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Right Start Math - organizing all of the STUFF!!


abrightmom
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Please share how you do this to make day to day teaching as simple as possible. I can't seem to come up with a good system here.

 

I have a toddler who loves to search and destroy so I'm thinking along the lines of needing to keep the STUFF away from a tiny toddling boy. :001_smile:

 

Pictures or links would be lovely:001_smile:.

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Long time RS user here, but I don't have too much to offer in terms of organizational systems. When my youngest was in search and destroy mode, I simply bagged all of the smaller pieces (cubes, tiles, place value cards etc.) using the heaviest duty zipper lock bags available; rubber-banded all of the cards and then bagged them, and shoved every thing except the math balance (that's usually in a closet) in a medium-sized rubber maid type tub.

 

Now that my youngest is not eating everything, I have ditched the tub and keep everything (bagged and rubber banded) in a salvaged three drawer bedside table. My younger two will play with the geo boards and the math balance, and there is usually at least one abacus floating around. We definitely don't just bring stuff out at math-time.

 

Keeping it simple works best for me, and that means everything in one place. The toughest part of the early years with RS is making the extras. This is my second go round, and I'm not making nearly so many of them as the first time through.

 

Good Luck!

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I'm the worst...I get every lesson organized the same day as I do the lesson. I must get organized. I must get organized.

 

I read this blog post by someone who actually has organized her RS stuff. I plan to do something similar, someday....

 

http://www.amazon.com/Moon-Over-Dianna-Hutts-Aston/dp/0803731078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1287970246&sr=1-1

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No pictures or links here, but I will take a stab at explaining what we've been doing to keep our RS materials organized.

 

I keep most of our RS manips and extras in a (large) drawer. Everything is in a ziplock with a label.

 

We also do a very modified version of the workbox system - I have separate boxes for each subject and switch out the contents weekly. So in our current math box, I keep the manips that seem to be in use that week, along with the manual and abacus. This week we have tally sticks, basic number cards, base 10 cards, and a few other goodies. When I notice that we're no longer using a manip steadily, I put it back in the drawer.

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Please share how you do this to make day to day teaching as simple as possible. I can't seem to come up with a good system here.

 

I have a toddler who loves to search and destroy so I'm thinking along the lines of needing to keep the STUFF away from a tiny toddling boy. :001_smile:

 

Pictures or links would be lovely:001_smile:.

 

I bought one of those 4 drawer plastic bins and RS gets two of them.

 

Be encouraged the toddler search and destroy does go away. DS had about 6 months where he would systematically dump every thing in the room till I got so stressed I would call hs done and clean up time started. I was a struggle just to get the basics done in those days. But that season did end.

 

Heather

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I used a little craft bag for holding the manips, and it was wonderful. I only had the manips that were required for the levels that we were working on at the time. The others were in a rubbermaid tote in a closet.

 

Since my dd is using my beloved little craft bag, I now have those manips in a small tote. I keep the tote very accessible.

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We're using the crazy weekly filing system from the million-page thread awhile back. Here's what I did, and it's making my life SOOOO much easier!

 

At the beginning of the year I photocopied everything I'd need to photocopy (worksheets, hundreds chart, math journal pages, etc.) and laminated everything I'd need to laminate (practice sheets, mainly) for the year. Then I filed it all by week--four lessons per week--in hanging file folders. Then I went through for every week and wrote down on an index card all the materials we'd need for all of that week's lessons--which cards for which games, which game instructions and the pages they were on, the abacus, the geoboards, etc., and I attached the index card for each week to the front of the folder. All the folders live in a storage crate.

 

We school year-round in five- to six-week increments. At the beginning of a session, I take the folders for the next however many weeks and drop them into these long, low file storage boxes I bought in the Target dollar section. (They look kind of like magazine boxes, but they're half the height and long enough to accommodate file folders. You could really use any box that would be long enough and sturdy enough, though.) For each week, I put in the box everything that we'll need that week for any lesson. That way, it's all handy and there's no digging around or searching for manipulatives or cards. I also include blank/scrap paper and extra math journal pages in case we need them. I scan the lesson that morning at some point (OK, it's usually right before we sit down for math :lol:) so I'm ready mentally. I teach at a table right next to the wall where our white board lives, and on that table I have a little rotating desk caddy with other things we'll need--dry erase markers, eraser, timer, pencils, etc.

 

All the weekly boxes live on the top shelf of my tall bookshelf, and all the rest of the manipulatives live in a plastic three-drawer rolling cart.

 

Whew! I hope that helps you! It was overwhelming to set all of that up in advance back in August, but it has really paid off for us. The filing system was the very best thing I've done in our homeschooling career--we're so much closer to being on track than we've ever been before, and that's in spite of taking time off for a family emergency early in the school year.

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I just put everything in a 16 qt box. I left each manip in the plastic bag it came in. I photocopied as much as possible when I had access to a free machine. Then, I get out the things it lists at the top as I sit down with my son; this takes about 30 seconds of plastic bag searching, tops. I kept it out of reach while everyone was interested, now it is down low. My youngest is 26 months now. We've been RSing for 12 months. The balance is on a separate shelf and I just pick it up if we need it.

 

It isn't as bad as it first appears, IMHO.

 

Emily

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No toddler here so I'm likely not helpful but I like our system. If a manipulative isn't being used (either hasn't come up or has passed for a while) I store it in a Rubbermaid in my son's closet.

 

For those we're currently using/are frequently used I have an over the door mesh shoe bag thing. The pockets are perfect for me for the various things so I can see and grab without any advanced prep. I don't have to sort through to find anything. I've got workbox type plastic drawers on a bookshelf that hold my various subjects. The "math" drawer has the curriculum and worksheets. The abacus is right on top of it all since it's so frequently used. The geoboard is in there too when it's being used. The balance thing is next to it all when it's used and otherwise it's with the rest of the materials in my son's closet.

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I keep the card decks rubber-banded, and the tiles and cubes in ziplock bags. I arrived at this because when we first started RS 3 years ago, my ds loved to play with the manipulatives, so I put them all into a large basket near our school table. I'd probably just put the basket out of reach of the marauding toddler until that stage passes.

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