Homeschool Planning: The File Crate System Series is all about our journey with using files and a file crate to plan and execute our homeschool year. In this part

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As I am clearing out from this past year (2010-2011), I am also looking forward to the coming year (2011-2012) and trying to decide what to keep, what to change, etc. Some things are out of my control. For instance, I now have a kindergarten aged child that will need more of my attention. I also have one starting 7th grade and needing things to be more challenging for her, thus not so much combining of work with her and her 3rd grade brother (mind you he is advanced by 2 years). Needless to say my head has been spinning. I have spent a great deal of time on-line reading forums and other blogs, trying to get inspired.

Homeschool Planning: The Crate File System

The Well-Trained Mind forum has kept me tied up for hours going through a strain about using a filing system for lesson plans. That led me to a blog where there are frequent posts, pictures, and details about how she implements her file crate system. All of this has been very helpful to me in the sense that they have given me ideas of how they do their system, and now my brain is off and running about how I can alter the system to fit my needs.

One major difference for me is that I use Homeschool Tracker to log all of our assignments, grades, hours, etc. However, I do not use the planning portion of the program. At the beginning of each week I sift through each child’s subject folders and pull out what they will be doing. Then I make any necessary copies, add the work to their clipboard, and log the work into the assignment portion of HST. This is all very time consuming. What I am thinking is that if I have all their major subjects planned out and divided into 36 weeks ahead of time, then each week all I will do is pull out that folder and log the work into HST, adding anything extra, or different that will be included into that week.

Here are the subjects/activities I think can be easily divided up ahead of time:

• Mind Benders Level 3 & Level 4
• Pandia Press Chemistry
• Zaner-Bloser Spelling Connections Grade 5
• Singapore Math 4B & 5A

Here a the somewhat unknowns for me as so many of the things our 7th grader will be doing are new:

• Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra
• Writing Strands 3 or 4

The big question in my mind is: Will doing so much of the preparation and planning ahead really save me time and be worth it during the midst of the school year? I am still working on that question. In my next Homeschool Planning File System post I will try and hash out exactly how I think this would play out in our homeschool.

Why Use the Crate File System?

Need suggestions of why someone would use

Homeschool Planning Crate File System Series

Be sure to check out all the articles in this Homeschool Planning Crate File System Series!

• Part I Why?- This Post
• Part II How
• Part III The Set Up
• Part IV Planning in Action
• Part V Reflections
• VI Learning to Let Go

* This series was originally written in 2011. It has been updated for easier reading and more current information.