These tips will help you organize your homeschool space in the new year! Organizing your homeschool room is going to look different in each home and depending on your family’s needs.
We homeschooled for 3 years before we had a designated homeschool room. So, I am aware that not everyone has one. Regardless of whether or not you have a dedicated room to homeschooling, I am sure you have space somewhere in your home that houses your homeschool materials. The question is how to organize your homeschool space.
Our homeschool space is also our children’s playroom. This means, that we have needed to organize our space well. I have learned a few things through the years that can help when it comes to organizing your homeschool room.
Only keep out what you need
We do not keep all of our schoolbooks out. The only books that are on our homeschool shelves are ones that we are currently using. Any books not used go on other bookshelves or in a tote and are organized by grade level. This keeps our homeschool room more organized and takes up less space.
Organize Small Items
I purchased these organizing drawers a few years ago. They have become one of my favorite purchases. I am able to organize all our flash cards and have them all in one place. I also am able to keep pushpins, magnets, stickers, paper clips, and other small items in one spot. My children’s favorite drawer is the “missing pieces” drawer. When they go to play a game or put together a puzzle and a piece is missing they know where to look most of the time they find it there!
Give Each Child Their Own Space
Whether it be a drawer, a book shelf or a school cubby each child needs to have their own homeschool space. This can be where they keep their schoolbooks, papers, and pencils. They are responsible for keeping their homeschool school space neat. This puts the responsibility on their shoulders and helps teach them to stay organized.
Keep Teachers Guides Together
All of my needed teacher’s guides for the school year are together near my desk. This way when I go to grade papers, all my teacher’s books are near me. I don’t use them all every day, but I still keep them together. By keeping all your teacher’s guides together you will save yourself from having together items needed to grade papers, plan lessons or other needed teacher tasks :)
Have a Filing System
On my teacher’s desk, I have a file system that says “Graded”, “Needs Graded” and “Needs Filed”. This is where my children place their papers that need to be graded each day. When done, I put them in “graded” for the children to put away. “Needs Filed” is work for me. If there is a paper or piece of work that needs to be placed in the kid’s portfolios I place it in “needs to be filed”. I go through this once a month or so. Find a filing system that will work for you and your family. This will help keep your homeschool room more organized and paperwork a lot easier to maintain.
Keep Toys out of School
This is hard, especially when you share your homeschool space. But, it is important to do if you want your older children to stay focused. We have an imaginary line down our room. The little kids know they need to keep their toys on the other side of the room. If they want to play and be noisy they can take the toys to their rooms and have at it! I also keep the table facing the window so the older kids have their backs to the younger children. This helps!
Organizing your homeschool room is going to look different in each home and depending on your families needs. The key is to find what works for you and your family. Hopefully some of these tips will help you organize your homeschool space in the new year!
Misty Bailey is a wife to Roger and a homeschool mom to three beautiful blessings. She resides with her family in Southern Ohio. She loves helping new homeschoolers and has written an ebook titled Homeschool 101. She shares her struggles with time management, becoming unglued and finding joy in the everyday moments on her blog Joy in the Journey.
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