Hi, I was wondering if anyone uses work boxes in their school and what they put in them? Do you require your child to finish them in one fell swoop or just say have it done by a certain time? This is my first year homeschooling with two kids and I make all our lessons up. I just thought work boxes may work for an easier for Mom day on occasion. :angel:
I don't use workboxes in the same way most people do, but I do have a workbox system for the 2nd grader. I won't be doing anything structured with the younger one until K-1st. My "workboxes" are actually a stack of file boxes. Each has an assignment (math, latin, etc.), with the top box being the "done" box. That way he can see clearly how much is left to do each day. They have to be done in order, but I don't care when he does them. (Because if it were up to him, math would be the last box, and he'd never have time for it. :lol: )
Workboxing.... HI! I used them this past year mid way through for my 1st grader. Our 1st year to HS and I loved them as did my daughter. I have some stuff on my blog if you want to see. I will for sure be using them again this year. Have fun! http://homeschooljourneytogether.blogspot.com/
Love your file folder games. I am going to check some out and get some made for the summer work. Thanks for posting your blog, it's great!
I plan on doing a variation of the workboxes for this upcoming year. I bought a rolling cart with 10 colorful drawers for each of my girls. I haven't used it yet so I can't give an opinion of it yet. I am looking forward to reading how everyone else uses their boxes/files.
I have always used a checklist (for the past 9 years!) , but got out the materials for the kids. Last year I used a modified version of it - since we use so many books, notebooks, and folders, it is easier for us to use those magazine holders instead. I can still put activities and the like in the holder, with their books and stuff. My biggest thing is we do so much together - especially when it comes to art, history and science projects/ experiments - that mostly it is their regular work with some small bonus activities that they do on their own - I don't really need whole boxes of stuff for them as a result.
gwenny- I was thinking the same that I do so much work with them and lessons. Also since some days we start with one thing and end up wandering off topic onto another I wonder if this would work at all. I love the idea but am having a hard time seeing it being implemented in any useful way. Can anyone tell me what your kids feel about them? Do they work as smoothly as they are purported to or do you find yourself reminding kids to finish their work?
I used a form of workboxes for a few month last year. Each child had a filebox with folders in it. It worked pretty well for us. I liked the fact that the kids could see how much was left instead of asking. Another plus was that I remembered to add in the fun stuff, puzzles, games and crafts more often. But then I got lazy and didn't have the boxes filled each day and we slipped back into the just doing the basics rut. When asked if they want to do it again both my boys gave a resounding "NO!" But neither is verbalizing good reasons why. I have mixed feelings about giving it up, because I did see some positives in our house when we used them.
Are they saying "NO" because they don't want to do school or are they saying "NO" to the system you used?
It's no to the workboxes. They would rather just have me hand them the next thing they need to do instead of having the boxes.
Since we've been using checklists for several years, I don't really have to keep up with reminding, especially with my ds 13. He turns on auto-pilot and just chugs through his list. What I like about the box idea is that the kids know where to find stuff and where to put it back. Since the boxes are labeled, they can find their spelling in their language arts box. All their basics are there, including notebooks that they use with me for group work. Then I try to pop in some fun extras - math activities and puzzles, science extras, etc. The only thing is, I do tell them on their checklist on what day to use those puzzles etc, or they would only do the fun stuff and that's it! My checklists have become very detailed. The biggest difference with what we do is we use the boxes to support that checklist, instead of the workbox method of using the checklist to support the boxes. Does that make sense? An example of one of our checklists is on my familyd.50megs.com blog if you want to see what it looks like. I include on them when to watch video clips (and show them before hand where the clips are on the computer) vocab, long term projects, when to work with mom - EVERYTHING. Good luck with your organization - I need to get my butt in gear and get lesson plans for my oldest going. My younger two are good, but high school is killing me!
