Whether you’re new to homeschooling or a veteran homeschooler looking to reinvent your space, we’ve got some tips for you! Evan-Moor asked the homeschoolers that use and love our resources to write some advice and tips for homeschool organization.
Check out these tips on how to organize your homeschool curriculum and daily schedule.
Top tips include:
- Print and prepare materials for each month
- Use magazine holder for book storage
- Combine answer keys into one binder
- Create weekly folders for every week
- Use colored tape to organize multiple children’s resources
- Create workboxes for each child’s lessons and materials
- Use bookmarks to save progress in books
- Adapt your home to fit your learning styles and locations
- Use rolling carts to organize materials so children can learn in any location
- Create a digital filing system of your materials and back it up
- Organize your lessons with hanging file folders or crates
Evan-Moor Tip:
Using bookmarks helps kids quickly find their next lesson in their curriculum books. Download FREE Evan-Moor bookmarks.
Organizing your Materials
Easy and effective ways to store your homeschool materials.
De-Shaun from Little Learner and Mom says:
My son loves all the Evan Moor books. The one thing I find helpful because we have a TeacherFileBox subscription, is printing out all the geography maps for the month for Daily Geography. I put them in his folder for the month, and he grabs his Daily Geography book and doesn’t have to flip back and forth for the map. This has made life so much easier!
Check out Little Learner and Mom’s instagram page here.
Alecia from Savant Learning Academy says:
I take my Evan-Moor Reading Comprehension workbooks, and I rip all the pages out. Then I put each story in a sheet protector. I tab and assort by skill and place all the stories in a binder for each child. Then when they need extra help in certain skills, I have it ready to go.
Click here to check out Savant Learning Academy.
Arlene (@arleneandcompany) says:
Every weekend, I set up both of my kiddos magazine holder organizers with the materials they will need for the week. This is set up at their desk and set aside for easy retrieval. Reducing the time searching for the workbook needed or lesson to open to. While also minimizing distractions or frustrations. I flag the page we are working on, and also have their writing materials, or supplies needed for the week set up separately in a bin.
This little bit of prep time really helps us from being overwhelmed as we jump between subjects. They always know where to find what they need, including blank books for added creativity.Find Arlene’s Instagram page here.
Becky from A Place to Nest says:
My best homeschool organization tip is to combine answer keys into one binder. By keeping all of the answers together, I’m not constantly pulling out different books when it’s time to grade. Plus, it makes grading on-the-go even easier!
Check out A Place to Nest on Youtube for videos and tips!
Tanya from Project Happy Home says:
We split our workbook assignments into weekly folders so that it’s easy to stay on track without juggling multiple workbooks every day. This way, we can grab our weekly folder and take it with us on park days, long drives, or vacations. If I need my husband to take over our homeschool for the day because I’m sick or at an appointment, the kids can manage their assignments without any trouble.
Find Project Happy Home on Youtube for more tips and videos!
Amy from Book Brilliant Kids says:
We use colored tape to keep our curriculum books sorted by child. It’s a quick way for each child to find her assignment for the day AND put it back in its place when she’s done!
Check out Book Brilliant Kids on Youtube!
Robbie from Purposeful Homeschool says:
Workboxes! Workboxes can be done several ways – with crates, with tiered rolling carts, with drawer carts, with desk drawers… but creating ‘workboxes’ achieves several things:
- It organizes your curricula so you know exactly what materials get priority each day.
- It compartmentalizes materials so it’s not so overwhelming visually or mentally.
- You have the freedom to swap out materials in the workboxes at any time, but having only one thing at a time in the workbox for each subject helps us keep our focus and gives the student independence.
See Robbie show off his workboxes on her youtube channel, here!
Organizing your Homeschool Space
Transforming your homeschool space can also benefit you and your learners! Here are some tips and tricks on how to approach your learning space:
Jessica from Intentional in Life says:
My best homeschool organization tip is to define your learning space. Take some time to really observe where your learning happens and be intentional about defining your space. If most of your reading happens in the living room, provide a space (I love baskets) for books by your couch. Math for us usually happens at the kitchen table, so I make sure that our manipulatives are handy and stored close by. If you have nature journals that are being used, tuck them away in a cool basket by the door or window for easy access. And add a tin can of colored pencils inside the basket as well. Intentionally defining and organizing your children’s learning spaces will simply organize your supplies…I promise!
See more from Jessica on the Intentional in Life site, here!
Emily from Our Little Slice of Heaven says:
Stay flexible with your organization. While I’d like to have everything in its place all the time, that’s just not realistic for our busy family. So we use a rolling cart to store items we use daily. This keeps our shelves and desk clean. Then we can move the cart throughout the house as we learn and not worry about scattering supplies or books. Everything goes back on the cart and we organize it once a week.
Check out the Our Little Slice of Heaven website!
How to Create a Filing System to Organize Materials
Lastly, creating a system to organize materials for yourself and your learners can be incredibly useful and relieve some stress on you as a homeschooler. Here are some tips:
Crystal from Castle View Academy says:
Create a logical digital filing system as well as backups of all your resources. This doesn’t mean you should have every item duplicated five times in different clouds because that causes more disorganization and chaos. Consolidate and build a system that works for you before it’s too late and you lose everything.
Check out her website, Castle View Academy, here.
Kaylinn from Full Purpose and Heart
Eliminate the stress of week-to-week planning by putting together all your curriculum in an easy filing system. All you need are hanging file folders, a drawer or crate, and enough folders for your students. Then, at the start of the school year, simply organize what assignments/work pages your child will complete week to week. It’s an easy way to have everything ready ahead of time for your school year. You can schedule in breaks and holidays and still have the confidence in knowing you’ll finish all you need to by year’s end.
Find Kaylinn on the Full Purpose and Heart Youtube channel!
Hopefully these tips have helped inspire your homeschool organization! If you have additional tips on how to make organizing materials easier, let us know in the comments!
Check out the blogs below for more homeschool tips and resources!
How to Homeschool: 5 Steps to Get Started Homeschooling
Homeschool Curriculum Ideas for Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, and Science
How to Plan Your Homeschool Curriculum in 5 Easy Steps
Amy Michaels is a former teacher turned homeschooler. She creates fun learning activities based on popular children’s books. Connect with her at BookBrilliantKids.com.