The Homeschool Bookshelf
2012
The Homeschool Bookshelf
It’s hard to believe that, down here, school starts back in a couple weeks! Judah will officially be in kindergarten and we are excited to be homeschooling both him and Wes and have been busy decluttering and organizing for the upcoming year. My recent project was the homeschool bookshelf – my favorite of all our bookshelves in the house!
When Judah was a couple months old I started ordering homeschool catalogs to browse through. After looking through dozens of curriculum catalogs, talking to experienced homeschool moms and reading some excellent books I have opted to patch together my own kindergarten curriculum based off of things we already own. {We have been the blessed recipients of several other homeschoolers “hand-me-down” books and manipulatives as well as having an excellent selection of books at our local thrift stores.} If all goes well I will be doing the same for first grade.
Last fall we did a six week study on the book Paddle to the Sea and the boys have asked me several times to do something similar again where we do daily activities connected to the book we are reading. I have a small collection of books that I think will make for wonderful studies like Paddle to the Sea was.
In the spring we did a lot of one to two week long studies – I shared the circulatory system {our “blood bags” were a success – they still know the 4 parts of blood!} and the types of milk study. These mini studies of specific subjects led to reading a lot of related books, doing field trips, and hands on experiments and were also huge hits with the boys.
As our days progress I am sure we’ll find our comfortable rhythm – it’ll be a little bit of exploring one book deeply and a little bit of exploring one subject deeply through lots of books. One thing is certain: there will be a lot of books read.
And with lots of books comes the need for effective storage space. Enter the fabulous shelves from Ikea. I.am.in.love. I have had them since April and we’re still getting to know each other.
These shelves provide the opportunity to divide the books up so they don’t all get lost in a jumble of books on a shelf. {And while this is the largest of my book shelves in the house, this is just one of 7 shelves!}
I spent the past week organizing the books into a semblance of orderly and thought I would share the fun mess! A quick run down of each cubby:
1. My household organization binder {really, can’t live without it! It has my yearly goals, my quarterly plans for our family/hospitality, recipes, clipped magazine ideas, gift ideas for my guys and a bunch of other randomness. I don’t care that we live in the digital age – I love my binder!}
2. My favorite homeschool/mothering books
3. Collection of books I want to read myself soon
4. Collection of chapter books I want to read to the boys soon
5. My Bible study notes and related study books and study Bible
6. Math manipulatives in the basket and a couple of books about math underneath it
7. Another collection of books I want to read myself eventually
8. Science experiments/books about how to do your own experiments and books about the upcoming fall season
9. Patriotic themed books – about our country, famous Americans and the Presidents
10. Stationary {mostly used by me, but the boys enjoy sending out mail too!}
11. Sticker collection
12. Grammar/Spelling related materials – flashcards, a few fun spelling games and books in the basket
13. Easy Readers for the boys to read themselves {if they ever decide to read books to themselves… they much prefer we read to them!}
14. Biographies to read the boys {SOOOO excited to read through this shelf!! There’s some great looking books here!}
15. History related books
16. Coloring books – which includes a huge collection of Dover coloring books that cover a lot of fascinating subjects
17. Books about other countries, cultures and traditions
18. Animal, space, plant life and general knowledge books
19. Animal, space, plant life and general knowledge books
20. Christmas related books {as I find them throughout the year I add them in easily, without the hassle of having to dig out a bin from the garage.}
21. Bible story books for children
22. Picture books and chapter books to eventually read them
23. Picture books and chapter books to eventually read them
24. Picture books and chapter books to eventually read them
25. Picture books and chapter books to eventually read them
There it is! 25 shelves of homeschool bookshelf happiness.
The boys are allowed to pull off whatever books they want and sit in the room to look through them. We have a bed, a rocking chair and a small table with two small chairs in the room for them to chose from, and they alternate between them all. Once we “officially” start {whatever that means!} they will still have access to all the books, whenever they want but I will be following a system to read us through as many as possible.
I’ll share more of our homeschool spaces as they are established!
Sharing on: Growing Home Blog
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Homeschool :: 2012/2013 School Year Plan |
[...] especially around events (elections, Thanksgiving, etc) and as interests come up using books from the homeschool bookshelf. Included on ... -
The Homeschool Room |
[...] the USA puzzle}, our main homeschool bookshelves {you can read more about the organization of the homeschool bookshelves here}, ...
Awesome! You're inspiring me to go organise my own shelves!
I was inspired looking at other peoples
haha. I love this time of year!! 
I have been drooling over the IKEA bookshelves myself, though the closest IKEA to us is in Toronto and the second closest one is 6 hours away. Wanna come organize my homeschool bookshelf too? Although, I am so bad at getting bookshelves that I purposely try not to buy too many books to keep here at home. I plan on visiting the library A LOT once fall comes around. We are "unofficially" doing Kindergarten with Josh this year. Next year we will do it "officially".
Have you checked craigslist for bookshelves? I religiously check ours … though always miss the ones that are a great deal!!
The "unofficial" stuff is the most fun
What are you planning on doing this fall?
So exciting Jessica! I have major organizing desires right now…I love your shelves and doesn't it feel so good to look and be so organized??? Even if its only a part of your house!
It does feel good!!
The shelves were a huge treat – our basement flooded due to city problems and they cleared out everything and compensated us for it, so I picked these shelves to replace our old, mismatched ones
Just re-organized my homeschool book shelves to make room for the upcoming years materials…always fun! Love that you have so much room in yours for your books and other things.
Definitely fun!!
If only that same level of "fun" could be maintained all.year.long!! 
Visiting from Tip Junkie and happy to find another homeschooling blogging mom
I'm coveting your bookcase – 25 spaces!!! Wow! We are getting in gear for next year and we're all ready for a great year!
Thanks for stopping and saying hi!!
Nice to "meet" you too!
That looks so fun! You've got me daydreaming about when Rosa will be old enough to understand books, and enjoy activities associated with them!
Wow, love this! I love organized book shelves
Would you mind sharing the books on shelves 2 and 3? I need some reading inspiration. Thanks!
Will do Amy!!
I will try to get to that soon! In the mean time, you can see some of my favorite books here: http://www.jessicalynette.com/tag/book/ I need to put them all in a list, but click the "books read in {insert month}" to see some books I've enjoyed this year!!
Hi,
Awesome shelves and organization! I actually just posted a linky party today for people to post their homeschool spots, organization ideas, back to school fun stuff, etc. I think this would be a great fit for the collection! Please consider linking up and sharing with us!
http://www.thenatureofgrace.blogspot.com/2012/07/…
Michelle
Great job of organizing your bookshelf! I always enjoyed the preparations before the start of the school year. Now that my kids are grown, it always seems strange to not have projects like that to work on (not that I don't still have my homeschool closet to clean out and organize).
Wow..thats an awesome bookshelve..would love to have that. You mentioned the boys are a bit reluctant to read on their own..well here are a few ideas that may help. First, make it a competition..kids love competing. Second way is to start a book you think they would like, then when you know they are into it..stop, tell them to find out what happens next they need to read to find out. Last idea is to ask them to read to you while you fold laundry or do dinner.Hope these help get them going. smilz
Great ideas!! I will have to try some of them out
thanks so much!!