Organization Solutions for Homeschool Moms
Having three kids doing school at home means having three kids at home ALL DAY. Every day. I feel like that should have been in all caps too. I love ’em, but my kids can wreck a room in less time than it takes me to brush my teeth in the morning. To keep the textbooks, Chromebooks, and sketchbooks contained, I need some organization. So here are some of my favorite tools to organize homeschool or online learning.
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Kids’ Desk & Supply Organization
First up, desk organization. All those pencils, rulers, markers, and glue sticks need somewhere to live. Somewhere besides the floor, where they seem to frequently visit. Here are some great options for organizing all those school supplies. My kids tend to move their stuff around from desk to kitchen table to coffee table and back again, so we really like portability.
Sturdy bins are great for keeping books in one place. I give each of my kids at least two book bins, one for library books, and one to keep spiral notebooks and small workbooks. Add labels to make it easy for your kids to put items back.
A portfolio for oversized art projects will keep all those unwieldy projects contained. I have this one with dividers to separate projects by age or grade.
A place for everything, if you have the space for it.
Keep workbooks, textbooks, pencils, & more contained
Mobile caddy to use anywhere
Holds notebooks + supplies
Sturdy bins to hold and categorize books and notebooks
Organize oversized art projects
Paper & Planning Organization
Even with so much happening online, kids generate a lot of paper. Here are some organization tools to help you manage the paper.
A file organizer provides a spot to keep assignments for multiple kids or multiple subjects. Having a storage clipboard makes it easy for kids to do work anywhere. Plastic envelopes are ideal to categorize and store papers by month or by topic. I like to keep monthly activities, bulletin board decorations, and anything else I am planning for a specific month in these plastic envelopes.
We’ve used these dry erase pouches for years. Stick a worksheet inside and you can reuse that page as many times as you want. We’ve used them for chore charts, too. I also use it to protect papers when I plan to post something on the fridge. Using a dry erase pouch provides protection from dirty finger smudges and getting crumpled.
A roll of paper will provide hours of entertainment for your kids. We’ve made city streets, outlined silhouettes, and timelines. One time we wrapped paper around the outside of our pergola to provide them with a little “cave” that they drew all over. You won’t regret having this giant roll of paper.
It’s not very exciting, but a three-hole punch is a little workhouse around our house. On Fridays, I try to have my kids go through all the papers they have lying around and have a punching party. They each have a three-ring binder with subject dividers, but on a daily basis, papers don’t seem to make it into the binder. Our three-hole punch has been going strong for years, and gets almost daily use.
Read: 9 Lists Homeschool Moms Should Make
Planning
A white board can keep track of assignments and schedules, and work out those tricky math problems. Each month I assign one child to decorate our bulletin board. I pull out the plastic envelope for that month, which gives them options for a calendar, a monthly fun activity list, quotes, and other decorations. We also do a “word of the month,” which is incorporated into our bulletin board in some way. It’s fun to see what they come up with each month!
Storage for paper assignments or resources
Storage clipboard for working on-the-go
12-pk plastic envelopes – perfect for storing monthly calendars, activities, and bulletin board decor
Always useful white board!
Bulletin board
Roll of paper (great for art projects, timelines, or collaborative work)
Electronics
Our current charging situation is workable, but no matter what system I try, the long charging cords end up looking messy. I’m thinking that a compact charging system like this one with short cords may be the answer to my visual clutter problem. I need to do a little investigating into whether it can charge the variety of devices we need, but if so, I’m sold!
With three kids homeschooling, we definitely need wireless headphones. The kids prefer the comfort of the over-ear style to earbuds, and we add vinyl stickers or washi tape to distinguish who’s is whose.
An electric pencil sharpener might seem unnecessary at first, but when you have multiple kids using pencils all day, you will probably find that it is most decidedly necessary. We have an old-school manual sharpener bolted to the wall as well, but the kids prefer the electric sharpener.
I know that an Alexa device doesn’t seem like an organization tool for homeschool, but I’ve had a lot of fun setting routines with our Alexa for the kids to use. She can play music for a quick dance break, tell a joke faster than I can Google one, and let us know whether it’s cold enough to need a jacket outside. Check out my post detailing some of the Alexa routines we’ve used.
I have a charging station very similar to this and I love that it corrals all our electronic devices and gives the kids one spot to charge everything.
My kids all use these wireless headphones daily
This pencil sharpener is a workhorse!
Alexa – use timers, set routines, play music, and more!
Visit my homeschool resources page for monthly unit study ideas, projects, and homeschool planning help!
Organization Tools You Don’t Even Have to Buy
One of the greatest tools I use to organize our homeschool is Google Classroom. If you have a Google account, you can set up a Google Classroom for your kids. I’ll save the details (there’s a lot of details!), for another post, but this tool has allowed us to create a rich learning environment – and it’s free!
The other organization tool that enhances our homeschooling experience is a customized desktop background with links to favorite learning sites. Read my post about how to create a fun desktop background for all the information on that.
Find this set of helpful monthly checklists for homeschool moms in my shop!
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Organization Tools for Homeschool
My kid also braught all his stuff from the school when he had home schooling. For a while his desk was in a mess and all homework sheet were messed up. The proper organizers are absolutely a must.
It makes a huge difference when they can find what they need!
I love these cool items here, its good to be organize when doing work at home especially when dealing with phone cords and chargers. this can actually be meant for everyone.
It’s definitely tough getting everything that should be at work organized at home now!! Thanks for these tips.
Love these tips and I LOVE all things stationery. It’s so important to keep things organised and tidy. Definitely helps with concentration too.
Yes! I cannot focus when my space is untidy.
There are SO many extra things at home!
This is awesome, especially for all of us unexpected homeschooling parents this year!
Yes, I need to maintain some order or all the extra school materials will make me crazy!