Skip to main content

Organizing Our Homeschool Space

It is January, and usually this mean organizing time for many. I love organizing. I am not necessarily the most organized or neat person, but nonetheless I like to organize stuff. Way back when  I came across this logo and it stayed with me: " A place for everything." Living by this rule is really life saving. Keeping items organized in your homeschool and home is an important aspect of your homeschool day. It does help you from being frazzled and wasting time looking for things.


This month I am joining the Canadian BloggingTeam in talking about our organizing Tips.

This month, I also participated in the Organization Your Homeschool in 20ish Days Challenge sponsored by The Canadian Homeschooler and DownshipPRO.com

In this post I will be sharing with you how things are organized in our homeschool.

Books and curriculum:

We live in an apartment so space is limited in my house. I use bookcases and crates to store our books and homeschool material. I do not buy and store curriculum in advance, and I only buy things that I know I will use. Also once I am done with something I look to sell it as soon as possible so that i have money to buy the next thing (we live on one income and there is not much money to go around). So our curriculum stash is not very large. Here is how all of our material and resources are organized:

  • One bookshelf spot has all our resource books
  • One spot has all our library items
  • Another bookshelf spot has our curriculum, flashcards and such.
  • Each boy has his own crate which contains their current curriculum and notebooks.
  • All our manipulative, science stuff included, are also kept on a shelf or two in one of our bookcases.

Supplies:

When it comes to supplies, again I try to be minimalist, so we do not have tons of stuff. Our supplies consist of: pens, pencils, erasers, scissors, markers, colored pencils, highlighters, dry-erase markers, permanent markers, glue, paint, stickers, labels, paper, transparent sheets, manila folders, thumbtacks, hole puncher, staplers and staplers, paper clips, andpost-it. All of these are kept in containers of various size and shapes

Mom's corner:

When it comes to my stuff, I keep my supplies around my computer desk. A lot of the stuff I share with the boys so they are kept in a different spot. My teacher's books, of which I do not have many of, are kept in the curriculum spot mentioned earlier. I also have a binder that contains my lesson planner pages, blogger planner pages and finance sheets as well.

Toys/games/Lego:

When it comes to toys, I give them the same treatment as curriculum: if they are not being used, they get sold. So every so often I go through with the boys and sort. Most of the toys and games are kept in bins.

We recently acquired a bookcase to store their Lego pieces, and display their creations. I totally forgot to take a before picture and really wish I had, because man there has been a major change in space and tidiness.  Most of their Lego pieces are in mix and match boxes and stored on the shelves neatly. I also used that same bookcase to store our board games.

My tips:

  1. Only buy if you know you need it and/or you know you're going to use it.
  2. Every year assess and purge your stuff, from supplies to curriculum to books.
  3. Train your children to put away at the end of the school day.


Comments

Annette said…
That was a tough one to learn. Buy only if you really think you will use it.

http://anetintimeschooling.weebly.com/a-net-in-time-blog
Unknown said…
We are apartment dwellers too. I purge often, and I try to stick buying what will be used. I do buy some items in advance if I find a good deal. Thanks for sharing your tips and space.

Popular posts from this blog

Our Current Homeschool Routine - Virtual Homeschool Fair - Week 2

For week 2 of the Virtual Homeschool Fair, which is hosted by Homeschooling Hearts and Minds , we are talking method of homeschooling. When it comes to the how of homeschooling, and the method that we all follow, with the 20 plus blogger participating I can guarantee you, no method will be the same. Homeschooling is a lifestyle and a path unto a goal or toward a direction that each family sets for itself. For us, this encompasses academic rigor, as well as Christian values and depth of understanding of how to live in this world as Christians. To that end, earlier on we had settled on a classical education. 10 years into it, I cannot say we have been very good classical homeshooler. We did not follow the method and philosophy to a T but instead adapted it to our family's routine and rhythm. We became more relaxed classical homeschooler. I had good intentions with the Latin and Greek, but not enough discipline and it did not appeal to the boys; my oldest son did two years, the...

2019-2020 Curriculum Line Up- Grade 11 and Grade 9

Happy New Year to all! After a two year hiatus, I am resurrecting this blog. Life has been such that keeping up with this blog had become a really low priority, but I kind of miss it, so here I am giving it a try again. First I realized I never posted about my kids' curriculum line up for this school year. So, though late, here it is. This year I am homeschooling two high-schoolers. Time has gone so fast. With a 14 year old (9th grade) and a 16 year old (11th grade) I really feel like time is sleeping away; but that is the reality of life. We are but a vapor... So here we are: Humanities: Tapestry of Grace Year 2 - Middle Ages:   History, Literature, Writing, Church History, (hoping: Philosophy) Math: Alpha and Omega  Chemistry: Mr.Q. Science - Advanced Chemistry Electives:  Health - Zach - Alpha & Omega (1st semester), Speech - 7 Sisters Homeschool (2nd semester.) Violin - Zach Piano - Johann French: Duolingo, Breaking the Barrier...

Homeschooling - A Glimpse into How We Do it

2016 was a pretty skimpy blogging year for me. Ask me why, I am not sure I have an answer for you beside life happening and writing inspiration fading. With a new year upon us I will try to get back on the blogging scene and what best topic to start the year with than giving you a glimpse into what homeschooling looks like in our home with now two teenagers. In the past 4 years I have enjoyed participating in the Virtual Curriculum Fair hosted by Homechooling Hearts and Minds , so I am happy to start my year participating once more. For those who are not familiar with the Virtual Curiculum Fair, it is a month long series of posts, where over 20 homeschoolers share about their homeschool curriculum and how they homeschool. The weeks will go as follow: Week 1: See How We Learn/Welcome to the VCF Week 2: Playing with Words Week 3: Discovering Patterns Week 4: Exploring Our World Week 5: Seeking Beauty So how do we learn here? this is the topic of this ...