s/o Filing Thread for Afterschoolers

[LibrarianMom]

I was wondering if any of you had been following the lesson plan filing thread on the K-8 board and what type of organizing system you use? I found last year that I wasn't organized and did not even begin to get through the materials I planned. So, I've been carefully planning out our materials into a weekly grid in hopes of actually accomplishing something this year. :)

[MBM]

I was wondering if any of you had been following the lesson plan filing thread on the K-8 board and what type of organizing system you use? I found last year that I wasn't organized and did not even begin to get through the materials I planned. So, I've been carefully planning out our materials into a weekly grid in hopes of actually accomplishing something this year. :)

 

I haven't seen the thread you mention, but here is what I do nowadays:

 

1. gather and look through the material I want to teach

2. write down a simple, rough outline

3. break that down into a tentative daily schedule that's either hand-written or typed

4. place in a 3-ring binder I use for afterschooling and (sometimes) post on fridge for ds

 

For example, my son is studying the Constitution now. Here's some of the schedule:

 

July 16 -- Read Article 1, Sections 1 and 2. Review.

July 17 -- Read about 14th and 16th Amendments. Review.

July 20 -- Read Article 1, Sections 3 and 4. Review.

. . . and so on . . .

 

That's our system for most subjects he studies (not math because he's slogging through AoPS). I try to keep the plans simple, flexible and short enough so as not to overwhelm. If something's not working, I revise.

 

That's all. It's simple, and it works well for both of us.

 

As for organizing, what's that? :D His books migrate as clumps throughout the house. He can almost always find them, though.

[Elisa]

I'm doing the weekly planning now. Bought the organizing stuff today. I will be doing 25 weekly files because that's how many of each color come in a box. :lol:

[PenKase]

I've definitely ready the filing megathread and have 7 weeks done. I already had the raw materials at home. I've been tearing up books and filing them as I go along. Even though I'm not even close to being done, I have already benefited from what I have organized so far. I actually just logged on to check on the thread.

 

Now the kids are begging for lunch and I gotta go but I'm off to Target in a little while to check out the back to school sales and see what else strikes my fancy!!

[aggieamy]

Oh my goodness. I'm not following that thread but I'm now feeling very lazy. We afterschool reading, writing, and math so everyday I put out an early reader book or early chapter book to read, do a page of copywork that I make using quotes from our current read aloud, and then every other day we do a lesson in Singapore math. We do so little that I can't imagine scheduling it out. Maybe when we actually do more I might do a detailed schedule.

[burckeri]

I haven't seen that thread but I don't make detailed, dated plans. For the summer, with my 5-year-old, I just alternate between the following two plans:

 

Day 1:

1. a page in his French kindergarten workbook (he goes to a French-language school so I'm making sure he gets some practice in over the summer as we mostly speak English at home)

2. reading one of the Little Stories for Little Folks booklets

3. two days worth of Sonlight Science K

 

Day 2:

1. a page in his French kindergarten workbook

2. a lesson from RightStart Math Level B

 

During the school year, I do a reading lesson and a math lesson with him on days he doesn't have school, and I try to do science once a week (thus the accelerated pace during the summer).

 

We do read-aloud almost every day, one or more chapters of a book. Some of the books are Sonlight K read-alouds, some are chapter books in French, and some are books that I just think he'd like (for example, we read Pit Pony before our vacation to Nova Scotia, and he really got a lot out of our visit to the Coal Miners Museum as a result). My husband reads to him from the Sonlight K history/geography books, but not every day. Overall, I find this keeps us organized and moving at a reasonable pace, but minimizes planning time.

[Word Nerd]

I've been considering using a modified workbox system for our afterschooling this year to help me keep track of what I want to cover and make better use of all the resources and materials we have on hand that I sometimes forget we have.

[LibrarianMom]

Yesterday I bought a boat load of folders and a black storage box for them. I spent yesterday evening labeling folders (dd, ds, and together) and filling them up. It was a lot of fun to cut apart the consumable items. There are some things that I'm trying to keep to re-use with my younger so I'm going to have to either put the book in on a regular basis or a note to do it or spend a lot of time at the copier machine (for items that may be copied). There are a few things where we have permission to copy but I'm going to have to decide if it's cost effective to copy, purchase again, or do orally.

 

It was really helpful to grid everything out before hand so I knew what to put in each folder. It's going to take me a few more weeks to get our together folder put together as it's going to be more of a reminder for mom of what books I need to order from the library, what book or CD to find, or art supplies to have out. It's time intensive up front but I think it will be really worthwhile later. I'm uncertain if we'll get to everything I have planned for each week, particularly while it's still warm and the kids can play outside. But I figure, we'll still be getting to more things than before and covering more of the content areas that we're getting skipped before.

[Alessandra]

The filing thread was scary.

 

I would never, ever use a filing system, because my blood pressure spikes when I look for lost paperwork -- and I know I would misfile things. I put an outline schedule on a big Excel spreadsheet and and use the rest of the sheets (the tabs at the bottom) of the file for details, for the most part added as we go along. If things don't go according to schedule, I can copy & paste to a new date (or condense topics, or even delete).

 

Our books are on Library Thing, so I can make a list of books/resources for a specific topic and than save the list as a pdf. Workbooks that we don't use much are in Desk Apprentices and those that we use a lot get shoved in bookshelves on top of the other books, which works well for us, oddly enough.

Edited August 24, 2010 by Alessandra