We love workboxes!

"Workboxes" is a system of homeschooling which allows children to be more independent in their daily studies.  The originator of this system is Sue Patrick, and her ideas have become increasingly popular with homeschoolers across the U.S.  Because the full system is very detailed and in-depth, and requires a great amount of prep work for the teaching parent, it's not a good fit for our family.  However, there is one part we absolutely love!

This.  This is the part we love.

Above is a picture of our workbox "towers."  From left to right, they belong to Seth, Caleb, and Sarah.  In the close up pictures below, you can see that there are numbers stuck to the front of the drawers with Velcro.  When a child finishes his first drawer, he takes the number off the front of the drawer and puts it on the card that sits on top of the tower.  

This is the card that sits on top of Seth's tower.

The next set of pictures shows examples of what things are in the drawers.  The kids are not allowed to take a sticker off of a drawer, marking it "finished," until all books and supplies are back in the drawer. 

 

Below is a tower in progress.  When all the boxes are done, school is done for the day.  No more questions and worries about when we'll be done.  Now everyone knows!

Three down, three to go!

In order to keep the kids motivated to use the workboxes, I also have activity cards that say, "15 minutes on computer," "20 minutes on Wii Fit or Outdoor Challenge," and "Game of your choice with Mom."  Next week I will add other games and surprises for the kids.  My goal is to have a good balance of school work, chores, and fun stuff in our boxes.  So far, so good.

Best upside?  Besides the organization and independent work, the best upside is having everything we need for projects or crafts right in the drawer waiting for us.  No more searching around at the last minute for glue or an extra pair of scissors.  SO time-saving! 

Oh, and this serene homeschool moment is all thanks to workboxes...

 

And so are these happy munchkin faces...

Here's the down side... more prep work for Mom.  In order for this to work properly and be successful, I have to reload the boxes every afternoon or evening.  I can see now that I need to prep everything on the weekends so I can reload them quickly.  Otherwise, it's too time-consuming. 

The parts of the workbox system that we are leaving out include making "centers" (think Science Fair tri-fold displays) to teach concepts or info to the kids.  That would take more time, work, energy, and money than I'm willing or able to give at this time in life... or ever.  Maybe if I could come up with smaller-scale ideas...

Anyway, that's our current gig.  Thanks for reading... and leaving a comment... *hint hint*