I guess you could call me a "Binder Queen" wanna be. Cindy Rushton has a book entitled Notebooking! Yes! You Can Be a Binder Queen Too!.
I think to qualify as a Binder Queen the binders have to be full! I have been working on sorting, filing, and discarding our papers from this year. I have combined history and science from the last 4 years into 2 notebooks for ds. DD has one of each for the last 3 years.
I’m cleaning off bookshelves trying to be more ruthless about getting rid of old books that we don’t need. For some reason I have a hard time getting rid of my chemical engineering textbooks. Why? What am I going to do with them in the next 10 years that I haven’t done with them in the past 10? Why have I moved these things 4 times? I guess there is some part of me that says if I get rid of the books then I am definitely never going back to work. Like anyone would hire me now after 10 years out of the workforce. The really funny thing is that I have absolutely no desire to go back to work. My whole philosophy of working outside the home has completely shifted in the last 10 years. Anyway, if I homeschool all of my children through high school I have 16 more years to go! Does my reluctance to get rid of my textbooks demonstrate a lack of trust in the Lord for our future provision? I don’t know. I’m still pondering.
I do that…for me it is the memory. Of that teacher or classmates, people I think nothing of until I reach for those books. It is a connection with my past. Before I was blessed with 2 sweet boys to tend to. :)I keep texts from classes I really liked. And I do look through them. I even have a few that my own children use and look through. 🙂
It took me about 5 years to toss my college textbooks. It was really hard for me. I'm a pack rat and they were still "in good condition." (translation…They weren't completely destroyed by water or fire.) The only reasons I probably did it was because my husband said that he'd toss them if I didn't. He'd gotten rid of his college textbooks a few years earlier (and I almost went into shock when I saw him throw HIS away…and his were engineering books. Mine were not that technical).
I have to say in the past 10 years, I haven't missed them, nor have I had any deep desire to go back and look through them. Just do it!! Toss one and see how it makes you feel. I'm sure that the rest of them will soon follow it. To be honest, most of them are probably outdated anyway (mine were 5 years later) with all the new research that's probably happened in the last 10 years. Sad isn't it. :-/
I have a stack of binders similar to your picture!! LOL Costco had a great deal a while back. I am hoping to fill them this next year. I really enjoyed your post and wanted to let you know you are not alone I think a lot of us can relate. I have to agree with the other person who made the comment toss one book and I am sure the others will soon follow. It is hard though. I am in the middle of organizing our school stuff and I need to be ruthless but I want to keep everything!
Lori
Sorry this is anonymous, but I don't have a HomeschoolBlogger account.
Anyway, I wanted to ask you if you've seen the double binders that Wal-Mart has. Have you?? They're so cool. They come in 2 different 2 color combos. They're like 2 binders back to back. I plan to post pics soon!!
If you'd like to contact me or see my blog, it available at http://armyfamilyok.wordpress.com and is called "Commotion from the Ocean of Life".
I finally threw out the last of my books and notes from college and I graduated in 1995…I just threw out what I think is the last this past week when my husband did a dump run. I have finally decided that all my books are outdated and no longer needed. It was very freeing. Plus I also have come a long ways in my ideas of women and working outside the home. I am content at home! So home I plan to stay!