My Filing System

After reading much of the huge filing thread on The Well Trained Mind forums, I decided to take the plunge this year. After our first week of school, I can truly say I'm glad I did it. It was so nice to just take out Week 1 folder and go. I am planning David's history this year all on my own, so I'm glad that each week, I'll only have that planning to do.

Here are some pictures and details.

I had bought these file boxes a few months ago. The price was only $5 each, plus there are lids and stacking slots on top of the lids. I had not decided what I was going to do with these until the filing thread.

Each child has a file box. In the file boxes, I put monthly folders and 36 weekly folders. The monthly folders will be for supply lists, library books to pick up, etc. The weekly folders contain workbook pages and notes about specific assignments for the week.

Hannah, in 8th grade, is doing Sonlight Core 100 this year. I took the schedules and copied them, highlighting the portions she is to do. I also took apart the IG pages to place the appropriate discussion guides in the appropriate week. We are tweaking the schedule and having her do a novel a week, rather than a couple of novels over a couple or few weeks. She prefers to read this way, and it made the filing easier, too!
These are the file boxes I used last year for workboxes. It will be similar this year, but there will not be a schedule grid. I take the week's work from the big filing box and spread out by subject the work for this week. Some books are on shelves, but those that can fit will go in the box.
Instead of a schedule grid, I got these planners from http://www.goodnewsplanners.com/. I love the 2 page format and the little check off boxes in the upper right of each subject corner. This is where I will be keeping grades.

My Planner

After never being able to find exactly what I wanted, I designed my own planner and had it comb bound. Here are pictures of the 2 page spread I am going to be using for each week. I looked at planners all over the place and tweaked what I found into one that will work for our individual situation.

This page will be for all the pertinent information involving both kids. We will have devotions together as well as reading poetry and studying some artists and composers. We will have some history projects, field trips, etc. together. I hope to occasionally have some science projects together, too.




This is the page where I will work out their individual plans. I have small codes for different type work I might include that week. Mz-memorization; Cp-Copywork; Dc-Dictation; Nr-Narration; Nb-Notebook Page; Mp-Mapwork; Tm-Timeline





Here are the pages I included. Many are ideas I took from other places, but tweaked.

Yearly Overview as a family
Yearly Overview for each child
Summer Activity Log
Summer Reading Logs for each child
Monthly Planner for the whole year for the things we do together (art, music, poetry, devotions, history/science projects)
Semester Planners for their individual subjects
2 Page spread for each week
Page on Left has Outside Appts, Supplies, Weekly Priorities, Subjects done together
Page on Right has plans for each child and individual subject
After each quarter:
Grade Record for each child
Reading Log for each child
At the end:
Year Summary for each child
Outside Activity Log for each child
Memorization Log for each child
Project Log
Field Trip Log
Items Borrowed/Loaned Out
Goals for future grades for each
Lined and Blank pages for notes/planning
a couple of thin pocket pages that had to be cut down