How do you organize all your kids' notes and completed work? (Binders? Some other system?)

[EKT]

We are headed into our 8th year of homeschooling (!). As a general rule, I love using binders for storing our completed schoolwork, but I'm trying to figure out the best system moving forward. Thus far in our homeschool, I have used one large binder for each child. Each child's binder is divided into various sections (a math section, a language arts section, a history section, a science section, etc.) This has worked really well and has been manageable because it was just one binder per child and I can easily put materials from all our different curricula into it. (For instance, I pull our Math U See pages out of the workbook as we use them, and file the completed ones in the binder in the math section. Ditto for other subjects; it's a really easy way to mix and match all the different resources we use.) Then, at the end of the year, I pull a few samples from each section for the kids' review portfolios, and recycle the rest. (I generally don't save anything year to year except for a few gems, otherwise I would be drowning in paper!) 

The problem is, now that my oldest is headed into seventh grade, it is getting harder to fit everything in just one binder. I also think that certain notes and lessons are becoming more valuable (such as notes on writing) and I think it is likely we will continually refer to past notes, etc. as the kids get older. (In other words, I think they will want to save some Latin stuff year-to-year, some writing and vocab, etc., for reference moving forward.) So I'm considering switching to one binder per subject (that is, a math binder, a language arts binder, a science binder, etc., for each kid), but if I do that, each child will have like, 5 or 6 binders, and then I'll have a shelf with 10-12 binders on it. This is fine, of course, but it does seem like a lot of binders. 

Is there a more logical way to go about this? I would love to hear how you organize your children's work, especially if they are older/middle school-aged. Thank you!

[HomeAgain]

We do a binder and/or a notebook per subject, and items are grouped on the shelf using magazine holders.  For language arts this year, for example, ds + the child I'm tutoring will have their copybooks, handwriting books, ds's dictation notebook, and their reading books (both are thin) in the magazine holder.  Each child will have a binder next to it in their color (ds's are all blue, other child has a white binder) and the subject labeled on the spine.
DS will have a hardbound sketchbook for science.  He's doing interactive notebooking with it along with pasting in labs, drawing diagrams, etc.  This will work better for our needs.  He uses a graph paper notebook for math.  History has a notebook, French has a notebook, music...I'm undecided here. Art gets another sketchbook.

[cintinative]

13 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

We do a binder and/or a notebook per subject, and items are grouped on the shelf using magazine holders.  

 

What magazine holders have you found that accommodate a binder? I have bought the ones from IKEA but the binders are too big to fit. TIA!

Edited July 23, 2019 by cintinative

[cintinative]

I do not have a good system to carry us through high school so I am listening in. OP, I have been doing something very similar (identical?) to you. I have one very large binder with dividers for each kid, and any nonworkbook completed work gets placed in there. I store workbooks in a magazine holder when we finish them, but generally only until testing is done, and then I recycle them.  Last year I had to put my oldest's math in its own binder because there was too much paper.  

The other complication I see is that with high school level work, I need to retain more of it for transcript/documentation purposes. I am still not 100% on what all that would be but probably at the least tests, essays/major projects (?), a course description, grades, reading lists, etc. for each high school level course.

[HomeAgain]

Sorry, I should have been more clear.  The binders don't go in, they're next to it.  Or, in the winter*, they are spine-up in an Ikea Gabbig basket, so I grab the whole basket at school time.  The work shelves tend to *look* less cluttered because the only things you see are binders, magazine holders, dictionary, and thesaurus.  I have two planning binders with dividers (one for each semester) that I put completed work samples in as we go along. DS doesn't need to keep every exercise he does.  Toward the end of the year I go through those and put some together for our progress report and similar ones in an envelope file, one section for each grade (that also holds test results, authorization letters, and any awards ds won in the same grade section).  The envelope file is stored away, but ds can reuse his binders each year and add to them if he wants.

*the room we use is too cold in the winter and we haven't found a good working solution, so we move to the living room where dh cringes if it looks like a classroom all the time.

[Mbelle]

I did not keep much work through the elementary years.  I kept a few tests and then each year threw those out for the next years tests.  I did keep things like the IOWA exams, attendance and end of year report as required by my state.  In middle school I kept foreign language and math that could be used for high school credit.   I then got a bankers box with hanging files for each subject for High School where I kept tests and if the class was outsourced I kept the grade reports.  In 11th my daughter went to an accredited hybrid school and I was able to fill out oodles of forms and show samples of work and tests and have 2 years worth of work added to their transcript with a note that those weren't taken at their school, but still it was all in one place.  

My son had a huge binder with all his classes seperated by dividers and he went on to the hybrid school for 9th, but still did some classes at home/elsewhere and we did the same as dd.

[hollyhock2]

Doing one binder per subject is probably the way to go. My kids have small binders (1") for some subjects, but I have them use notebooks for some, which are a lot thinner and take up less room. They each have a shelf where they keep their books, so for each kid it's a small stack of binders, notebooks and texts/workbooks. I personally wouldn't remove the MUS pages from the notebook. They can just stay in the workbook and that eliminates one binder. Also, some subjects don't require a binder at all. I just have folders for art projects and history maps and miscellaneous things. Writing is done mostly on the computer so it's saved digitally. So I guess my kids only end up having 1-3 binders in their shelves each.