Crazy County

I love clipboards. I never met a clipboard I didn't have a use for. Or a binder, for that matter, but we'll get into that bit of crazy another day.

The truth is, I love office supplies. I'm almost as happy to be in an Office Max as I am to be in a yarn or craft store. (Almost. Nothing truly beats the smell of wool in a small, cramped yarn store...)

I'm not sure why, except to say that I love the potential that is found in almost every standard type of office supply. They all have the potential to organize. The bring order from chaos. And since most of the time my life (and my house) tend to lean more to the chaos side of the force, this bringing order thing appeals to me.

The clipboard thing started about 11 years ago when I was doing my music therapy clinical internship. It lasted 6 months, and my clinical training director was a very organized woman. She organized her life on a legal pad attached to a clipboard. She had her schedule, her to-do lists, important notes... all of it right there. I loved the idea and got my own clipboard.

Over the years, my system has gone through many transformations. There was the brief period of the Day Runner. There was the year or so that I used a 5x7 clipboard in an effort to save space. There were the two serious attempts to get rid of paper and keep every thing in my phone. There was the steno book phase that ended badly. But always I came back to the clipboard. I'm currently using a clipboard with a Daily Docket sheet (which I customized for my life).

Do try not to notice that this is Tuesday's list. I tend to only keep a docket for Mon-Fri. This week, I got a lot done on Tuesday so I took a picture of that day.

I might have gone a little crazy with the clipboards for summer school, too. We have four of them.

These are Tyson's. Riley has a set that are very similar. The small orange one is the token economy. Ty gets a sticker for every lesson he gets through without whining, arguing or refusing. (Motivation, attitude and work ethic are a big part of our summer this year.) After he fills up the chart, he gets to trade it in for a reinforcer. (Which could be an item from the prize box, a family trip to the ice cream shop, extra time to play video games, etc.)

This is the plan for what we will work on this week. (Obviously, there is a lot of trying to figure out what Ty picked up this year and what he didn't... so I know what he still needs to learn on.) I went ahead and filled in the full week, knowing that not all of it will get done exactly as it says. We'll go to the library one day, which will take the place of something on the list for Monday. We'll also probably go to the park one day. But this way I have a plan for each subject, and we'll just make up what we missed later in the week or next week. The items in yellow are the assignments Ty will need to complete mostly on his own. (Again, work ethic is a big focus this year.) I can't decide if I should make him finish every assignment each day, or make him finish all for the week by Friday...

I know. I'm trying so hard to be organized that I might be crossing a line & maybe setting a foot into the Land of Crazy with this. "Oh, no," you say, "It's good to have a plan. You're just being organized. God likes a little organization."

Really? Would you think it was just a little over the Crazy County line if I told you that Riley (the two year old) also has a full sized clipboard with tasks like "shape sorter," "sort colors," and "picture vocabulary" on it? With the same subject headings...

Welcome to Crazy County. Population 1.