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Hey, organization junkies...look what I made

LarlaB

By LarlaB,
in K-8 Curriculum Board

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LarlaB

LarlaB

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I'm sharing this because I've been reading a lot about filing/planning, and think I finally came up w/ something that will work for us. :)I adapted the work-box concept, weekly lesson plans & calender for my DD into one concept. This will help us know what needs to be covered on a daily basis, the general flow of a week by helping me SEE our week, and offer her opprotunity to work independently on certain subjects...and of course, help us stay on track and not easily skip things. :)

 

First, I made a list of the various subjects we need to cover each week and their frequency (had to do some long range/semester planning as well- example, how many Math Mammoth lessons are in a semester), looked at our basic week schedule and came up w/ a rough plan. I want to retain flexibility so we can go a bit faster or slower as needed, so cannot abide by more specific lesson plans.

 

First, I created a blank weekly calendar & laminated it. Then I printed color coded subjects (same width as calendar tabs, but varying height depending on time it takes), and of finessing figured out a workload that is balanced and hopefully doable. I used silly putty to attach subjects to calendar, so we can flex.

 

Then made blank daily calendar sheets (which I laminated so I can re-use) where i can write basic instructions & page numbers. I will likely 3-hole punch these to be stored in a binder.

 

Finally, I made larger color coded labels for books/materials that are stored on cubby shelves- but labels could be used for workbox drawers, or folders as well.

 

Here's a picture :)

 

th_IMG_3715.jpg

Edited by LarlaB
Adding the picture- LOL
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LarlaB

LarlaB

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I re-read my original post and wanted to clarify that I didn't share for compliments, rather I know people around these parts love organization and thought perhaps it might spark some great ideas! :) Plus, I love seeing what other people do, so thought I'd share. :)

 

I am still following a 36 week folder system, but only for supplements/printouts for my core, MFW- ECC. It wasn't worth it, for me, to flesh out 36 weeks of paper- but I did organize this calendar for the first 18 weeks, w/ the entire year in mind. :)

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JaneGrey

JaneGrey

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Don't worry; we share your excitement and don't think you were just tooting your own horn.

 

We have to continue to acknowledge your contribution so this will bump up for others who might have missed it. Thank you! I'm so glad I caught this...and just in time. I recently purchased my file box, hanging folders, and folders (180 three-tabbed ones sorted) and was about to create little strips of paper to drop meticulously into said folders because I don't have a lot of workbooks to rip up. Then, I was going to input the information into Homeschool Tracker. It's very tiring being me sometimes. :001_smile:

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abrightmom

abrightmom

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I'm sharing this because I've been reading a lot about filing/planning, and think I finally came up w/ something that will work for us. :)I adapted the work-box concept, weekly lesson plans & calender for my DD into one concept. This will help us know what needs to be covered on a daily basis, the general flow of a week by helping me SEE our week, and offer her opprotunity to work independently on certain subjects...and of course, help us stay on track and not easily skip things. :)

 

First, I made a list of the various subjects we need to cover each week and their frequency (had to do some long range/semester planning as well- example, how many Math Mammoth lessons are in a semester), looked at our basic week schedule and came up w/ a rough plan. I want to retain flexibility so we can go a bit faster or slower as needed, so cannot abide by more specific lesson plans.

 

First, I created a blank weekly calendar & laminated it. Then I printed color coded subjects (same width as calendar tabs, but varying height depending on time it takes), and of finessing figured out a workload that is balanced and hopefully doable. I used silly putty to attach subjects to calendar, so we can flex.

 

Then made blank daily calendar sheets (which I laminated so I can re-use) where i can write basic instructions & page numbers. I will likely 3-hole punch these to be stored in a binder.

 

Finally, I made larger color coded labels for books/materials that are stored on cubby shelves- but labels could be used for workbox drawers, or folders as well.

 

Here's a picture :)

 

th_IMG_3715.jpg

This is very sensible and I have studied your picture extensively :D. What computer program did you use to make the grids and tags?? We are using very similar curriculum with a few minor exceptions . . . I like that this is organized, reusable and flexible. That is what I need. I created file folders but have also decided that I need a tad more flexibility with certain subjects (i.e. math) and don't want to assign a week to everything EXCEPT for MFW notebook sheets :001_smile:. I really do like your system here and I'm going to think on it this weekend. It may be the thing for us. Will you be giving the daily sheet to your child to refer to? I am assuming those are the ones at the top of the picture. Will you be posting the weekly sheet for all to see or is that for your reference only?

 

I eagerly await answers to these questions! :001_smile:

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whybenormal

whybenormal

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Thanks for sharing this! I really like the visual cue as to how long a particular subject might take. I often find myself scheduling too much in a day. But if I would take the time to really think about how long each subject really takes, then I could plan appropriately. I, too, am anxious to hear a few more details on how you will actually use this.

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LarlaB

LarlaB

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This is very sensible and I have studied your picture extensively :D. What computer program did you use to make the grids and tags?? We are using very similar curriculum with a few minor exceptions . . . I like that this is organized, reusable and flexible. That is what I need. I created file folders but have also decided that I need a tad more flexibility with certain subjects (i.e. math) and don't want to assign a week to everything EXCEPT for MFW notebook sheets :001_smile:. I really do like your system here and I'm going to think on it this weekend. It may be the thing for us. Will you be giving the daily sheet to your child to refer to? I am assuming those are the ones at the top of the picture. Will you be posting the weekly sheet for all to see or is that for your reference only?

 

I eagerly await answers to these questions! :001_smile:

 

LOL- glad it stirred your creative juices. :)

 

I used Open Office-Word Processor & created a table. Any basic word processing program can create a table. I took the short cut of assigning background colors to the various rows/cells instead of using colored paper. So they were printed on one sheet, I cut out the rows/blocks then laminated and cut into individuals squares.

 

Yes, I will be giving DD the daily sheet as reference...not every box will have information as we don't cover every subject each day, but I wanted a standard/master copy so we can flex. When we're done w/ something, she can erase it. :)

 

I'm not sure what you mean by weekly sheet...the 'colorful' calendar IS the weekly schedule.

 

 

Other thoughts:

 

I'm not tying specific time limits to subjects, nor needing to keep them in sequence. My primary concern was that we keep a REALISTIC, balanced daily workload to flex w/ our weekly commitments that would keep us on target for the year. Also both DD & I very much appreciate the visual cues RE our plan for the day. :)

 

The greatest amount of work was the thinking/planning behind the calendar. First, like most, I mapped out our semester (Aug-Dec) and accounted for holidays, special events & breaks-realistically. Then I took each subject and made broad lesson plans for the semester (ex. loosely dividing the 5 chapters of Math Mammoth 2A into 18 weeks. The 'plan' is written in pencil in the table of contents of each book/guide...I don't like to shuffle lots of books/papers)

 

Secondly, what took a bit of time for me was realistically assessing how much time is needed to cover a subject each week, and cross-referencing that with our daily schedule. The larger blocks represent 45 minutes-1 hour; medium blocks, 30-45 minutes and the smaller blocks 20-30 minutes. It took a bit of shuffling to get all the subjects covered in a balanced manner, but I think I found a workable solution (except for math, there are a a few weeks that will need 4 MathMammoth lessons completed).

 

I keep a separate lesson plan book to record what we did everyday record keeping for our state, but also very helpful for reference/review.

 

Also, as we progress thru the day, DD will erase each 'subject' from her daily dry-erase sheet.

 

Hope this makes sense :)

Laura

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Guest aquiverfull

Guest aquiverfull

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Awesome!!! Laminating it, making it easily changeable is such an awesome idea. I can't tell you how many times I had to print a new schedule and rewrite everything just because one or two subjects got off schedule. I love the flexibility built into this. I'm going to do this for our weekly schedule and just write everything we do after the fact in a separate notebook for our records. Thanks!! :)

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