Getting Ready for Bigger Hearts for His Glory

Getting ready to start Bigger Hearts and need a few ideas of what to print and how to get organized?

I remember feeling overwhelmed at the little things when we started homeschooling.   What was I going to do with all their work?  How do I stay organized?  What can I do to make trips easier with homeschooling supplies everywhere?  I wanted to take a minute to write about how we set up binders for each child.

We found these mega five star binders with zipper. It has a nice handle so the kids can carry their binders wherever we may roam. You can purchase this from Amazon here:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00JIXY7PE/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1431523576&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&keywords=five+star+binder+zipper&dpPl=1&dpID=51-9BhDjbnL&ref=plSrch

I like the nice zipper on the outside that they can store their extra spelling and math workbooks in an expandable file. There is also a nice inside zipper pouch for extra pencils, glue sticks, and colored pencils. 

I made each student a cover of their choice and I love that they keep their ruler clipped right into their binder. This saves time searching for lost rulers and they have one on the go for the impromptu oil change. 

I divided their binders into 5 main sections.  

Vocabulary

History

Science

Bible

Poetry

I really like to take advantage of the resources that other moms that have done this all before me and I print out the forms from the Heart of Dakota Bigger Facebook page.   You can find it here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/476563425689115/files/


The pages have most all been well thought of and have accounted for things I wouldn't have thought up on my own. I would suggest printing: 

Vocabulary Pages- this allows the child space to write the definitions, draw a picture and make a sentence using the word. 

At the beginning of the history section, we place our timeline pages. You can print these from the Heart of Dakota Facebook site as well as awesome timeline pictures we displayed on our schoolroom wall. 

History Pages are amazing! These are well worth printing out for your little ones.  It saves so much time and the kids thrived with these pages.

Science Notebooking pages are wonderful as well.  The verse is printed at the top and there is ample room for the children to write and draw.   It makes your day go much smoother when you can just tell your little one to turn to Science and complete their lesson. 

I also have a subsection in Science for all of their experiments.  These Science experiment pages are nice to take one out of the binder on your way to the kitchen for your experiment. 

For poetry at the beginning of the year, I printed these cursive worksheets. This helps refresh them and allows them to copy directly underneath.   You can create them at this site and customize them to the style your child likes best:  http://www.worksheetworks.com/english/writing/handwriting.html

We transitioned to this poetry sheet as soon as I realized they knew correct formation and could remember the letters from print to cursive. *I didn't always have them copy the complete poem as long as they took their time and worked hard at the stanza I gave them. 

For Bible, this could easily be on plain lined paper. I however, did print these out for my students. This gave them a little room for a picture as well as the character trait for the week at the top. 

The great part about homeschooling is finding what works best for you and your kids.
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Best wishes and enjoy your year!