I have some different ideas floating around in my head thanks to TMom and suggesting putting things together for the week instead of the day for our older kids... one thought involves just index cards used in a "deal a meal" type system (gotta love vintage Richard Simmons right?). These are just playing around in my head.. once I can picture all the aspects I will share.
I think it was worth getting the eBook personally. I'm going back to it a lot. I also got the "starter kit" which arrived today and I'm getting set up. Ok - I can put big books in the shoeboxes. There are different SIZES of shoeboxes (just to blow your mind).... I had smaller ones at the house and dang it if they just don't work for me next to these other ones (I thought they would). But I'm keeping with 10 boxes each, even though I have room for the 12. The book even states 10-12 boxes. Paying for the starter kit was worth it because I didn't feel like laminating The number sheets came in purple and orange... no arguments from the kids - and I got laminated schedule sheets to work with (also color coordinated) which will work as well. All the stuff though is available to download and print yourself after you buy the book - which would definitely be cheaper.... but I am too busy right now to think about it.
tell me about this deal a meal thing? With index cards? ( I secretly love indexcards! I love the ideas that come with them! Perfect for flash cards writingnotes or whatever!)
Ok.. my thoughts.. first you have to remember how deal a meal worked, and I'm sure you do.. you started the day with x number of cards for each of the food groups and you moved them from one side of the folder to the other...when you were done with your cards you were done for the day.. well my thought follows that on a weekly scale. Right now my brain is picturing a file folder made into a "deal a meal" folder.. pockets on each side. You fill in the left side of the folder with the cards at the start of the week... say you want to have math 5 times, spelling 3, grammar 5 etc. You have that many cards in the left. After they complete an assignment in that subject they move the card to the right side of the folder. I have thought about well you could write the assignments on the index cards.. but then thought twice about it and came up with the idea of writing out a page of what an assignment is for each subject.. like one math lesson, 2 pages of grammar, writing spelling words, doing worksheet or taking test etc.. heck you could write just what counts as an assignment on the lined side of the index card. And since the workbox system focuses so much on making sure to include the fun things.. you have to remember to put in like 5 fun activities.. that would also teach the kids to have some control.. if you do all your fun activities on Monday then you can't complain on Friday when you are doing 5 math lessons :lol:
I love index cards too! I bought a huge pack when I bought my sets of drawers and plan on using them to put in the drawers with fun things for the girls to do as well as little notes just for fun or to say I love you. I am really excited about all the ideas I keep finding here.
Cool idea Sommer! That would be an interesting way to give the kid more control over what they do when and it wouldn't take up a bunch of space. I'm still trying to decide if workboxes would work with my personality (and lack of follow through), and even more importantly if they would work for my boys. I talked to my oldest a bit about they idea and he doesn't seem interested
That is exactly why I'm afriad to put the effort into making the system up. I am an unschooler wanna be at heart, but I feel I need to give some direction and use some organized curriculum.. this would let me do just that but also allows Garrett lots of flexability! Also.. if it's just cards in the folder.. I dont' have to load something up with anything specific every day or even every week.
Yeah, I am afraid I will get all the boxes and then hate having to find stuff to put in them after a week or two. There is a part of me that loves the idea of unschooling, too, but I just am not comfortable enough to go with it and I know my husband would not be thrilled He's all for me doing some creative things and realizes the kids learn all the time, but he also feels there is a time and place for text books, especially in things like math (he is an engineer after all, LOL). Lately I have been having a hard time getting the fun stuff into our days it is more like school at home, just much faster. The math, phonics and language pages get done each day and then he is asking, "am I done yet?" So we need some changes to make our day more fun and fit in a bit more as we tackle 2nd grade next year. Plus I will be doing more organized stuff with the younger this yea,r too.
Yep.. that sums me up completely.. well and the fact that if I left Garrett do his own thing he would sit in front of the video games all day. I do love "living math", but i also think that there needs to be organized math too. I'm thinking some of the fun things for Garrett could be things like play a game with the little ones, play on Clubpenguin, play one of the school games (we have lots), play a math game from Family Math books, make up a game etc. My brain is working overtime right now.. and I am so tired I should be crawling into bed!
I love the meal a deal idea! IT is soo cool ... I am thinking, I could really do this! I could write my sons weekly Math lessons down, on the cards instead of a list of things.... And WS and DGs and Vocab. History too.. I think.. I am kind of doing like Do lesson such and such, but OH wait Math is Sos, I can tell him to work for so many hours on that.. its review so the first 6 months or Units will go by sooooooooooooo fast! Science and Math will be easy, but I am going to have him print His tests so he can write on them and hand them in too,or write the answers on paper after he takes the Test so he could put them in the files..maybe.... I always plan to have them print the tests but, never remember to do it. Oh well, I am really liking the file thing .. even if Ijust do my M- t w th f files with lessons for the day in it and a IN file for turning in the checked off stuff... it would work. So many things you can do with this concept isnt there? btw I have a really bad time after November We fight to get half way by Chriistmas break and then get lost from January to June Lol I am always behind in February too somehow... lol. So I have to find a method with only one to teach at home right?
Personally, I recommend the e-book. She goes into more depth of WHY she recommends doing things certain ways and it is a fairly quick read. I read through it in bits and pieces of time in a 24 hour time span. Space would definitely be a concern. But her reasoning is that 1-with the box, they can see the fun stuff coming up to motivate them to work through the less fun stuff 2-you both can easily see what they have not completed 3-it motivates you to add fun stuff to each day but "tricks" the kids into learning while having fun 4-as the boxes disappear after each completed task, the kids see their progress. There are probably more reasons I cannot remember right now. Honestly, I did a quick explanation to my kids and they ho-hum'd the idea. But I think they might like it once we try.
Definately lots of things to think about. I will definately be thinking about the index card idea would be a good fit for us. Or if I want to do boxes. In some ways the visability of the clear boxes might be a very good thing for my boys. Board games and puzzles are things I want to spend more time on. I'm not against tv and video games, but in our house lately we have been spending more time with those things than I would like. Thankfully the weather is finally nice so we are spending much more time outside.
Chase loves the workboxes, he gets his work done a lot faster without all the complaining. I like it b/c it forces me to get things together. I need to get more manipulative type stuff and I'm working on it. Tomorrow for our boxes, we have (this is not typical, we are taking a break from our regular stuff for 4th of July stuff) 1) dictorary and words to look up for our 4th of July Lapbook 2) Lapbook mini book - why we celebrate 4th of July 3) Lapbook mini book - how we celebrate 4th of July 4) Lapbook mini book - Flag Facts w/ the facts we talked about today 5) art project 6) worksheet 7) legos 8) book about 4th of July 9) Math Magic Cubes (we'll do these on the board together) 10) Word Ladder Page 11) Art Project 12) Cut and Color Page
While I totally understand her beliefs.. and they will work for many, they won't work for everyone. Some of us have kids that if they saw something fun coming up, they would be rushing through anything before it and not putting any effort into it just so they can "play" for a while. I am sure I'm not the only one who would be hard pressed to find the time to keep coming up with fresh ideas for fun things, it would be a struggle for me just to keep up with filling the boxes every day for 3 kids and caring for the baby. My favorite "system" in homeschool is that every "system" is flexable and can be made into what ever you want it to be
so like you could do the index cards with the words on them, and put them in the boxes with the stuff... like for my ds being 11 I would make him collect the items needed from the drawers I plan to put the pencils, protractors, compases, etc etc, in. This will make it like a treasure hunt. And when he is done the cards are gone... I could make a box for him to take them out of actually and then place them in the file pockets as the job is complete? hey I like this! woo hoo! If I had bigger boxes I could use them for his big books, but I think the drawers will be the right fit for History MOH is BIG Text book and Activity book both! I need something that fits a Binder size too for writing and stuff...
That's what I like about this system, I've seen so many variations of it that work for everyone's family and no two systems are a like. I love the idea, but I don't execute it like Sue recommends at all.
I am just mentioning her reasoning. I am hardly an expert. LOL! I don't even have it set up yet. I am about the most unorganized person ever. Each day for the last few months I would be like "what lesson are you on in math? OK, do the next 2" and so on. I am horrible at keeping up with grading, and things are piled everywhere so we spend half the time trying to find such and such book. I totally need a big kick in the pants and hope this will do it. It does seem like a fairly flexible system. Sometimes it just helps to see the "why" and not just the "what" to help understand how it works.
Sommer, my ds would totally rush through stuff if he could see the "fun" stuff! that is why we use manilla envelopes, they dont know what is coming next, but can see the stack getting smaller, lol
