robsiew Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 If you've tried both tearing pages out of workbooks and filing them and keeping workbooks together (or creating them from downloads) which do you like better? I've been dismantling workbooks and filing, but I'm starting to think I could save time by just keeping the books together. I wouldn't have to take time each week to file the papers. I'm thinking about creating "math notebooks" with all their math for a semester/year in it. Then they just work out of the books. Same things with history and science. If you've done both, what are the minuses to keeping everything in the workbook/creating notebooks out of digital documents? I think I'm trying to figure out if that really will save me time and if there are any glaring negatives I haven't thought about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 I've not done full-fledged filing, but I used to tear workbook pages out, thinking my kids would find it easier than holding a book open when they were younger--and they told me they actually prefer the workbook kept all together. I think it's less work to keep it together, and since we use the workbox system, I just keep their workbooks in their drawers (we have grammar and math workbooks). They just do the next thing. Sometimes work ahead if they want to. For me filing makes sense if I want to remember my teacher plans, or for handouts that are not already bound (although I know some people bind those too...). To take apart a workbook and file it when they do it daily anyway just seems like work I don't need to do. Maybe if they didn't use the workbooks daily? Anyway, just what works here! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kristinannie Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 The only workbook I tear out pages in is Miquon since it is suggested that you tear out several pages and let the child choose which pages to do. This was very difficult for me to do at first, but I love it. I make copies of my Critical Thinking Press and RSO pages since they are reproducible. I am 3 hole punching these and putting them into binders, but I might break down and buy a binding machine. Otherwise, I leave things intact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jer2911mom Posted May 12, 2011 Share Posted May 12, 2011 I kept our A Reason for Handwriting K book together this year and wish I hadn't. They have you adding things (e.g., sand, corn, etc.) to the backside coloring pages and it makes for some bumpy handwriting! I really should have gone ahead and torn them out but didn't realize it until we were a good ways in and by that point I guess I was just too stubborn to dismantle it. I liked the notion of keeping it all together. For my next child I will definitely tear out the pages. I, too, don't like having all the loose papers and storing them somewhere, but I think handwriting is a case where pulling out the pages is necessary. HTH, Kathy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyagain Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I tried pulling workbooks apart and filing. I did about half a year's worth and then my toddlers (I now call them Butch and Sundance!) got a hold of the basket they were filed in and I had WALL TO WALL WORKSHEETS!!!!! I actually cried. They stay in the workbooks from now on. Loose papers (from downloads) are now filed in the basement, in a closed box, on a high shelf!;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukeswife Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I tried ripping everything apart this past year and the kids hated it. I'm actually planning to buy a spiral binder (not sure it I'll get a proclick or something else) so that any workbooks that aren't spiral bound can be made that way or to use for printed out downloads. I have found that to make it easier for the kids to know how many pages to do, I bought some really small animal stamps (about 1inch square or so) and then stamp the last page they are supposed to complete. They love it because it's easy to see where to stop and they like to color the stamp when they are done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 :lurk5: I've only torn apart ONE workbook, and it was R&S Spelling 2, which we only used for one week and then I sold it. :tongue_smilie:I had to tear it apart though. My poor little first grader could NOT write on the page like that. It just didn't fold open nicely at all. That was our first day of homeschool, and we went out to the garage and tried different tools until we found something that would cut the binding off. That was not easy. It was a funny first day of school though. I said "Let's go to Daddy's garage and find something sharp to play with!" :D I've kept his Singapore workbooks intact, and those seem to be ok. He's able to write on both sides. They have a crease down the side to fold (or at least CWP does... I can't remember if IP does). I'm keeping those together for sure. His handwriting workbook is a bit of a pain. I may have to chop that one up. Not good to be practicing handwriting when the page is making a hill. I've had the same issue with my handwriting workbook (I got the Write Now adult book for GDI). I really don't want to take that apart though. Math is a PDF, and I just file that. I file 6 weeks at a time, so it's not unmanageable. He does well with me just handing him 2-3 pages to do. I only file things that are printed off PDFs. I don't file workbooks. Those are just "do the next thing" and "do it everyday", plus we just don't have very many... just CWP, IP, and GDI C. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest momk2000 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I tear the pages out as we use them. It's a lot easier for both myself and the kids. I don't file and save every page, I just keep what I feel I should and circular file the rest. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarreymere Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 My group doesn't like workbooks and I don't like to file. We really don't like paper. The sight of an entire workbook can cause tears, even when I explain over and over that only one stupid page needs to be done in it on any given day. I think I am raising future drama majors. Either the morning of or the night before I print out or rip out the pages for each child and put them on a clipboard. I am becoming more and more partial to choosing material that I can print out over printed workbooks. If it only exists in cyberspace then the kid doesn't have the chance to whine about how many pages there are and how impossible it is that all of them can ever be completed in one lifetime. I usually do this as I have my first cup of tea before the kids have breakfast. It takes me about ten minutes. I can't do a week or more at a time, it doesn't work for us. Someone will have a meltdown over something and need more time on it, someone will fly ahead on something else and want to do eighty-five more pages of it right then, someone will be abducted by aliens and unable to complete work on a given day, whatever. It has to be a daily thing. I have a whiteboard I write out each morning with the agenda for that day and I hand out the clipboards. They like having something portable with all of their work on it, it makes them happy to have a very concrete idea of what they need to do. At the end of the day the filing consists of me tossing the completed, corrected papers into a separate box for each child. I don't keep lesson plans or gradebooks, I have an ongoing daily journal that I note in every day how each child is doing in a narrative. I'm better with 'X needs more work with making change from a dollar' than with '88% on exercise 10'. Any ongoing stuff is kept on the clipboard. Anything especially interesting I might keep in a folder for the portfolio we have to do, otherwise it all goes into a box and usually ends up tossed eventually. We can't notebook, my kids are not notebooky kids so any 'lessons learned' type stuff gets written by me onto index cards and put in index card binders with tabs that are kept inside the clipboards. I pull out the index card binders sometimes and play quiz show with them sometimes. They like the index cards, I don't know why. Maybe they need index card size workbooks? Or maybe they are just crazy.......:party: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom31257 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 My ds prefers pages torn out of the book because he likes his paper flat. DD doesn't use many workbooks anymore, but I always just kept her books together. We didn't start homeschooling until she was in 3rd grade. I only started filing last summer, but I will be filing as much of ds's as I can for next year. I've stayed on track better this year than any other single year thus far. I've got two more orders to place, then let the slicing and filing begin! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laundrycrisis Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I keep the workbook together if most of it will be used, and I mark the pages we don't use "skip". If I am only going to use a page here and there I tear them out and they end up in a 3-ring binder after they are done. If I want to combine pages from several workbooks into work packets, I tear them out. I don't tear anything out in advance of needing it unless I am assembling packets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I tear the pages out of workbooks. Either that or I cut the workbooks apart, have them drilled for three holes, and put them in three-ring notebooks. I give the dc the workbook page, which she can lay flat on a desk/table. I do this because one day I noticed that right-handed 10yo dd was hooking her hand like a lefty so she could write more easily on the right-hand page of the workbook (turning it meant that the left-hand page hung over the edge of the table, KWIM?). It took awhile to remediate that. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whereneverever Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I threw myself into workboxes and filing last year. I ripped everything up. I deeply regretted it by about 3 weeks in. Trying to keep completed things organized was a pain. Never.again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homeschooling6 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 (edited) I ripped and filed all our workbooks this year (not the TMs) and I'll never do that again. Papers were lost and it took me twice as long to get their weekly assignments together. I also found out my kids (and I) prefer to have the workbooks in tact. No more ripping or tearing pages here at Homeschooling6 ;). It was easier for me when I could stack all the books on the table and make the weekly lesson plans for each child. With the ripped workbooks and filing I was forever trying to find things. I will go back to putting answer keys and so forth in binders by child/grade. Edited May 13, 2011 by Homeschooling6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcurry Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I've done both. My kids like to work out of their workbooks directly, but there are definitely pros and cons to both. Working IN the workbook- it is harder to write on the backs of the pages. This only works well when the pages are one-sided. Also, it tended to be more distracting for my kids- they wanted to look at the other pages, or work ahead a few problems while neglecting the page they were supposed to be working on. Also, there was more potential for stray pencil marks throughout, and I'm not sure why. They also needed to "find their place" each day, and if they did particularly poorly on a certain day, it was there staring at them the next day. Working from the worksheets- we usually just kept the workbook in tact in their desks or workspace, and then tore out the page right before working on it. At the end of the week, I'd keep just one for their sample folder, and then again at the end of the month, just keep one sample page. The rest get thrown away. At the end of the year I'd have no more than 10 pages per subject in their file. I actually prefer to do it this way. It's easier for them to concentrate on just one page, and they can put it flat on the desk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 (edited) I rip our workbooks. I keep the pages in closed boxes by subject. I ripped everything apart before we started and have had it ready to just pull out of the boxes. I have two of the ones I linked below (with blue covers though) but I only have one homeschooling currently. I will just add more boxes and label them with their names when I add Malcolm. http://www.sterilite.com/SelectProduct.html?id=25&ProductCategory=248§ion=1 Both Adrian and I prefer that he work with the paper flat. Like Ellie said, it helps with the handwriting. Also, no workbooks can go missing since everything is in one place. I made an Excel schedule to keep up-to-date with where we are at. This has worked really well also because we are currently accelerating certain subjects without this affecting the others. I just go into my schedule and highlight the work Adrian has completed and add a date. As for the filing after, I just take the worksheets out of the subject folders and place the new worksheets at the front of Adrian's notebook (three ring binders). I made one per subject at the start of the year. When he completes the worksheets I just file them in the same notebook under the tab for that program (ETC, Horizons Phonics, etc.) Takes seconds :). Our workboxes function as the place where we keep everything we are working on for the week. We return everything in them, TM's, texts, notebooks, manipulatives (if they will be used again the same week) etc. Our system has worked really well this year and I will continue it next year. Now, if I can only get myself to input everything on HST+ instead :tongue_smilie:! This would keep everything we do each year together also. Edited May 13, 2011 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osaubi Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I am doing both. My ds hates writing in a workbook so I will tear out all his workbook pages and then get them spiral bound so it lays flat. I am going to make my own history workbooks this year. I will spiral bind these as well. I hate all the loose pages and they get lost very easily. I will rearrange or tear it out and then spiral bind them back together. The best of both worlds! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartlandsahm Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I have found that to make it easier for the kids to know how many pages to do, I bought some really small animal stamps (about 1inch square or so) and then stamp the last page they are supposed to complete. They love it because it's easy to see where to stop and they like to color the stamp when they are done. Great idea, thanks for sharing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heartlandsahm Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 Either that or I cut the workbooks apart, have them drilled for three holes, and put them in three-ring notebooks. Where/how do you have this done & how much does it cost? Thanks! Also in TX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Running the race Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I tore the pages out for years. Then I figured out that it was much easier to leave them in the books and the kids didn't mind at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abigail4476 Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I take workbooks to Kinko's at the beginning of the year and have them cut and punched (3-hole). I put them in a binder, and each Monday I remove a week's worth of assignment sheets in each subject, staple them together and hand them out. At the end of the week, I toss everything in the trash except tests, papers that have to be redone and special assignments that I want to scrapbook. What's nice about my system is that the kids have an easy visual of what they have to complete in a week, and the workbooks get visibly lean as the year passes which makes me feel good about our progress. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsiew Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 Lots of things to think about! Thanks everyone for your input. I think I'm heading in either the direction to cut them apart and spiral bind them or just leave them in the books. We don't have that many workbooks, really just spelling for the younger two and Latin for the older two. I think I will make spiral binded or notebooks for our other things though. It would cut down on a lot of time I spend filing! Thanks for the input! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down_the_Rabbit_Hole Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I take the workbooks and get the spines cut and then spiral bound (not comb bound). No more trying to work in the crease. Pages lay flat or fold back like a notebook. If the work for a particular class will have both workbook and loose paper work, then I cut the bindings and 3 hole punch. This way all the work is kept together in a binder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukeswife Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 one more tip I thought of for workbooks/loose pages. If you spiral bind them, instead of binding them along the side, bind them along the TOP. That way they are like a Steno Notebook and it's easy to flip the pages over onto themselves and there is no spiral to cause problems for lefties. I don't have a lefty but my brother is one and told me that he wished more of his stuff had been bound at the top so his hand/arm didn't have to lay on the spiral when writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robsiew Posted May 13, 2011 Author Share Posted May 13, 2011 one more tip I thought of for workbooks/loose pages. If you spiral bind them, instead of binding them along the side, bind them along the TOP. That way they are like a Steno Notebook and it's easy to flip the pages over onto themselves and there is no spiral to cause problems for lefties. I don't have a lefty but my brother is one and told me that he wished more of his stuff had been bound at the top so his hand/arm didn't have to lay on the spiral when writing. Growing with Grammar does this and I know one mom who uses it for her lefty mostly because of this! It's a great idea even for "righties" because when you are working on the back of a page it's the same issue... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamakimberly Posted May 13, 2011 Share Posted May 13, 2011 I file only tests or reviews into a binder for each kid. I don't want/need to keep their daily work. We spiral bind everything we can- on the top for my lefty and on the left for my righty. Actually my righty has her Singapore Math in the original workbook as-is. I recently picked up Growing With Grammar and I love that it came spiral bound. It saved me tons of time. I use a post-it flag to mark where they can stop for the day. I just take it off the previous day's end page and move it to the new day's end page. I should have stock in the post-it flags. They make life easier! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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