Good morning, sweet mama friends! Welp, we are in week two of our first year of Homeschooling and we’re all still alive! I mean, I’m more frazzled, exhausted, and more in need of caffeine and chocolate than I’ve ever been in my life, but WE MADE IT! We’re doing it! and ya know what? We don’t hate it. We are actually really enjoying it. The boys even asked if we could do school on Saturday, but mama needed a break lol.
You all know how much I love to organize and when we embarked on this homeschool journey I knew I needed to be SUPER organized if we were going to succeed in this. I honestly don’t think anyone can successfully do homeschooling if they aren’t at least a little organized, but that’s just my opinion. After researching and scouring the good ole Pinterest for MONTHS and taking notes along the way, I think I’ve got us a pretty good system of organization going, so I wanted to pass along the things that are working for us in the hopes that it might help some of you who are struggling in that area. Here are 5 simple things that I’ve implemented to keep everything in place, help us stay on track, and keep me from losing my mind…
- Master Binder.
This blog post about having a master binder was so helpful for me. I gleaned from this post and customized my binder according to our homeschool needs. I have a large 2″ three ring binder to keep all my homeschool paperwork organized as well as to store samples of each child’s work for the year in. I have them separated with these dividers with pockets.
Here are the categories in my binder:
1. Plans. This is where I keep my lesson plans, a list of all extracurricular activities each child is allowed to do when they have a break (like center activities, list of podcasts they can listen to, flash cards they can use, etc.), my list of educational tv shows, and list of national holidays.
2. Logs. This is where I keep my library book tracker sheet and field trip tracker sheet.
3. Notes. I keep extra notebook paper here to keep track of anything I need to jot down to remember during the week.
4. Trips. This is where I keep field trip information like confirmations, tickets, itineraries, etc.
5. Legal. This is where I keep our homeschool association member cards, state laws, etc.
6. Morning Time. Here I keep printables of anything I’d like us to cover in our morning time as well as ideas from other websites I’ve found.
7. Tabs for each child. Here I will store some of their best work they’ve completed throughout the year to keep for our records in case the state ever requires us to turn it in. I’m planning to just put 2-3 sheets in per week, but that may change.
- Planner
I’ve talked about my homeschool planner many times already and I’m still loving it. I chose to purchase the printed version, but I think next year I will purchase the digital copy so that I can just add it to my master binder and be able to customize it for each child. I’ve just found that I’m not using the whole planner so there are sections that are going to waste, but I HIGHLY recommend this planner. Here’s a great blog post on using this planner. If you don’t get this one you definitely need some type of planner to keep track of your attendance, calendar, daily lesson plans, grades, etc.
- Baskets
We are using these cute Target baskets in our schoolroom for our daily folders and books.
Here’s another great basket option from target. We have 4 of these baskets. One for morning time, one for Gabe’s weekly folders and books, one for Landon’s weekly folders and books, and one for all of my things (binder, planner, teacher guides, etc.). 
These work SO well and give us a place to store all our most used things. When it’s time for school we just grab our baskets and head to the table.
Now, let me tell you a little more about my favorite basket: our morning time basket. I cannot even explain to you how much we have enjoyed this part of our day. This is by far, everyone’s favorite part of homeschool. I plan to do a blog post in the future with more on all this, but basically this is the first thing we do in the day and it’s a time for us to really connect, study God’s word, and get in any extra studies we want to cover with the kids. It takes us about 30 minutes and really is such a sweet time for us.
Right now this is our schedule for morning time:
1. Pray
2. Sing 3 songs (our first song is usually “This little light of mine or “God is so good,” then we sing “days of the week,” and the alphabet song. We use Alexa for all of these. Just say those titles I mentioned above and she will play them if you have the monthly music subscription (highly recommend that. We use it ALL the time).
3. Say pledge of allegiance.
4. Complete our today is chart, check our rain gauge (if it’s been raining).
5. Read from our Shakespeare book or from our Narnia book
6. Practice our memory verse for the week and talk about our word of the day (I have both of these on our bulletin board in our classroom).
7. Read a page from highlight’s kid’s science questions.
8. Read from My America and My World.
*I let the kid’s do something with their hands while I read. I find it helps keep their attention better when their hands are busy. It’s usually a little puzzle, playdough, or blocks.
9. The last thing we do is read our devotion from Doodle Devotions book. Each child has their own book and gets to complete the drawing on each page after we read the devotion. This has been such a sweet time and has really helped start some really great conversations about God, the bible, and how we treat others. I also encourage the kids to have some prayer time once they finish thier drawing, but this isn’t a requirement.
Here are a few blog posts that have been helpful for me on Morning Time/Morning Basket:
What is a morning basket
What to put in a morning basket
- Pre-planning with File Boxes.
This is a great idea I got from Simply be Wild and Free blog and it is definitely a lot of work initially, but now that it is done it has taken a huge load off my mind knowing that basically the whole year is planned out and when it’s time to pull the kid’s work for the week it’s all in one place. I purchased these file boxes from amazon and I’m using one for my yearly lesson plans and one for each child’s school career (I’m putting one hanging file folder for each grade so that I can keep all their best work and cute treasures from each year). For my pre-planning box I have and hanging folder for each month and then a folder for each child per week.
I’ve cut/torn out their workbook pages from their books and filed them accordingly. We do one lesson per day. It helps if you make a master “year at a glance” sheet like this to refer to as you’re filing. 
I haven’t done this yet, but I plan to also put a sheet of paper in each month’s folder that states any materials I need to purchase for that’s month plans or any books I need to check out from the library, etc. The only thing I’ve planned out for the whole school year is our workbook pages. You could also place special books or activities in each hanging folder so you remember to cover those topics that month. For example, in September we plan to learn about fall and early American history. In October we will learn about American Indians, the first Thanksgiving, and US presidents. I am going to add books on these topics to my folder for those months as well as craft ideas and worksheets that go along with those topics. I also have a hanging folder in the back with extra worksheets that I’m hoping we can complete next summer.
- The Daily Folder System. I got this idea from Simply be wild and free as well and it is working out so great so far. Each week, I pull their work for the upcoming week from my pre-planning file box and put them in their plastic pocket folders for the week .
I wish I had done 1 color for each child, but I did a different color per day per child. Inside the folder, one pocket says “Incomplete” and one pocket says “Complete.” When they finish a workbook page, they move it to the complete side. 
Then, when they’re completely done with their work for the day, they put the whole folder in this completed work bin. 
At the end of the week I will take all their work out, grade it, file it or throw it away then put their new work for the upcoming week in the folders and it all starts over again. I can’t tell you how helpful this has been with keeping us organized this year. It’s especially helpful when I’m not there and my husband is doing school with the kids.
Ok, those are my best organizational tips for keeping your homeschool organized. I hope that was helpful for you. I know it can seem so overwhelming in the beginning. Trust me, there were many many tears shed over this at first, but everyone tells me that the first year is going to be the hardest as you learn what works best for you and your family. Once you learn that, it will all get easier year to year. That’s what I’m banking on anyways lol. If you’re not quite sure where to start, I would recommend starting with a planner and the pocket folders and go from there. Take small steps! You got this mama! God has called you to this and He will equip you!
