Help with organizing!

[alliclaymoore]

Hi Everyone!

First of all, I want to say what an amazing blessing HOD is to me. We started my youngest in LHTH three weeks ago, and my middle in Beyond and my oldest in Preparing two weeks ago. Already I have been blown away by all three programs. I can tell you I have been moved to tears a few time by the great spiritual truths I have been teaching my children through HOD. Usually, tears in our homeschool hours are from frustration. But not lately.

I am so impressed with the choice of books that I have come across so far. As well as ones we haven't gotten to yet, but whose titles I knew very well. (It seems like every book I have *wished* I could somehow fit into homeschool, but haven't been able to is covered in HOD somewhere!)

My problem is not actually with HOD, but with my own lack of organization skills. I am terrible at organizing. I am actually proud of the fact that *most* of the books in my house are on bookshelves. That is big for me. Not only because I am a terrible organizer, but also because I have so many books that it takes four 6 foot shelves in my living room, one 7 foot tall shelf in my bedroom and three small shelves in my children's rooms to contain them all. So when I say I have most of my books on bookshelves, that in itself was a major undertaking for a book collector like me.

Anyway, since this is my first year with HOD, I have been successful at keeping the HOD books separate from the other books, but that is about as far as I have gone. But I am finding it difficult to know which books need to be kept ready and which ones can be put on a shelf somewhere for other units. I usually keep the present year's books in one large plastic tub and just pull it out every day to use. But since there are so many more books than we have ever had in one given year, I am just wasting time keeping all the books together and then digging to find just the ones for each day.

So my question is, how do you all organize all the HOD books? Is there a list somewhere that will tell me which books I will need for each unit, so I can just keep those handy?

I am seriously considering getting rid of all my other homeschool books (which take up one of the 6 foot shelves in my living room). I really think my perpetual curriculum hunt that started when my oldest was 4 is now over. I can't imagine ever finding anything better than HOD. That would clear out enough space that I could use for storing my HOD books.

Also, do you have separate notebooks for the different subjects, or do you combine them all with tab dividers? I am thinking mostly for Preparing since my daughter generally has several pages a day that she needs to keep organized somehow.

Thank you in advance for your answers. The people on this board are so helpful! And if this question has already been answered somewhere else, please forgive me. I searched the board for previous questions, but couldn't find it.

Blessings!
Allison

[kzacarkim]

Hi,
I'm also not the most organized person , but when it comes to homeschool I have a simple system that works for our family. I have a bin for each child with the homeschool materials we are using now. The storytime books and readers that are not currently being used stay in the bookshelf until we need them. I also keep a binder divided by subjects where I put any worksheets/copywork we want to keep for our evaluation. I also have a binder for artwork. Inside every bin I keep some pencils and erasers, and flashcards. Everyday all I have to do is get the bin and we are ready to go. When we are done, everything goes back to the bin anEd to the bookshelf. We keep all our art supplies in a separate smaller bin.
Hope it helps!
Blessings,

[jer2911mom]

For Beyond and LHFHG, I have put the bible, devotional, history spines, science spine, current storytime book and current reader on our school bookshelf and then store the other storytime books and readers in a tub in my closet. It's kind of a fun ritual to go get the next book when we are done with the current one.

I have a bookshelf for each child and the top shelf is for my TMs and reference books. I also use magazine holders on the shelves to group any workbooks for handwriting/fine motor skills, math, etc. Our school table is right next to our bookshelf, so it's always easy to grab what we need.

I also use one binder for Beyond and use tabs to separate the subjects. For both LHFHG and Beyond I have used a separate art/projects tub for the projects that won't fit in a binder. I take pictures, too, and eventually will toss out these projects. But for now, my dd enjoys going back through what she's made and it helps her remember what she has learned.

We keep some school supplies directly on our school table in pencil holders and the rest (including art supplies) in a 7 drawer rolling cart next to the bookshelf.

HTH,
Kathy

[mommybelle]

We haven't ventured past Little Hands to Heaven yet, but based on what I've seen for the older guides, my plans (for the future years) is to get a clear, plastic bin for each guide and store everything I buy to use with that guide in that bin. For example, I've found puzzles at the Dollar Store to go with some of the Bible lessons for LHTH, so I have them stored in this bin for now. I have written in the guide itself a note to myself to remind me that when we study David and Goliath, I have the puzzle stored in my "Little Hands to Heaven" bin for that lesson. This way I do not forget that I have the stuff to use with that lesson. Our living quarters are pretty tight, so I just store everything that isn't currently being used in that LHTH bin in the attic. I like the clear bins because I type out "Little Hands to Heaven" and print out and just slide it on several sides of the bin so I know exactly what is in every single box stored in our attic.

I'm envisioning that when both of my children are using different guides, I will probably designate a small shelf for each child in our living room (aka school room) and place the books that we are currently using on an everyday basis. As we finish books, I'll pack them away in their respective bin for the next child and pull out the books to be read currently.

[choochooboysmom]

I think I am a curriculum hoarder! Today I cleaned it all out and it is quite freeing! I suggest you sell or give away anything you haven't used in a year or won't use next year. HOD is all I need! It took me a few years to realize it. I now have a shelf for Beyond and a shelf for Bigger. The books are organized, the rest of the house is another story!

Jenifer

[my3sons]

I think I am a curriculum hoarder! Today I cleaned it all out and it is quite freeing! I suggest you sell or give away anything you haven't used in a year or won't use next year. HOD is all I need! It took me a few years to realize it. I now have a shelf for Beyond and a shelf for Bigger. The books are organized, the rest of the house is another story!

Jenifer

I needed a laugh today, Jenifer - thanks for this! The rest of the house - I do believe all homeschool moms can relate to that.
In Christ,
Julie

[my3sons]

We put white address labels on the spines of each HOD book. I draw a heart for HOD, and write whatever package it belongs to (i.e. PHFHG Storytime; or DITHOR 5/6 G). I didn't need to do this until Bigger Hearts, but then I started getting all of the Storytime sets from HOD (love the books so much), and it was necessary to do Beyond on down too.

We also use 2 bins for each child for each of their guides - 1 for only the current books we are using, and 1 for books to come and books finished. I go through the first month of the guide and put just those books in the current bin, and I put the rest in the other bin.

I snapped pics of getting ready for PHFHG with my middle ds this year, and maybe this thread will help...

Pics of Getting Ready for PHFHG:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10426

Thanks for sharing your testimony of using HOD with multiple guides! This is a message others need to hear again and again, as moms are not sure they can teach more than 1 guide though they have dc that span the ages and need more than 1 guide. Thank you so much for sharing your story, and please continue to share it as it is an encouragement to so many!

In Christ,
Julie

[Samuel'sMommy]

We have lots of books at our house too. The way I keep the school books organized is that I have one shelf just for school books although with all the great HOD books I may eventually need another one Anyway, at the beginning of each school year, I put all the books for that year on the top shelf of the bookshelf. All the previous books we've used are on the bottom shelves where DS can reread them if he wants to. Then, I have our daily subjects and whatever books we are currently reading in a crate that I can move to the couch, table, wherever as needed. Once we finish a reader, storytime book, etc it goes on the lower "finished" shelves and I pull whatever book comes next off the top shelf.

[alliclaymoore]

Thank you all for your great ideas. I guess since HOD is a program unlike any I have tried before, O have to also adjust my way of handling the books. I really like all the suggestions.

Blessings!
Allison
Wife to Clay
Mommy to Rachel (Preparing), Luke (Beyond), and Sarah (LHTH)

[scampbell2003]

I think I need to label our books for HOD too.

We just finished putting new flooring downstairs. Very exciting! I was showing my neighbor and she said "Wow you have too many books!". I had to laugh because we are a book loving family. Not to mention that was just one large bookshelf in our office. The kids each have their own small bookshelf in their rooms. Full of books. I feel blessed we have so many great books our kids can enjoy as well as us. She is a great friend and much better at decluttering than me.

Julie- Love the pics for setting up the year. Thank you for posting those. I bookmark the one you posted on Bigger