Sunday, June 27, 2010

Workboxes?

Have you heard of workboxes?
You know, I had not really heard about them before, but have recently heard them mentioned, or ran across them on a blog, several times.
I was thinking, OK, so you get your kids a box to hold all of their daily school stuff.  Right?
So, that's what I did!
Then, I decided, to go back to some of those blogs and see exactly how others put together their workboxes.
What I found was that you use many workboxes, not just one. HMMM...
So, what to do???
I actually decided to stick with what I have, at least for now.
So, while what I am doing may not be considered a true workbox, I think it will work for me.
What I did was to get each kid their own different colored box, that was big enough to hold all of their daily work.
I was so tired of always having to find their work, or some of  it being missing, that we couldn't even do it!
And pencils, my nemesis, where do they all keep going? Seriously, I probably have thousands of pencils "somewhere". And when we do find a pencil, there is no eraser, even though I have bought many extra pencil erasers.
Anyhow, I decided that their own box with their own bag of pencils, glue, scissors, etc., contained in the box would work well.
I really do like the idea though of the many boxes, because you wouldn't have to search through the box for each subject, but since we are to be moving soon, I will stick with this, but I may switch after we move.
What do I keep in their boxes? It is different for each child, but it is their daily stuff. Stuff that they will repeatedly use.
In My 5 year old son's box, he has:
Handwriting Without Tears
A Math Workbook ( He LOVES math)
A Bible
A Phonics Workbook
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
A Phonics CD and the accompanying chart
A bag with his own scissors, glue, glue stick, star stickers, etc..
Crayons, Colored Pencils, Pencils.

In my 13 year old daughter's box she has:
Her math books
History Book (one that we are currently using. Will usually be a living book for history)
Daily Grams
A Bible
A Notebook
A Book that she is using or Copy Work
A Geography Book
A bag with pencils, glue, glue sticks, scissors, calculator, etc..
Crayons, Colored Pencils, A Ruler
Her Timeline Figures 
Her Drawing basics Book

This is all I can think of right now, but you get the idea!
I am also going to tape their schedules to the undersides of their lids! I think this is a good idea, so that they can know what to do!
Of Course, my 5 year old's schedule would be more for me. HA
I even made a box for myself for my Teachers Guides!
Here are some pics of what I have done.



I hope this helps those of you that either don't want to, or can't use the typical work
box system.
This is also great for on the go! You can just pick up your box and take it with you!
For those of you that are interested in the typical workbox system, this is a great blog to explain it.
This is where I first saw the workbox system.
http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/2009/11/workbox-system.html
have FUN organizing YOUR homeschool!

.

7 comments:

Marie said...

Rodna I do something similar to you also. I read about the workbox system last summer and started thinking it would be neat to have one big box for each boy and have it on wheels so we could take it to the kitchen if we wanted. Then my sister-n-law cleaned out her kids bedrooms and gave me two of those big storage bins on wheels. They each have three large drawers. One was pink (and it didn't actually have the wheels) so I put that one in my daughters room for her toys. The other one is in our homeschool/computer room. Top drawer is my stuff, second is my oldest sons, and the third drawer is my middle sons.
Since my middle son didn't do his work in the homeschool room, he didn't use his as much as my older son.
I hope I can get a little more organized next year. I still haven't purchased any of our curriculum for next year :-( I need to get on the ball!!

Wendy said...

Hi Rodna,

I am now following your blog. :) I enjoyed your post about getting your school things organized. I'm always interested in how other people organize their materials and even their school days. We have a big walk-in pantry where we keep our school stuff (and also our food, of course!). I have one crate (like milk crates but these are colorful and pretty)for each child and one for myself. They are big enough to keep all of our books and materials in, and they also have handles for easy carrying if we need to get them out of the pantry for some reason. They are made of heavy-duty plastic, too, so they should last for a long time! We bought them at Wal-Mart.

I enjoyed your blog! Hope you keep enjoying your summer-even if it is hot! :)

Rodna Allman said...

Hey Wendy!
I have crated like that too that we keep our stuff in.
I actually posted pics here
http://trainingchildrenupforchrist.blogspot.com/2008/10/how-do-i-organize-all-those-notebooks.html
Are these the same ones?

Kristi said...

Rodna,

There are so many cool ideas out there I am now completely baffled as to what might work for us. This year will be the first year for 2 kids. Last year it was simple. I pulled everything I needed on Sunday when I planned my week, put it in MY spot and then each night filled a folder with what was needed the next day.

This year I add a preschooler alongside my 1st grader and I'm puzzled. Workboxes just really wouldn't work right now because they will be doing next to nothing by themselves.

I like your school box idea. I will have to file that up in my head and see where and how it rattles out. :)

Thanks for sharing.

Rodna Allman said...

Hi Kristi. Thanks for stopping by.
I am thinking, just keep it as simple as possible.
Maybe one spot for their books, and one for yours?

Heather Jones said...

Hi Rodna,
I'm checking your blog out. I just joined the OKC area homeschool group. I bought boxes at first and then found myself using backpacks instead! :) It turned out that the boxes limited us too much. Kids can carry backpacks practically anywhere, and it made homeschooling easy for us to accomplish at the park when weather would permit or at an appointment if we needed to take care of family business out in town.
I keep most of my other homeschool stuff in those banker boxes though.

Neat blog.

Heather Jones

Rodna Allman said...

Thanks Heather!
I know what you mean. This is a temporary setting for us. We will be moving soon and I wanted to simplify, but we have taken our boxes with us a few places, but I have also had the kids pack a few things in a backpack when we go places as well. Thanks for stopping by!!!

Beyond the Stick Figure Art School/ TOS Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not requir...