Oranizing manuals and curriculum

[Janell]

I need some help visualizing how to organize things. I'm using Abeka Kindergarten this year(my first year homeschooling) and all my books came yesterday. I have no idea how to go about organizing it all. All the lesson plans are in the manuals. I have 2 teaching manuals, one for math and one for phonics/reading/writing. I also bought the God's World science and that has a small teacher manual too. I'll probably be supplamenting each lesson with other worksheets, or coloring pages etc.. How do you keep it all contained?

 

I'm thinking of having a folder for each subject and then just keep each folder with the manual. i've seen some people put everything in a binder. I'm just wondering how you all do it.

 

for the workbooks, do you rip the page out to let your child work on it or just keep them in the book and have them turn the pages each time?

 

In addition to the curriculum we will be doing read-a-longs, once a week piano lesson, crafts, a Nature journal, and maybe workboxes. so i'm not sure how to keep it all together....or maybe it's better to keep it all separated instead of together??

 

 

Sorry, i'm a total newbie when it comes to homeschooling so I just don't know what works best. Any advice would be great!

[Sun]

I keep a big binder for myself with plans in it. Each subject has its own tabbed section in the binder. I have one page per day per subject. If I have a prepackaged curriculum that has its own manual, my planning binder will have a page where I have written what page to look on in the other manual. This allows me to make other notes on the planning page too. I plan each subject sequentially, not by specific days, so if we have to go slower or faster it doesn't throw off other planning. I tried the folder method that some people on here like, but I found I was spending too much time refiling because we needed to go at a different speed than I'd planned.

 

If I have extra worksheets for a specific subject, I three-hole punch those and stick them in that subject's section in the binder, paper-clipped to the page that has the relevant lesson on it. I'm kind of neurotic about separate workbooks, and I rarely let DS write in them. I usually photocopy the relevant pages and he works on the photocopies. This has the added benefit of making it easy to hand him another copy of the sheet when he needs to redo it for some reason!

 

I also track lessons online using Homeschool Skedtrack, which is free. This allows me to print a list of scheduled subjects and their associated lessons for each day. If we don't get one of the lessons done, it will just show up again the next time that subject is scheduled, which makes it really easy for me. This master list is my guide to the day and helps me keep track of which subjects we should be doing.

[Janell]

A thought on the workbooks--ripping out the pages and only giving the ones that you need that day might be good for a child who is easily overwhelmed. On the other hand, a child who likes neat and tidy might hate the mess of ripped out pages. I've had some of each. Personally, loose pages drive me nuts. If I were to rip them out, I'd punch them and put them in a notebook each day.

 

And the other thought--DON'T think you need to every activity in those nifty manuals--or even half of them! ABeka was designed for classroom use, scatter-shot at 30 kids, some of whom already know the material, some of whom are not ready for it, etc. So if you do every problem, you'll both be miserable! You'll be able to say, "Hmmm, you already know this, let's go on! Hmmm, we need to do this kind again, let's try it a different way." That's the beauty of hsing--you tailor it to the child. If you have a zillion little ones and are 8 months pg, you're going to skip some of the messier actitivies. Or maybe you'll skip them all and just snuggle up and read a good book. ANd you hereby have permission from the Hive to do just that!

 

I agree about skipping some of the things in the manual. I looked over the first few weeks and my son already knows most of that stuff already so we will probably skip a lot of it.

[Janell]

I keep a big binder for myself with plans in it. Each subject has its own tabbed section in the binder. I have one page per day per subject. If I have a prepackaged curriculum that has its own manual, my planning binder will have a page where I have written what page to look on in the other manual. This allows me to make other notes on the planning page too. I plan each subject sequentially, not by specific days, so if we have to go slower or faster it doesn't throw off other planning. I tried the folder method that some people on here like, but I found I was spending too much time refiling because we needed to go at a different speed than I'd planned.

 

If I have extra worksheets for a specific subject, I three-hole punch those and stick them in that subject's section in the binder, paper-clipped to the page that has the relevant lesson on it. I'm kind of neurotic about separate workbooks, and I rarely let DS write in them. I usually photocopy the relevant pages and he works on the photocopies. This has the added benefit of making it easy to hand him another copy of the sheet when he needs to redo it for some reason!

 

I also track lessons online using Homeschool Skedtrack, which is free. This allows me to print a list of scheduled subjects and their associated lessons for each day. If we don't get one of the lessons done, it will just show up again the next time that subject is scheduled, which makes it really easy for me. This master list is my guide to the day and helps me keep track of which subjects we should be doing.

 

Thanks for all that! Good ideas. :D

[Lily_Grace]

We're using Skedtrack this year, too, but I've found florescent highlighter tabs to help me stay organized visually. Mine come in a pack of 5 colors and are reusable for quite a while. I mark everything we need for the first week with pink, the second with green, third blue..and so on, moving them from day to day and then onto the 6th, 7th, 8th...weeks. It helps me keep the many supply lists organized and lets me flip the page, throw it all in a bucket, and set it on the shelf come Friday afternoon.