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Checklist and tips for the end of the homeschool Year clean out. When it’s time to clean up your homeschool room/area before you can enjoy summer break, follow the checklist and tips.

“This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using this link. Please see my disclosure for more details.”

End of the School Year

It is almost that time of year. Your reaching the end of that math book. You and your kids are feeling the end is drawing near to your homeschool year. For those of us that follow a traditional school schedule, May represents the drawing near of school ending and the beginning of summer. I am all ready to start getting rid of things that I will no longer need.

It’s time to pack up the curriculum and move onto summer. It is a much welcomed time for our family. We homeschool with a lot of pizazz and go full force, but there is something about May that makes us ready to “ring the school bell” one last time. We are ready for summer. Trips to the mountains, beaches, museums, parks, friends houses…. Anything but the routines of the school year.

Here Comes Summer!

One of my favorite aspects of the school year ending is purging and cleaning out our homeschool goodies. Piled in our home is nine months of art projects, math worksheets, manipulatives, books that are now too simple, dioramas, “inventions”, old dried out glue, finished curriculum, broken crayons, dried out markers, scraps of papers, oh my crazy list of too much school stuff could go on and on.

These things need to get out of my house and into the donation bag, the trash can, or up for resell on Ebay. I welcome the feelings of joy that come from the clear out! Sometimes it is not easy to know where to start

I put together this summer homeschool cleaning list for those of you who like a little bit of direction and that oh so good feeling of checking off a list. Print it up, put it on a clipboard, and begin the summer clean-out of your homeschool room (or cabinet).

Get your Free Homeschool Summer Cleaning Checklist Here

I don’t know about you, but cleaning seems much more rewarding when I can check items off a list! It just feels good, doesn’t it? Having a checklist for some reason makes me feel more productive

Yearbooks, Memory Books, Portfolios, OH MY!

Keeping a memory book has been my favorite addition to our homeschooling. We work on it throughout the year. We add pictures and collect our favorite work samples. My children always enjoy looking through them and sharing them with grandparents and friends. I wish I would have started sooner. But I guess it is better late than never.

In regards to portfolios, I have never kept an official one. What I do is have a file folder for each child where I place additional work that they are proud of. For Science and History, I have always kept art notebooks where we place all of our corresponding projects (that is for another post however).

Here is a link to the article on memory books that you mind find helpful.

Materials and Supplies List

What Do I Do With School Materials That I No Longer Need?

There are so many options when it comes to leftover curriculum and books. Below is a list of options for you:

Give the curriculum away!

Are there any other homeschooling families that may be in need of the curriculum that you used with your children? Some families struggle to afford curriculum, so passing it on to them can be a true blessing.

Sell your USED curriculum

I often sell my used curriculum on Ebay.com. Listing it during the summer months is best because that is when other homeschool families are looking to get their curriculum for the next year. Your buyers are saving money by purchasing used curriculum and you are able to make money to purchase your new curriculum (or used :-))

Anther great place to sell your used curriculum is a yard sale or to a group of other homeschool families. You can organize a used curriculum sale and trade with one another.

Donate Your Used Books and Curriculum to Your Local Thrift Store

Get a tax deduction by itemizing your donations to your local thrift store.

Recycle Your Used Curriculum

If the curriculum is consumable, then it may be best to recycle it.

The Difficulty in Cleaning

One area where we continue to struggle is parting with art projects. My daughter who is super artistic gives special attention to the art she creates. Tossing any of them is not easy for her. I do encourage her to only keep her favorites, but I am allowing for slow growth in this area. Taking pictures of her creations does help. I do forget to put the pictures in her memory books, however.

Let me know of tips or tricks you have to cleaning up your homeschooling year and getting ready for the summer.

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Beginning the habit of organization and time management comes at different times for different kids. When your child is ready to take on the responsibility of time management, getting them a simple and easy to use planner may be an effective strategy.

“This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using this link. Please see my disclosure for more details.”

My daughter, when she hit nine years old, asked me if she could have a planner. She always saw me filling in my planners and I guess that sparked her interest. I love planning and so some of my habits may have rubbed off on my daughter. I have always believed that I am more productive when I write out my tasks and goals. If I neglect to do that, I find that my productivity level goes way down. I don’t know if everyone is like this, but I have met quite a few other women who share my love of to-do lists, check-off boxes, and post-it notes.

I like to use fun pens, stickers, and really get my planners to work for me. While I used to buy my planners, once I discovered how to make my own, I never looked back. I now create and design planners for myself (and now my children) to suit my needs. I decided to use this same strategy to create a planner for my daughter.

Benefits of Your Child Using a Planner

Learning to organize and prioritize activities in life is an important life skill. We are not born with this skill, it has to be taught to us. Many of us learn our organization skills by simply observing our parents. This could be good or bad, depending on the style you followed. Luckily there are so many resources available to help us grow in our organization skills. We should always be learning.

I wanted to make sure that I gave my children the opportunity to learn the skills of organization. I still have a lot of growth to do myself and feel as if I am always learning how to better organize my life. (Many times us creative folk struggle to keep our plentiful ideas in an orderly way).

Teaching Your Child How to Use a Planner and Prioritize Tasks

When your child is ready to take on the task of organization, here are some tips:

Allow them to personalize their planner in any way that they want. Add color, stickers, drawings, etc. Allow the planner to be theirs (not yours You can even use colored paper to print their planner on if you choose one that is a printable.

Fill in the dates for their monthly pages. Add in any important events for the month.

Go over any budget goals they may have (if you are working on budgeting with your child)

Guide them at the beginning of each week. Go over what tasks they need to complete each week. Help them to plan out any goals that they may have or any daily items they may need to accomplish. Ask them guiding questions such as:

“What is the most important thing you want to finish this week?”

“Is there anything that you need from me to help you meet that goal?”

“What is in your schedule for the day?”

“Are there any supplies that you need to help you accomplish what is necessary in your planner for the week?”

You know your child best, if daily help is necessary at first as they learn the habit of organization, then set aside some time each morning to go over the tasks for the day.

I Have Designed This Simple Printable Planner For My Child:

Items Your Child Can Place in Their Planner:

Birthdays

Holidays

Homework

Chores

Money-Earning opportunities (yard sales, entrepreneur fairs, etc.)

Church Events

Supplies You Can Purchase to Make Keeping a Planner More Engaging

Stickers

Highlighters

Fun and colorful pens

Erin Condren Kids Planner (if you are looking for a very thorough and comprehesive all in one planner)

See my picks below:

“When we teach our children how to be organized and prioritize their daily activities, we set our children up for success in life.”

ACreativeLearner.com

Other Websites that have great information on Planning and Goal Setting for Children:

BigLifeJournal.com

TeachsKidsHow.com

Connect With Me!

How do you help your child with their organizational skills? Do you have any advice to help with this skill?

Other posts you may like:

Free Minimalist Homeschool Planner

New to Homeschooling? Click Here.

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“This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using this link. Please see my disclosure for more details.”

Which Subject Are You Working On?

Each child made their own book when we were learning about art history. The book took the whole semester to complete, but we slowly added pages to it and at the end we had a beautifully illustrated art history book that the children could reference back to. It is also such an amazing keepsake. Rather than a bunch of art projects strewn about the house, keeping them organized in this book project is quite nice.

“A child needs to feel ownership of their learning. By creating something special, such as a book, a child can truly own and love what they have learned.”

Make your Child the Star of their Own Learning Book

Children love it when their pictures are featured in their books too. Adding in a funny picture of your child to a informational books about sharks creates a humorous learning connection. This is such a fun keepsake as well. Your child will continue to refer back to their homemade books and have fond memories of their learning time.

Creating Books is Creative!

When you are teaching your child, it is important that you encourage creativity in your child. Creating is so essential to learning. Check out my article on simple ways to encourage creativity in your child. While sometimes we feel overwhelmed with what our homeschooling plans are, making time for creativity needs to be a priority.

Some Book Making Tips

1. Keep your phone handy for quick pictures.
2. DON’T be a perfectionist, let your child do the drawings, come up with picture ideas, write the words, etc. I can remember my daughter having some of the best ideas and being so thrilled with her finished product. (If there is a lot of writing, you can help your child out by completing parts of the writing so they don’t feel overwhelmed, depending on your child’s age).
3. Look for learning opportunities as you go. If your child is learning their letters, insert some lined writing paper and let them write all the “Ff’s”. If your child is working on Idioms, make your book about idioms, if your child is working on punctuation, choose a book that is filled with Punctuation
4. Buy an economical printer and have cheap photo paper available. I use the Epson ET-2720 Ecotank printer. I can print hundreds, maybe even thousands of high quality pictures on a single ink bottle. It’s a total money saver!!
5. Use other books that your kids enjoy as an example of how to create one. We used, “No David” by David Shannon to learn to read and write some basic sight words and punctuation. My kids had a blast reenacting the pictures of David from the book
6. Other book recommendations: “This is how we do it” by Matt Lamothe

What book do you plan to make with your child? How will you integrate what they are learning?

Share your ideas, can’t wait to hear them!!!

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