EKT Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 (edited) For real! Today marked the start of Week 5 for our homeschool, so I've officially been using the 36-week/36-hanging file folder system for one month. I just discovered the idea this summer here on the boards and oh my gosh, it has literally been life-changing. I am converted! So, I just felt the need to come to the boards and thank all you incredible ladies for teaching me your secrets. It took me about three solid weeks this summer to set up my system (four, if you count the usual back-to-school brainstorming, daydreaming, and curriculum evaluating we all do), but now all I do is wake up in the morning, grab the day's stuff and I'm good to go. My brain is no longer brimming with school worries and schedules and plans because I already did all of that thinking ahead of time. It's amazing and my school stress level has been reduced by like 95%. The best part is that I know the things we have to get done each day and we just do them. The system has made me so much more faithful to what I need to get done. I am so much more consistent. (It's not that we were doing terribly before, but I can say that we are making so much more progress now. For instance, two weeks ago on a Friday, my house was a mess after a special event. The chaos of the clutter was killing me and in the past, I would have just thrown up my hands, cancelled school for the day, and cleaned up the house. But instead, my file folders were telling me, Sorry! It's a Friday! You need to do school today! So, I soldiered through, did school on that Friday and dealt with the mess on Saturday, knowing all along that putting school first is always the right thing to do.) Another bonus is that now, we are almost always done with school by lunch, which means the rest of the day is wide open for my kids to follow rabbit trails and play and read and get outdoors. It's like...classical school in the morning, unschool in the afternoon. My husband has noticed the difference in my stress level and temperament and now refers to my file box and "Your Magic Homeschool Box," lol. He said to me, "It's so amazing, baby, the way you just whip education out of your Magic Homeschool Box! It's like you're some sort of teacher-wizard." Anyway, I'm rambling now, but I just wanted to thank everyone for all their wonderful ideas and advice! (If you are a Type-A person who revels in lists and order and organizing, I highly recommend this approach! This post and this post were particularly helpful to me.) Edited October 3, 2016 by EKT 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 My husband has noticed the difference in my stress level and temperament and now refers to my file box and "Your Magic Homeschool Box," lol. He said to me, "It's so amazing, baby, the way you just whip education out of your Magic Homeschool Box! It's like you're some sort of teacher-wizard." Anyway, I'm rambling now, but I just wanted to thank everyone for all their wonderful ideas and advice! (If you are a Type-A person who revels in lists and order and organizing, I highly recommend this approach! This post and this post were particularly helpful to me.) If we were allowed to post things like this, I would make a Ryan G. "Hey, Babe..." meme for your Dh's quote. :lol: So glad this is working for you. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted October 3, 2016 Share Posted October 3, 2016 Oh, wait. Your links didn't go to posts, but to threads. Any chance you could edit your OP to include links to the actual posts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKT Posted October 3, 2016 Author Share Posted October 3, 2016 If we were allowed to post things like this, I would make a Ryan G. "Hey, Babe..." meme for your Dh's quote. :lol: So glad this is working for you. Totally! lol. :lol: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKT Posted October 3, 2016 Author Share Posted October 3, 2016 Oh, wait. Your links didn't go to posts, but to threads. Any chance you could edit your OP to include links to the actual posts? I would be happy to, but I'm not sure I understand. (When I click on the links, I see the original posts and then all the pages of responses that follow. Not sure what else to put? If you can clarify, I'm happy to help.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie in VA Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 I would be happy to, but I'm not sure I understand. (When I click on the links, I see the original posts and then all the pages of responses that follow. Not sure what else to put? If you can clarify, I'm happy to help.) Ah, I thought there were specific posts in each thread you found helpful. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momacacia Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 The results sound lovely. Can you tell more about YOUR system and what's working so well? How do you incorporate say a math workbook and then history ready into the file system? Do you break out by weeks or days? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 The results sound lovely. Can you tell more about YOUR system and what's working so well? How do you incorporate say a math workbook and then history ready into the file system? Do you break out by weeks or days? I so wish I could figure out how to deal with math and manipulatives in a hanging file system. But I think I really would need a magic wizard/homeschool box to pull that one off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKT Posted October 4, 2016 Author Share Posted October 4, 2016 (edited) The results sound lovely. Can you tell more about YOUR system and what's working so well? How do you incorporate say a math workbook and then history ready into the file system? Do you break out by weeks or days? Sure! I would be happy to! You will need: -A big plastic hanging file tote. (I got mine at Staples, but this is extremely similar.) You just want to make sure it is nice and long, so it can hold 36 full hanging files. -Hanging files (I have these.) (ETA: You'll need to order two boxes, because there are only 25 per box.) -Manila folders (I have these.) -One regular daily pocket folder for each child. (They will use these daily, so get something pretty and durable.) -A pencil or fine marker (or whatever you like), your personal calendar, and all your curriculum and plans. Make: -Make a one-page blank weekly assignment sheet for each child. This is super simple. The page has five columns on it (one column for each day of the week - Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs/Fri). Then, on each day, fill in what subjects you'd like to do that day. So, for example, my fourth grader's page (we'll call her Jane) looks like this: JANE: _________________________ WEEK # ________ Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday History: History: Science: Co-op: Health: Latin: Latin: Latin: Poetry Tea Time: Latin: Math: Math: Math: Math: Language Arts: Language Arts: Language Arts: Language Arts: Spelling: Grammar: Spelling: Grammar: Reading: 30 minutes Reading: 30 minutes Reading: 30 minutes Music/Art: Typing: Typing: Typing: The blank spaces between the subjects are much bigger on the real page (so I have room to write in the assignments), and I made mine look pretty on the computer, but this is the content. (And obviously yours will look different, depending on what you want your kids to do in school each week! As you can see, we have a four-day school week, with co-op one day per week on Thursdays. P.E. is not listed here, because my girls' extracurriculars cover P.E.) So, make yourself a blank form like this for each child and print 36 copies. (You will fill in the assignments as you go.) Okay! Once I had all these things, I was ready to get going. Step One: Put 36 hanging files in your file box. (No matter how many children you have, you only need to hang 36 files.) Label each file "Week 1," "Week 2," "Week 3," (etc.) So...no specific dates! Just "Week 1." Step Two: Create a manila folder for each child, for each week. If you have two children, you might label them "Jane, Week 1" and "William, Week 1", then "Jane, Week 2" and "William, Week 2" and so on. (Because I have two children, I needed 72 manila folders.) Step Three: File the manila folders into the hanging files. So, the manila folders labeled "Jane, Week 1" and "William, Week 1" will go into the "Week 1" hanging file. Step Four: Look at your calendar. Decide what your year-long plan will be. We do six weeks on/one week off, so I just decided on our start date and wrote "Week 1" on that Monday. Keep writing in your weeks until you get to "Week 36" sometime in May or June. (Just skip any weeks on your calendar that you take off. So, if you take off all of December, you might have "Week 14" written on the last Monday in November and "Week 15" written on the first Monday in January. Don't forget to factor in things like Thanksgiving and birthdays, etc.) Step Five: Start plugging in the content! Go by subject. (This will take several days!) I recommend starting with math because it's very straightforward. We've done MUS for the past five years, so I'm very comfortable with our pace at this stage. (We do two pages on Mon/Tues/Wed and the test on Fridays.) So! Starting with one child, grab their math workbook and start ripping the pages out. As I file the pages into the manila folders, I write the actual page numbers and such down on the blank assignment page. So, the math section for Monday of Week 1 might say, "Watch DVD lesson. Do pages 1A and 1B." The math section for Tuesday of Week 1 would say, "Pages 1C and 1D" and so on. As I said, I do all the math first. Then, I do each subject in turn, filling in the assignment page and filing the papers as I go. It's very straightforward for open-and-go stuff like WWE. For subjects that don't have an actual workbook page, but still requires writing, I pre-fill out a piece of lined paper. So, for instance, when I got to grammar (FLL), I wrote, "Lesson 1: Nouns" (or whatever it is) on a blank lined piece of paper and put that in the manila folder, so literally every single thing is ready to go. You're done! How to use it the system: On Monday morning, take out that week's assignment sheet and that day's pages from the manila folders and place them into the daily pocket folder. Repeat for additional children. This will take you two seconds. Repeat every day of the week. When all the papers in the pocket folder are moved from the left side to the right side, you are done for the day! Additional notes: -As you are going through history and science (or whatever), you will of course find you need things like library books. Just make a note to yourself on your calendar. For example, if you will need books on the American Revolution for Week 12, just make a note to yourself on your calendar (sometime around Week 10) to reserve American Revolution books at library, etc. -Add in review days and catch-up days. Just schedule them in. If you factor margin into your schedule, you'll be fine. -I do not file any books in the hanging files. Those sit on a shelf next to our homeschool table, as do art supplies and manipulatives, etc. The file folders hold only papers. -We do read-alouds at bedtime and I don't write those on the schedule. That's just something we do daily, moving on to our next book whenever we finish one. What if someone gets sick?! Kids in school get sick all the time! My solution: Just skip that day's work, do it orally, or weave it into the rest of the week. No big deal. (I figure, my first grader will do a ton of copywork sentences throughout the year in WWE. She will be perfectly fine if we skip one assignment due to illness or an unexpected special event! Just toss it! And so on...) What if something better comes along? If one of my daughters is engaged in writing a story on her own that day, I am open to letting that be Language Arts for the day and throwing out that day's WWE assignment. Basically, I'm fine with not using everything I've planned. If something better comes up, that's great! But I'm prepared for the regular daily stuff and most days we do the regular daily stuff. As I said in my OP, usually we're done by lunch, so we do our planned school in the morning, and the kids are free to do all their interest-led story writing and reading, and playing, etc. in the afternoon. Best of both worlds for us. All this probably sounds super complicated typed out like this! It's really not. (Time consuming up front for sure, but not hard.) The gist is: rip apart workbooks and file into folders. That's basically it. Obviously this will only work for people who love structure and organizing. This process was really fun and soothing for me (really!). I loved it because planning out the entire year made it so much easier for me to see where I wanted to go and let me look ahead to what's coming up. I love color-coding and filing and planning, so YMMV!! Hope this helps! (And again, most of these ideas came from the posts I linked to in my OP. This is my take on all the great advice in those posts.) Edited October 4, 2016 by EKT 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKT Posted October 4, 2016 Author Share Posted October 4, 2016 Ah, I thought there were specific posts in each thread you found helpful. Oh, I see. :-) I just read through the entire conversations and jotted down the ideas that I loved. I found the entire threads super helpful! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UmMusa Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 I use my file folder system almost exactly the same as you just eloquently described. I love it too! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insertcreativenamehere Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 This sounds interesting, but what do you do with all of the papers after they're completed? Once you tear the math workbook apart and they then complete the pages, do you re-file them into a binder or just toss them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKT Posted October 5, 2016 Author Share Posted October 5, 2016 This sounds interesting, but what do you do with all of the papers after they're completed? Once you tear the math workbook apart and they then complete the pages, do you re-file them into a binder or just toss them? Oh, yes--forgot to mention that part! Each child has a 3.5-inch binder (divided by subject) that I file the completed papers into. I save that binder for my end-of-semester review with the county, so it's all ready to go. (I also will be saving and filing the weekly assignment sheets, which will be great for review purposes to show what we've done.) After that, I scan things I want to be "keepers" and toss the hard copies. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Can you speak a little more as to how you adjust if say you need to spend more time on one subject, but not on another? I've always envied systems like this but we never seem to move at the same pace across subjects so I wasn't sure how to handle it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rutheart Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 I have been using the 36 week hanging file folder system for 3 years now. If I get behind on one subject, I move that week's work in that subject to the next week's folder. Each week, I move that subject to the next week's folder until we either catch up with the rest of the subjects or we finish that subject for the year. If we get ahead in a subject, I just pull out the work from the next week's folder. Usually, it's history that gets changed. The library sometimes has more good books about a subject than I was expecting, so we spend 2 weeks on a topic instead of one. Also, if we have a sick day, I will start splitting the weeks up. For example, for this week (10/3-10/7), we are doing week 7, day 5 and week 8, days 1-4. I don't take a sick day very often though. Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment to get my foot x-rayed (stress fracture), but we still finished our schoolwork for the day by 5pm. I reserve sick days for when people can't think straight (i.e. fever). School ends for the summer whenever we finish week 36, day 5. Last year we had a bad year due to a death in the family, so we didn't finish until the last week in June and had a short summer. The year before we ended in May. Ruth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My3girls Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 We did this for about 3 years. Loved it. We have moved away from it to assignment books because of the curriculum changes we have made. Both systems are like magic and relieve so much stress. Glad you are having an easier time of it! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKT Posted October 6, 2016 Author Share Posted October 6, 2016 (edited) Can you speak a little more as to how you adjust if say you need to spend more time on one subject, but not on another? I've always envied systems like this but we never seem to move at the same pace across subjects so I wasn't sure how to handle it. I'm not sure if you mean over the course of a day or over the course of the year, so I'll explain both. (And again, I'm still only a month into this system, but it's working great for us and I really don't anticipate any major issues. But below is a description of how I've planned for pacing.) Days: Basically, I'm fine with school taking as long as it takes each day. (Our schedule allows that.) So, some days turn out to be unexpectedly easy days. For instance, there may be a day where my first grader just happens to speed through her assignments and the school part of her day is done in 35 minutes. I say...Hooray! and enjoy it! I'm fine with that because she then goes on to use the rest of her day productively. (If every day was a super easy day, though, obviously that would mean she's not being challenged enough and I would reassess my whole plan for her school year.) On that other hand, some days turn out to be tougher and take longer. Maybe my fourth grader is learning a new math concept that takes 20 minutes of practice with the manipulatives before she can even start the assigned pages. In my view, that's just fine, too...that's just life! If school just takes an extra 20 minutes that day and we're not done before lunch, no big deal; we just keep plugging away until we're done. (If I ever find my child is overwhelmed or legitimately overburdened, though, then I can make a decision on the spot. Maybe she's done enough practice with the manipulatives that I'm comfortable with her doing only the odd problems on her sheet. Maybe I throw out one of the sheets altogether, etc. Either way, I don't sweat it. I'm trying to learn to let curriculum be a tool and not a master.) School years: I consider a subject "done" for the year when we finish the book or when we got as far as whatever it was I had planned/hoped. So, with Math U See, for example, there are only 30 chapters, but a school year in this system has 36 weeks. What to do? For me, I built six weeks' worth of "fun math" into our schedule. In other words, every six weeks, we don't do any MUS pages, but instead do a week of review including math games, math drills on the computer, math facts flash cards, and/or something else fun and different such as doing math in sidewalk chalk in the backyard. (On the assignment sheet for those weeks, I just wrote "Do 30 minutes of fun math.") So, Weeks 1 - 5 on my assignment sheet are filled are regular MUS pages, and then Week 6 is "fun math week." (Likewise, Week 12, Week 18, Week 24, Week 30, and Week 36 are also "fun math weeks.") Alternately, you can just be done with math at Week 30 of your school year and go on your merry way. Or, you could begin next year's math curriculum at Week 31. Or, you can just do occasional review for the rest of the school year. It's up to you! Either way, I wouldn't sweat it at all. I don't fret about all my curricula lining up perfectly into a 36-week school year. In fact, I know we will not be done with grammar "on time" this year because we are only doing grammar two days per week. But...no big deal. I will just pick up wherever we left off on next year's Week 1. (We do "light summer school" in the summer--just quick math, spelling, and reading every day, so another idea is to keep doing one of your programs beyond 36 weeks until you are done. So, if at 36 weeks, you are done with all of your curricula except history, then you can keep doing history every day until you finish out the curriculum.) I hope that makes sense and answers your question! :-) Edited October 6, 2016 by EKT 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HS Mom in NC Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 This sounds interesting, but what do you do with all of the papers after they're completed? Once you tear the math workbook apart and they then complete the pages, do you re-file them into a binder or just toss them? We have a 3 ring binder for each subject. Completed assignments go in those. There's an old thread about what people do with completed work at the end of the year, but I'm too tired to look it up and post the link right now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lanalouwho Posted October 7, 2016 Share Posted October 7, 2016 I did a version of this system. Basically, I just put it all in a binder separated by weeks. And I only planned six weeks at a time. The first six weeks it worked like a dream. The second six weeks, not so much. Two weeks worth of math lessons were stuff he already knew and didn't need to practice. So I had to keep pulling worksheets from future weeks. It was annoying and I'm glad the six weeks is over tomorrow so I can re evaluate my planning. Sent from my HTCD200LVW using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HS Mom in NC Posted October 7, 2016 Share Posted October 7, 2016 Some people don't put some skills based subjects in the file folder system. Elementary math is often do the next thing because it's so important to master each skill before moving on and that's not predictable. Same with phonics. The amount of time it can take to master each concept is so variable that planning it out doesn't work for everyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 7, 2016 Share Posted October 7, 2016 Some people don't put some skills based subjects in the file folder system. Elementary math is often do the next thing because it's so important to master each skill before moving on and that's not predictable. Same with phonics. The amount of time it can take to master each concept is so variable that planning it out doesn't work for everyone. I think that's where I'm still at......I never know if our weeks will fly through everything or stall on one lesson right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrousel Posted October 7, 2016 Share Posted October 7, 2016 I am trying the folder system this year, and so far, so good. I prepped 75 days worth of folders for my older son to test if it would work for us. I did days instead of weeks because I knew we would have several planned 3 or 4 day weeks based on other events. I used colored folders (red, orange, yellow, green, blue) in rotations of 5 so that I could easily "loop" subjects into them. Geography is always in the red folder, handwriting is orange and green, typing is yellow, etc. I don't really care if geography is always on Monday, but I want it regularly done in rotation. If I make it "Monday" instead of red folder days, then when all the holidays or field trips fall on a Monday, boom, it's January and we've only done 15% of the geography for the year (ask me how I know this can happen...). We don't put math in folders since he changes speeds a lot in math. We just do math every day. I am liking this system. Even on an out of the house day, we can throw the day's folder and his math book in the backpack, and get a solid amount of school work done with little to no hassle of packing up. And it's totally my neurosis, which ds has apparently inherited, but he pushes himself to finish a rainbow (week's set) every week. He knows the blue folders have a fun thing in them (drawing page, silly comic, etc.) and he looks forward to those on Fridays. When before we would've skipped the day's table time on a busy day, this makes it almost effortless and creates a strong sense of routine and accomplishment when finishing a week. This was a great way to transition to independent work for my 9 year old so I could get focused time with my 5 year old. Only things the 9 yo can do 90% independently go in the folder. He knows he can do his folder and reading while its 5 yo mom time. Surprisingly, the folder work has also freed up enough of my nagging and managing all the different small pieces time, that we are now getting 2-3 days of morning time a week in. I struggled to make time for morning time prior. Now, when I have to plan the next 75 days during winter break, I may be regretting this, but so far, so good! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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