Our School Room #Homeschool #HomeschoolRoom #Organization

So, we have this large room downstairs that is dedicated to homeschooling, yet, towards the end of last school year we really stopped using it!  it’s become a big mess and it was hard to keep things straightened up down there, and it was a distraction.  So, it has now become school storage room! 

I have moved our workboxes up stairs to the living room, where we were doing school anyways! 

The nice thing is the laptop is up there, so I can be there to help with computer assignments and other assignments.  It is also away from the toy room, which is great, because the MESS in there always got me off on the wrong foot every morning! 

Since it’s our living room, it gets cleaned up every night (as opposed to just the door shut).  It’s been really great so far, and  am think it will continue to go well.  

The only issue is bringing stuff up and down the stairs for the younger kiddos workboxes, but that’s only weekly, so not a HUGE deal.

This is our set up:

Workboxes for the older two, I color coded them this year, the two bottom boxes (different color) are just supplies.   On top are books they need for the subjects in the boxes below (mostly my oldest son), a magnet/dry erase board for spelling and a device charging station.

Workboxes for the youngest two, on top are supplies and resource books.  To the left of the boxes are books and supplies for upcoming units, I have since moved this next to the bookshelf in the living room.

This cart from Ikea, has teacher manuals on the bottom, circle time materials in the middle and on top is a file box to file work for their portfolio.  The baskets on top are places in front of the workboxes each day for them to place finishes work for me to check.  Of course, there is the laptop there at the desk too!

It’s very plain and simple.  I also just purchased a few lap desks to share, and the kitchen table is just around the corner, should they choose to work there (most of the time they do not though). 

I love how simple the set up is, and how there is no clutter to stress me out (until I go down to the school room to get something, YIKES!). 

I have the workboxes for the older 3 (K, 2nd, 5th) assigned by subject.  So they do not change much, and for my almost 3 year old, I do change up the activities I put in there (see more about that on our curriculum post). 

So you don’t really need a big homeschool room (unless you are like me and have WAY to many supplies!  I REALLY need to sort through that stuff!).

We do have A LOT of bookshelves not pictured here, there are 2 in the Living Room, and a lot more downstairs.  Most the stuff dedicated to homeschooling, however, is in the room formerly known as the school room.

Review: Hey Mama! Print Schoolhouse Planner 2016-2017 (TOS Review) #hsreviews #tosmagazine #homeschool #schoolplanner #schoolresources

I got to check out the Hey Mama! Print Schoolhouse Planner 2016-2017 from The Old Schoolhouse for this review!

It was perfect timing too, to start planning for next school year!

The Hey Mama Planner has lots of great pages for the Homeschool Mom to plan and stay organized all school year long! 

It comes with year calendars for 2016, 2017 and 2018.  Each month (starting in July 2016 – June 2017) has a page for notes, a month calendar and a Hey Mama page with inspirational and motivational talk to keep your spirits up when things get hard (we all know they get hard!).  These are followed by blank Weekly Planner pages (about 80 pages), for the fine details (and some more Hey Mama pages).  Next up is Monthly Goal sheets, Semester Goal Sheets and Yearly Goal Sheets, Attendance Logs, and Curriculum Planning Sheets for up to 5 students.  There is also 4 Reading Logs, A Homeschool Contact List, Writing Prompt Ideas, Story Starter ideas, timelines, dates and other facts.  Last, but not least, there is information on how to create a transcript and pages to do so.  PHEW!  

It is filled with a lot of great stuff!!

Honestly I am not much of a paper planner, I don’t plan ahead, I fly by the seat of my pants most of the time (I know, those who know me are probably shocked!)  I have a general outline of what we are going to do each day, but I definitely do NOT plan out my year in advance (I tried that at first, didn’t work).  I plan to use the weekly planning to write what we DID to that week, it will be great for my yearly reviews to have this all written in one spot!  It will also help me in my ‘What we did this week’ blog posts. 

It will also help me stick to the general routine I have set up, and keep me on track as far as school days go. 

The monthly calendar will definitely come in handy to keep track of all the goings here and there!  As ‘home’schoolers, we rarely stay home.  (Though I am trying to cut back on some of our extra curricular this coming year). 

The goal sheets will be useful too, I have wanted to start working with my oldest (almost 10) to have him start setting some goals.  There was a class offered at a recent conference I went to (LDSHE) and it was on goal setting with your kids.  I didn’t attend it, but a friend did and she filled me in!  It sounds like a great idea! 

I’m looking forward to implementing these plans and this planner in the next coming month! 

From now until July 15th you can get this awesome planner for $19 shipped!

However, you can also gain access to all Schoolhouse Planners in digital format by subscribing to SchoolhouseTeachers.com!  Schoolhouseteachers.com is an all inclusive online curriculum for only $12.95/mo.  ($1 for the first month).  It gives you access to over 250 classes for preschool through high school, and even some for parents! 

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Books, Books and More Books–Keeping Them Organized!

We have a HUGE collection of books, and by HUGE I mean HUGE!  We have 2 bookshelves upstairs, 5 downstairs (not counting the school room) and the kids keep a small shelf in their bedroom.  I wish I could say I have found a fool proof way to get them all organized, but I do have 4 kids and a husband, who NEVER seem to put things back from where they got them!  But, here are a few methods I have used over the years, and I still implement them today! 

Click on the images to go to the posts.

The one problem I have though is forgetting I have a book, duplicating it or not being able to find it (and therefore not knowing if I have it or not!).  There are some great apps available for helping keep track of your library!  (I just need to do a better job of scanning books as I get them!)

There are also lots of great apps for keeping track of your books!

I have the Libib app on my iPad (now if I only remembered to scan the books!).  I like it because I can make folders for each subject to put the books in, this helps with curriculum planning.  So I have a folder for US History, Ancient history, Middle Ages, Life Science… etc… 

There are lots of other library type apps available.  Here is a list of the TOP 25 library apps available for iOS. 

Weekly Meal Planning Printables - Living Life and Learning

One Simple Tip for Organizing Homeschool Supplies- Schooling a Monkey

5 Tips for DIY Homeschool Organization - Jenn Gerlach Simple At Home

Organizing Small Items in Your Homeschool- A Sip of Southern Sunshine

How to Be an Organized Homeschooling Parent -- The Homeschool Post

Books, Books and More Books - Keeping Them Organized - Chestnut Grove Academy

Organizing Literature Rich Curriculums

I have a big problem of losing items and then finding them after the unit.  I’m trying really hard this time to be MORE organized!  So, this is what I have done:

I have color coded the books by units.  I didn’t have enough colors to do every unit, so I grouped a few units together.  I put a color sticker in the lesson book by that unit and then put stickers on the corresponding books for that unit.  Then I put the books in order by when they appear in the unit.

For core books that I’ll use in more than one unit I have them in a magazine holder, marked by subject.  History is our most literature rich subject, the books take up almost 2 whole shelves!! 

This also helps the book get put back where it belongs with little hands pull it down to look at it! 

This year for history we are using History Odyssey Middle Ages I by Pandia Press. We have acquired most of our books from Paperbackswap.com.  You don’t have to own books, of course, but I prefer to have the bulk, the less library books to keep track of the better! 

I also make notes for each chapter of additional books I have that would work for the unit (besides those listed), as well as movies we can stream that goes along with it as well!

Hope this tip helps you out a bit! 

*Wish I’d seen the 38 colors one before!! 

Getting Organized with Clever Container–Organization Ideas!

Okay - I found a cool business while at Kid stock last weekend, and I REALLY want this car organizer set...so, I'm hosting a show. It's a newer business, you may not have heard of Clever Container! Check them out online and if you order, please choose my name (Jen’s Catalog Party) from the host drop down menu at check out!

They have lots of great home storage solutions, especially for homeschool!

Did you see my post on how I store construction paper??
LIke this

 

and check out these great cubes with chalk board labels

I LOVE their Auto Line, who says Homeschoolers stay home all the time?  Now be organized in the car!

or these for art supplies
Like this

book and magazine organization

or theseor these

Folder Holder

Use for a workboxing system in a tight space!

or this

Document boxes

Lots of storage solutions available for all around the house! 

Thanks for looking!

*I do not sell this product, I am hosting a show and will receive hostess benefits for orders placed.  Thank you!

FREE with a $50 purchase

Getting Organized: Art Supplies

Okay, you may have seen the mini crate I had filled with art supplies, and while I still love the idea, it was just not sufficient for all of our materials.  So I had to brainstorm, and upgrade!

Shelf with the art bags, the middle black bin has felt and tissue paper in it.

Art supply bags – these bags are no longer available from Thirty One, but they do carry similar designs.  I filled the cans with pencils, glue, markers, paint brushes, etc…all in easy to carry handled bags.  Just grab from the shelf and carry to the table!  The side mesh pockets have scissors, erasers and pencil sharpeners.  I have another one that just has the co-op art supplies (each child has their own glue bottle, box of crayons and water color pack). 

Small paint containers and water colors.  Underneath is a plastic shoe box filled with our ‘special’ supplies for Home Art Studio curriculum. (I love plastic shoe boxes and use them for all sorts of things – toys, games, supplies.  You can get them for about $1-2 ea in bulk at Costco and are really good quality).

Previous posts of storage solutions that are still working for us:

post found HERE

post found HERE

Getting Organized: An Eclectic Curriculum

This year my goal was to eliminate the weekly Seek and Find, and the forgetting about resources. 

Using curriculums heavy in literature means LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of books, and then with netflix and other videos, it is just hard to keep track of everything. 
Then you add being eclectic into it, and well you just have lots and lots of stuff! 

So this year, I arranged all the books we will be using and put them in ONE place in ORDER of when they will be used.


I then utilized sticky notes!  I put sticky notes with the science and the history to make note of any additional resources I wanted to use (ie videos, lapbooks, additional books to the CORE curriculum).

Then I have a milk crate (I used this system last year as well) with hanging folders numbered 1-36 for each week.  The number system allows for flexibility!  I put the printed lesson plans (from ebooks) and any other printed items I have for that week in these file folders.  I use this for preschool items too.

I used the Schoolhouse Teachers ‘Big Mama’ Planner to personalize a few weekly planner sheets.  This way I can plan what goes in the workboxes each day for the week, and what we will cover in circle time each day.  I can also make note of any supplies I will need for the week, and have it all in ONE place, easy to access.  This sheet will go in that weeks folder.

I use pinterest as a HUGE organization tool.  I pin ideas throughout the year, and then as I plan out the week, I reference my pinterest boards.  I’ll make note of the ideas on the weekly plan sheets, and print off any materials I’ll need, which I store in the weekly folders. I spend Sunday evenings setting up the workboxes for the week, laminating and cutting out printed items, etc. 
What to do with those printables we’ve used in the past?  As you can see on my blog, we use printables each week, especially for preschool.  I laminate them all so that they are reusable, topics are revisited on a normal basis.  To solve the clutter issue, and to make them easy to find in the future…I decided to put them in manila envelopes and store them labeled in a bin.  All easily accessible for future use.

I used milk crates bought at Wal-mart and these magazine holders to organize the books and files:

matching document and cd boxes are also available. 
Now I just need to finish putting my Preschool Curriculum together! 
Linking up at Weekly Wrap Up – Curriculum Edition