First, I ordered Seville 10-Drawer Carts from Amazon. (Right now, they are selling for $49.99 but they weren't that much when I bought our two sets!) Other people have mentioned seeing similar carts at Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, and Jo-Ann Fabrics. I believe the one we bought has bigger dimensions on the drawers than some, though. On the carts, I put a sticky back velcro dot. I made labels for my school subjects that we would use with our workboxes in Pages (Apple's version of Microsoft Word) and laminated them with my laminator. I used my favorite "school" font, Primary Penmanship by Kimberly Geswein which is available as a free download at dafont.com. (The font has the writing lines version as shown and one without lines in the download.) I put the "loop" side of the velcro dots on the back. For my 2nd grader, we used yellow backgrounds, and her subjects are: History, Math, Reading, Read-Aloud, Spelling, English, Science, Health (We added Rod & Staff 2nd Grade Health), Music, and Art (We are doing the recommended I Can Do All Things plus three Come Look With Me books because she loved the ones we did in first grade.) For my kindergartener, we used blue backgrounds, and his drawer subjects are: Bible, Read-Aloud, Letter Activity, Reading, & Art (We added two MFW enrichment books, Animal Stencil Book & I Can Draw Animals. We have a few extra drawers that house lined paper and other miscellaneous things. On top, I have three ring binders for each kid's completed work. There is also their Charlotte Mason style Scripture Memory Boxes.
The second project I tackled was my file box. I bought an Iris Ultimate Letter/Legal File Box from OfficeMax. I caught them when they were having a Buy 1, Get 1 50% off sale. I also bought my hanging file folders from Office Max. I bought their rainbow colored set which contained every color of the rainbow except orange. After I had most of my box set up, I happened to see that they sell orange separately, so I had to buy it and rearrange all my tabs and pages to complete the rainbow correctly. (See, I told you I like organizing!) I have file folders for each week of school (1-34) and each major holiday in the year. There is also a "misc" and "to file" file. In Weeks 1-34, I put the following things: a copy of the MFW grid for each child's grade (I took the time to retype the entire grids so that I could add in all the things that each child needs. This also let me rearrange the days of Kindergarten into 5 day weeks to align with my Adventure weeks and file folders. So my K Week 3 is Sun Days 1-5 and K Week 4 is Sun Day 6 and Moon Days 1-4, etc. Please don't ask me for my files of these grids because it would be against copyright to share it.); the required student sheets for both kids (this year, we only got one set for each kid because I don't foresee my kinder wanting to do any of big sister's Adventures pages); Primary Language Lessons worksheets (I made them up for the 2nd grader so she can just fill in the blank instead of copy the entire sentences over); K badges and badge templates; a list of library books that we own and/or want to look for at the library; and PE assignments (We are using FamilyTime Fitness). We are also putting into the appropriate folder state postcards and travel guides as we receive them in the mail. The "Misc." folder holds things like timeline pages and blank calendar pages that will be used at some unknown date in the future. The "To File" holds all their completed pages until I get a bigger stack to put them all into their three ring binders at one time.
The second project I tackled was my file box. I bought an Iris Ultimate Letter/Legal File Box from OfficeMax. I caught them when they were having a Buy 1, Get 1 50% off sale. I also bought my hanging file folders from Office Max. I bought their rainbow colored set which contained every color of the rainbow except orange. After I had most of my box set up, I happened to see that they sell orange separately, so I had to buy it and rearrange all my tabs and pages to complete the rainbow correctly. (See, I told you I like organizing!) I have file folders for each week of school (1-34) and each major holiday in the year. There is also a "misc" and "to file" file. In Weeks 1-34, I put the following things: a copy of the MFW grid for each child's grade (I took the time to retype the entire grids so that I could add in all the things that each child needs. This also let me rearrange the days of Kindergarten into 5 day weeks to align with my Adventure weeks and file folders. So my K Week 3 is Sun Days 1-5 and K Week 4 is Sun Day 6 and Moon Days 1-4, etc. Please don't ask me for my files of these grids because it would be against copyright to share it.); the required student sheets for both kids (this year, we only got one set for each kid because I don't foresee my kinder wanting to do any of big sister's Adventures pages); Primary Language Lessons worksheets (I made them up for the 2nd grader so she can just fill in the blank instead of copy the entire sentences over); K badges and badge templates; a list of library books that we own and/or want to look for at the library; and PE assignments (We are using FamilyTime Fitness). We are also putting into the appropriate folder state postcards and travel guides as we receive them in the mail. The "Misc." folder holds things like timeline pages and blank calendar pages that will be used at some unknown date in the future. The "To File" holds all their completed pages until I get a bigger stack to put them all into their three ring binders at one time.
The final project to complete my organization was the method for the kids to know what they are supposed to be doing each day for school (lighter colored) and for morning chores (darker colored). I made a lot more labels to print off and laminate. And I used a lot more Velcro to affix them to regular file folders. So far in our school year, only the 2nd grader is using this part of the system. My kinder can't read and he isn't motivated by seeing all the squares disappear from his "to-do list." I also have to be more controlling of what things he does when at this point. At the end of the school day (or sometimes the morning of) I go through my grid and find the labels for everything we will need to do the next school day. I also put up the morning chores again. Completed subjects and chores are put into a quart sized mason jar.
I think that is about everything. Let me know if you have questions!
