How to Sort and Organize Your Heart of Dakota Things

From Our House to Yours

How to Sort and Organize Your Heart of Dakota Things

You ordered your Heart of Dakota things, and they have now arrived! As you unwrap your box our sons and nephews have carefully packed, you begin to see your books pile up. As a fellow book lover, I imagine Charlotte Mason would be feeling your same delight! Each book cover and title adds to the excitement as you begin to picture your homeschool year enjoying all of those amazing books! However, as the brown wrapping paper and Heart of Dakota box make their exit, you are left with everything you will need for the entire school year. This adds up to a lot of books and resources! Well, never fear! This blog is here to help! Let’s see how to easily sort and organize your Heart of Dakota things!

A quick read through the Introduction, first week of plans, and Appendix will help you better sort and organize your things!

A quick read through each Heart of Dakota guide’s Introduction gives a good overview of the resources. Resources are listed under headings like history, science, etc. The daily plans in your guide have stars/checkmarks next to most resources as well. The Appendix also lists resources used for Storytime, Extension Packages, etc. So, just looking over the Introduction, the first week of plans, and the Appendix will help you see how and where your resources are used. This in turn will help you better sort and organize them.

Use your Heart of Dakota invoice, catalog, and/or website to easily sort and organize your things!

When you open your Heart of Dakota box, you will find your invoice at the top. Your invoice will be very helpful as you sort and organize your things! Resources are listed in packages on your invoice. They are also listed in the order they are used. So, for example, all of your science resources are listed in the ‘science package,’ and the first resource on the list is the first science book you will need in the plans. This ordering system is used in the Heart of Dakota catalog as well as on the Heart of Dakota website. Of course, there are some books that are used all year long (i.e. Draw and Write Through History books). But, in general, this tip should easily help you organize your things.

Now, you can sort your books/resources into piles of packages.

Next, you can sort your books/resources into piles of packages. This is where the catalog and website come in handy! With pictures of the covers of the books/resources, it is easy to find them. My children even help with this sometimes, though I better enjoy doing it myself to be honest. I guess I like to be the organizer! Not to mention, my children can get ‘off track’ getting excited to read this book or that book. However, it can be fun to include them if they can stay focused and be trusted not to wander off to read a book or two! Either way, I like to pile my books in the order they are used from the top down (i.e. the first book in the package on top of the pile, the second book under it, etc.).

Once you’ve piled your books, you can open your Heart of Dakota guide and pull the books needed for the first week or month of plans. The stars/checkmarks in the guide will help. Set these books aside, so they are all ready for you to use. I like to put them in a separate plastic tote or canvas cube. This keeps them sorted separately and makes them mobile!

Finally, you can organize your books for the year!

Now that you have made piles of the packages of your resources, you want to keep them sorted that way if possible! Putting them on a bookshelf, in a pie safe, in a cupboard, or in a large plastic tote is a good idea. I even like to put address labels on the books’ spines with the names of the packages on them. However, this is not necessary if you’d rather not do that! Simply attempting to keep the books grouped by packages in the order they are used will make finding them easier.

When you are done with a book, you can put it at the bottom or at the end of its pile and grab the next book from the top or the beginning of its pile. Voila! Your books are organized for the whole year! Oh, and one more tip! At the end of the year, put them in storage the same way. That way, they will be ready and organized for the next child! Hope this helps as you sort and organize your Heart of Dakota things!

In Christ,
Julie