CatholicMom Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 I'm trying to figure out what it would look like and if it would help me streamline our schooling, or just be more work. I admit, I have been longing to buy my kids Trapper Keepers like I had in school because they are... awesome. :lol: And, yes, they still sell them! ANYway, I need something to help the kids keep moving to the next thing through their independent work without *wasting time* on getting distracted, waiting for me to tell them what's next, finding assignments, etc. I'm thinking of ripping all the workbook pages out weekly and putting them in the Study Binder (aka Trapper Keeper) with tabs for each day of the week. I have long wanted something to bring our school day together & steamline, and I can't quite figure out how to accomplish it. Can anyone help me visualize? :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicMom Posted October 2, 2012 Author Share Posted October 2, 2012 Of course, not all our subjects are workbooks, so I'd have to figure out whether, or how, to include those in the Study Binder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alisoncooks Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 (edited) Well, I don't do a study binder, but I did buy each girl a fancy Trapper Keeper with the idea that it would hold all of their stuff contained if we were to have to do school "on the road." I don't know when we will ever do "school on the road" (LOL) but I had to have the binder. :p (Sorry, no help here. :D) Actually, I do something similar to what you detailed above for my planning binder. I use those Avery brand (I think) tab/dividers that also have a pouch on each side. I label the dividers 1-5 (5 days of school, though #5 is usually empty b/c we mainly school Mon-Thursday). I file work behind each section. Small books and workbooks can usually fit in the binder pouch. Edited October 2, 2012 by alisoncooks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 For me, workboxes are an easier way of accomplishing this. I don't have to rip out the workbook pages or have bindings cut off, I can put readers or history books in their boxes, or timeline materials, science books, math materials like rulers and protractors--whatever they need to complete a subject can all be put in the box or stored there. It keeps us well-organized. Just a thought! Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chelli Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Here is a post I did about our study binder as you call it. ;) How I Plan Our Home School Week No Trapper Keepers, though. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeacefulChaos Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 I write what they are to do for the day on the chalkboard by the desk. :) They do it in that order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acablue Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 I'm ocd about loose paper, so even tearing sheets out and keeping them in a binder would drive me crazy. For our workbook subjects, I use different colored sticky tabs for each day of the week and mark the pages I want them to do. Any questions/exercises/pages I want them to skip, I cross out. I put their stacks of workbooks on the table in the morning and they put them back on the shelf when they finish. So far, so good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stm4him Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 My kids keep their workbooks in a magazine file box. That keeps them all together and it is easy to transport. They have a few binders but we only use one of them every day. The rest are more for holding papers they will do in the future and papers they have already done. The one binder we use every day is for all their memory work. Our school supplies are shared by everyone, except I just bought my older two their own set of colored pencils to keep at their desk. We have delayed the start of our new math books b/c of my son's diagnosis (see below) but we're planning to start tomorrow. I'm considering the idea of giving them two folders to use daily to contain loose pages. These could also go in their magazine file boxes. One would hold their weekly pages on one side and their pages for that particular day on the other side. The other folder would have pages for me to correct on one side and pages for them to fix on the other side. When a page is completely done and corrected it can be filed in a binder because those are more cumbersome to handle than a folder is. A Trapper Keeper is nice (I remember having one) but I'm not sure if it will stand up and I remember mind was a mess! With their magazine file boxes I can see at a glance if they have slipped any loose papers there. Loose papers make things chaotic and I am still dealing with a big pile I didn't get around to putting away from last year! Keeping on top of that makes school less stressful for sure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 (edited) We switched to a weekly study binder this year, and we both love it! We used workboxes for K and 1st. In second we did a version more like "work folders" but kept subject specific boxes for books and manipulatives/supplies for the week. This year (3rd grade) I opted for the binder because we are on the road a lot. Our binder is divided by subject, with daily tabs behind each subject header. That way if DS wants to work ahead for the week, it's easy to do. (I can dream, right?) We don't do the same subjects every day, but that was easy enough to accommodate when planning the binder. I wanted this to be truly portable, and we don't do many workbook type programs here, so that took some tweaking. Obviously, the workbook type pages are a breeze - I had the bindings cut off, they are all three hole punched, and those pages live in their own binder until the week they are put into the weekly binder to be completed. The other subjects were trickier. Mostly I had the bindings cut off, and had everything three hole punched. Some things I bought in PDF format, too, and printed myself. Then I put any papers that DS will need (lab sheets, WWE workbook pages, etc) behind the daily tabs, but I also have a last tab that's called "instructor's stuff" - that has the instructor's section for the week. So for SOTW, he has the coloring pages, map etc under a daily tab, but I have the AG pages behind the instructor's tab. I did this for WWE, FLL, SOTW & AG, GSWL and RSO. For FLL and GSWL, I just separated the lessons for the week under the daily tabs. For math, we use a combination, so I don't have daily tabs for that - although it would be easy if we were using a more worktext type approach. Behind that subject tab, DS has a DVD pocket with the TT DVD, Times Tales DVD, and a few other math DVDs. He also has a card which directs him to LOF or a few other supplements. Generally, he knows he will do a TT lesson plus one other math activity - he just has to check his daily checklist to see what to do. For spelling, I only included the progress sheet for AAS, and we check off the steps as he progresses. I have toyed with the idea of whole punching the AAS book, but have yet to do so. :) I have a separate section in the back titled "Loopy Extras" (a title I picked up here!)... Behind that divider, I have tabs for Art, Character Building, "Surprise!" and anything else we might add in occasionally. I use Scholaric for planning, and each week I do any adjustments to the schedule and print out the following week's daily checklists. Those are 3 hole punched and put into the front of the binder. The Scholaric lists will tell him if he needs to pull out the laptop to watch Happy Scientist as part of his Science, or if he needs to watch a specific Magic School Bus episode (I put those in the binder behind the Science divider, in a DVD holder), etc. Wow, this all sounds complicated, but it is truly the easiest system we've found! Oh, and since I plan to reuse some of these books for DD, when the time comes, I store each subject in its own binder. I just keep what's coming up for DS in the front, and file anything we've already done in the back, all separated by a divider. Edited October 2, 2012 by Spryte Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicMom Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 I'm ocd about loose paper, so even tearing sheets out and keeping them in a binder would drive me crazy. For our workbook subjects, I use different colored sticky tabs for each day of the week and mark the pages I want them to do. Any questions/exercises/pages I want them to skip, I cross out. I put their stacks of workbooks on the table in the morning and they put them back on the shelf when they finish. So far, so good. Genius! This is such a simple idea, yet I never thought of it. :tongue_smilie: lol Maybe because I'm lacking for bookshelf space. I have them stuffed with chapter books and things we don't use daily, but all the daily stuff doesn't fit on there, so it is kind of homeless (gee I wonder why we are constantly loosing them?). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acablue Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Genius! This is such a simple idea, yet I never thought of it. :tongue_smilie: lol Maybe because I'm lacking for bookshelf space. I have them stuffed with chapter books and things we don't use daily, but all the daily stuff doesn't fit on there, so it is kind of homeless (gee I wonder why we are constantly loosing them?). Hmm. How about combining it with stm4him's suggestion of a magazine file box to keep each kid's workbooks together? I might have to steal that idea myself. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nova mama Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I print PDFs of math, FLL, spelling (k12 and spell by color), so binders work well for us. I also write their copywork. Each child has a divided binder, with their schedule for the week in front. The books that are not PDFs (Bible study, one kids uses spelling workout) are stored in drawers labeled with the child's name. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkermamaof4 Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 We do this for ds7. At the front is his checklist inserted in a page protector. He uses a dry erase marker to check off each item when done. Workbooks aren't divided up into it though. Just pdf's and copywork and such. Last week I started to hole punch the right side of his copy work so that it goes to the left and the lined sheet of paper he copies onto goes to the right. Not sure if that makes sense, but he likes it! At the front of the binder on the inside cover I used packing tape to tape on things he needs to see. Today I switched it to the days of the week and months of the year so he can write the day and date on the top of his copywork. It used to have his numbers there because he struggled with reversals. So far, so good with him doing the next thing next! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I have index-sized cards with the kids daily "tasks" typed up on them. Then I made a little index card sized folder with two sides. As they complete a set of tasks on a card, they move it to the finished size each day. These are for repeat tasks. My DD really likes having that tactile element. My oldest doesn't like any form of direction, but he's accepting it- slowly. :glare: For reading assignments, their books are stacked in a pile and they know to read X number of pages in each daily. For workbooks or worksheets, I'd probably just put those in the stack or in a folder in the stack. I like the idea of the Trapper Keeper if you prep a week or more at a time. I tried printing out several days worth of worksheets and putting each days' set in a separate files within an expanding folder but it didn't work for me. I tended to overlook the entire folder or get the paper's mixed up- always something going wrong. Apparently I am a 'print as you go type' of gal. I use the sticky note tab method for workbooks that I keep intact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alpidarkomama Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 We started doing that this year. I have a section for every subject, and every Saturday night I fill up their notebooks for the week. I ripped apart workbooks and hole-punched them ahead of time. The first time it took a while to rip and punch everything, but now it only takes me about 30-40 minutes to fill 4 notebooks each week. LOVE IT! Sometimes we'll decide to take all our work to the library or the park. Each kid just has to grab a single notebook (pencil pocket included) and I take whatever teacher books I need. It's so much easier! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TengoFive Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 We've done binders for a couple of years. I did recently get tired of loading them weekly, so I switched to pronged folders. I bought about 20 per kid, and load 20 weeks at a time. For the younger ones, I separate it by days. For the older ones, I let them work in the order they like. If they want to do all their math in one day, they're welcome to. I put the subjects we do all together in there too, like the map pages for SOTW. I tried to find things these past few years that I could file this way. Now that my oldest 2 are needing actual textbooks, we're moving away from that a little bit. For the younger years though, I love the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raising Little Shoots Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopeallgoeswell Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 (edited) Here is a post I did about our study binder as you call it. ;) How I Plan Our Home School Week No Trapper Keepers, though. :tongue_smilie: I do something like this. I cut the spines off of all my workbooks, have them hole punched, and put them by subject in my huge 3 ring binder. In second grade my dd had sheets in a 1" binder with Mon.-Fri. tabs I filled every Sun. night. In third grade, I added a Mon.-Fri., color-coded (each day) list of specific pages, etc. dd had to do for each subject. When she asked me what to do next, I would direct her to the sheet. This year in fourth grade, I separated the binder by subjects (except ILL and reading which I printed out and had spiral bound with her choice of scrapbook paper on the front) and got her a real school planner from Target. Over the summer, I wrote down all of her assignments in her planner. I set all of her books out on the table every morning: Latin, R&S, Devotional, and any other non-consumabe book). Next year, I plan on letting her consult her planner and retrieve her own books. Best wishes for finding something that works for you! Edited October 3, 2012 by hopeallgoeswell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Down_the_Rabbit_Hole Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I'm trying to figure out what it would look like and if it would help me streamline our schooling, or just be more work. I admit, I have been longing to buy my kids Trapper Keepers like I had in school because they are... awesome. :lol: And, yes, they still sell them! ANYway, I need something to help the kids keep moving to the next thing through their independent work without *wasting time* on getting distracted, waiting for me to tell them what's next, finding assignments, etc. I'm thinking of ripping all the workbook pages out weekly and putting them in the Study Binder (aka Trapper Keeper) with tabs for each day of the week. I have long wanted something to bring our school day together & steamline, and I can't quite figure out how to accomplish it. Can anyone help me visualize? :bigear: When we used a curriculum with more workbooks this is what I did. Had tabs in the binder for each day of the week with all the workpages in it plus anything else needed for the day:writing paper, map work, drawing paper, list of books needed to read . The weeks schedule was put in the front. All supplies (pencil colors, glue, books, science stuff) was kept in a basket. Each week I did this and it really helped keep things organized and running smooth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paula in MS Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 (edited) http://www.meadonline.com/FiveStar/Products/flex.aspx#21 You need the mead Hybrid note binder. It has dividers, pockets, and allows you to flip the top around to the back like a spiral notebook. It is a cross between a 3 ring binder and notebook. It is so much easier to write in than a 3 ring binder. It would be a good option for what you are planning. Edited October 3, 2012 by Paula in MS Correcting the auto correct Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwicad Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 We have only just started HS'ing but a weekly binder seems to be working for us so far. We only have one DS who is in Grade 1 so loading it each week is fine. I can see how it would be a pain for multiple children though. DS binder has tabs Mon-Fri and I put all his work sheets in there. In the back I have an 'extra' section for anything extra we have that week or anything that we don't finish (this hasn't happened yet though) and I have blank paper in an insert in the back and lined 3 hole punched paper in the back also. We travel often so this seems to be working for us. History and science have their own folders at home but when we are away I load the appropriate sheets into the back of his weekly folder under the extra section. In the front he has his reading list in an insert, and a dry erase checklist for daily tasks although we haven't needed to use this yet as I'm always sitting with him at this stage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 I rip out the worksheets for ds' spelling/phonics and handwriting and math and put them into a folder for each week. It does help with the "get up and get a book... wander off..." problem. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatholicMom Posted October 3, 2012 Author Share Posted October 3, 2012 http://www.meadonline.com/FiveStar/Products/flex.aspx#21 You need the mead Hybrid note binder. It has dividers, pockets, and allows you to flip the top around to the back like a spiral notebook. It is a cross between a 3 ring binder and notebook. It is so much easier to write in than a 3 ring binder. It would be a good option for hatchet you are panning. *gasp* :001_tt1: I will have to analyze this possibility. I did the "books on the table / take books of the table when you're done" method today and they are done already! Leave it to a dad to suggest something so obvious, yet brilliant. :lol: I think this combined with the notebook/trapperkeeper/study binder thingamabob might help us stay organized. One thing I liked about a cloth trapper keeper is they are SO durable and I thought it might help the kids take a bit more pride in their work if they have their own little fancy "study binder." I'm definitely going to look at those Mead note binder, though. Sidenote, but with all the homeschoolers nowadays, I hope they will be coming out with more options like this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happy-hs Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 My kids each have a daily cover sheet that lists all of their assignments by subject for that day. I paper clip any loose papers behind the cover sheet. The kids can be very independent, it's easy for me to check in with them, and ultimately we have a good record for each day. :) Melissa :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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