For the past two years, I’ve used this system for planning and organizing school work. For the Pre-K and K years, it works brilliantly, since the course work is simple.
All I need is:
1 file drawer,
4 hanging folders,
20 manilla folders, labeled 1 – 5, 4 times.
Every four weeks, I plan the daily lessons for the upcoming 4 weeks. I place everything we’ll need for one day’s work in a manilla folder, so that I simply have to “grab-and-go” in the morning.
This keeps me stocked with daily plans for four peaceful and productive weeks. If I planned further ahead, I’d get frustrated when we’d need to skip a day and our whole system would be thrown off. This way, everything is refreshed within a month’s time and I feel like I have a better handle on what we’re going to be doing. At the same time, if I didn’t plan this far ahead, I’d feel like I was always playing catch-up.
At this point, I haven’t kept complicated spreadsheet of objectives or lesson plans; instead, I’ve planned to cover the basics and feel confident that I’m doing a good job. For pre-K and K, I store all completed work – phonics, math, artwork, science projects, and field-trip memorabilia in one huge white binder. It’s not divided by sections or anything fancy like that. I just hole-punch the pages (or slip them into page-protectors) and file them according to date. This way, I have very solid evidence of the work we’ve accomplished, should anyone ask. It’s also a pleasure for the girls to look back over their progress from time to time.
In our state, we don’t have to register or report until our children are 8 years old, but I like to keep a substantial record of their education, in case I would have to answer for our early years.
Next year, as I begin first grade with Vivienne, I will develop a weekly lesson plan spreadsheet, but I’ll probably keep the file drawer system going, too. I like having all of the papers torn from the worksheets and everything ready to go.
So, if you’re looking for a simple way of planning ahead and storing your little one’s school work, maybe you’ll discover that a simple file-system like this works for you, too!
Comments
5 responses to “Organizing School Work in the Early Years: An Idea”
Oh, that’s so organised! I don’t do anything like that, and often wish I did….. but I know even if I began it, it wouldn’t last 🙁
Thankfully, here in Scotland (and in the whole of the UK), we don’t have to register at all. Bliss!
Terrific ideas! Thanks!
Thank you so much!! 🙂
We do something similar but use 3-ring binders and plan about 9 weeks at a time. If you are interested, I can give you more details as it has saved us a lot of space and time. Congratulations on the coming baby! You have such precious daughters and my girls and boy love watching their vlogs:)
Great idea! When you plan your days with the girls how do you know that you are covering everything and do you have an overall plan for what you want them to learn in the early years? Or do you just go month by month? I’m pretty sure you don’t follow curriculum, right? Thank you so much!