S/O Filing System Thread

[OrganicAnn]

Has anyone been read the file thread in the K-8 board? I wondered if anyone was doing anything similar for Afterschooling? Or if not, what do you do?

 

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=189482&highlight=file

[MBM]

Here's a link to a recent discussion about filing systems.

 

eta: Oh.My.Word. That is one long thread you linked!

Edited August 2, 2010 by MBM

[OrganicAnn]

Who knew filing was such a 'hot' thread.

 

What I'm worried most about, if I do a weekly file system that I will be constantly changing it. With Afterschooling, you have to adapt to how much homework and other things that are going on in school. So if I label 30 some file folders and tear out/print off that much stuff and then don't use it, I'll feel bad and give up.

 

Maybe if I just plan out 6 weeks at a time?

[easygoer]

Okay, mine is young, so take this for what it's worth.

 

I struggled/experimented a while last fall to see what was going to work for us and this is what I came up with:

 

I took Donna Young's blank checklist and listed all the different types of activities we do, grouped by subject. I noted in the margin abbreviations for materials (I don't know why, it's not like I'd forget, but whatever.) After a couple trial runs I finalized a target number of 'repetitions' per week I'm shooting for and put that by each subject group.

 

Then in a week (I have 6-day 'weeks' on there and lump weekends in one box), I check off a box when we do something that warrants.

 

Over time, it creates a kind of scatter plot that keeps me on track, showing if I've under or over shot with a subject frequency, if something's been falling off the radar, etc.

 

I don't usually plan ahead "this on this day" but depending I do often go through for various reasons and I mark something I plan to get to in a day with a circle. (I can see if I'm hitting those, too.)

 

This system is working for me in that it's totally flexible around what else is going on but keeps an accounting. For now, because DD is young, she's really only peripherally aware of it but I could see an older child checking it off himself. It's a kind of "this is what we're aiming to get done, but we can pick good times to do it" vibe, to me.

 

Bu itself, it doesn't specifically lend itself to "I want to learn X material before Y date" (and she and I aren't working with many hardfast goals at this point) but to turn it into that you'd just take the goal material and divide it up by the number of lessons you have to finish it in.

 

Here is a link to the file I've got now...

 

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3AhyK8fpx8eNGZjYzQyODgtOTkwNS00NTJhLWE4OTUtOWE0YTQ1OGNhZjc2&hl=en&authkey=CJOmidQK

 

That's what we've got going on now.

[PenKase]

easygoer- your checklist is awesome. I can see how it would provide a good visual for what's getting done and not getting done. Thanks for sharing.

[easygoer]

Thanks penkase :)

 

I just uploaded a 'used' one from this summer (it was a tumultuous period, with a vacation and two moves!) which shows the picture it starts to illustrate (a la: we fell off the math wagon, then climbed back on when things settled down ;).)

 

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B3AhyK8fpx8eYmRiNzJiNGMtMzY3NS00ZTJhLWFmYTAtNmJmZGY5ODJhZWQw&hl=en

 

I was going to add...I do plan out content subjects history and science -- I don't do a whole year or a whole book but I do 6+ weeks sometimes -- and I have two of those ugly brown expanding pocket folders and store one 'checkbox worth' in a pocket.

 

I could imagine breaking a math text or similar into, say, pages or lessons / (4 days/week X 32 weeks) OR # chapters / 9 week quarter = one checked box and projecting it out that way. To fit that work in around other obligations, if we aim to read two chapters a week we can check them off when we get to them and then see/count them up at a glance. This is the system I've been working out to apply to us homeschooling or 'afterschooling' (with goals/content adjusted depending on circumstance)...we'll see how it goes.