December can be a rough month to remain on task for homeschooling children and their teacher. Twinkling outdoor lights, indoor decorations, Christmas music, baking smells, extra sweets, along with holiday events and a longer list of things to do, makes this a distracted time of year.

When January rolls around, sometimes it can feel like December raced by in a blink. Schoolwork was left undone or not absorbed by your students. Perhaps in other years, the work was completed, but everyone believed they missed out on the joys of the season.

When we started homeschooling years ago, each student was assigned a part of a bookshelf and a small bin for their supplies. No matter what I did, that way of organizing did not work. Things would get messy very quickly, workbooks were routinely lost, and piles of papers in our schoolroom/dining room were a regular fixture. We needed a different way of operating.

Sometimes a circus has an act called “Plate spinners.” The performers take a thin stick, balance a glass bowl or plate on top, and spin the dinnerware to keep it aloft. The trick works by gyroscopic force, and it’s the same principle that keeps a toy top in motion. If the movement slows down too much, the plate comes off, and crashes to the ground.