:shock: I am going through all of my hs "stuff". I have way too much stuff. My daughter is going to private school this year, so I am only hsing my 6 year old son and 3 year old daughter. She will be starting 5th grade. What should I keep from her curriculum last year? Will it be outdated if I keep some of it for my son? As I am going through stuff, I have even found complete subjects that I bought her for this year still in the shrinkwrap!
As far as portfolios. I live in a state where I must keep one. When the school district is finished I save some of their work - maybe 25 things. Like wksts, tests, poems, journal entries and things like that. I file them away under the childs name, grade and school yr. The big binder that I hand in to the school district I re use for next yr. As far as wkbks unfinished or wkbks bought and never used. I usually save them to use again the following yr, or for the next child in that grade. I have also wondered why I bought certain things and have sold them on e-bay. I personally dont think things like this can out date themselves. At a used sale this past spring I picked up some wkbks someone had for free. The pages look like the kids are from the 1950's. The wkbk is great! The math problems in it sound a little outdated but are the same type of problems in our "new" bks. Hope this helps you!
I just don't want to get rid of something I may need. I guess I can just weed through and get rid of things I know I don't like or definately won't use. I bought some LLATL and Writing Strands for my daughter last year, but we just didn't like them. I live in AZ and there are no regulations or record keeping required. I have some Kindergarten things from my son, actually a ton of stuff, that we didn't use.
This is my 3rd yr hsing. I just got rid of some things I bought my 1st yr. I wasnt sure if I would need them or not. There are still a couple things I havent used yet, but I think I might. If your not sure - keep them! I hs my seven children and my house is on the small side. I forced myself this yr to get rid of some things due to space. If space wasnt an issue I probably would have kept a lot more. I always think to myself I might use that some day. You never know what you or your kids might decide to learn about and what might come in handy. :wink: The things I sold were items I know I would not use. Example, we switched our math program this yr. Everything I put on e-bay sold. Thats funny you wrote about the Writing Strands. The first yr I bought it I didnt like it and didnt use it. Then this pst yr my daughter found it and asked if she could use it and loved it. That was one I was glad I held onto. You never know!
Funny you posted this because ALL day today, I cleaned and organized my schoolroom from top to bottom for this next year! :lol: I went through all the paper, all broken crayons, all books (GEEZE..that took 1/2 my day) and all curriculum. :shock: I limit myself to one shelve per grade for curriculum. So right now I have 5 shevles because I combine Prek/K, then I have 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th. But I also would keep things like foreign languages and just reference books. Worktext can be usually picked up pretty cheaply, but not so for reference type books and *special* curriculum like foreign language and art, imho. I go through the workbooks and tear out the pages I used, and I mark an X on the front of it so i know that some pages have been used. Workbooks without an X are unused. The minute I use a page, it has an X. This way if I ever don't use something, I know its whole and unused. I only keep like one school book type science book per grade, since it has a variety of subjects in it because it is a spiral approach. But in the school room I keep only history and science reference books which cover one whole wall. They are divided by subjects. All readers, story books, picture books are kept in the kids room bookshelves. Of course, they are divided by each child's level. This frees up my shelves in the school room for curricula. I also looked through all the books, and what the smallest one (4yo) didn't pick up this past year to look at, its outta here! Since I have Tons of books, I figured he won't miss those few... I too try to keep something because if the first child or two doesn't like it, the next one might. So I got rid of booksthat looked like they couldn't go another year Phew....I'm exhausted, but that room looks in tip top shape, ready to go!
IMO, keep those things... that you liked. Get rid of the curriculum books that you never used or the ones you tried and didn't think were good. Don't be afraid of keeping the things you liked though. I am still using some teacher resourse books that I purchased in 1992/1993 when I taught ps. They are perfect and some of them are still in print and at the local school supply store!! I bought many workbooks that my dd used and wrote in this year. I cannot reuse them. I am keeping any teacher books that I used however. I was very pleased with the curriculum I chose so I will probably stick with them for a while.
I get rid of anything, I didn't like first. Some teaching materials just don't appeal to me for one reason or another. (Anything that works for the kids appeals to me :wink: Next I consider what didn't work for them and why. I have two very different kids and what works wonderfully for my older dd, doesn't always work for ds. If I can't see him using it later...its out of here :!: Tina, I like your X mark idea for used work books; great tip. Our new home here in the Mid-west has a basement :roll: What a wonderful, wonderful thing. I think everyone should have one :shock: My dh, has a big shelf building project. You should check out the sale and swap boards. I've sold lots of resources there to people looking to buy. These were things just sitting around, I knew we would never use. If you can't sell it, don't want it, and can't toss it, donate it. Our library has a great sale every year of all the 'donated treasures." Good luck to you. My hardest thing is getting rid of the things they used. My goal for this year are two portfolios, not two big boxes. :? Happy organizing everyone. My kids are down to three swimming lessons a week and I'll have Tuesday and Thursday to sort, sort, sort. :roll: Tammy
