Tackle It Tuesday - Homeschool Papers

For me, I never know exactly what I should save of the kids' "school work." I am one of those who could save every scrap of paper the kids ever scribbled on. Because I know that about myself, rather than fight the urge, I have come up with a mini-compromise...organization.

For school work, I comb bind the kids' papers each year for each subject. Well, actually it has been several years since I have taken the time to get the comb binder out, so that was my challenge for today. I organized each child's work according to subject and year, and then put it all in chronological order.

Putting everything in chronological order is the most time consuming. The kids place their completed work on the right side of their folder, saving the left side for unfinished work. I had multiple folders to go though for my older two, spread over several years, which made for a fun game of hide and seek.

The comb binding is a synch, and takes hardly any time at all. I got my comb binder as a gift one year, and have gotten quite a bit of use out of it. I would highly recommend one for any homeschooling family. It comes in particularly handy for binding handwritten or typed stories that the kids have illustrated.

After my comb binding, I organized all of the kids' completed workbooks and placed them in a box. Not too difficult. I would like to upgrade to a Rubbermaid container at some point, but for now a moving box works just fine.

Next I tackled the unused curricula. It all fit in one moving box as well. I took out the supplies we'll need for next year and organized all of the books by subject. I will have to get the box back down at the end of this "school year" so I can put away this year's books, but they should all fit nicely.

So I feel I accomplished something today. I went from having several boxes of loose papers on the floor of my closet to having comb bound "books" by subject, date, and child. And the three boxes will take up considerably less space in my closet.