The boxes are in! Books for next year’s homeschool curriculum are all sitting there waiting for your next move. ….and you stare back, frozen. In a large family, the thought of having to organize homeschool schedules, books, syllabi, etc. can feel very daunting. Where do we even start?
One Subject at a Time
I found that it was easiest to start with one subject at a time and the most important subjects first or the books that come in first. My Sonlight curriculum for history and science came in first, so I started with that. Then I worked my way through each subject, ending with the lesser important once such as the electives.
One Child at a Time
As I worked through each subject, I focused on one child at a time unless they had a combined curriculum. For example: In math, I created one syllabus for the older three children. However, I planned Daniel and Timothy’s schedule first since they are using the same book, then I planned Virginia’s schedule.
My Only Exception
When it came down to creating Michael’s work, I decided to create one syllabus for all of his subjects. Since he’s in Kindergarten he doesn’t have very many subjects to complete, so this made the most sense for him. It basically just gives me a daily check-off list to help me keep tabs on what we’ve completed.
Everything Has a Place
As I completed planning for each subject, I would take the corresponding books and create a space for them on the bookshelf. This is something I did last year, and found it to be extremely helpful in saving time and energy. I knew exactly where to find the book I needed regardless of what subject we were on. Even the kids’ reading books are lined up on the top shelf of my desk in order of grade and corresponding book list.
All of my syllabi are also in one place. I received a huge binder for our Sonlight curriculum, and added the syllabi that I created to the front of it.
Once we start school, the kids will place their completed work in a tray that acts as my inbox. This way I can put it in their binders at the end of each of our 6 weeks. If the completed work was in a workbook, I just leave it in the workbook and return it to the shelf. The only exception to this is for their English reviews. I will tear the review out and place it in the inbox as well, because I like to include these in their portfolio at the end of the year.
And Repeat
The process may not be difficult, but it does take some time. Just know that it WILL get done. By having a system like the one I just described, it tends to go by just a little bit faster.
Happy Organizing!
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