 |
|
|
Organizing Homeschool MaterialsOrganizing all the STUFFDoes the thought of organizing homeschool materials make you sweat? Clutter is basically a bunch of STUFF laying your house with no real "home". Homeschooling materials can easily become clutter if not managed properly. Having a wide assortment of materials available is a fact of life if you teach at home. How else could they teach multiple children, multiple subjects? Organizing saves time (spent looking for something), energy (physical and emotional spent looking for something), and money (not re-buying something you can't find). Here are some suggestions for containing the two most common types of homeschooling materials. Books, Books, Books
Bookcases are an obvious choice for storage, but they are hard for young children to use.
(Watch a 4 year old try to put a book back vertically on a library shelf...it's tough!) They are also expensive.
Try a plastic dishpan. Books easily stand on end for a flip through library. Magazine storage boxes also work well and
are easy for younger ones to manage if they are placed on bookshelves.
While you are organizing homeschool books, consider having an "active storage" and "archive storage" place for your books. Active storage is what you are using NOW. Archive storage is for things you need later, are finished using, or need for reference. For example, our formal schooling takes place at the kitchen table. I have a small cabinet in the kitchen with the 6-8 teacher's manuals and workbooks my kids are using NOW. In the living room, where we do all of our reading, We have a basket of library books and other titles of our own about subjects we are currently studying or family read alouds in progress. These two spots make up our active storage. In the basement, I have 3 large bookshelves full of reference materials for all subjects, curriculum that is "between kids" (one has outgrown, but the other will need later), a set of encyclopedias, and random books that don't really fit with our current unit of study. These shelves are our archived storage, easily accessible, but out of the way. Arts and Crafts Supplies
Bins and boxes, preferably clear, are the best for these homeschool materials. If they are clear, labels usually aren't necessary and it's easy to see what needs to be replenished. They are perfect for pencils, crayons,
markers, and paints.
Hardware stores carry organizers with small, clear drawers that are perfect for holding small things like beads, buttons, paper clips, and brads. Hanging file folder "milk crates" are great for organizing colored paper. A cleaning "caddie" is great for holding things like glue sticks, stapler and scissors. Organizing homeschool materials only takes a few minutes a day, but saves hours in the long run.
For more ideas on household clutter control, click here.
Leave the Organizing Homeschool Materials page and return to the HBD Home page |
Sign up for HBD's
|
|
|
Enjoy This Site?
Then why not use the buttons below, to add us to your favorite bookmark, social web, or RSS feed service? 
|
||
|
Homeschool by Design on Facebook |
||
|
| ||
