Organizing your HOD year

[Sue G in PA]

On another board, there is quite a long discussion about organizing lessons for the year. The idea is to put a weeks worth of work in a folder each child. I like the idea of being this organizing ahead of time. Flying by the seat of our pants didn't work well last year. This system seems to work well for those who use mainly workbooks and can rip apart the books to place the lessons in each folder for the year. We are using LHFHG and Preparing next year and I really want to be ahead of the game with organization so our year flows as smoothly as it can. How do you organize your lessons? I know the HOD manuals have the lessons all laid out for you so nicely (Thanks, Carrie!). And that is a plus. My plan thus far is for each child to have a crate for their own books, supplies, etc. Fits nicely on our shelves. I have all my Teacher materials in another basket. I do like the idea, however, of having the actual work itself (not just the plan) in a folder for the child. My younger ones would benefit from this. Can anyone share how they organize your HOD year with the work, etc. I'm looking for a good weekly planner as well for my older children. Why is this so complicated?

[LynnH]

This may be not exactly what you are looking for, but I can tell you how we did Preparing last year. I had entered the entire plan on Home school tracker-took me forever, but my ds really didn't use it. What he did was each morning he would number the boxes in the order he was going to do them. He usually likes to do the right side of the guide first because he thinks the left is "easier"(which means no math or language arts). He then would stack up his books, sketch pads, notebooks on the table in the order he was going to do them. Usually the right side was morning and left afternoon so he would just stack up the morning side and then after lunch stack up the afternoon side. He is a visual kid so he could glance over and see how much he had left and also independently just grab what was next if I was busy. We have a big bookshelf so on the top shelf I have just the books he is using at the time. I store the rest down below. This year all I am putting in home school tracker is what math and grammar lesson he is on and just a general note like CTC unit 1 day 1.

[Mommamo]

Here's what I've been doing for LHTH and Beyond. Just a disclaimer-HOD is truly "open and go" but this is what I found worked for me. I've learned that I honestly don't have all the things that I guess most people have, like paper plates or whatnot that are needed for crafts. I also found out that with three kids doing school now (2 in LHTH and 1 in Beyond), and me working 30+ hours a week, that I sometimes would let the crafts go because I just didn't have time to hunt for stuff if I waited until school time.

There are a whole lot more papers for LHTH to be copied, so I copied all of those for about 6-8 units at a time, and put them in a manilla envelope along with some extra activities I'm adding for each letter since we're stretching each unit out for several weeks. I also put any additional things needed, like construction paper, the letter written out on construction paper for them to glue things onto, paper plates, note cards, foil, etc in the envelopes. Then I wrote the unit number on the outside and put them into one of those rubbermaid file tubs.

For Beyond I copied all of the poems that are used for copy work for the whole year and put each into a folder for each unit. Then I wrote all of the spelling words out onto notecards and put them into the appropriate folders. I also wrote out the memory verse onto construction paper. I've also recently started adding coloring pages for my little ones to do while I'm reading the history to my older one (we all do both curriculums together for the most part) so I'll add that to my folders for Bigger when I start doing them, which will be soon. I haven't done this for Beyond, but for Bigger I'm going to add all the paper craft supplies needed like I've done for LHTH so that I have everything ready. These have all gone in the rubbermaid file tub behind the LHTH envelopes.

Again, none of this is necessary, but it sure helps me get stuff done more quickly because I have it all ready to go. Since I work in the evenings as soon as my hubs gets home, I don't have a lot of time to prepare things or to clean house, so all of it has to be done either ahead of time or during the day after school is done, so this is what we've found that works. HTH you some!

[Sue G in PA]

I love the idea of organizing each Unit into a folder. That would def. help around here. I did that with MFW K last year...why didn't I think to do that with HOD? Duh! Any more ideas? Thanks all!

[gotpeace91]

This may be not exactly what you are looking for, but I can tell you how we did Preparing last year. I had entered the entire plan on Home school tracker-took me forever, but my ds really didn't use it. What he did was each morning he would number the boxes in the order he was going to do them. He usually likes to do the right side of the guide first because he thinks the left is "easier"(which means no math or language arts). He then would stack up his books, sketch pads, notebooks on the table in the order he was going to do them. Usually the right side was morning and left afternoon so he would just stack up the morning side and then after lunch stack up the afternoon side. He is a visual kid so he could glance over and see how much he had left and also independently just grab what was next if I was busy. We have a big bookshelf so on the top shelf I have just the books he is using at the time. I store the rest down below. This year all I am putting in home school tracker is what math and grammar lesson he is on and just a general note like CTC unit 1 day 1.

Those are great ideas Lynn. I think my kids would respond well to them. We used plastic washtubs for their books last year for Preparing and that didn't work very well because they were always having a hard time finding their English notebook etc. They would dig around in there and it left the books a little worse for wear. Also those tubs tended to collect things when they were cleaning up/doing chores . We have the books on the top shelf of a bookshelf this year and the notepads stacked in piles for each kid. I may try to work something else out for the books though as every time I pull a big one out they all fall to one side and that annoys me . Looking forward to seeing more ideas.

[shaffer96]

We will be doing LHFHG and I bought one of those 6 drawer storage totes on wheels. I put each subject in one of the drawers and label the drawer, math, reading, etc... I plan on putting all I need for the crafts or science experiments in there weekly as well. I am going to have another one for craft and art supplies. Looking forward to hearing other ideas too!

[south5]

We will be doing LHFHG this year. I use workboxes and file folders. I ripped out all the math and phonics pages and put them into the folders. I also have some handwriting sheets and things for fun to go along with our history in the folders. For all the books, I put a sticky note on the cover with the weeks we are using the book. I stored all the books, except week1, in a plastic tub and lined them up in the order they will be used. I then took the supply list off the Yahoo group and bought all the supplies. I put the supplies into baggies with a label of what week it is needed. I did this because if we do not have something I need I will skip the project rather than run out at 10pm. Every night I will briefly look over my lesson plans and then fill the workboxes with the next day's work.

[MamaPajama]

We use a workbox system with a check-out/check-in sheet. All books and larger materials go into drawers in plastic bins, and all papers go into a binder in transparent sleeves. I then number everything in the order I want DS to complete it, and as he completes each task, he puts the number back on his sheet. In the back of the binder I have a folder for each subject that holds all the print-outs or papers we'll need for the week so that I can do most of my prep on the weekends. I really like it, and he does too.

[Heather4Him]

We will be doing LHFHG this year. I use workboxes and file folders. I ripped out all the math and phonics pages and put them into the folders. I also have some handwriting sheets and things for fun to go along with our history in the folders. For all the books, I put a sticky note on the cover with the weeks we are using the book. I stored all the books, except week1, in a plastic tub and lined them up in the order they will be used. I then took the supply list off the Yahoo group and bought all the supplies. I put the supplies into baggies with a label of what week it is needed. I did this because if we do not have something I need I will skip the project rather than run out at 10pm. Every night I will breifly look over my lesson plans and then fill the workboxes with the next day's work.

We also use workboxes, and they work great! I'm a visual-learner myself, so seeing what all has to be done each day works not only for our dd, but also for me! I just pack the boxes at the end of each day (a box for each HOD box) with the numbers of what order to do each one.

I try to put any needed supplies (like construction paper, etc.) in the boxes where needed, but I LOVE your idea about having the weekly baggies ready to go. I may try that! It would be nice to be prepared more than a day, or even week, in advance. Thank you!

[Sue G in PA]

I tried workboxes last year and it just didn't "fit" us. Next year I will have 7 at home and don't have the space to do the workboxes as Patrick suggests. I tried a modified version (file folders in crates) but the crates didn't hold the files very well. Just got frustrated. My ds12 would like to try and work as independently as he can. My idea thus far is to copy the guide for him (a few weeks at time to save $ ) and attach a weekly schedule for his other subjects like math and LA since Preparing doesn't have a schedule for Saxon or R&S 6). I thought about just including a weekly folder with all the supplies that he would need for the week and put it in his work crate each Sunday evening. Haven't gotten there yet, but I'm working on it. I love how HOD is open and go and he will love just checking off each box as he is finished. I wish I could do workboxes as it was designed, but I'd need a separate schoolhouse for that! LOL!

[girlboygirlboy]

Well, it's not weekly, but each of my kids have a magazine holder w/their name on it that has all of their notebooks, workbooks(DITHOR & Math), etc in them. Then I have one(sometimes two depending on the year) w/all my TM's/IG's in them. This really helps for them to know where their books are though we did have to do some training to remind them to take them down and put them back.

Last year, I bought the planner from the wellplannedday.com and loved it! They also have a planner for middle schoolers(and high schoolers) that might work for your dc. I love how pretty they are, how they have scripture in them, that there is perferated tear off pages for grocery lists and a spot to put wkly menus in addition to all my lesson plans(though I record what we actually accomplish, not what we will do - just a preference that keeps me from getting overwhelmed if we get "behind").

Hope that helps some...

Jennifer
mom to girl10(going to cs in the fall), boy9(Bigger), girl7(bigger), boy4.5(preK)

[arstephia]

You all will think I am crazy, but I have 34x5 (170) gallon sized ziplock bags with a half file folder in each for each student. (Doing Beyond and Preparing this year.)The tops are numbered 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, etc. for each unit and day. Then in each bag is the poem, spelling list, handwriting, math page, game, craft, etc. My friend did this last year very successfully with 3 kids and I loved her system and can so see it working for me. For instance, I just made the math game for 9-5 (unit 9, day 5) where I needed a page numbered 1-20 and 6 cards labeled greater or smaller (3 each) That is now in the bag. On days I need googly eyes, they are in the bag, days I need specific colored papers, paper plates, counters, etc. They are in the bag. Only things that would rot or leak are not in the bag (food, paint, oil, etc.) I often would get to a day last year and realize I had no plates, or I had run out of brats, or I needed a pipe cleaner, etc. I also do various lapbooks for fun on different topics we are just interested in (like forest fires, sharks, seasons, etc.) so I have already copied and cut those out and those are assigned to days as well and put in the baggies. These bags are then put in a basket and I just pull out a fresh one each day, and put the baggie and the already-numbered file folder (used just for stability) in a drawer so I can re-use them next year for Bigger and CTC!

[gmhaynes]

I do something similar to some of the other posts. I plan out 4 weeks at a time and put everything for one day at a time into a slot in an accordion file. I take a little time and go through each lesson and make copies, gather supplies, etc. This saves the panic when I don't have something. I just make a list of everything that I am missing and I get it with my weekly grocery store run. All I have to do each morning is get the papers out of whatever slot we are on and go from there. Nothing fancy, but it definitely works if you want to plan ahead a bit.

Mary

[ncmomof5]

Sue G in PA

I totally get what you are saying about workboxes. I only have 5 kiddos, and though I love the concept, I could not imagine where I would put all "the stuff" workboxes would require. I really wanted a visual reminder/checklist kinda thing, so after I saw what the workboxes were all about, it inspired me to tweak it to fit our needs. So, I purchased a white board at Wal-Mart and I put their daily schedule on there so they can see what needs to be done each day AND they can check items off as they are completed. This also helped my 2 oldest who are sharing the same manual, books, etc., so they wouldn't both be trying to use the science book or the history book at the same time.

I am intrigued by the gallon bag idea. I think it might be something to look into for my younger ones who are doing LHFHG and LHTH. I love organizing things and being ready ahead of time (although I have to tell you, today I picked up my LHTH manual, the Bible Story book, grabbed a couple of items and ran off to church to teach Sunday School - wasn't expecting to do that today, but I was ready with HOD in no time. Thanks, Carrie! )

Love this subject. Thanks for all the great organizing ideas. Just wish I had more time to implement them.

[Mom2Monkeys]

You all will think I am crazy, but I have 34x5 (170) gallon sized ziplock bags with a half file folder in each for each student. (Doing Beyond and Preparing this year.)The tops are numbered 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, etc. for each unit and day. Then in each bag is the poem, spelling list, handwriting, math page, game, craft, etc. My friend did this last year very successfully with 3 kids and I loved her system and can so see it working for me. For instance, I just made the math game for 9-5 (unit 9, day 5) where I needed a page numbered 1-20 and 6 cards labeled greater or smaller (3 each) That is now in the bag. On days I need googly eyes, they are in the bag, days I need specific colored papers, paper plates, counters, etc. They are in the bag. Only things that would rot or leak are not in the bag (food, paint, oil, etc.) I often would get to a day last year and realize I had no plates, or I had run out of brats, or I needed a pipe cleaner, etc. I also do various lapbooks for fun on different topics we are just interested in (like forest fires, sharks, seasons, etc.) so I have already copied and cut those out and those are assigned to days as well and put in the baggies. These bags are then put in a basket and I just pull out a fresh one each day, and put the baggie and the already-numbered file folder (used just for stability) in a drawer so I can re-use them next year for Bigger and CTC!

I LOVE this idea. Many days we just plain ol' don't get to do school, much to do with not having the extra hands for the prep work (though there isn't really prep, I'd say gathering is more fitting). I see a large ziploc purchase in my near future I have the bins for each child and although it works very well for us, I don't like the extra wear on the books. I'm reorganizing our "school room" now and have been thinking about how to make having all our books on hand an easier process. They don't do well having to break from where we are to put up books when we're done and trade for the next thing. Honestly, I don't either...we like to flow right on through from one box to the next. I've also tried the workboxes. It didn't really fit us either. I totally get the ziploc thing though. It's one that may just make it to my blog, too! LOL