing on my table was urgent that day. Now, I should define what I think is allowed to be put in "to do". If it takes longer than 2 minutes and you need time to do it, then it should go there but the check for cub scouts that came in the mail, I just filled out a deposit slip and that is done so it didn't need to go in there. If it had been 15 checks and cash from popcorn sales, it would have gone in there! Touching it once requires that you really use your time. If I had put that check down to handle later, I would have used up more time than to just do it now!

So Where Did The Rest Go?

Here are a few spots in my office. They seem pretty and are decorative items but they have high function! The green bin has all my bills. When it's bill time, I grab the bin, pay my bills and that's it! NOTHING goes in the bin except the bill--envelopes, flyers, promo junk has all been tossed while sorting the day the bill came into the house. I literally take out 8 or so pieces of paper.

The black basket is my Pending To Do. Meaning, it isn't urgent but I need to do something with it soon or I am waiting for someone else to do something. For an example, right now, here is what is in this bin--notebook with measurements because tomorrow I need to finalize a kitchen design, stack of documents I need to hold onto until I confirm that our old insurance is completely cancelled, a school project for my son that is due Friday and I am holding onto the rules, a scouting assignment that we need to work on and info I need for a reunion I am the treasurer for. Notice that anything Pending requires action at some point. If you just want something (article, catalog, school work) those items are a reference or memory item and need a different place.

Here is where I display the kids' work that I or they love. In the black cabinet is a drawer where this year's school work is that I want to hold on to. It is not a large drawer but I do not need to keep a lot either! Their report cards and 'official' items go in a school file folder in a file cabinet but their work and art are considered memories. I have a system for memories that I wrote a while ago and you can read in detail about my school work suggestions here.

The writing assignment that I wanted to keep went on this wall and the school magazine that my son needs to read went to his desk in his room. In a week, I will find it and toss it! He is still a kid!

Sometimes newsletters come home from school and some keep them or post them. I suggest you read it and immediately put dates in your calendar and anything you need to take action on (send and item in, talk to a teacher about something) should go on your To Do list. Then toss the newsletter.

This catalog bin is by my back door and it hold catalogs that I want to hold onto. Most catalogs you can view online but unique ones like Southern Living at Home, Tastefully Simple and many many other home show sales items aren't available online so I hold onto those.

Attached to this are 2 clips. The one on the left holds things that I need to take somewhere with me. Bank deposits are almost always on there and sometimes a document I need to drop off somewhere. The one on the right holds gift cards and coupons.

The reward check that I recieved went onto the right clip and the scout deposit went on the left clip.

I have a display area for Christmas Cards so that is where that went!

The bins in my mudroom have all our scouting stuff. I am NOT a fan of letting these uniforms along with sport uniforms end up in my kids rooms as inevitably, they can't find them when you need them! Makes me CRAZY! So I control these items and they go in 2 of these bins! I toss them in the dryer to get the wrinkles out in case you wonder how I store shirts in there--it's a sacrifice I make to not have to search for them every week!

So the new shirt went straight into the bin!

The garbage went out the door! Stack is done! Writing this, it seems like a lot of info and may seem like I did a lot but the work is in setting up the system! The sorting of this stack took me 4 minutes and I was done! I told you Rule #1--Touch it Once. But Rule #2 really made this work in 4 minutes. Rule #2--A Place or everything and everything in its place! It is not a cliche, it really makes life easy!

I mentioned that I am made fun of for being organized and I am a dork in that I love systems and finding solutions and really have a passion for making life easier on myself and others! So I'm teased a bit, whatever. I was shopping in a cute boutique this weekend and saw a cute saying that I thought those of you that like to make fun of me would like. It seems that you can find a way to make fun of anyone so here you go:

Organized People

Are Just To Lazy

To Look For

Their Stuff!

Happy Sorting! And remember, TOUCH IT ONCE!

My system

I get teased. It's a problem but also an amusement. I am an organizer. I love to be organized. My brain requires I be organized. Friends recently commented that they wanted to know where 'my stuff' was. Where is 'my stash' and 'my piles'. I have systems, not stashes! I answered questions which got them going on teasing me more about how their brain hurt from all the info. It made me realize that I should probably show you instead of tell you because it is NOT that complicated. I think it is really simple. Cut and Dry. Black and White. If you have systems, there's only a few places where you need to put things.

So, Follow me through a day!

Here's my plan. I am going to be out of town all weekend. I leave Friday morning. So I will come home to several days of mail, paperwork from school, magazines, sales flyers, etc. I will show you my "process". I will photograph and list what I had to work through on Monday and publish this sometime on Tuesday! And you will see that it is not only SIMPLE but also PRETTY and NEAT! I promise, no headaches . . .

School Paperwork Solution for a Disorganized Child!

Do you have a disorganized child? I do! He has a form of autism and he very much struggles with not only keeping his paperwork where it belongs but also is not very gentle so he destroys things much easier than most. Every year, he has a planner and by mid November, it is looking pretty rough. By mid January, pages that should be intact are falling out. Also, paperwork that needs to come home sometimes doesn't and paperwork that needs to go to his teacher is lost between the car and the classroom! If any of this sounds like your child, read on!

Last year, we had to brainstorm on solutions and his teacher came up with a folder like this! I took on creating this year's folder for his new 4th grade teacher and of course had fun with it! He LOVES legos and I've had this scrapbook kit sitting, just waiting for the right project!

Here's how to set up the binder:

• Planner goes on the rings (this planner is school issued)
• Binder clips are clipped on both sides so it is opened to this week's page. NO tearing through pages trying to find where he is supposed to write.
• On the left pocket is a sticker that says "Keep at Home"
• On the right pocket is a sticker that says "Return to School"

Here's how to use the binder:

• His teacher helps him sort his items each day to bring home
• Items he does not need to touch that she is just sending home, she puts in the left pocket
• Homework sheets and things that need to be sent back are on the right.
• I place anything that is going back in the right pocket along with his completed homework.
• The teacher takes his folder and pulls it all out, preventing him from putting things where he can't find them!
• As I check his folder Friday afternoon, I move the clips to the following week.

This has worked great for us and I hope it helps you if you have a disorganized child! Working with the teacher is obviously necessary as this requires more support than most kids are accustom to. We have found that a little more effort on the adult's part makes it not only easier for us in the long run but takes stress off of him as sorting all this random paperwork has proved a bit overwhelming!

If you have other organizational issues with your child, let me know in the comments and I'll be glad to address them. I think it's safe to say that most problems we have faced in this family between this child on the autistic spectrum and my other child with a very short attention span so bring it on and I'll try to help!

"School Stuff"

I hear this phrase over and over when I ask clients what problems they are having with paperwork and things they need a solution for. I have some pretty strong opinions about what to do with that A+ reading comprehension test or 1st hand print or creative drawing or funny story or ladybug mobile or or or or, should I go on? I cherish and love all the things my kids make at school. But I cherish a fresh, clean space just as much! Here are the steps I recommend as things come in the door. Before you can follow these steps, you need 2 things--a display center and a school in box.
1. Sort. Work that you LOVE, display it. What is worthy of keeping (really neat writing on a test you are proud of, interesting grade you want to hold onto, hard math homework that they did well, etc), put it in the school in box.
2. The rest (same old math sheet that's been graded, indifferent art work, repetitive spelling tests, etc.) TOSS! Yes, TOSS. You do not need it. If you have a child with learning issues and do need to hold onto everything for reference, I will address this in a future post--please look for that as I have my own child like this too!
3. Important, if you have more than one child, especially young children, make sure their name is on it and perhaps put a date on it if it is a 'first' or a writing assignment at the start of 1st grade for instance to compare to at the end.
4. As you display, let your child decide what should come down as you put up something new. They must learn limits when it comes to spending or eating or getting enough sleep and they must also learn limits when it comes to 'stuff'. If the wall is full, we can't make the wall bigger, we must make choices!
5. If something needs to come off the display, either toss it or put it in the school in box.
6. Summer requirement--at the end of the year, sort each child's work into their own stacks. Then sort each stack into categories that are important to you or your child--art, tests where you want to acknowledge grades, writing if you are documenting their progress, etc. Now, get out your scanner or head to kinkos where you can use a color copier. Scanning--print them 4x6 or upload them to a site like walgreens.com and order prints. Copying--copy them smaller so they end up the size of a photo--4x6 or 5x7. Now toss that important work. The paper, pen ink, pencil marks, cheap glue and even cheaper paint are NOT archival so if you feel you are doing the most loving thing by holding onto the originals, realize that what you have in 20 years will be a mess (paper will yellow, paints will chip off, pencil marks will smear, etc.) and those photo prints will still look fresh and clean and perfectly capture the real work they created.
7. Scrapbook or archive. I have one album for each child that is just for school. Each year gets around 10 pages and is done in the summer. I have an order to how I set up each year and the last 4 pages have the art work with a pocket page on the last page for extra work I couldn't fit in.
Rules--never let a year overlap with the other. Summer's requirement is essential to make this work.

Okay, this was a long post and a LOT to do but once you get it sorted and set up, I promise it is an easy system!!!!

Kids School Work

How many of you are SO proud of the hand print flower or first short story that your child brought home but don't want to put it on your fridge? This is a universal Mommy Issue! There are many solutions, depending on the space and layout in your home that will allow you to clean up the clutter on your fridge while letting your child display their work that you are so very proud of!

Here is a picture of what I have done in my own home. I really wanted to take it all down and 'clean it up' before I took a picture. But really, the beauty of it is that the kids put up whatever they want, it looks a bit messy but it is all in one place, they are proud, it's not in boxes or on a counter and it is in a part of my home that you don't see unless I have truly invited you in. Win/Win! At the end of the school year, I will take it down to preserve what I would like in their school albums.

During a consultation, I can help you determine the best place and items needed for you to create this yourself or I can provide all the items and install one for you if you like the way this looks! My kids love to switch out their work and this is a GREAT place to post all things school related. Where do you put the lists of things you need to send in for a party in two weeks or the list that comes home in the spring with back to school info? Or the monthly kids lunch menu if they must check to make sure that it's not refried beans day! These things will never get lost in a 'to do' bin again! There are many options that will work in your home to pull all your family's school stuff together!