Not Filing This Year

I really liked having my whole year planned out, but I discovered that different kids worked at different levels than I expected. So, I was constantly having one work on a week or two ahead, another 2 weeks behind, and our together stuff could be anywhere. There were some things that consistently didn't get done, so I ended up starting a file for each book that I ripped apart to put them back together eventually (still haven't got that done.)

The other problem I had was the teacher's manuals. It was a pain to have to put things back into binders at the end of the week and I ended up having months to do at one time.
I think filing is awesome, and if I didn't have so many kids to homeschool I would continue to file our year at one time. This year though, I'm going electronic! My tablet will replace my instructor's binder. It should make my bag a lot lighter to carry around.

I love that Peace Hill Press offers almost all of their curricula electronically. I am purchasing the instructor's manuals to put on my tablet. We also buy the mp3s of Story of the World to put on our iPods and my iPhone. I can't put everything on there (Rod and Staff I don't think will ever go electronic,) but I will put everything I can find in that format on my tablet.

Our Math Mammoth is pdf based, so I have put that on there. I'm still printing Miss Purple's papers, but at least I can view what she's doing.  I haven't put the Sequential Spelling dvd on, but I think I could. I just wish Teaching Textbooks had an app of some sort.

I am such a follower...

I tried really hard to stay away from the posts about filing everything for the year, but once I started thinking about it I realized how well it would work for me. Basically you print out everything you're going to use, rip apart all your workbooks, and file it by week. I've taken it a step further and taken apart my teacher's manuals, put the pages in page protectors, and filed them by week as well. Everything we need for any given week of the school year is in the file. It should make life a lot easier once the baby comes. We usually take an extended break, but I think having everything ready to go will make a huge difference. The other benefit is how portable school is now! Many of the filers have dated their folders, but mine are simply labeled Week 1, Week 2, etc.

This will save me from having to relabel things next year, but also allows us to take a break whenever we need one without messing up the system.

Without further ado, here's what I've done. Each weekly hanging folder has 9 folders inside it as follows:

Dark Green: History (SOTW done together) All of our supplemental history books also have green stickers on the spine, so we can see at a glance which shelf they belong on. I'm also including a state study coloring page in this box and I may add a presidential coloring page as well.

Yellow: Science (Apologia Elementary Anatomy this year) Once again the supplemental books have yellow stickers on the spine. I've purchased a lapbook to go along with the Anatomy text and have a few coloring books as well, which are what is filed, the Apologia book is not ripped apart, it stays in my box to use.

Orange: Language (First Start French, Latina Christiana, and Greek Code Cracker) Once again supplements have orange stickers on the spines

Manila: This one is my folder. I put everything in here that goes in my binder. Teacher's manuals, scripted texts, SOTW Activity Guide pages, etc.

Light Green: Miss Green's work, ie. Math Mammoth, Wordsmith, Growing With Grammar, Vocabulary From Classical Roots, copy work, and Checkbook Math

Light Blue: Mr. Blue's work; Math U See Delta, Checkbook Math, First Language Lessons 4, copy work,and Writing With Ease 3

Light Pink: Miss Pink's (are you noticing the pattern here?) pages including Math U See Beta/Gamma, First Language Lessons 2,copy work, and Writing With Ease 2.

Light Purple: Miss Purple's Kindergarten work, i.e. Handwriting Without Tears, Explode the Code, and Math U See Alpha

Light Yellow: Mr. Yellow's busy work, which includes Patternables, extra maps from history, and shapes.

Tomorrow: how we organize each week into days...

Oh man, it has been way too long...

and not just since I posted. It's been too long we've gone without doing school regularly. We've been on an unschooling regimen since we moved into our new house 5 months ago. We've been doing a lot of remodeling, and I put off doing school until I had a school room to unpack the many, many school boxes into. I unpacked about 5 boxes last fall into what I thought would be the school room. Fast forward 5 month and that is now the laundry room. We obviously can't do school in the laundry room, so I made plans to make our garage the school room. That's a great idea, but we're so busy remodeling the rest of the house, we don't have time to heat and carpet the garage, even though we did have a crew come in a replace the garage door with a sliding glass door. 2 weeks ago, I finally got the much-delayed idea to turn half of our looonnnggg living room into a school room. So, we now have a functional school room, where the kids can sit at a table and do school work and I can sit on a couch and read to them. Have I mentioned how important a couch in the school room is? The kids love to pile up around while we read.

On Thursday we were reading our history lesson in the evening, learning about the Republic of Texas. DH actually had to stop reading his books to listen to me read the Story of the World. On Wednesday we discovered it was the anniversary of the day William Barrett Travis sent his letter out to his fellow Texans and the world. It was the exact day we were reading about the Alamo for history, so it was very real to the kids and I. I actually had to stop reading the letter, as I got quite choked up. Try reading this letter aloud with feeling and not get choked up. I dare you!

To the People of Texas &
all Americans in the world------

Fellow citizens & compatriots------

I am besieged, by a thousand
or more of the Mexicans under
Santa Anna ----- I have sustained
a continual Bombardment &
cannonade for 24 hours & have
not lost a man ----- The enemy
has demanded a Surrender at
discretion, otherwise, the garrison
are to be put to the sword, if
the fort is taken ----- I have answered
the demand with a cannon
shot, & our flag still waves
proudly from the wall ----- I
shall never Surrender or retreat

Then, I call on you in the
name of Liberty, of patriotism &
every thing dear to the American
character, to come to our aid,

with an dispatch ----- The enemy is

receiving reinforcements daily &

will no doubt increase to three or
four thousand in four or five days.
If this can is neglected, I am deter
mined to sustain myself as long as
possible & die like a soldier
who never forgets what is due to
his own honor & that of his
country ----- Victory or Death

William Barret Travis
Lt. Col. Comdt