How Our Homeschool is Organized - The 3 Binder System

Since everything we're doing this year is different, I might as well keep up with that trend, and change up how I've been organizing everything for the past two years, right?

In the past, I've had a very detailed teachers planner.  I loved my teachers planner, it really helped me keep on track.  The only bad part about it, is when something came up (like an unexpected playdate, a bout of the flu, or simply a day in which mama needed the day off), we'd have to set unrealistic goals to get caught up.  It was OK, but I think I've discovered something that's going to work better for us.  Now, I'll just use my regular old paper daily planner to put our field trips in.  That way, it'll always be with me. Our school work organization will be separate from our field trips. Here's what we're doing:

Each of us has a 3 ring binder.  I'll go into detail about the binders, from oldest to youngest :)

Mom's Binder:

My binder is the ultimate Two Cowgirls homeschool guide.  It has all of our lesson plans, answer sheets, reward stickers, etc inside.  This will allow me to know at a glance what independent work Millie is supposed to be doing, and so I know what to ask her about after she's finished her daily 3 R's.  I have a tab for each science and history.  

Now here is where things are really different!  Rather than putting our lessons into a calendar, with a specific due date, I have compiled the lessons into a list.  It goes in order, with an approximate due date (by week).  This way, if we get off track by a day (or a week!), we just continue down the list.  No worries.  Behind the lesson list, I have all the worksheets we'll need for the year, printed and 3 hole punched.  Everything is ready and waiting!

Millie's Binder

Millie has her binder broken into 4 sections:

• Daily tasks
• Chore chart
• Chart with her Easy Peasy assignments.  Once she finishes an assignment, she'll "check" the box of the assignment she completed.  Once I've reviewed it, I'll initial it.  When she's finished all the work for the day, she can put a sticker on it.

• Worksheets
• All of her worksheets for english, grammar, reading, etc. are printed and ready to go
• Completed work
• This is where she'll put her work that is awaiting correcting from me
• She'll also put projects worth of saving for her "portfolio" in here.
• Scrapbook
• This is where she'll make a little scrapbook with pictures that she takes of her friends, field trips, etc.  

Elise's Binder:

Elises's binder is very similar to Millie's binder, except that she doesn't have a chart for independent work, as she won't be doing any work independently (she's going into Kindy, after all!)

School starts in 1 week from today!!!  Want to see how other people are getting organized, and using their homeschool spaces?  Check out this Not Back To School Blog Hop!