Organizing Challenge Cards from The Mystery of History

Last year I wrote about our Jeopardy game for The Mystery of History Challenge Cards, and then a month or so ago I wrote to you about how I added in science questions for spiral review.

I finally discovered a genius way to store all of my (affiliate link) The Mystery of History Challenge Cards. Are you ready to hear about it?

I used these supplies:

• colored cardstock (lighter colors work better than dark ones)
• standard, business size mailing envelopes
• permanent markers
• manila envelopes

I printed my challenge cards on different colored cardstock.

1. The Mystery of History Vol. I Challenge Cards on green
2. The Mystery of History Vol II Challenge Cards on white
3. The Mystery History Vol, III Challenge Cards on blue
4. The Mystery of History Vol. IV Challenge Cards on pink

Of course, the actual colors don’t really matter as long as they are easily recognizable. With the different colors, I am able to easily able to see which year the cards are for when sorting them.

Next I labeled my envelopes in multiples of 3 (1-3, 4-6, 7-9, etc) to divide the year by the weeks of study. Because I’m a very visual person I needed the actual lesson numbers on my envelopes. Otherwise I sat there doing math for a minute to figure out which lessons that was.  I also referenced the Table of Contents to verify I wasn’t getting my math wrong halfway through. Dividing my cards into the envelopes saved me time for my daily lessons when I used the cards.

Once I cut out the cards, I placed them into the envelopes by their lesson number.  I paid my kids 25 cents a page to cut out the cards because I hate cutting out cards. I also chose to cut on the solid lines rather than the dashed lines because the cards fit better in my calendar pocket chart. As a bonus, the cards also fit better in the standard mailing envelopes.

Then I labeled the manila envelopes with the volume of The Mystery of History and put in all the envelopes for that volume.

Now as I cover a week in The Mystery of History I add the challenge cards from that lesson into my jeopardy board. I am organized for each of our spiral review sessions, and our homeschool day runs more smoothly for my advanced preparation.