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Today I would like to welcome a guest poster who will be sharing tips on how to organize your homeschool space. Please welcome Tina from Dynamic 2 Moms Homeschooling Adventure. [5]
Organizing your Home for Homeschooling
Thank you Toni for your gracious invitation to scoot by your beautiful blog which is chock-full of tips for home educators too. Thanks for the inspiration for those of us teaching and learning at home.
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Hi y’all, I am Tina from Dynamic 2 Moms Homeschooling Adventures. I have homeschooled all three of my boys from the beginning. I have savored every minute of homeschooling but it has not always been easy.
Along my journey, I have given up some of how I spend my day but I have not given up time to organize. Organization gives you wiggle room in your day to teach, experiment, and explore alongside your children. Clutter can bring stress to any learning environment. At home, organization is needed even more because you are sharing living and learning spaces. Books, science experiments, lapbooks, posters, crafts, computers, globes, art supplies, printers, dictionaries, maps, paper, bookshelves and oh did I mention kids are enough to make us run the other way when thinking about organizing our homeschool area. Sharing a few organizational tips, I hope to bring some homeschool harmony to your journey.
1. Before you purchase furniture and curriculum, decide if you want to do a majority of your learning in one room or use a majority of your home.
There is a difference. Some homeschoolers prefer a room and pattern it somewhat after public school. Others prefer to learn all over the house and integrate it into everyday life. I like to do both. Part of our day takes place in a structured sit down environment at a table and the other part of our day is spent elsewhere around the house or outside. For me personally, when the boys were very young {all under 2nd grade} I preferred a more designated room and used a kidney shaped table similar to that used in many public school rooms.
Having a designated schoolroom didn’t confuse my sons that we learn everyday in many places, not just within those four walls. It did help them to form lifelong habits and a routine. It helped me to keep the clutter to a minimum. Also give them their own space that is organized so they can keep up with high school deadlines.
Deciding individual desks versus table, or some of both is a must in the beginning.
2. Whatever you decide, whether it’s a special room or learning all over the house, do determine a place for all of your supplies and label them.
A label for a non-reader would be a picture. One year, I took pictures of my sons in the process of doing a chore like making their bed or brushing their teeth. They used stickers to show the chore completed because they could not write. Later when they started to write, they checked it off with a dry erase marker.
Toni has blogged about her over the door shoe organizer that can be used to hold supplies. That can be used in a homeschool area.
Click here [7] to read Toni’s post about this over the door hanger.
A toddler size over the door organizer too is a perfect size for younger children to store flashcards, games and learning supplies. Thinking outside the box is key to organizing a learning area. Here is our learning area today now that the boys are older.
I shared a few more ideas for storage, spaces and learning places here.
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I use a tower of clear drawers labeled for each child. Each child has one drawer per subject that houses all their devices, cds, pens, pencils, software, cords, books and paper they need for that subject. The drawers are stacked in the same order, top to bottom, of the subjects they cover for the day. They understand, without prodding from me, which subject or drawer they start with each day and work their way down until completed.
- Don’t just stack them, organize the drawers as to use. No excuse to not put away each day’s work. It’s not my job to handle paperwork. Okay, maybe just a little.
- Don’t run out and buy drawers yet. Measure first the largest books or device that you will store and use that as the guide for the size of your drawers.
- Take time to purge manipulatives regularly. Putting out a few manipulatives at a time for the toddlers to explore keeps messes contained. They don’t all need to be within reach of the toddler. When you switch out learning toys seasonally, old toys become new again.
3. Take time to make things you use every day cheerful and pretty. Functionality is huge on the list for most of us but all of us spend time in our learning space. Little things that are beautiful and that we use each day like planners and teacher binders affects mood.
It doesn’t have to be expensive to make a change or take a lot of time. I took time this year to change out teacher manuals that came in some eyesore blah binders to pretty binders.
Also, I took time to change out my magazine bins for my teacher helps. I don’t want to sound cliche but it really is the little things that make a huge difference in how I begin my day.
Taking time each year to create my own teacher planner and making it pretty inspires me for better record keeping. I love my iPad and techie things but I am a paper planner girl. There is something about writing it down that makes it stick for me. My 7 step homeschool curriculum planner is free if you want help being a little more organized.
Add a little style to your day as you learn. Organizing a learning environment at home can be challenging but worth every effort. Spend time igniting the spark for learning but don’t give up on creating spaces that inspire you.
I wanted to let you know about one more exciting thing coming tomorrow! I have a new printable Unit Study Planner that will be free for only 2 days, Jan. 10th & 11th, on Homeschool Freebie of the Day. [11] Be sure to get over there to visit his site to download my newest planner.
Hugs and love ya,
