Audrey Horn
I have been so stinking excited to share our homeschool set up and how I organize our books and materials. I just revamped it a little bit by reorganizing what’s on each shelf and what’s where in the house too. I started to have books split between the office and playroom, and it was driving me nuts. So I gathered all of our materials together and put everything onto these shelves minus the books that Kyler is currently working in for her curriculum. I love where everything is now, and I’m sure it will change over time, but this is working out nicely. In this post I’ll explain what’s in each cubby, and if you’re interested in where I got the bins, binders, and other materials, scroll to the bottom. My biggest regret is not getting the 4 x 4 extra large cubby unit, because I have multiple pieces now, but live and learn!
Let's get started! What’s in each cubby starting from left to right and going top to bottom?
1. Art and Science Project Books
2. Expedition Earth and Road Trip USA- www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com with review games for both contained in orange filing storage container
3. English Literature/Grammar books for Kyler and Korbin divided by the orange folder
4. Math books for Kyler and Korbin from www.SingaporeMath.com
1. Classical Conversations all Cycle Review Games, resources and handouts contained in blue storage container plus Timeline Cards in binders
2. Classical Conversations Cycle 1 printouts, games, handouts in folders contained in green storage container, fact cards in binder and books that relate to that particular cycle that can be used as reference and to expand on knowledge
3. Classical Conversations Cycle 2 printouts, games, handouts in folders contained in green storage container, fact cards in binder and books that relate to that particular cycle that can be used as reference and to expand on knowledge
4. Classical Conversations Cycle 3 printouts, games, handouts in folders contained in green storage container, fact cards in binder and books that relate to that particular cycle that can be used as reference and to expand on knowledge
This entire row is dedicated to the Letter of the Week Program from, once again, Erica over at Confessions of a Homeschooler. There is an activity pack for each letter in its own 1" binder
Korbin has his own pre-school binder (In the binder that says "My Daily Pre-school Notebook" where he writes the day of the week, the date, writes out the number in words, in addition to other writing projects. Obviously Korie isn’t ready to write yet, but she follows along with all of the projects, especially the manipulative.
My teacher binder is right next to that labeled "Letter of the Week"
The black binder contains preschool and kindergarten flashcards from simple letter and number recognition to site words to simple math problems too. The bin has all preschool manipulatives, which have been wonderful for Korie to continue working on fine and gross motor skills. See the full list of materials at the bottom.
1. The bottom bin contains kindergarten and elementary school math manipulatives such as a complete base 10 system, additional cube counters, and fraction mats. The top bin has hex puzzle pieces for Korbin and Korie to work on shape manipulation, as well as other puzzles like this
2. The lego bin has been awesome when the kids want to create their own city. The book that comes with it is great, and I love seeing how they create cars, trains, you name it with them. This lego set has been great. The bin on top has nothing but puzzles, matching games and card games. The blue that you see hanging out is a site word board that you can keep site words in for all kinds of use. It was great practice with Kyler as she was learning to put sentences together, and I plan on using it the same way with Korbin and Korie. And yes. I keep all of the colors separated. If everything is just thrown together it would be nearly impossible to create anything since it’s a color coded system
3. These are classic books that are a wonderful addition to our curriculum for the Learning English through Literature Unit.
4. After I reorganized every book shelf in the house I discovered how many step up readers we have! These are all in order from step 1 – 3. From the large blue book moving to the right is religion for all of the kids. We use Blessed Are We Books, and I love love love it.
Manipulatives:
vanki whiteboard magnetic buttons
Melissa and Doug Tangram puzzle system
Lego Classic Medium Creative Brick Box
Crafting Items:
Paint Sticks- These are AMAZING!! NO MESS!!
The Top Shelf
Since the school year started I have been playing around with where to keep construction paper, markers, etc... While this is just a snapshot of our crafting/project items, I wanted to make sure to keep the construction paper visible and a bit easier to access by using the black file organizer. As usual, after I bought it I saw one that had 8 horizontal slots instead of vertical slots, so I wish I had purchased that one instead.
Here is the amazing craft wheel. I picked this up over at Michael's online store for only $18, as opposed to $40 by using some coupons! I was super pumped, because no way did I want to spend $40 on this. It's sturdy and it holds a bunch of markers, paint markers, crayons, all of our pencils, etc... I totally can't take credit for this find or anything that's in it. I got all of the ideas from Erica over at Confessions of a Homeschooler.
The green basket is our prize basket. When the kids get a 100 on worksheets they get stickers and stamps, and when they get an A on a test, they can dive into the other prizes which range from funny erasers, to mechanical pencils, sticky hands, temporary tattoos, etc...
The First Shelf
The Second Shelf
The Third Shelf
The Fourth Shelf
Where did I find everything?
(Click on the item)
Storage:
3 x 3 Cubby in white lacquer (13 x 13 x 13 bins)
1 x 3 Cubby in white lacquer (13 x 13 x 13 bins)
1 x 2 Cubby (I have 2 of these) (13 x 13 x 13 bins)
Green Plastic Bin for Prizes- bought at Target
Recollections Desktop Carousel search here but you can also check Michaels.com to see if they have it on sale
Plastic Vertical File Organizers
Black and White Rectangle Storage Bins (4)- Target
Brown Square Storage Bins (2)- Target
Mini Binders- www.KeepFiling.com They have free templates for spine labels too
Extra curricular books/learning materials:
English Grammar through Literature
Sight word chart- given as a gift. I believe they got it on Zulilly. We love it. They have some on amazon here, but you can't store your sight words like the one we have can
Phonics Books- various phonics and sight word recognition. were given to us over the years as gifts
Decorations:
