It's a new school year, a time for homeschoolers to change things up a bit and try new things. There's one thing I won't be changing and that's out organization system. I struggled for years to find a way to keep track who needs to do what on what day and in what book for what subject. Get the drift?!

A year ago I stumbled upon Homeschool Skedtrack. I wrote about it last year. I'd thought I'd do a one year follow up. I'm happy to report I'm still happy with program and gearing up to use it again this year.

My older kids, who are quite independent, needed much less of my time and were able to work at their own pace. They could find the things they needed, they didn't need to ask what to do each day. We wasted so much less time this past year because they didn't need to wait for me to get myself together. We used the grading system at the beginning of the year. It was a great motivator when we got into a slump. I was able to say, "You're report card grades will be low if you don't get your work done." We discussed averages and how it was better to have a lot of high grades on work and only a few super low grades. We were able to see how not completing something and getting a "0" would bring the overall grade down.

For my little ones, who weren't using the system on their own, it was still quite helpful. As a work at home mom, I wasn't wasting time trying to decide what to do each day or flipping through books to see where we left off. I just had to log in and I knew what I needed and what we were going to do.

Our workbox system was also quite successful. My messy child ended up with a messy box, but at least, for the most part, his things were contained in one area. My little ones don't have boxes and won't this year either. Since they still depend upon me, I keep their things in a cabinet behind my desk. As they learn to read and then work on their own, they'll probably get their own boxes.