If you have heard of Sue Patrick's Workbox System then you know the theory behind how it works. I read it and really liked the idea but new there was no way I could have all those boxes in my house. I would go crazy with it!
As I read up on this, I saw how some people had tweaked Sue’s system and changed it to a “work file” system. Better than the boxes, but no way did I want to fill folders with work every night for how many students I have this year. I would be making my life way harder than I wanted.
So I ended up with our “binder system” and I only have to fill them once a week not nightly as per the workbox system! We love having everything all in one place. No more losing books, misplacing papers, and the kids love the visual of seeing how much school they have left.
This is also a great visual for me. I have all our work divided up for the entire year so I can see where we are at a glance. It is really helping us to stay on track with our work too.
Originally I had work sorted work out for 3 months, but I decided that I didn’t want to spend time every 3 months sorting more work. I spent a few days sorting and putting it in file folders. Each child is color coded and work is divided in folders by month and week of school.
Another thing I am doing different is the way I load the binders for Shadd and Poppet. At first I just put all the work into one side of their dividers and when they were done they moved it to the back of the divider. Now I put the school they can do by themselves on one side and the things they need to do with mama on the other side. All completed work now goes into a folder at the back of their binder.
My mom found some great colorful letter trays at Target that matched my coloring coding for the boys. I’m using these to fill with the supplemental things I want them to do for school such as puzzles, art projects, games, computer games, books I want them to read, or anything else I can come up with.
I do like Sue’s idea for her workbox labels, but I will be tweaking that too. I’ve seen some other great ideas for how to do this online and will be putting this together soon.
It is a nice feeling to be starting off the school year feeling somewhat organized. Notice I said “somewhat”. I still have to finished sorting and organizing my school cupboards, make some more printables for our calendar time notebooks, finish making our reading list charts, and finish up our spread sheet for history. I’m feeling good about the changes we’ve made this year and think it will help our school year to go much more smoothly!
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