It can be tough trying to figure out an organizational system that can work easily. I finally came up with a system that works great for us. I always love seeing how other mom's (and some dad's) organize all the little's schooling. Never did I think it would be such a big deal, but it is. You want to make sure everything is easily accessible. If it's not than most likely you won't use it or you'll forget about it.
I hope this helps some of you when you are trying to come up with ways to organize.
I'm going to start by sharing one of Little B's alphabet binders (I keep two letters in each 1in. binder)
Front cover of Tot school binder
When you open the binder in the front flap I keep all the pages that he will decorate or write on.
I store everything else in page protectors that he uses dry erase markers on.
These few pictures show you how his pages look in page protectors. I do this so I can easily wipe the pages off and reuse them. If you have a lot of little one's it's nice and much more economical to reuse some of the pages.
I store our puzzles, size sorting, and graphing paper pieces in ziplock bags inside 1 page protector, so everything is easy to get to.
In the back of the binder I keep 1 or 2 pictures/writing that Little B did for that letter(as a keepsake) to see and compare his progress.
The Teacher/Parent Notebook
On the front cover I have a paper that gives me some ideas of themes for each month.
Inside cover holds our large alphabet letter and our memorization psalm versus.
I keep several papers for ideas, game instructions and things like that next.
This is a picture of our shape papers, I normally would laminate these but at this time my little one know's his shapes so we don't work with these. I store all of the shapes in 1 page protector. Page protectors are a great thing to have a lot of. I use them for everything.
Here is a picture of our color pages (I'm not using them at this time), however all of these would be great to print out on card stock and put up on the wall or use for color themed weeks.
Dot pages are always great to keep on hand. My Little one loves his Do a Dots. I store a whole bunch in 1 page protector. you can also use these pages for lot's of fine motor work , using pom poms or magnets.
Next to the binders I keep a basket of books that we use regularly.
Here is a look at how I store the tot time/preschool binders. I decided instead of labeling I would write the letter of the alphabet on the binder so that Little B could easily find the binder he needed. (letter recognition, plus it helps with independence). The larger binder that is not labeled is my teacher binder. Some people choose to use a separate binder for each letter, but I was going for organization on a minimal budget plus the more binders you have the more storage space you need. 2 letters per binder seems to work perfect.
I am a big fan of book rings too. They are great for kids to carry around cards or pictures to look at and explore on their own. You can do this with flash cards, Montessori cards, pictures, and more.
I have approximately 12 snap folders that I store larger paper packs, Montessori cards, small homemade books, Holiday worksheets, games, and things like that in. I have them separated, labeled and stored in a Magazine box. Ahhh how I love organization. Poly pocket snap folders can be purchased through Amazon.
I hope between organizing part 1 and part 2 of my setting up tot school series, you have gotten some new ideas for organizing preschool letter of the week. My goal when I did my set up, was to make it easy on myself, and spend as little money as possible. What I've learned is to keep in mind how much space you have to store things, and keep things easily accessible.
If you are interested in the curriculum that you see featured here, most of it has come from 1+1+1=1 and confessions of a homeschooler. I also print out a lot of freebie packs and Montessori cards to enhance my little one's learning fun. Please know that I do a lot of hands on learning and this notebooks are just an addition of all of the fun learning we do daily with purposeful play.
Our Letter of the Week can be viewed here.
I put together a few things that I absolutely love and wouldn't want to live without when it comes to setting up and organizing. I hope this series has been helpful so far, and you join me for part 3.
(Inside our learning space)
