My Quivers Full - My Binders

Jun. 19, 2007 - My Binders

As I promised below, here is a look at my binder system. I have one for school and one for everything else. My "everything else" binder is kept with my recipe books above the stove. That's kind of my territory alone, so it's a good place to keep it. A friend of mine called it my "control journal" ala The Fly Lady, whom I love, but I never really think of it as a journal. Here's what is inside:

• (inside cover pocket): A list of chores from Motivated Moms, with the current week on the top.

• A monthly meal planner from Organized Home. I print out 12 copies, then every month I have a fresh planner to pencil in meals. Sometimes I plan out two weeks worth at a time, but usually I just do one week. By the end of the month, I have a full planner and can transfer our favorite meals to the next months planner. I don't have a set menu from month to month, because I like to make lots of new dishes. One of my favorite things is hunting down new recipes. One of my very few magazine subscriptions is to Taste of Home. I think it's well worth the money!!!

• Behind the meal planner is a recipe section. This is where I try to keep the recipes I use monthly, so I don't have to go hunting around the cabinet for them. I'm working on getting all of my regular monthly recipes back there. It's quite handy!

• Next comes my chores section. I printed off a copy of detailed cleaning lists from The Fly Lady. With as many chore lists as I have, you'd think I would have the most sparkling house in the neighborhood. *snort*, rrriiiiggghhtt. Someday, I may get my act together and get an actual chore system down in print that works best for me. Right now, I just glance at what the Motivated Moms system has for that week, and what Fly Lady has for that week, take a break, have a snack, then do something on one of the lists.

• Last is a section called "Holidays". This is used, as you can probably determine, during the holdiay season. I print out a six week plan for getting ready for Christmas from Organized Christmas (the creators of Organized Home). This just keeps me aware of what I've accomplished and what's left to do before the last minute sneaks up on me and bites me on my hiney. Also, I put a blank page in there for any other things to do that isn't listed on the internet list, especially things having to do with Thanksgiving, as well as anything I need to do to prepare for our annual trip back to Michigan for Christmas celebrations with our families. Behind that, I have blank pages with my handwritten lists of what I'm thinking about for the kids, hubbie, extended family, neighbors, etc. Each of my kids gets a page to themselves, as well as hubbie. Everyone else is grouped on a page according to family. When I purchase a gift I add the amount paid so I have a running total. This way I can easily see if I'm over budget anywhere.

• (inside back cover pocket): A handy place to keep my receipts for the Christmas gifts. No one but me is in this binder, and my children would never think to look there. Of course, they're not that old yet, but my receipts are safe for now.

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Binder/Planner

Now for my indespensible school binder! I've tweaked this a bit since beginning homeschooling last year. My hope is that when I'm knocked out on the couch with the flu or something, my dear hubbie can swoop in to teach the kids without any questions (and not disturbing my nap) The main thing I added this year is a memorization guide, which is a great idea that Jessica over at Trivium Academy shared on her blog. We are fortunate here in Indiana. We don't need to send a letter of intent, or submit anything at all really. The only thing we need to have on hand is attendance. So, in a nutshell, here's what my school binder looks like:

• (inside front cover pocket): a copy of any supplies I need to buy.

• A 2007-2008 calendar from Printfree.com. Since we only need to show we're doing the same number of days as the public school, I just put an "x" in the box on the days we do schoolwork. We do school for 5 - 6 weeks, then take a week off. I pencil this in on the calendar, and I can easily see our schoolyear laid out at a glance. Since it's in pencil, I can change the days we take off if needed. When we take a field trip, I put a star with a number in the box with that date. On the back of this sheet, I write the star and number, then where we went on our field trip.

• Behind that, is a sheet of possible field trips to take. I have it broken down into the subject the field trip would fall: History, Science, or Fun/Misc.

• Next I have the beginning of Big Mans section (this divider is in white, as is his brothers divider. The rest of the dividers are in colors so I can easily see the correct section I want to go.) Behind the divider sheet is a "Basic Weekly Schedule" printout. Each day is broken down into what subjects are covered. Behind that is the Memorization Guide mentioned above. This is a typewritten list of poems, etc. that Big Man will be learning during the year. The whole poem (or whatever) is typed out, that way I don't need to hunt down the poem to know if he is reciting it correctly.

• Now come Big Mans subjects. Each subject gets its own colored divider: Reading, Math, Spelling, Grammar, Handwriting, History, Science, Art. Each section has the lesson numbers or page numbers typed out for the whole schoolyear. Across from that lesson number or page number is a blank line to record the date completed. Repeat for Little Monkeys section. I'm still getting this part done for next year, but I'm making progress! It takes a while to get typed into the computer, but it's well worth the work to me. It helps me know exactly where we're at in our studies, and exactly where we're going next, how much is left, etc.

Well, those are my binders. If I didn't have them, I'd be far more disorganized, and seriously frazzled. Hope someone is able to get some ideas from this post. I always love to know what other people use to keep their lives straight. If you post about this over at your blog, please let me know!!

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