A sweet 16th birthday, a little Autumn School, and what my kids are doing for Independent School right now.

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This past weekend, all of us (minus our oldest two sons and their families) met at the Fair for a day of fun! Ty and I have been doing this all our lives and have passed this tradition on to our children.

Whenever we do something like this as a family, we always do it all together. No matter how old our kids get, we go through the buildings together, we gather all the free samples together, we ride the train and the scary boat ride together, we take pictures, we eat Fair food, and we walk until our legs are aching…together!

This is how we do nearly everything. We don’t show up to events and then go our separate ways. The kids don’t come home to visit and end up in their own little corners. We tend to stick together because we’ve always done life together. (This fact, has actually made seating in our living room a bit tricky now that there are adult children, spouses, and grandbabies!)

Another example of this is the kids’ Minecraft server. They play it…you guessed it!…TOGETHER! Even the 28 year old, the 25 year old, the 22 year old and her husband! They are all on there together with the little kids, building, chatting, creating games and surprises for each other – not because anyone forced them to (well, I did tell them that their Saturday game time had to include 1 hour of playing video games TOGETHER, but beyond that, I only encouraged them to do things together – never forced them to). They have grown up enjoying each other’s company, and while they are still kids and they still have arguments here and there because they have unique personalities, they always find common ground at the end of the day.

This week, we celebrated a Sweet 16 Birthday! (Can you call it that when it’s your son?!) This guy entered the world 10 days late screaming his head off for the first 4 months of his life, and then mellowed into one of the most even-tempered of my children.

But, he is always pushing himself physically. He lives a full-speed kind of life! He recently began doing Mixed Martial Arts, he referees for the local soccer league, and he plans to join the military via ROTC in college. He’s a man with a plan!

He’s the kid who asked for a smoker for his 14th birthday, and became the resident grillmaster – even teaching his oldest brother a thing or two! This summer, he learned how to cook wood-fired pizzas (if only I had $1000 to drop on a pizza oven!). He smokes pork, cheese, dips, and frozen pizzas! He even smokes our Thanksgiving turkey!

He reminds me a lot of his oldest brother, and they are actually quite close despite the 12 year age difference. I honestly can’t believe it’s been 16 years since I gave birth to him. Where has the time gone?

Speaking of time…and seasons…

The weather has finally cooled and feels more like Fall than sultry Summer. As I type this, I have the whole house fan running, and I’m looking forward to walking in the morning with Ty.

This week in school, we’ve been studying the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, including the Louisiana Purchase and the death of Alexander Hamilton via a duel with vice president Aaron Burr (can you imagine something like that happening today?!).

We read in Story of the World and The New Nation by Joy Hakim.

We added Ohio to our map and used Notebooking Pages to document facts about Ohio. We also used Music in Our Homeschool‘s 50 States Songs to supplement our lessons. Also from MIOH, we are doing the Romantic Era of music and this week I was able to share that I have sung many of these songs in my years of voice lessons and college. The kids were impressed!

For Bible, we are going through the Bible Project’s One Story That Leads to Jesus Bible Reading Plan. You can find it on the YouVersion Bible app and you can also see all of the videos that go along with the reading plan HERE. I read the devotional aloud, and then assign the reading to the kids. Yes, they are all old enough to read on their own; although, some of them opt to listen to the Bible chapters via an app.

Speaking of reading on their own…now that Mercy is finished with her Phonics lessons, we bought her her very own ESV Bible. This is the one she chose:

She was so excited!

We’ve been ending our Morning Time with the Wingfeather Saga. We are on Book 3 now and still enjoying it immensely!

Perhaps you are wondering what my kids’ Independent School Work looks like (that’s what we call anything that isn’t Morning Time). First of all, you can learn HOW we put together their independent schooling, but below you’ll find EXACTLY what each of them do outside of Morning Time (at least for the time being).

17 year old son:

• Personal Bible Time
• Consumer Math from Not Consumed
• American Sign Language (via Sign It!)
• Literature Assignments from History – Sense and Sensibility, Streams to the River, River to the Sea (this one is a little young for him, but I assigned it anyway)
• Literature Assignments from Bible/Worldview – Church History in Plain Language and Understanding the Times.

15 year old son:

• Personal Bible Time
• Biology from Guest Hollow
• Conversational Spanish using these videos
• Typing from Typesy
• Literature Assignment from History – Johnny Tremain
• Literature Assignment from Bible/Worldview – A House for My Name
• He is taking a short break from Math because he was quite far ahead.

13 year old son:

• Personal Bible Time
• General Science from Apologia
• Literature Assignment from History – The Great Little Madison (he does not like this one!)
• Literature Assignment from Bible – YWAM Willam Carey Biography
• Piano
• He is also taking a short break from Math because he is also quite far ahead.

11 year old daughter:

• Personal Bible Time
• Math 6 from Teaching Textbooks
• Zoology 2 from Apologia
• Literature Assignment from History – Lewis & Clark book
• Cursive lessons from A Reason for Handwriting
• Piano

9 year old daughter:

• Personal Bible Time
• Finishing Math 3 from Teaching Textbooks
• Wonders of the Ocean Realm for Science
• Literature Assignment from History – William Blake’s Inn
• Handwriting T from A Reason for Handwriting
• Piano

You may notice that some of the literature assignments are “beneath” grade level. That doesn’t concern me because I assign so much reading that varies greatly in level of difficulty. Also, because we go through history chronologically, they may have missed a really great book when they were the “right” age that can still be enjoyed just as much when they are older.

Something I’ve been wanting to do these next couple of months is Autumn School on Thursdays, but I have really been struggling with fitting it in. Every month on a Thursday we help with the church food pantry, and then I just forget to plan for the other Thursdays or we have been away and I feel like I need to do regular Morning Time on Thursday instead of Autumn School. But, this week, I finally managed to do it!

We did have Food Pantry at our church during the morning hours, but after we had lunch and the older boys went to work at the bee farm, I gathered the “little” girls and we did some fun Autumn Schooling!

While the girls worked on a felt leaf garland, I read to them about Hot Air Balloons and skimmed through a book about Phineas Gage and how his medical case furthered the study of the brain. (My almost 10 year old was FASCINATED by this!)

You might be wondering what these have to do with Autumn School – well, the truth is, I’ve been hanging on to these for weeks planning to use them for Thursday School, and rather than just abandon them, I decided to go ahead and read them! Now I can send them back to the library with a sense of accomplishment! *snicker*

If you’ve ever read my post Do Homeschooled Kids Need Cell Phones?, you know that we do not give our children cell phones until they actually need them.

Well, it was time for our 17 year old, who does a lot of driving and errand running, to have his own phone. He’s been borrowing my mom’s phone (she lives with us) when he and his brother go to work, but that’s not a great option long-term. So, we got him a new phone via our provider and he worked Friday afternoon setting it up the way he wants it. I also managed to get our wireless/internet bill lowered via AT&T’s Retention office. We give them a call every few years when we see the bill creep up. It usually means a deal we had has expired, but there’s always new deals to be had.

Before I sign off, here’s what we ate this week because I know many of you like to see our weekly menu in these posts!

Monday
Pepperoni Pasta Casserole – we have A LOT of pepperonis from last month’s food pantry, so we are trying to find creative ways to use them up besides pizza and pepperoni chips (microwaved between 2 paper towels for 30-60 seconds).

Tuesday
Ty and I went out for Taco Tuesday with another couple, and the kids had their own Taco Tuesday with shredded chicken we cooked in the instant pot. I actually prefer to cook it in the slow cooker, but I forgot to put it in, so we had to do it in the instant pot.

Wednesday
Birthday Meal – Horseshoes
Our air fryer gave out while making the french fries for this recipe, but thankfully, I had a new one on hand because I was suspecting it was nearing the end of its life. This is my favorite air fryer because it is HUGE and can dehydrate my herbs too!

Thursday
We pan-seared some grouper and scallops we’ve had in the freezer. We also had cucumbers, mashed potatoes, and macaroni salad – all made from items we got from the food pantry that morning.

Friday
Jalepeno Popper Chicken Salad

And that was our week!

Large Family Homeschool Life – Week 39 of 2026
Amy

There’s not much I can say no to, but I can adjust how I say yes so it’s more like a no and becomes more manageable in the process.

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TRANSCRIPT

[coming soon]

Podcast #192 – Finding Ways to Say No
Amy

Quick and simple homeschool organization methods that work well for the large family household (and small spaces) without a lot of time, effort, and money.

I love the concept of cutesy color-coordinated and labeled homeschool organizing, but putting it into practice confounds me and feels rather time consuming.  I want quick and simple homeschool organizational methods that will work for the large family household.

So, in this post you will find a smattering of simple ideas based on what we do to keep our homeschooling materials organized.

Nothing cutesy.

Nothing complicated.

Looking for simple homeschool curriculum storage ideas?
READ >> Simple Homeschool Organizing (that works!)

You can also listen to my podcast on Organizing Your Large Family Homeschool –

Organizing Homeschool Books

I have yet to meet a homeschool mom who doesn’t like bookshelves. Most of us have a literal library, with books crammed in nearly every corner of the house, and we are ALWAYS on the lookout for more bookshelves!

In a large family homeschool, this becomes exponentially true! In our current home, I can count a hodgepodge of a dozen bookshelves strewn about my home. And I’m always on the lookout for more!

For over a decade now, I have organized my bookshelves into 2-3 sections.

1.  The Main Bookshelves

• Organized chronologically because our homeschool curriculum is history-based.
• Has a section for Theology and a section for books that don’t fit into a chronology.

This bookshelf is where our personal home library is housed, along with the living books and other books we need for our homeschool. In our current set-up, there is a section for Theology, and then it moves into history from Creation to current day. The section after that is fiction that doesn’t have a home, children’s books that aren’t currently upstairs, and science/nature/how-to books.

For more on how to organize large family homeschool bookshelves read this Related Post:
How to Simplify and Organize Your Homeschool Bookshelves

2.  Books of the Year

• Books we will be using throughout the school year – mostly based on our homeschool curriculum.

This bookshelf sits in our dining room and houses all the books that will be used during a particular school year.  I also put any books I plan to read in this shelf as well.  This keeps everything for the year in one place so I don’t spend precious time hunting down that one book we need to finish our Ancient Egypt study.  This has been a huge time saver and probably ranks right up there as one of my favorite homeschool organizational tips.

3. Homeschool Curriculum Shelves

• Where old curricula goes to die…or be used again another day!

I actually have what we call a “homeschool bookshelf” that is easily accessible near our regular bookshelves that houses curricula and supplies that will be used sooner rather than later.

All of the other older curricula that may never see the light of day again, but I just can’t bring myself to let go of it will be addressed in the next section…

 Organizing Homeschool Curriculum and Supplies in a Closet

For most of my homeschool years, I have had some type of homeschool closet.  In a couple of our homes, it was literally a shelved closet in the hallway.  Prior to that, it was a cheapie stand-alone storage closet with doors. 

I consider this to be one of the essentials of homeschool organization.  Homeschool books are not used every year, even when you have back to back to back children.  You have to have a way to store all the unused curriculum. If you do not have a bookshelf capable of housing all the curriculum, a closet is a very good option.

This is also a good place to put those items you use only occasionally that would be in the way if left out.  If your closet has enough space, this is also a great place to put supplies like paper, crayons, etc that you do not want the kids to have access to all the time. Keep them in tubs, but still easily accessible to you so you don’t have to stand on your head to open boxes every time you need something.

And if you find the kids are getting into this closet and rummaging through things, I’d highly recommend a simple hook lock beyond their reach. Major sanity saver!

Organizing Homeschool Mom Supplies

Mom ends up with just about as much stuff as the kiddos, and she needs a place to put it all!

Organizing homeschool mom supplies with baskets

The photo above is my Homeschool Mom Basket circa 2012. The things in that basket were used nearly every day.  It sat beside the rocker I most often taught from while nursing babies and rocking toddlers. It was a handy place to put everything so that all I had to do was reach down and grab the next thing. 

I started doing this when I was pregnant with #6 and our school room was downstairs.  I was too worn out to make the trek down to that dingy, dark basement, so I hauled everything I needed upstairs and put it in a basket by my chair.  Since then, it has become a staple of our homeschool organization!

Several years ago, when I was no longer nursing babies during school hours, the basket morphed into what you see below. It sits atop my Books of the Year Bookshelf, and has become my homeschool “brain.” The video below shows me decluttering the basket and gives you peek into what I keep in there!

Related post: The Homeschool Basket Lady

Organizing Homeschool Mom Stuff with Binders & Notebooks

Many moons ago, I shared my household binder method.  My school binder was one of those binders.  Before things became so digitized, this is where I kept lesson plans, notebook paper, pens, any extra things I wanted to use in our homeschool. I still use binders for our Holiday Homeschool Plans and my Family Recipes, but I have abandoned the binders in favor of a notebook for homeschool planning.

You can learn about this method of planning in my book:

Organizing Library Books

I often utilize our local library for our homeschool. I order tons of books through the holds system and then simply pick them up as they come in.

I used to use a Library Box, but it wasn’t very portable.  When my friend, Stacy, started selling Thirty-One Gifts, I got this large utility tote from her and it has been great!  Aldi sells their own version that is also a winner!

We keep all the library books in here and then just grab the whole thing and go!  It’s tough and holds up to the massive amount of books we bring home from the library.  It’s also a gauge as to when to stop the children from bringing us more books while at the library.  If the bag is full, we leave!

Organizing homeschool supplies and extras

Plastic tubs and totes – They make a size of plastic tote for everything! 

Each child has their own pencil box that they bought during one of our Back to Homeschool excursions. I also have large “community” boxes that hold crayons, pencils, colored pencils, and markers for all the kids.

For many years, we had a “Craft Tub” that housed all the crafty items separated into plastic bags and random boxes. There were feathers, googly eyes, jute, a box of paint and paintbrushes, and so much more. I’ll be honest – it was a mess, but it was easy. About a year ago, I paid my 11 year old daughter to separate everything into craft organizers we found for cheap, and while it is much neater, I have to admit I kinda miss that old green tub.

Related post: Organizing Your Homeschool with Backpacks & Tubs

Metal containers – I don’t use a lot of these, but I do like them for pencils and paintbrushes (see the photo above).  We used to keep our mail and our cloth napkins in a couple of square metal containers, but have since started using a basket on the table the napkins and a matching homeschool mom basket for the mail.

Baskets – Oh, how I love baskets!  They make the ugliest of things look lovely. Baskets are great for setting out books you want your kids to read in their spare time. (We do this all throughout the year and especially at Christmas!) And the great thing is how easily you can find baskets of all shapes and sizes for cheap at thrift stores.

Laminator – For a large family, it is imperative you take as many measures as you can to make things last.  A laminator helps with that.  Amazon runs specials on Scotch laminators a couple of times a year or you can buy one at WalMart for a better price than Amazon’s every day price.

I laminate schedules, kids’ artwork, curriculum supplements that need to be less flimsy, etc. And if you are using a Morning Menu (a fun little sheet that your kids can document the weather, time, their feelings, etc on), laminating them can make them able to be used and reused with wet erase markers.

Binders & Page protectors – I love the versatility of binders and page protectors.  Everything from ebooks to nature notebooks can be put in binders.  I even know some homeschool moms who use page protectors as a way to reuse workbook pages (use those wet erase markers!).  I actually keep a stash of page protectors and notebook tabs on hand because you just never know when you are going to need them!

Other organizing ideas we have used over the years:

Perfect Workbox System for Small Spaces or a Large Family
Assignment Binders
Organizing Art Supplies for Large Families & Small Spaces

Need more ideas to keep your large family homeschool {and home!} organized and running smoothly?  Check out my book Large Family Homeschooling!  This 170 page ebook contains much more content than the posts you find here.  It also includes a ton of resources and freebies from other websites.  It was a true labor of love, and I know you will love it!

Learn more here!

Organizing the Large Family Homeschool
Amy