Well, the last blog was just the start of getting my stuff together. Since then, I have been to a 2 day home school convention and came home feeling fully refreshed and encouraged! One of the talks I went to at the convention was about 'workboxes'. This was the system I am trying to figure out as well. Very informative, as the lady who was presenting stated to make sure you do what works best for your own family. She also gave a ton of ideas to use in the boxes, and I plan to post some of those later.
We are using Sonlight, so all the work of figuring out what to do each day is already done for me. This is a very important part of using work boxes. You can also go day by day, but I think that way is a lot more work for us. So here is what I have done:
~I didn't buy too much new stuff, but used what boxes, bins, and shelves I already had. I think this saved me a small fortune!
~ Dollaramma is a God-send to parents on a tight budget. They actually have quite a bit of stuff that you can add in to your daily routine. Even if you only use it once or twice, the price is right.
~ I did buy some bankers boxes (cardboard), hanging file folders, and 4 different colored regular folders to help keep the kids work separate.
~The biggest part of the job was just sorting through all of the stuff I had acquired and grouping them together in separate boxes. Eg: History, Math, Science, Bible, LA, Arts and Crafts etc.
Here is a look at that:
It's starting to come together.
We brought up another smaller bookshelf that was just in storage. Now our school area is looking good. Everything in it's place.
So here are the bankers boxes with the kids work in. The one on the left for Sarah and Evan, on the right Ryan and Austin. Each hanging folder for each subject, and inside the hanging folders, color coded regular folders for each child. The little notes that say: Start Day on the front are used to 'punch in' for the day.
Here is a look at how each child keeps track of what they need to do each day. I drew out some boxes on fancy construction paper and put them in page protectors. Some people might like to laminate, but I found that too expensive. Also, I already had a full box of protectors with my scrapbook stuff. Then I added Velcro stickers. Each number or subject corresponds to a hanging folder in their box. These hanging folders have the matching number on the front. I used Velcro sticker on them as well to make it easier to switch things around and change the schedule. In their folders is the work for them to do each day. I copied the Sonlight guide for the older kids, and just wrote out directions for the younger 2.
They look in this book, find the folder that matches the number, do the work in that folder, take off the number sticker form this book and put it in a little box on the side, (notice how the number 1 is missing in the photo) and go on to the next step. They can see at a glance ALL the work the have to complete each day, and can manage their time as they see fit. Although I encourage them to get as much done in the morning as possible. I think that this will take some tweaking on my part, after we have used it a bit.
We have using this new method for a whole 2 days now, and everyone really likes it. LOL. They like knowing when their day will be done, and finding surprises in their folders from me. In the fall, each one my children will be working on their own core from Sonlight, so then they will each have their own box and not have to share.
