The Ultimate All-In-One Homeschool Binder: Part 1

How do you organize your homeschool material? Do you have a command center that consists of multiple binders, notebooks, planners, or files? What helps you stay organized and confident to tackle each school day?

In years past, my mode of organization was to have multiple binders for each area of our homeschool and family life. This seemed to work well, except having to constantly get another binder for each need. Maybe I should have put them all in one bin and carried it around with me, ha!

As I planned and prayed over this school year, I was looking for a new way to create my “command center”. (Just so we are on the same page, “command center” to me, means a place where all my teacher notes, schedule, extras for each child, morning time routine, chore lists, etc. are housed) My command center looks very different this year than it has in many years. My new system has  truly been a huge asset and help this year.

I want to share with you why it has been so beneficial to me. I also want to share with you how I put it together, by sharing what I included. There is a lot in my binder and I will break it down for you into two different blog posts. I will discuss the first two sections in this post and the last two in my next post.Here are the items I am using in my binder: a 2-inch binder (a pretty one of course), 8 tab page dividers with pockets, 8 round tab dividers, 3 regular square page dividers, a package of page protectors,  and 2 zipper pencil cases. 

I have the binder divided into four sections.

1. Morning Time Routine, And Daily Schedule Section
2. Instructor’s Guide, Maps, and Reader Questions Section
3. School Administration: Attendance, Calendar, and Field Trips Section
4. Home Management Section

Section One 

My first section is our daily schedule and morning time routine information. Some years I use a time-blocked schedule (especially the years of nursing babies), and some years I have thrown the schedule out the window. This year, however, I have reinstated a time-blocked schedule. I have learned that we all do better when we have a daily scheduled rhythm. Some days look different than others, but each day has its own scheduled rhythm.

This year I have set our schedule up so we have time limits on subjects, chores, and all our other daily activities. This does not mean that we can’t be flexible in our schedule, but rather it gives us a very healthy perimeter to guide us. Behind this first tab is a schedule for each day of the week from the time we wake up to the time we go to bed. Again, this schedule does not rule us, but just serves as a gentle reminder to stay on task.The next tab is our morning time reading plan and schedule. We are using three different books to help guide our Bible reading during our morning time routine.

1. Leading Little Ones To God 
2. Character Matters
3. Answer Books For Kids

We don’t read each one everyday, but rather read them on a rotating schedule. In this section, I also have a Scripture memory section where I have all the verses we are learning together, as a family, typed out. I also have a list of the verses my kids are learning in the kid’s discipleship program at church. We work on new verses and review old ones every morning.

The next tab is a running list of the character traits that we are learning with a coordinating verse. After that is our pen pal list. I have incorporated handwriting during our morning time this year and on Friday’s we write letters to our pen pals. I can’t remember from week to week who the kids have written, so my list is very important in keeping tract of when we wrote who.

The last tab in this section is for memory work. This section has our Addition Facts That Stick material, as well as some Spanish vocabulary review for one of our sons. During our memory work time we just go over any information that needs to be reviewed on a daily basis. We play a lot of fun memory games during this time.

Section Two

In this section I have 8 tab dividers with pockets. I have one for each of my children where I put any school worksheets that they need to accomplish while we are away from home. (They attend a fine arts school for two classes on Monday and they do some work in between classes.) I also keep any material that is specific to their curriculum, for easy access. I also put some of my teacher handbooks in the pockets as well.Behind each tab I put my Sonlight Instructor’s Guide for the current week. The Instructor’s Guide is one of my main reasons for using Sonlight. I am thrilled to have most of my lesson plan already done for me!!

The next two tabs are home to my two oldest kids’ reader questions and notes. Reader questions are what Sonlight provides for each reader, so that you have background and summary information on what your child is reading. It also provides discussion questions after each chapter, so you can make sure your child is comprehending what they are reading, and so you can have a conversation about the material with your child.The next tab is for math, where I have laminated number charts and place value charts that everyone uses.The last tab, in the this section, is all of our maps. Sonlight provides very detailed, laminated maps with each core. I keep all the maps from all of our Sonlight material here for easy access. So throughout the day, as we are talking, reading, or studying about different places, I can easily turn to our maps and have a quick geography lesson.I will share more about the next two sections in my post tomorrow. But I do want to take a minute to tell you why one big, mega binder has worked for me this year.

1. It is easy for me to carry with me on the go, and everything is there. I don’t have to worry about packing 15 different binders or forgetting something.
2. It truly is my command center for EVERYTHING we do in a day. It keeps me focused and on task. I feel like it keeps things running smoothly.
3. It helps us be more productive. I truly believe if you have an organized plan and it is well put together you are much more likely to succeed, than if you have an organized plan that is somewhat scattered.
4. It saves me time. I don’t have to go look for things because it’s all in one place.I hope this was fun for you and that it gives you some ideas. I know everyone functions differently, but maybe there’s at least one thing that inspired you today or got you thinking on how you can make your day more efficient. I love new ideas, share your ideas with me! I would love to hear them!

Read Part 2 and see the rest of the binder contents here.