Mynyel Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 I am looking for ideas on organizing what I have. By subject. I haven't figured out yet a good system! I have tried workboxes. They were OK, if I had the funds to buy decent sets of drawers (not to mention had the space) I would have liked them better. Right now I don't have the time to load drawers every school day. The filing system won't work either because I want to keep everything together. The teacher and student books as well as manipulatives. I have tried putting everything on bookshelves. It gets confused because I have everything spiral bound and they are all the same color! I have thought of a bin per subject and keeping everything in there, but there is the space/logistical issue. I have thought of making color coded (each of our subjects have their own color for the kids binders) tote bags for everything but again, where to store them? Please, anyone have something that makes it much (MUCH) easier to grab a subject? Currently I flounder looking for everything! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laura Cook Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 I use magazine holders on a shelf. For example I have our SOTW book, the activity guide, the encyclopedia and the extra books we are currently reading in one holder, then the student pages in a binder right next to it. I do the same thing with our science. Also have each child's books and workbooks in individual magazine holders. That's what works for us, it isn't pretty but it is nice to just grab one magazine holder down when we need it. Hope that helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 I am looking for ideas on organizing what I have. By subject. I haven't figured out yet a good system! I have tried workboxes. They were OK, if I had the funds to buy decent sets of drawers (not to mention had the space) I would have liked them better. Right now I don't have the time to load drawers every school day. Plastic streralite drawers from WalMart are helpful. The kind with 2-3 shallow drawers on top and 2 deeper drawers on bottom. Put their workbooks etc. in the top and store their manipulatives in the deeper bottom drawers. They're usually about 20 dollars. Also you don't have to fill a workbox every day. I use the workbox system but it's a weekly plan rather than daily. When I used drawers like this I put in them what I wanted done daily all week. So my ds knew to just get out the books that were in his drawer and we did them in whatever order he liked. I then changed to a fabric drawer system from Ikea. (Likely inexpensive at the store. I bought mine used)Highly recommend the Antonius drawers. I started putting the kid books in them, but now they are my drawers. They are 6 really deep and wide drawers that fit in a corner of the front room and look nice since they are white fabric. I store all my teacher stuff in them. Office supplies, hands on math stuff in it's own small plastic bin that fits in the drawer, flash cards, page protectors, arts and crafts stuff. Anything I use for homeschooling. The plastic drawers are now used in my ds's room to hold his personal arts and crafts stuff. The filing system won't work either because I want to keep everything together. The teacher and student books as well as manipulatives. I Since I no longer put their daily books/work in the drawers I use magazine holders. Each boy has his own wire metal holder that has every workbook type book they use. I put these on a small 3 shelf book case from Walmart. It fits nicely on one wall in the kitchen. We keep bins of markers, pencils, crayons on the shelves. Also all of their 3 ring binders are put on this shelf. Affix a label on the spine with the child's name on it and the subject. The coloring books that my 2 year old always gets down are on this shelf too. and her play doh caddy is on the bottom. I have tried putting everything on bookshelves. It gets confused because I have everything spiral bound and they are all the same color! Colored stickers? And make yourself a key? So all your spiral bound math would have a blue sticker on the spine, orange for lang arts, red for science. Whatever you want depending on what your spiral bound subjects are. I keep all of my homeschool books on a bookshelf beside the fabric drawers. Each subject has it's section. These are the math books, the science books, the history books etc. Tape a label to the bookshelf so you can remember. I like to see everything together, but you could also store any books you are not using that year on a separate all purpose bookshelf. Any thing the kid swrite in would be put either in the drawers or magazine holder, but things they do not write in stay on this shelf. So when we do SOTW, my ds knows where on the bookshelf the history books are kept. You can use a top shelf for teacher books. I have thought of a bin per subject and keeping everything in there, but there is the space/logistical issue. I have thought of making color coded (each of our subjects have their own color for the kids binders) tote bags for everything but again, where to store them? Gutters on the wall? Baskets on the floor? Build some bookcases? We have a very small house and yet we have two floor to ceiling bookcases and a six cube bookshelf for my 2 year old stuff. We built them all ourselves. It's not as hard as it seems. Please, anyone have something that makes it much (MUCH) easier to grab a subject? Currently I flounder looking for everything! My biggest suggestion would be to build some shelves and color code with some stickers and label your shelves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshin Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 We use dish tubs on shelves. I can fit three dish tubs side by side on a book shelf, or stack the tubs if the contents don't protrude over the top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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