Does that post title surprise you? If you’re a homeschool mom you have probably felt this way as your school year comes to a close. I always feel like I’m nesting toward the end of the year and ready to clean everything out!

This urge to clean and organize can be similar to the nesting feeling women experience during pregnancy. It’s that desire to get your home ready for your new baby or in our case a new homeschool year.

In today’s post, I will share my helpful list that is straight out of my iPhone notes of everything I tackle to prep for a new homeschool year. In no particular order, I work my way through this list every summer break. You can get this checklist as a printable for free on my website.

For July on my YouTube channel, I will be sharing videos related to each item on this list but for now, I’ve linked past videos that correlate with the items listed. I’ll update this post with the new videos as they release.

These tasks fall into a few specific categories which I’ve outlined below. My prayer is as you end your homeschool year, this list provides some motivation and excitement for the upcoming school year. Each year is a new and fresh adventure. So come along with me to prepare for your next homeschool year.

Homeschool Summer Prep List

This list I’m about to share doesn’t include the purchasing curriculum. I typically get that done earlier in the Spring so that I have everything I need for organizing the new school room. There have been occasions when I’ve been waiting for a curriculum to purchase or I get new books for our homeschool library during the summer, but that is not the norm.

CLEANING

This is the first phase of homeschool nesting. You’ve finished another school year and you have the scattered papers, used supplies, and antsy kids to prove it. Now it's time to clean out everything…and I mean everything!

Clean out those desks, carts, baskets, cupboards, cubbies, bookshelves, you name it. Clean it out and do a deep clean of your homeschool space, whether it be a designated homeschool room or a family room in the home. Throw away any papers that aren’t worth keeping until your kids are grown. Believe me, you can’t keep them all. Wipe out all the desk drawers and desktops, the bins, the bookshelves and cubbies, and the carts. Give it all a nice deep clean so that it is fresh and ready for when you are ready to organize.

Also, fair warning, it helps to block off a large chunk of time to complete this. Also, get your kids involved. Have them help with the cleaning. They did help create the mess and it is a good life skill to learn how to deep clean a space.

Checklist Items
- Clean out everything (cart/desks/baskets)
- Deep clean school space

RESTOCK

After you’ve cleaned out everything, you probably have a few items to restock or replace. Binders, bins, pencils, art supplies, all of the above. Go through what you have and make a list of needs for the upcoming school year. You may have even started a list as you were cleaning out, but if not, do so before going to the store.

Once you have your list of school supplies together, make your trip to the store or stores of choice and purchase what you need before moving to the next step of organizing.

Checklist Items
- Inventory supplies (make supply lists)
- Buy what’s needed

ORGANIZE

Congratulations, you’ve made it to the organizing phase. You have your new curriculum, maybe hidden under your bed undisturbed for months (if you’re like me), you have new school supplies and you're ready to organize your school room or space. Now it’s time to separate the curriculum and supplies and put them in their designated places.

Unwrap the curriculum student materials and put them with each child’s homeschool bin, desk, basket, or whatever you use. Get out those teacher manuals and put them where you can access them easily. I have a homeschool basket that I store mine in. I like to fill my morning basket (cart) with the new materials as well so they are ready for when we start school. For me (and my children) Bible time is crucial during our day so I like to have my mom basket filled with new and fresh things to read during my Bible time.

This is also a time when I update my kids’ school binders. I like to create new flows for each child and their new curriculums. I also prepare their book logs, and chore charts, and I’ve started creating cheat sheets for login info with courses completed online. I make sure to go over the new chores with my kids so they know what is expected during the new school year.

Checklist Items
- Organize new curriculum into kids' baskets
- Fill morning basket with new materials
- Fill mom basket for new Bible time
- Type out new year flows for each child
- Create log info cheat sheets for each child
- Fill in book logs for assigned readers
- Update chore charts
- Go over updated chore info with kids

PLAN & PREP

Finally, toward the end of summer, I like to do some final planning and prep work before we start the new year. A lot of this time is spent in my planner. I am not one to write out each lesson for each day because we do the next lesson the next day. However, I do like to know where we should be in each of my kids’ curriculums to ensure we are on track for each quarter. When I give myself a list of the lesson numbers we should reach by the end of specific quarters, it gives me a clear picture of whether we are ahead, behind, or right on track.

I also like to lay out the first 6 weeks of school in my planner. I do this in pencil so if I need to erase something I can. Six weeks is a magical number for me because that is truly the number of weeks it takes my kids to get into a routine for a new school year. We try our best to not have any trips or events planned during this time that would interrupt the school flow.

During the last few weeks of summer, I like to figure out what I’m hosting during the school year. My friends and I like to gather monthly for different things. In the past, I have hosted poetry tea time and book club. I reevaluate each year to see what I would like to host and contact my friends with my ideas. Each of us takes something to host and it makes for a nice break from the normal homeschool routines.

Lastly, as the first day of school approaches, I take my kids shopping for “back to school” outfits. My kids get excited to pick something special for their first-day pictures. We will also take a few opportunities before our school year starts to practice logging in for any online courses. This really helps ensure that my children don’t need me for these minor things and I can focus my attention on the teaching parts of my day.

Checklist Items
- Plot lessons for future quarters (goal lessons by dates)
- Lay out first 6 weeks of school in planner in pencil
- Decide on what I’m hosting next year and send texts out etc.
- Back-to-school outfit shopping
- Practice logging in for all online courses.

It’s Homeschool Nesting Season