If you use workboxes...? (Cross-post)

[skeeterbug]

Is it tedious to fill them every night? I'm afraid it won't get done. Maybe I could fill them in the morning, I tend to have more energy then. But I'm afraid I'll just get tired of doing it all the time and it will all go out the window.

 

How does it work with teacher-intensive subjects with multiple children? I'm afraid that even if I stagger the subjects I would run into problems of them all needing me at once. For example, RS math, AAS, AAR, WWE 2, etc.

 

Other experiences? Love? Hate? I'd definitely use the drawers, not the shoeboxes or a file folder box.

 

I have one set of those colourful 10-drawer rolling carts. I intend to fill these (I was thinking weekly) for my 3yo. She wants to be at the school table with us and I thought workboxes would really help with activities for her. Then it occurred to me that it would be good for my new preppie (k'er) too. And then I thought, maybe my 8yo would like it too. It would help him see exactly how much he had to get done for the day and help him be a bit more independent. I'm just afraid the whole system would be too much for me to maintain. I told my dh about it and he thinks it is a great idea. I could go get the extra drawers this weekend, we start our new school year next week. (Calendar year, ps just started here.)

 

(Cross-post from Gen Ed board.)

[NoseInABook]

I have no info but I am interested in what other people have on workboxes.

[MerryAtHope]

I don't find it tedious, but my boxes (drawers) are actually labeled and stay the same. My kids were not into rotating the order or adding in extra "fun" stuff when I started, and now that they are older it wouldn't be that practical anyway.

 

My friend has a great idea for younger ones though--she has activity cards with things like "puzzles" or "jump on the trampoline for 10 minutes" etc... Those types of activities you might like to rotate but which wouldn't fit in the drawers anyway. They rotate through the cards each day (I think it's assigned to get a card on her schedule strip), so she doesn't really "load" those up.

 

Here's pics and a description of ours and how we use them. I only have to reload drawers that have material for me to check (I pull out the books I need to check, correct them, and then actually have my kids reload them!). They've helped us so much with organization. They work great for subjects with Mom too--child just keeps their materials in the box (for AAS, that's a folder with the charts etc... and a spiral notebook, and then I keep my box of their cards and their books). It makes it easy to see how to order our day so I'm not doing time with two kids at once. And if one gets done early, they know to go to the next box that doesn't need mom. I taught my kids early on not to interrupt a sibling's time with mom (except for blood, fire, broken bones etc...!) Train them in what to do, and they can ask their question when you are done with their sibling--usually only 15 minutes or so of a wait, they can do that. It also encourages them to re-read and work a bit harder to understand something--good skills to learn.

 

HTH! Merry :-)

[Um_2_4]

I have the same drawers I think you are referring to and I fill them 1x per week, not daily, except for my 3yos.

For the olders, we are getting things done that didn't use to happen. I have dd6 work on her drawers while I help ds8 with his work, like aas, history narration, other things we need to do alone. Then we switch. We do some of our subjects all together first, and if anything is left (art, projects) we do after lunch.

For the 3yos I have a large rubbermaid bin filled with large ziploc bags with activites in each one. I can easily switch them out of some of the drawers or even switch drawers between carts, since they are interchangeable.

[Samiam]

It didn't get tedious as I knew that me spending 10-15 minutes each evening, made the next morning start out much more smooth.

 

I guess it would also depend on what your curriculum is, how planned you are, etc. I have always used a curriculum that was pretty much open and go, and then I've used scheduling software (HST and now HST+) for years, so for me, it was a simple matter of reading my schedule to see what I needed to put in the boxes for the next day.

 

I did run into a few snags as far as trying to schedule this child for work that requires me, and having this child doing independent work, and overlapping. Not a huge deal, a child would just get a 5-10 minute break while waiting for me. They often enjoyed that and so it was a "treat" for them.

 

I no longer use the workbox system currently. Still have the drawers though. I used it for about 3 years, and had no complaints, but at that time, my oldest was in 5th-7th, so he was at the point where he really could do alot on his own, so it was very beneficial for him to have his workboxes all set up and ready to go so he could just take off. Plus he's the kind of guy who likes schedules, like to see what needs to be done and check the boxes. My middle was much younger, K5-2nd, and really couldn't do much on his own at all, and youngest was just toddler. Life was a bit crazier then and often I'd find that I had wanted to do something, but by the end of the day, forgot all about it. Workboxes fixed that for me, as there's nothing more visual then that "something" sitting in the workbox with a number, starting at you :).

 

I've moved away from the workboxes this year. Oldest went off to high school, and now just have Ds9 and DS6 at home. DS9 has some learning issues and DS6 is only in 1st, so there's little each can do on their own, so it's really about ME reading the schedule, not so much about THEM knowing what's next. We do several subjects together so really no point in having workboxes for those. A handful of things are seperated but even that I have them do at the same time, ie they both work on math at the same time, as they'll work on the parts they can do if I am talking to the other. And because I am using HST+ for lesson planning, I print out a weekly grid schedule (imagine Sonlight's grid , or MFW's grid...that's what mine looks like :). All that to say, that workboxes don't really suit our life at the moment. As they become older and a bit more self-sufficient, I may go back to them, or I may end up just going off my weekly grid.

[newbieoftwo]

We use almost all the same curriculum you are using and it hasn't become tedious to fill the boxes. I keep my teacher manuals on top of the cart and keep the RS A math manips in a box next to it. I simply look over the next lesson (right after we finish the days work) and place the manips or workbooks needed inside the boxes. For AAR, I just put in the activity, flashcards, or book that we need that day. If there is nothing inside my DS knows that we will be working at the whiteboard only that day. For AAS, I place a mini whiteboard with a marker and eraser in the box as he writes words out on it instead of a sheet of paper. I don't rotate the order so the box labels don't change daily. I also don't add extras in.

 

This takes about 15 mins after we finish our "school day." I love it and my DS likes to be able to see exactly what he has to finish before he can run off to play again. I also only have one child that currently has designated school time (DD sits in on lessons, but only receives her own work when she asks and that only happens occasionally now) so I can't comment on rotating out teacher-intensive subjects with independent ones. Everything we have right now is teacher-intensive.

[BatmansWife]

My 9 year old fills them for me. When she was younger, she helped me. Some drawers have the same thing...like drawer 1 is always Math...so when she's done she just puts her stuff back in it. Usually sometime at the end of the day she'll change the boxes that get different things put in there. I made a chart for each day of the week (M-F) and what goes in each drawer. After filling them she puts her choice of numbers back on (we have a bunch of different kinds) and her checkmarks.

 

In case these are helpful to anyone, here are some of my fav workboxes sites:

 

Working with Workboxes (the Circle Tags by Cassie are nice)

 

Cute number cards

 

Phineas & Ferb & Checkmarks

 

Clock In, Clock Out

 

Workbox Directory

 

a workbox blog

[KristenR]

I was never able to get regular with the work boxes. Instead I use At-A-Glance Day Charts for my young girls. It works out really well and my girls love being able to Velcro their activities on and off.

[wendyroo]

Take this with a grain of salt because my oldest is only just about to turn four. We started using work drawers a year ago just before his third birthday. So far it has worked out very well, and seeing how thing have progressed over the year, I think it will be easier and easier as he gets older. For now, we are centering our learning time around units (a certain animal, country, letter, etc). We only use four drawers, so I created a planning grid with four columns and six rows. The columns are labeled with our general learning areas: math, literacy, fine motor skills, and crafts and projects related to the unit. I fill my grid with different ideas of what will go in his boxes each day and then I gather all of the supplies for the unit. Each evening I just grab the appropriate materials and put them in the boxes. It takes me about 30-60 minutes to plan a unit and about 5 minutes per day to fill the boxes.

 

The reason I think it will get easier as he gets older is what was mentioned by previous posters - once you are working through a curriculum there is less daily planning involved. In the past few months I have introduced Singapore Essentials A and AAR. He uses them about every other day, and on those days it is super easy just to throw those books in the drawer and open them to the bookmark. When he progresses to the point that he is using a certain math or reading program everyday that will make loading those boxes even easier.

 

Wendy

[MerryAtHope]

Merry I started using your teacher's binder this week and it has made all the difference in the world. Our school day went so much smoother. I wasn't constantly just remembering something else we needed to do. Also at the end of the day I could look back on the schedule/journal and see that we had accomplished quite a bit (instead of wondering where the heck the morning went!). Thank you!

You're welcome, so glad it's been helpful!

[skeeterbug]

Thank you all! This has been so encouraging. I'm ready to give it a go I think. I'm not sure I'll have time to come up with a great schedule before we start on Monday, so I may have to wing it the first week. I'm sure the novelty will carry us through, the kids will be excited just because it is something different. Once I've seen how it works for us I'll be able to come up with a bit of a plan going forward. I hope. ;) Our first day of school is just going to be mostly fun and games anyway, so we probably won't start most of our schoolwork until the next day.

[anmom]

We love workboxes here, I cant imagine it any other way. I have folders for each week that I have pulled all worksheets etc and placed in them during my planning time. Each day I just pull their assignments from the folders and pack their boxes. It takes me less than 5 minutes!

[TyraTooters]

Resurfacing an old post! Anyone else using workboxes? I'm thinking it might help us all out as I'm a bit unorganized and the boxes might help us all stay on task. Ours will mostly stay the same with Math Mammoth, WWE, FLL, reading, COH Road Trip USA, SOTW, Bible/devotions, and some sort science. Of course we won't be doing all those every day. So,e days will be lighter than others and on the lighter days I'm thinking we might do an activity/craft to go along with a book he's reading, science experiment, or a LA activity.

[happypamama]

I use the workboxes, and it's pretty easy.  Some books just stay in the same boxes, like their copywork notebooks, so I just write or check off the quote I want them to copy.  Or, DS's books for History Odyssey stay in his history workbox, and he just looks in the notebook for the next thing to do.  I really like the workboxes for things that rotate -- DD knows that if she has a card saying "Logic" in her "general skills" workbox, she's to read a chapter of her logic book, or if I've put the book Figuratively Speaking in that box, she knows to read that, and if there's nothing but her copywork notebook, she knows to do copywork that day.  Or for language -- the children either have their Latin materials in their box or a card that says "Mango," so they know that they either need to get the computer to do Mango or wait for me to do Latin with them (they alternate who does Mango and who does Latin).  Workboxes really cut down on what I have to tell them to do, without me having to write everything out every day in a checklist, and it does let me put materials together.  (Although, not everything fits in the workboxes, so we have a plastic basket where we can put binders standing up.)

 

For group subjects, I keep the workboxes for those on my desk.  Each child has a stack of boxes (two for the pre-Kers, six each for the big kids: history, math, general skills, literature, language, and writing), and there are a couple of boxes on my desk for science and rotating subjects like art and geography.

[BatmansWife]

I seem to be tweaking our workboxes each year.  Just a few weeks ago I changed it again, so it's different now than it was when I replied to this post before.  I think this is my 3rd major tweak to the workboxes.  I printed up a daily schedule, one page per day of the week with what is to be done that day (example: Monday ~ Math, Grammar, History, etc...).  Each page is printed on bright paper and put in a page protector in a binder I labeled as my dd's school schedule.  She uses a wipe off marker to check off what she does each day.  But, instead of multiple boxes or drawers (which were my initial workboxes and then my 1st tweak  :lol: )....we are using 1 box.  I found these really cute plastic bins at Target (my dd's looks like this...but only it's 1 box, not 3.  My son's box has wide navy blue stripes, couldn't find a pic; looks like a rugby shirt).  The box holds everything for that day.  We can use the schedule to know what goes in there for the next day.  I feel that so far this has been my best workbox tweak.  It just makes everything so much easier.  As much as I love the cute little tags and such...just doing what's in the box is working out really well for us. 

[Jess4879]

We are using a modified version.  Most of our subjects (AAS, BJU, TT, etc) are a "do the next lesson" type thing, so instead of reloading multiple drawers, I opted to use crates.  Another reason we went with crates was because a lot of of our books are very large and bulky and don't fit well in drawers.  Each child has their own crate and then we have a "family" crate for the subjects we do together.  All of the books for each child are in their crates. They know which books they work on solo, and these get finished during quite time in the afternoon (when Mommy is spending a few moments rebooting the system.LOL)  I have a "daily checklist" and we just work out way through it.  When something is done and needs correcting, it gets piled on the floor by the table.  For me, if I'm not tripping over it, I forget it. LOL 

 

So far it's been working very well.  I also find the kids are more likely to glance through the science and history books when they are out in the open for them to see.