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!
That is a cute chore system and school! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Rhonda, this is a great post on organizing MFW! Are you still using MFW? If so, what year!
ReplyDeleteThanks! We are on the downhill side of Adventures and K. I'm already starting to organize for ECC & 1st! Starting next school year, I'm going to be using the app Olly (on both our iMac & iPad), so I've been typing in our lesson plans.
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ReplyDeleteRhonda, We are starting with ECC this fall. I am trying to get organized (our first year with MFW). I would love to hear your ideas for workboxes for ECC. Hope you and your family are well.
ReplyDeleteSo far, I've set up my file folders basically the same way as this post. I went through my student sheets and numbered each page for the day that we will do it. I don't always follow the M-F plan so I just go by day number for where we are at. We are using Complete Book of Animals so I assigned my pages out for each day. I followed the guidelines in the TM but then went back and tried to make each day have a page or two of the extra/unassigned specifically pages. So all of the CBoA pages are numbered and filed. I separated out the two Trip Around the World books and numbered them according to the day of use and filed them. We are using the new MFW foreign currency so I have them in the Week that each country starts. I am reusing the weekly files from this post so I didn't separate by country, just by week. We are also going to do 1st grade, so I have filed those student sheets. His Complete Book of Math pages were done similarly to CBoA. I assigned them according to the TM and filled in the gaps, trying to assign them out evenly. One change I'm making this year is adding folders for Day 1 through Day 5 at the beginning of my set of folders. So on the first day of week one I will separate the pages in that file into each day of that "week" (remember I don't follow weeks exactly if we miss a day, we just keep going onto the next day). I had been pulling out a whole stack of pages and leaving on my desk all week, but a daily pile will be so much nicer to manage! I used to retype the TM grid into a spreadsheet to add in my extras and make it look neat (I'm too Type A to just photocopy and write in extras!) This year I made the switch to Olly App. So, this year the 3rd grader (or I, but hopefully mostly her!) will be able to track what she needs to be doing on the iPad app and I can track what the 1st grader needs to be doing. We are in the process of remodeling and right now we are moving out of rooms into other rooms as we do work. The school room is first up so I haven't been able to set up any of the drawers for this year yet. They will probably be mostly the same as last year, with a separate drawer for each subject. Hope this helps!
DeleteHi Rhonda,I love your set up, thank you so much for sharing it. When you say grid I am assuming that you mean the weekly lesson plan from the teachers manual. Am I right?
ReplyDeleteAgain thanks for sharing.~Debi
Yes. The grid is the lesson plans from the teacher's manual.
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