Homeschooling can get messy so we have adopted the spiral method for our homeschooling.
With more than half a dozen subjects per child, the sheer volume of written work that needs to be organized and graded can be overwhelming. Until this last school year, my kids would write out any written assignments on a loose sheet of notebook paper. The paper would then get shoved into the workbook itself, it would magically find its way into a 3-ring-binder, or it would get hopelessly lost, never to be found again. Obviously this method was not an efficient process (and had a negative affect on my sanity).
Then last summer I happened upon a clearance sale at Target. They were clearing out tons of spiral notebooks, and the price was ridiculously low — less than 2 cents per notebook!
So I decided to clear them out of their stock and purchased over 100 notebooks (spending less than $2).
When I got home I separated the notebooks by color, pulling out the blue for Jerah, the green for Jaden, and the purple for Joely. Then I wrote the subject names in large, bold print on each notebook: science, math, history, Wordly Wise, grammar, writing, logic, and Lightning Literature. When school began last year and my kids had to write down answers or notes in any of their subjects, they just grabbed the appropriate spiral notebook.
I have to tell you that this method was such a lifesaver for us. Fewer papers were lost, and all their work in each subject was kept neatly in one place. It made checking their work a thousand times easiery. Seriously, I really don't know why I hadn't thought of doing it that way before!
But I do know we'll be continuing with this "spiral" method for our homeschool from now on. And I'll definitely be keeping my eye out for some more inexpensive notebooks. After all, this is all I have left for the upcoming school year — only 42 notebooks — and I know my kids will complain if I don't have enough of their colors …
Mine is up: Curriculum Fair Survival Tips.
.-= Kris @ Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers´s last blog ..Curriculum Fair Survival Tips =-.
What a cool idea! I can only imagine the looks that you got while buying so many notebooks though. LOL Love it!
.-= Angie @ Many Little Blessings´s last blog ..Our 2009-2010 Homeschool Curriculum Plans =-.
I'm so glad to read this! I've been thinking about doing the same thing. We are going to workboxes this year & I thought it would be so easy to just toss a spiral in for each subject. Glad to know it works!
.-= Amyswandering´s last blog ..wfmw – dfw staycation =-.
Great idea! We sorta do this already, but not subject specific.
Golly! What an awesome deal!! Go, MOM!
We use the nonspiral scribblers, but we don't color code them. One of my children tries to, though, picking the green out of each pack of scribblers. We found that taping in extra sheets works quite well, if you end up needing to put some of those in.
As my children get older and more responsible, I let them decide whether to use loose-leaf or scribblers.
Annie Kate
I am glad to know that I am not the only one who buys these in bulk. I have been doing this the last year or two and it helps so much. I need to do what you do and do one color per child. Great idea. I just write name and subject on them, but color would help keep each child's straight.
.-= Lynn´s last blog ..Sour Cream Potato Salad =-.
We use lots of binders with loose leaf paper in it, kind of the same but different 🙂 I love seeing all the neat home school ideas and am so glad you have started this meme!
.-= Stephanie´s last blog ..How Does Your Garden Grow? Harvest Time! =-.
Great idea! I'm going to do something similar this year. We use 3-prong folders for our notebooks for various subjects. Last year, I just used what I had left from previous school shopping trips and the kids would pull out every single folder trying to find the one they were looking for. This year, I'm color-coding them by subject – blue for history, green for science, red for writing…or something like that.
I'm thinking that, doing it that way, I should only have all of a certain color pulled out at any given time. Maybe. 😉
.-= Kris @ Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers´s last blog ..Curriculum Fair Survival Tips =-.
Witty title. 🙂 You of course had me thinking spiral vs. mastery and then gave it a whole new twist. We love our cheap spirals, too. Although, I thought 10 cents each was a steal!
Awesome Idea. I am only homeschooling my youngest child and we have only been homeschooling for a few months. I am already finding it difficult to keep track of tests and written work. I think I am going to buy 2-3 subject notebooks for each subject, this way I can seperate test, written work, etc for each subject. Your handy tip saved my sanity early on. Thank You so much for sharing!!!!
I tried this method this year for my son and it worked so much better than getting him to file loose papers in a ring binder.
Does anyone have advice for a child who picks at all the paper on the sides – so they come out of the notebook and leave flecks of paper all over, bends the wire all up and works at removing it from the paper? I am considering putting Duct Tape along the spiral… 😛
I will need to keep my eyes peeled at Target for such ridiculous discounts. I am considering homeschooling my 3 & 4 year old. I am currently using (2) 3-ring binders per child, with page protectors. One of the two binders cost a bit, which gets used for their keepsake work (1 in parfait pink & 1 in parfait blue), whilst the other binders are white and are used for the children's current and practice work. The white binders I use to put certain lessons in page protectors, and the children ie; practice printing Letter Hh, using wipe-off markers save on paper and printer ink, we would otherwise be going through quite a lot of. Each child does have their own spiral notebook for their free time writing/doodlings. In a few years, I do think I will start using the spiral notebooks in addition to the binder notebooks, as well as keep in mind experimenting with many of the other ideas shared on this blog. Additionally, I have started using empty printer boxes (banker boxes would probably work as well) for storing their binders in, for learning tools I have both made and bought for them, and for both current and past project work that the children do that would not work well to store or even come close to fitting into a binder. For example, I made the children each a clock, and so when we have a telling time opportunity, or scheduled telling time activity to do, the children and I know they open their designated box and pull out their clocks to learn with. I think this might be similar to the workboxes? I have not checked out the link someone posted on here about workboxes, yet, but sounds like an interesting link to check out. I am enjoying your website, and reading everyone's comments and sharing ideas, and resources on here. Hopefully homeschooling will be as beneficial and as great of an experience for me and my family as it has been for many homeschooling families. Best Regards!
So glad I read this! I've been homeschooling for 3 yrs now and still trying to find an organized way to keep track of things and I have found it! Thank you