binders - nitty gritty

I figured I would answer the questions here since a couple people have asked the same things. You can set up the binders weekly or presort. I have done both. The first year we did this I took apart all the worktext type bks ahead of time one afternoon in summer. I divided them into 35 piles or roughly thereabouts and put the work for each week in files. That was REALLY nice because for a whole year all I had to do each Sunday was pull out that week's work.

Kicker was we were in teeny tiny base housing - 1600sq ft for 9 of us - and all of our school supplies/books were in shelves around the dining room table. Actually that part wasn't bad. However, the night the shelf got bumped and some weeks' worth of papers tumbled was quite traumatic for me. In retrospect that could have been prevented by using those nifty black clips or manila envelopes or some such thing. So I just offer that story in case things get bumped at your house too.

This past year we set up weekly together. Moira at fifth grade could easily load hers. I had a form in front of her dividers that listed how many pages of each book needed to be completed weekly. That worked too. There are lots of ways to skin a cat. Not that I skin cats. Please don't write me. ; )

I know worktexts get a bad rap in many homeschool circles. That whole thing happened unexpectedly - the kids chose. We LOVE whole books. They devour novels and biographies at an astounding pace. They love hands-on work as well. Many years running I have tried to do those two things with all of them together. They didn't love them as well that way. Guess the Montessori foundation has sunk in deeply! In fact, the most oft-heard request from the kids has been, "We want our own work." Which is great, unless they needed me to sift through half a dozen teacher manuals daily. We discovered, instead, some awesome, intelligently written programs from a handful of publishers we enjoy (I strongly discourage the use of just one publisher for everything). The activities translate into work much like that done in elementary and upper level Montessori schools but at a fraction of the price. They have allowed them to round out a curriculum of whole books with independent hands-on studies. The result is that I have had kids 'doing school' every week since summer break lol! As soon as they would see a new book arrive in the mail they would dive in. So who can complain?

Anyway, it has been wildly successful and easy to implement. There are no long faces, only happy campers like my Kieran who was begging for more pages today. So much for vacation If there is anything I can help with just holler and I will try to explain it better.

Comments

[Matilda]

Would you mind sharing what worktexts you are using or have used? Thanks in advance.

[kozimom]

Thanks for the fast response! Wow!
I'm wondering when do you look over your children's completed work? Do they show you as they complete it? Or do you have a set time each day?

[Jen]

pssst....now you know you have to share your list of wkbooks! And you thought you were finished LOL!

[Sandy]

I second the request for more info on your worktexts. Also, I linked to your planning post and I'm getting comments on my blog, so to respond, I need to ask a question. How long does it take to set up the system in the beginning? It looks pretty easy to me. I'm thinking one afternoon to pick up any needed supplies, one afternoon to make copies of the weekly work, if you're doing the whole year ahead of time, and one afternoon to put everything into the appropriate folders. Then, once a week, you would move that week's work to their binders. So, that's at the most three days to set up and one afternoon a week to maintain. Is that about right?

[Kim]

Sandy it is not even that. Honest! I got a box of hanging files and some milk crates when grocery shopping at BoxMart The next day I sat down and made the labels. That was about 15 minutes. You can see I just used crayons - no cpu fonts or anything. If you divvie up the books all at once you can plan on an hr I would estimate, depending upon how many under 6yo 'helpers' you have lol. It takes all of 5minutes to load the binders after that and most kids could do it themselves if you are presorting. I recommend using the least number of categories possible. (ie my critical thinking stuff goes under math and all grammar and reading comprehension go into 'language')

Give me a day or so and I will get some more favorites posted but if you scroll all the way down the left sidebar you can find a good number. Thanks!

[Kim]

fwiw I always check as the work is completed. It only takes a minute that way and we can catch any problems right off the bat. We follow the routine Calvert School taught us many years ago - have the child bring you the work before beginning and articulate the directions. If they are on the right track then off they go. I hate grading and paperwork in general so doing it as we go is best for me.

[Sandy]

Thank you, Kim for the extra info. My thinking is that at the end of the week before work is moved from the binder to the file crate, it should be checked by me first. So, nothing moves to the crate that I haven't looked at. I have to tell you that we picked up crates today and pencil boxes. I liked the idea of each person having their own supplies this year. We brought it all home and the kids proceeded to fill their pencil boxes, label their folders and set up their binders. This afternoon I'm hoping to print a few things for their mini-offices/page protectors. They're excited and I'm looking forward to a peaceful year of school. I'm getting off the computer now to enjoy this harmonious circumstance while it lasts. :)

[Jennifer]

A hint from my student teaching days - if you're disassembling many workbooks at once set up a table saw to cut the bindings off quickly and neatly. If you have a table saw and a large family this might be helpful. :)

[Karen]

Yes, please give us more information and for what grades they are used. Thank you!
Karen