Workboxes

I get asked a lot of questions about homeschooling and how we can practically get it done....so I decided I would blog about some of the "secrets" we've figured out over the past 8 years for those of you interested. 

So today I'll tell about workboxes....Please try to contain your excitement :)

I love workboxes because they quite simply changed my life.  I know they don't look too exciting...but they really are!  I did not come up with this concept.....I rarely have an original idea....I love to read and research and borrow all the ideas other people have!  The set on the far left of the picture is shared by The Baby and The Twinkies, The middle set belongs to The Boy, and the set to the right belong to The Girl. 

Each evening I fill each child's box with their schoolwork for the next day.  So simple....yet so amazing!
1. It keeps everything organized.
2. It keeps the kids from asking me every 15 minutes what to do next.
3. They are motivated to work as they see their boxes come off the shelf...and the empty space.  They can immediately see how much is left.
4. It forces me to plan ahead so we are ready to go in the morning.

The Little Ones Boxes are filled with
1-Preschool Activity: Craft to go with theme, song, Cubbie verse, Speech work
2-Special Toy of the Day: Monday (coloring books) Tuesday (blocks) Wednesday (cars) and Friday (Play-Doh)
3- Movie
4-Book for Story time
5-Activity Bag (This are zip lock bags filled with an activity: ie tracing, simple craft, simple counting/sorting etc...that a preschooler can do independently)
6-Art Monday (Finger Paint) Tuesday (Water paint) Wednesday (cutting) Friday (project)
7-Game
8-Room time
9-Outside Time
10-Free Play
11-Sibling Play
12- Mommy's Choice of Activity

They know to go to the first box and we do preschool together, then to get the second box and the three little ones can play with the toy of the day together, get the third box and they watch a movie mom has already picked out (so no arguing!)....etc.  We throw in lunch and snacks and sometimes have to reorder boxes to fit with the other kids schedules but it works.....

The Girl's Boxes are:
1-Bible Reading/Sparks verse
2. Handwriting
3-Phonics
4-Spelling
5-Reading
6-Writing Activity
7-Math
8-Story time
9-History
10-Art
11-Home Ec
12-Other

The Boy's Boxes are:
1-Devotional
2-Keyboarding (Tues/Fri) and Health (Mon/Wed)
3-Math
4-History
5-Story time
6-Writing
7-Spelling
8-Grammar
9-Vocabulary
10-Guitar Practice
11-Reading
12- Spanish (Tues/Fri) Geography (Mon/Wed)

The Boy and The Girl Also have cards that are put between their boxes with things like:
Chores
Outside Play
Play with younger siblings (this is an assigned activity and assigned sibling   for example I may tell The girl to play Candy Land with the Twinkie Girl and The Boy to play army with The Twinkie Boy while I play Little people with The Baby)
Lunch
Room time (we all have room time everyday for 1 hour.....RARE is the exception)

That is it....it is so simple....but it is a sure way to make sure everybody gets their responsibilities done for the day and that everyone get enough mom time and that mom uses her time wisely. 

So.....that is why I LOVE WORKBOXES!  It's made homeschooling so much more efficient and helped us manage our time better.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
Night!
Kim