The need to organize your homeschool may be big or small, my tips will help you get organized simply and quickly - definately homeschool mom friendly!

Whether you school round a dining room table or in a room that is set aside, or even if your children work in their rooms at individual desks, a certain amount of organizing needs to take place so that you are not permanently looking for items. And lets face it...many of us have large families with little ones needing our attention and after we have done with the days schoolwork we don’t have time to color code and be permanently organizing.

Looking for help to organize your homeschool planning and scheduling? Visit homeschool planning for more help. Here I will deal with the “hardware” of how to organize your homeschool.

Allocated Space

Before the more relaxed homeschoolers start balking at the term “schoolroom”, please understand I use it very loosely and for want of a better way to describe where our children do their deskwork. Our lifestyle is one where we are learning all the time, learning does not just happen sitting at a table.

When we first started any formal schooling we lived in a small starter home. Our dining room table was the place that we allocated for our work area. This situation really worked well as I was able to reach around the table to my children.

We later built on a playroom which kept my husbands musical instruments, my computer, some chairs and a TV as well as the children’s desks. We had a great time here too and I enjoyed regaining our dining room for family meals.

When we moved again we converted an attic into a school room. I think of all our schooling areas, we enjoyed this one the most. Our fourth child had just been born and he was set up with a camp cot and toys, I had a changing mat up there with extra nappies, our toddler had a toy corner and our oldest two had their school desks pushed together.

Where we live now, we have converted our flatlet into a schoolroom. To create space on our children’s desks we have 4 shelves which carry all their reading and reference books. The shelves hold their maths and science materials too. We have their computer area here and a desk for my guides and manuals. I sit next to them and move my chair between them as I am needed for explaining concepts.

Our oldest daughter does her maths in her room where she can concentrate away from the other noise from our youngest much loved member of our family.

So we have made use of all sorts of different areas in different seasons. Choose an area where you will find place to store your materials. Somewhere that you can hang up art work, display books and enjoy being. Choose a room with good lighting or move furniture to ensure it.

Book Shelves to organize your homeschool

In a homeschooling home you can never have enough bookshelves! To organize your homeschool when it comes to books has a dual function. One –you want your books to last, two – you want them available when you need them.

We installed reasonable pine shelving on adjustable racks in our school room for our day to day books. In our home we have other areas that we naturally gravitate too when it comes time to read. These shelves are generally old hand me downs that have been given a once over.

It is important that when you have little ones to put their books at their level and keep yours higher to prevent damage. Just make sure the shelves, if they are free standing, are not top heavy!

Science equipment, maths supplies, globes, games and puzzles all can be stored on bookshelves.

Organize your homeschool desks

Depending on the amount of space you have, your children may all have their own desks or may work around a table together. It is important to remember that for a child to work neatly and be able to concentrate their feet need to be flat on a solid surface and not dangling. We love the Sitright desks and chairs for this purpose, but if you cannot afford them, then use an overturned wooden box for your children to rest their feet on when working.

We were able to pick up old school desks which had lift up lids where our children could store their stationary. We no longer use these desks but they were gorgeous for that season.

Book crates or baskets

I store books for future use in large plastic crates on wheels. This keeps them well until we need them. But other books that are additional to our studies, perhaps from libraries, we keep in big wicker baskets.

Organize your homeschool papers

The taming of the paper monster in a homeschool can become a full time job! Here are a few tips to organize your homeschool papers:

Paper for use is kept in stacking trays. I keep scrap paper, clean white paper for drawing and colored cardboard each in their own tray.

Any completed work that is not in a book gets put into another stacking tray under that child’s name. At the end of the school year when I put their portfolios together I will systematically work through each child’s papers and keep the best work for the portfolio. The other papers I will decide with the child on whether it goes into heir shoebox or gets thrown away.

Art work can be included in this section. There have been some creative solutions to this offered in various forums and e-loops.

My favorites are:

1. Change the art work each quarter. Take old art work down from the walls. Decide on whether they are “keepers” or can be thrown away. Art that is kept is put into a big folder and bound at the end of the year.
2. Keep all the artwork up for as long as you can. Before removing it, take a photo of your art wall. Keep the best as described above, throw away the rest.

Organize your homeschool supplies

Supplies for your homeschool cover any stationary that your children need.

Pencil box basics:

Pencils – H are the best as they do not smudge. Some children prefer softer pencils so you could have HB’s too. Early writing is easy to do with a triangular pencil.

Pens – ball point pens in blue and black.

Eraser

Sharpener with two sizes – the ones that catch the shavings are the best for quick cleaning!

30 cm long ruler and a small inch ruler

Colored pencil set

Glue stick

Small Scissors

All of these items are color coded or labeled for each of my children. So if they have a purple pencil box, their ruler and sharpener will also be purple. I find this helps when it comes to those times when one child says another has their eraser as it is missing! We also make sure that these pencil boxes are in order after we finish our work everyday – you will be amazed at how much time it saves and this litte effort goes a long way to organize your homeschool!

Paper supplies
As mentioned above I keep three kinds of paper in our schoolroom – colored card, white paper, lined paper in pads and scrap paper for odd things. These are kept in a stacking tray each on their own shelf.

Above our daughters desks they have their own shelves for their scrap booking and card making. These are stored in plastic folders.

The other paper items that I buy once a year are:

A large pack of individual plastic sleeves

A few plastic display files

Notebooks with lines and others with a combination of line and white pages.

I hope you have found some help in this article, I know when I read through this myself – I am overwhelmed, but remember the principle of “line upon line and precept upon precept” and tackle one area at a time.

It is important for concentration that your children’s work area is orderly. But above all it is important that your relationship stays as the priority above the need to organize your homeschool.

Other related articles and tips:
Ultimate Homeschooling Moms's Planner
Organize your art cupboard
Best Homeschooling Resources
Homeschool Schedule

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