Getting Ready for the New Homeschool Year Series- 4 Setting up a Homeschool Organization System

 My Homeschool Organization System 

After summer cleanout and lesson planning, my next step and final step revolves around getting my homeschool system in place; putting together all the its and bits to create a smooth workflow. I had tried several methods in the past to keep the workflow going. But most of those methods either required more labor to set up each year, or for whatever reason just didn’t work.

I currently have these key elements in my ‘system’ that helps keep the workflow going. I have been using this system for the past 2 years, and I find it not so labor-intensive.

(This post may have affiliate links)

-My ‘Homeschool Curriculum Master Folder’ 

-‘Lesson Plan Folder’ for Kids

-‘Working Folder’ for Kids

-‘Notes Folder’ for Kids

-‘Work to be corrected’, and ‘Corrected work’ bins.

–12 pocket wall organizer to store printouts of upcoming weeks 

–5 pocket wall organizer for storing kids worksheets for the following week of school.

-“Work done’ bin

 

I start off by gathering all the curriculum books we will be using for the next year, and putting away the ones we won’t be needing that year.

1) I first get the Folders set up. I start printing off all the pages I typed up of the curriculum and checklists for my ‘Homeschool Curriculum Folder’ and  the ‘kids lesson plan folders’.  

The Homeschool Curriculum Folder is my master folder, in which I store printouts of the years curriculum as well as other lesson plan pages, checklists, poem lists, etc for the year. In this master Binder, I also have things I reuse every year.eg: tips on teaching writing, writing prompts for emergencies, art study templates, any cheatsheets, and few other things I found useful to keep for reference. I reuse those, and only need to add in the new curriculum, checklists, goals etc for that year. 

Lesson Plan folder

Each of the kids have their own ‘lesson plan folder’ where I put their daily checklist and other specific lesson plans for each subject. I put the lesson plan checklist in a sheet protector so that they can use their markers to check it and reuse. I also put together in this folder, other relevant material such as spelling word lists, vocabulary lists, writing templates/ rubrics, a list of writing prompts to use if bored, any mathematical formulas/concepts, list of Bible verses for the year, any experiment lists, or any other information they might need for the year, that is good to have in one place, organized by subject. 

Working Folder

Another folder each kid has is a ‘working folder’, in which they keep all the worksheets for the week that I put out. Whatever work they do that week they keep in that folder. When they are done with the work they move the finished work to the end of the folder. When the folder starts getting full, I dump the work done into the ‘work done box’ that I have on top of my teacher desk, that I mentioned in a previous post. 

Notes Folder

More recently, we have  a Notes folder instead of having separate folders/notebooks for each subject. I organize this by subject with divider tabs, so that they can keep all their notes in one place. I like using folders with detachable paper over notebooks,  so that even if they make a mistake or want to change their notes, they don’t feel discouraged. They can just tear off the old one and replace with the new sheets. 

If there is any other folder that needs to be set up for a specific learning program they are using that year, I do that at this point.

I let the kids personalize the cover by choosing a scrapbook design of their choice, to get them excited for the new year.

2) I print anything that I can go ahead and print for the whole semester, in terms of worksheets and the like. For some, I only print 2-3 weeks at a time, just to make sure we do end up following through with that curriculum. There was one year I overzealously printed out all 36 weeks of material for a reading comprehension program that I found online for a higher grade. I only later realized they don’t have an answer key and so it was really hard to carry on with that program as I didn’t have time to spend going through the whole material  and correcting the work.

I note down the last page printed in Trello, in my lesson planning board for that year and update as and when I print something. 

3 )I have 2 magazine bins that I labeled ‘work to be corrected’ and ‘corrected work’. The kids keep all the work that needs to be corrected in the respective bin, and I check the bin and correct periodically. I then put away the corrected work that I don’t need to go over with them in the ‘corrected work’ bin.  For work that I need to go over, I have another place I keep it in. 

4) I have a 12 pocket wall organizer that I have near my teachers desk, where I keep specific files for printouts for following weeks, upcoming crafts, upcoming projects, corrected work I need to go over with, craft sheets to pass out when bored and other  miscellaneous printouts. 

5)I also have another 5 pocket wall organizer where I keep the worksheets for the coming week of the smaller kids. I load it up for the next week, the Friday before, so that they can grab their sheets and start school, without waiting for me. 

6)I had mentioned about the  ‘work done’ bin in a previous post. Its basically a bin I keep near my desk where I dump all the corrected work to file away. I later go through this bin at the end of the semester and discard paperwork I do not want to save. If I am little doubtful whether to save, I save it for now, and make the  final decision at the end of the school year during summer cleanout. 

Finally, I gather new school supplies for the coming year for each kid, and put them together in a bag, until it’s time to hand them out on the first day of school! (We usually buy a little more than needed for that year, so have enough for the next school year from the previous year’s stock; and then replace for the coming year during back to school savings sales.) 

I also let the middle to older kids choose a planner for the year, which I hand out on the first day of school.

So far, this system has been working smoothly for us. Once you set up a system, you can automate your homeschool. Kids will know where to look for to get new worksheets, what to do each day, where to submit the work, what to do when they get the work back, etc.

There are many different ways homeschool families set up systems. At one point, I had tried printing out everything beginning of the school year and putting in color coded files in hanging folders in a crate. But the crate system didn’t quite work out.  Another year, I tried something else, but that also didn’t work out for us. It may may work one year, but other years it may not.  So the key is to devise a system that works for you, taking into consideration, ages and number of children and space available.

I hope you found this series of 4 posts useful in planning and getting ready for the new homeschool year. Praying for God’s graces on each of us as we continue on our journey!

 

Check out the other posts in this series, as well as previous relevant posts:

Getting Ready for the New School Year Series 1- Planning Curriculum

Getting Ready for the New School Year Series 2- Homeschool Room Clean out

Getting Ready for the New School Year Series 3- Lesson Planning

Getting Ready for the New School Year Series 4- Homeschool Organization

Deciding if Homeschooling is Right for you and a Basic Roadmap for Getting Started

A Look at the Different Homeschool Methods and Educational Philosophies