Finally ~ My Own FCS

I am a HUGE fan of Dawn over at 'By Sun and Candlelight' and of her FCS {File Crate System}. It has been something that I have been wanting to do FOR-e-Va! Unfortunately I could not find a crate like hers in South Africa, I tried an alternative - but - it just wasn't the same.

But... here in England, we can get pretty much what you can get in the States. We have Staples here too - *sigh*, I go weak at the knees when I enter :o). Even more so down the Martha Stewart and Cath Kidson isles *double sigh*. Most importantly - they have lots and lots and lots of different storage crates WITH that special little side piece to hang suspension files - yay!!

What I love about this system is that it totally keeps you organised, neat & tidy, and is central! It is the one stop shop for managing my home, planning and homeschooling. My home school planner is loosely based on the FCS but on a MUCH smaller scale. It has worked really well for me this year so it was time to graduate to the FCS. I am a planner, I love to be organised, so it seems that this is the system for me.

This week, after reading through all of Dawns FCS posts - again - I finally decided that it was time to take the plunge. Off to Staples I went and invested in the basics - a file crate, some suspension files -6+, pretty little tabs, and a whole lot of file folders - 52+, one for each week of the year.

So - this is how it works... suspension files house two months worth of file folders. There is one file folder per week. Each file folder has a tab that denotes which week it is for...

These weekly file folders come out of the FCS and live in the back of your daily planner/diary or wherever you have your 'command central' spot in your home - mine is next to the phone downstairs. On the front of each file is your week at-a-glance. Dawns is slightly different as she uses post-it notes, I am using a form from my Moms Toolbelt subscription.

So on my week-at-a-glance I have a 'To Do' block which will more than likely become 2 or 3 blocks throughout the week. We all have an ever changing list of things that need doing each day. This is where I will note it down - it is highly visible, I don't have to flip the pages of my diary, there is a good chance that my 'To Do' list will actually get done in a timely manner ;o)
'Projects' - that would be things I am working on at the moment and want to focus some time on during the week eg. school plans my FCS, drawing up some homeschooling planning forms etc
'Blog' -  Ideas for posts. Often I'll be doing something when a post idea will strike - all too often the idea drifts away in the business of life. Here I can note down the idea immediately.
'Notes' - These are just little jottings of things I want to remember to look into - eg. I have 'Myerscough College - Tori' written down. I want to remember to find a moment to have a look at the equine courses offered there and to begin gathering information to store away in my 'Home Ed' folder. This information will help us decided what IGCSE's she will need to aim for.
still to be added onto this sheet would be 'Days of Note' - this is where I would note down any day that I want to observe in some small way. These would come from my monthly themes and plans pages.
I'm pretty sure that this will develop over time - my FCS is still in it's infancy :o)

Inside my weekly file folder the contents would change from week to week. This coming week I have my menu plan for a diet I want to follow, a shopping list, a recipe that I found and want to try out and a cashiers slip for an item that I need to return during the week. On the inside cover I have a little sticky note where I can record my daily spending on groceries, helping me keep a tab on my grocery budget.

My weekly file folders would be the place where I would print off directions to a venue we might be going to, a book reminder slip that the library might send me for a book I booked, information for a homeschooling event or activity we might be participating in, a doctors appointment reminder, a craft I want to do with the girls, any number of things would be stored here relevant to that specific week.

My homeschool planner works pretty much the same way. I have Sept - July dividers in the front of my homeschool planner. Behind each divider is a month-at-a-glance calendar, then my weekly planning sheets. Behind each weekly planning sheet I would place any worksheets/printables/notebooking pages that I have for them that week. Behind that is a print out of our OHC topics and learning grid for the month {printed from the OHC newsletter}. Behind that is our Artist and Composer study notes - simply a printed out schedule of art works and music pieces that we will be looking at/listening to in the month as well as some information {teachers notes} on the artists life. Behind that is a plastic folder which holds prints of the art works for our picture study.

Any book-listsFCS. I also have a suspension file in there labelled 'IGCSE' which is home to all exam centre info, past exam papers, useful websites and resource suppliers etc anything that is relevant to the IGCSE's.

So there we go - I finally have my own FCS and I am very excited about getting to know it, using it and of course tweaking it as I go along ;o)