Things Keeping Me Organized for Homeschool

It’s been a big change for our family to homeschool and the biggest adjustment has been for me for sure. (Details about why we made the switch to homeschool here!).

Homeschooling four kids across four grades while also running Everyday Reading means I’ve definitely had to step up my organization to keep everything running smoothly.

Here are 4 things that have really helped keep me organized:

4 Items for Homeschool Organization

1. Homeschool Baskets. I did a whole post about these a few weeks ago, but I can’t not mention how MUCH they help. Having everyone have their own basket for all their school supplies makes them easy to take to the living room or dining room or their bedrooms and easy to put away afterward. Plus, they go neatly in our dining room sideboard so they have a dedicated home and everyone knows where they go. This works MUCH better for us than a bookshelf for supplies because books that are going in and out all day are constantly tipping over and a basket is much easier for containing odd-size things like a pencil box or fabric map than a shelf is.
2. Wall Charts. I bought this pack of checklists at the beginning of the year and each girl got one with the first 9 weeks of school listed out and then their assignments for each day. These have been incredibly good for keeping everyone on track and making sure everyone knows what they’re doing every day without constantly having to check in with me. These charts were much longer than I needed so I chopped them almost in half (leaving a few blank spaces so we could add things as needed – Tally added Harmonica Practice to hers last week!) and then I could fit them all vertically on an out-of-the-way wall in our dining room where they aren’t very visible but easily accessible for our family.
3. Alexa Alarms. With 3 Savvy classes (Math and Reading for Tally and Math for Star), 2 piano lessons, science classes, art classes, Chinese tutoring and a bunch of other events, setting reminders and alarms on our Alexas has been a lifesaver for me. It took me about 10 minutes to get them set up early in the school year and now I don’t have to spend all that mental energy trying not to miss piano lessons. (We have an Echo in our living room and the girls each have Dots in their bedroom).
4. Skylight Calendar. I’ve seen these EVERYWHERE on Instagram and we got the new 27 inch Calendar Max just before school started. It syncs to both mine and Bart’s Google calendars so everyone can see the calendar events at a glance, plus I put the meal plan up every week so I’m not fielding questions about “what is for dinner? What’s for snack?” all day every day. I also love that everyone can add items to the grocery list or we can make lists of breakfast ideas or any other lists we want. The surprise favorite feature has been the photo slideshow. Most of our photos are buried on our phones so suddenly having hundreds of photos show every day in our kitchen has been such a fun way to remember those great family experiences and my girls absolutely LOVE it (some friends called us grandparents for how much we love it! If it is an old person thing to love being reminded of places and people you love, count me old). My code is JANSSEN50 for $50 off the Skylight 27 Inch Cal Max.

Whether you’re homeschooling or not, I’d love to know what is keeping your life organized right now!

If you like this post about our homeschool organization, you might also like these other posts:

• homeschool curriculum
• How I Organize My Bookshelves
• Goals for the 2024-2025 School Year