I've been considering ways to organize our documents. Right now, they're in a filing cabinet. Each subject has its own folder. Have you ever priced those ridiculously large binders? They're like $8 a piece! I'm thinking that maybe I will store Austin's work in folders, each box curriculum or workbook in its own folder, and title the folders with the subject, materials, and year. I think I'll store them in one of the shipping boxes. Maybe I'll just store the files in the filing cabinet and still mark the folders this way. I'm not sure yet. I wonder how other people do store their homeschool years of work.
We have all that we will use for 2016-2017 except Language Arts. I'm scouring my sources for an alternative English program. Someone said, "Poetry for young people," but the books are selections of poetry, by specific poets, in less than 10 super colorful pages. I could print these myself...if I had a printer. We're planning to purchase a toner printer ASAP, but it'll take a month or so considering that there's no promotional pay,net plan for an item under $200 at Office Depot. Btw, Office Depot finally signed me up for their Star Teacher program. I think, once we have our printer, I'll select free lesson plans from other teachers/instructors to match the books I choose for us. We're also starting cursive lessons as soon as Austin finishes the remaining 12 weeks of "1,100 Words." The cursive will constitute our vocabulary lessons, which are seperate from Language Arts.
I've been borrowing a lot of books on tests, like ACT, PSAT, SAT 1 & 2...If I see an acronym, I pick it up. I was so shocked that the placement test was so easy for Austin. That's because it tests memory instead of knowledge. I found it interesting that the ACT is very vigorous on time and the SAT essay is not as optional as you'd think. I would like to start giving Austin a subject in Testing by rotating the mock tests of different kinds. Our library portal has mock testing for everything. As much as I detest computer learning, I have to come to terms with that. I can't print everything, you know.
Austin wants to do something special to celebrate completing his school year. It has been suggested that we go to Celebration Station, which we probably will do. I'm timid of spending money because I've planned to go to my sister's while he is at camp in the last week of June. Camp is $185 for us because the church was generous enough to grant us $100. $50 of that will go towards my train ticket to my sister's. I want to surpass my $185 total, if I can. I also have to get Austin some shorts (he doesn't own a single pair) and odd things, like a flashlight. Don't worry, I have my Xanax ready. Remember, last time he left for the weekend I popped an eye vessel. I think staying with my sister will keep me occupied. She's very well-grounded, so I won't get into any trouble. It makes sense for me to be in Spartansburg while Austin is in Greenville. I'll take the train down the day after him and take it back the day before he returns. It seems very smart. I keep reminding Austin that camp usually costs well over $1,000 for just a weekend, so we better plan to write a lot of thank you notes. A lot of sacrefice a are being made for this experience and we must be sincerely thankful for that.
I have three months to organize our files, get the toner printer, fine tune the lessons, and gather the most perfect lesson plans I can find for the upcoming school year. For right now, the goal is to celebrate our last day of school and then worry about planning camp. One step at a time...I have to say, I'm quite impressed with how much we've accomplished. Austin has worked his tail off and enjoyed the heck out of it. He's a different child...more of a man. I don't know if his maturity is from puberty or the immense relief of stress that home instruction has given us. Either way, homeschool works for us. Everyone says Austin has changed for the better. He is way more active than he every was in public school, he wants to try new things even if he's not good at them, and I trust him more on his own. We have a better understanding of each other and a tight bond, even though he can't wait to wriggle away from me all the time. I'm trying to respect his wishes for freedom.
In closing (yes, this scattered post has a closing), I have some questions for you:
- What kind of English curriculum would you suggest for a high school student that doesn't like to write?
- What tests are you using for college readiness?
- How are you storing your completed homeschool work?
If you cannot leave a comment, please email me or contact me on Facebook. Id love to hear feedback. A lot of times I feel like I'm just writing for my own benefit, so it'd be nice to know if you find me entertaining or helpful or even a hot mess. Tell me if you think I'm doing something wrong.
Your fellow instructor,
Karen Burke
**UPDATE**
This actually makes sense to me! I'm separating our curricula by box set or workbook and labeling folders for storage of completed work. Some of our curricula will have one or two units left to complete after August 1st, which will be marked as 2015-2016 even though they will be instructed in the 016-2017 school year.
With this system, I'll be able to pull X box set's notebook work as a whole section. The folder cover will say the year, grade, subject, publisher, published date, and ISBN. I'm storing completed folders in the back of my cabinet and active sections in the front. That way, when we complete them, I'll just follow my system and put the folder in the back where it belongs.
I also have folders of expenses, immunizations/Dr info, my school records, testing (Which will include Austin's Book List and Transcript), and our daily schedule. Gym will actually be completed over the summer, so that folder is in the middle right now. By George, I think I've got it. What do you think?
