I purchased this plastic cart at WalMart for around $12.  I think it’s designed with scrapbookers in mind.  It has several small drawers on the top and three larger drawers below.  I keep it stashed in my front closet – just around the corner from the kitchen table where most of our homework happens.

The smaller top drawers are dedicated to housing school supplies (I labeled them with my P-Touch labeler).  The first holds scratch paper and lined writing paper.  The second and third hold random school supplies like pencils, markers, crayons and erasers.  I also keep a few teaching aides in there such as timers, dice and post-its.  The fourth drawer holds all my dry-erase supplies because I love using dry erase boards to help my kids practice math and spelling.  I bought each of my kids a small Expo dry-erase board at WalMart for around $4 each.  I love them because they’re small enough to fit in the drawers and they’re lined on one side for easy handwriting practice.  You can find them near the Crayola stuff in the office supplies area.

The three larger drawers are the kids’ “homework boxes”.  They each have their own and it’s labeled with their name.  Inside I have them keep their reading logs, spelling lists, library books, and any homework supplies that are specific to them (for example, they each have a set of math flash cards that are specific to their grade).

I love the homework boxes because they’re so easy for my kids to work with.  Everything is at their height and it’s all in one place.  When they’re scrambling in the morning to find their library books my first question is always “Did you check your homework box?”  When it’s Friday morning and I’m trying to give my son a quick spelling refresher before his test, I have him grab his list from his box.  When I’m trying to get dinner going and there’s a mess of homework covering the table, I have them bring their boxes to the table and dump their stuff in.

I can’t say it’s the prettiest system in the world, but it works!  Remember, the goal of organization when it comes to family life is not to achieve perfect order.  The goal is to teach your kids to keep track of their own stuff and to see the benefits of staying organized.  In my opinion, it’s our job as a parents to provide the tools and training.  It’s their job to do the rest.  This inexpensive homework box is a great example of how you can do just that.   Just thought I’d pass it on.