What is my blog about? It's about Torah family living. It's about letting Torah affect our daily lives, from mealtime to bedtime, homeschooling to farm chores.


Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Homeschooling tip: online resource organizing


If someone asked me what curriculum I use to homeschool my kids, I might be tempted to answer "PDF."  I admit, I use alot of resources I find online.  I have dialup, so that rules out video, but it still leaves a whole lot of PDF.  So how do I keep track of all these wonderful things?  It took me awhile to figure out, and you probably all know this, but I'll share anyway.

I have a flashdrive that I store everything on.  But then there's the problem of finding it when I need it.  I go exploring and might find something that we won't need for a year.  The answer is folders, lots of folders.  I have no loose files.  I use the Heart of Wisdom history and science rotation which helps me organize info.

My catergories look like this: (I didn't include every folder, you get the idea.)
Character
Clipart
Hebrew
History
     Year 1
       Folders: Ancient Israel, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, etc.
     Year 2
     Year 3
     Year 4
Just for fun
Maps
Math
Science
     Year 2
        Weather, Oceanography, Botany, Geology
Preschool
     Alphabet, Shapes, colors
Spelling
Torah Portions
     I have a folder for each torah portion, with a number in front so they stay in order.

With this system, if I stumble across a cool weather coloring page or worksheet, I put it in the weather folder and forget about it.  When I get a couple months away from doing the weather unit study, I go to that folder to see what I have, and then I can wisely decide what I still need.  This has worked great because I subscribe to weekly freebies from several sites.  The topic could be anything from volcanoes to Thomas Edison.  I can put it in the folder and use it a year later.

But what about all the websites that have great photos and info, but can't be downloaded?

Use the Favorites bar in your browser.  Keep the folder thing going.  I try to use the same catergories as my flashdrive, with some additions like green living, homemaking, shopping, etc.  Then I can check out websites ahead of time, and only put them in the folder if they are acceptable.  Then I can click on the links with the kids and know what I will find at the other end.

I know you guys already know all this, but if your files are a mixed up mess, I hope this will help.  It took me about an hour to set it up from a mess, so you can do it!

2 comments:

Enid said...

Well actualy this is a great post for me! I was traying to figure out how to keep my New school year starting in May..This is awsome! Thanks for sharing!

Enid said...

Hi just wanted to share that tonight I made lots and lots of files with all the parshat names :) now I can begin to fill them up.

Thanks and Shabbat Shalom!

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