Mom's Workbox

I'm on a yahoo group about workboxes for homeschooling our children and recently there has been a lot of discussion about workboxes for Mom.  It actually makes me chuckle a bit because I started a simple workbox for myself before I started workboxes for my children.  

Here is what I've been doing.  I'm starting out simple and not overloading my workbox with tasks.  I actually want to be successful before I add more to it... but in a regular card file (3x5 or 5x6) I have my first tab file that says, "today".  Behind that and slightly to the right is "tomorrow".  I have a few cards that I do daily that I routinely ignore behind the "today" tab.  When I do the task, I move it behind "tomorrow".  The next tab I have is "This week" and behind that is "next week".  Behind the tab for today, one of the cards is "do something from this week's tab".  Obviously these are things that I need to do weekly but regularly skip or they escape my radar somehow.  Things like menu planning or blog.  Behind the tab for "next week" I have tabs for "this month", "next month", "this season" and "next season". 

At the end of each day, I simply move the "tomorrow" card behind all the individual task cards and start again.  No one has to reload my boxes for me and things are starting to get done around here!  LOL!  (at the end of each week, I do the same thing with the "this week" "next week" cards, and so on across the system.)

I'm a past flybaby but found that whole notebook system to be cumbersome.  I abandoned it because if anything in my life needed to be added or deleted from my "control journal" I felt like I had to go to my computer and recreate a whole new print out for whatever list it pertained to.  With this system, I just add one more card as I see fit.  And if some card's task has become autopilot, I can just take the card out and trash it.  No need to reprint the entire system like I felt I needed to with Flylady.  (I love Flylady, don't misread that.  I think the woman is offering an amazing ministry to "messies" like me.  The control journal and the email reminders were too much for me though.)

Anyway... here are some pictures to help out my visual friends.  

I certainly don't think this system is original to me.  I believe FlyLady herself even references a similar system in her book.  Still, I hope it will inspire someone else to create a workable system tailored just for her.

Blessings!

ETA:  Thank you to Marni who helped me recall where I got the original idea for this.  It came from Side-tracked Home Executives.  http://www.shesintouch.com/  FlyLady did refer to this book in Sink Reflections.  I own both.  I really enjoy the books and recommend them if you have a few extra dollars.  

Math U See - Addition Facts

At my house, we're using the Math U See program.  I have to tell you that I really wish I'd learned math this way!  One thing I'm going to be fanatical about with my children is math drills.  As such, I'm currently drilling in the addition facts.  My children are learning them via the Math U See method of introducing them (Alpha lessons 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, and 17).

I am blessed to have an iPhone and for Christmas this past year, my daughter received an iTouch.  Lucky us, we get to use the free Quizlet software with our $2 application purchase for our apple products.  That means I can put any flash cards I can make online on our iPhone or iTouch devices.

I just made up flash cards for all the addition facts over at Quizlet.com. Click that link and you'll see all the flash cards I made.  (If the link fails, visit quizlet.com and search Math U See.  All of mine will be under the user name faithfulmommy.)  When I whipped them up, I made them according to the MUS lessons so they are not set up in a traditional method.  As you go through the alpha program, you can add the appropriate flash cards to your device according to what your child has just learned.  Now, here is the really cool part...  even if you don't have an apple device you can print these cards off!  I've just done that myself so I can drill the cards any 'ole time I like via the good old fashion hard copy flash card method.  Print them off, glue the back, fold them in half and you have yourself some flash cards!  Yahoo!  Easy Peasy.  Naturally, I laminated mine because if something doesn't move at my house, I might just laminate it...  Ha!

Here they are in all their glory...

I hope it serves you!

First day of school

Last week our children were away visiting the grandparents for the week.  What a blessing to have an entire week to prepare for homeschool!  I started the week by attending our local homeschool convention.  Who in their right mind would think that I would enjoy that so much?!  I purchased some curriculum, I listened to some speakers and I learned a few good tips for ways to run our school.  The remainder of the week I laminated until I thought I broke the machine, I read ideas all over the internet, I printed, I planned and I scheduled.

I've decided to run school in six week cycles here at our house.  I've also decided to use Sue Patrick's Workbox system.  

I don't like the idea of using shoe boxes because not everything fits in the shoe boxes.  I don't like the idea of some of my workbooks and projects not fitting into the box properly so I went on a hunt to find just the right boxes for my house.  Thanks to my friend Julia, I found these cool boxes over at my local Dollar Tree.  When turned one way, they nest into each other.  When turned opposite ways, they stack.  Super cool.  Big enough for most of my projects, tidy when the day is complete.

Last week during my planning time, I made custom workbox tags for each child.  My 6 year old got Star Wars Legos, my 5 year old got Indiana Jones Legos and my 8 year old daughter got Kit Kittredge.  I found blank workbox tags at Confessions of a Homeschooler blog.  Scroll down to her workbox section and find the download for "blank workbox numbers."  I then went out to the internet under google images and found images that I wanted for each child.  I saved them and resized them so they were 1.5 inches tall and 1 inch wide.  Placed them each 12 times onto a new document and printed.  Then I cut them out, glue sticked them to the blank space on the downloaded document and laminated.  Adhered my velcro dots to the boxes, the schedule strip and the back of each individual number.  Voila!  A custom workbox plan for each child.

When I am planning my workboxes for the week, I use this excel spreadsheet.  However, not owning the Microsoft software to run it, I downloaded it and use Open Office (free) software instead.  On the same blog link I shared above, scroll down into the Workbox printables section again and click workbox planning worksheet.  Save it and then open it in Open Office (if you don't own Excel).  

The thing I love about this is that I can plan for our group time for the items we are all working on together.  Then the kids can proceed to the assigned workboxes I have planned for the day.  It also gives me three pages in my planner that I can look at each night to fill the workboxes quickly and pretty easily.  I can lay it all out ahead and the next morning starts out pretty smooth.  

This was only day one but it went well for us.  I'm sure things will get tweaked at my house as we use the system more but after day one, I can tell you that I think I've found the framework to structure our school.  

For day one, school was completed in about 2 hours with three kids working together with Mom's help.  In group time we covered the order of the months of the year, the order of the days of the week, our verse for this six week session, the 8 history cards we're learning this week, skip counting by twos, prayer and reading a chapter from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Mason (age 5) completed 9 boxes that included following instructions for sticker placement, math, lacing, tracing, handwriting, story sequencing, reading a Bob book to Mom, a matching game and a craft where he wrote a thank you note to Grandma and Grandpa which included copywork and craft time.  Case (age 6) did the following instructions for sticker placement assignment, math, a couple Brain Quest cards with Mom, some critical thinking exercises, a greater than/less than worksheet, the thank you note to the grandparents, handwriting, some shapes work and put together his newest Lego kit.  (We gave him the year long Lego club as part of his birthday gift last year.  This month's kit arrived while he was away last week so I put it in his box for his final activity for the day.)  Ashlee (age 8) had boxes that included her Wordly Wise book, a calendar activity, handwriting practice, consonant teams worksheet, skip counting, reading a chapter book and the thank you note craft.  

The children seem to be pleased with the idea that they "clock in" and "clock out" each day.  

For these, I simply printed out the downloads that are free when you purchase Sue Patrick's workbox book.  I glued them to some library envelopes (25 for $1 at Dollar Tree right now).  I laminated them all, used a box cutter to put the slit through the top layer of lamination so the kids could slide their punch in.  Each kid has a laminated card with their name and a picture of them for use as the time card.  I'm not sure how long this aspect of her suggestion will last but for now, the novelty amuses my kids.

Day one went pretty well considering it was a whole new system.  There were a few hiccups but mostly I was able to work with each child during the time they needed my attention.  The system will likely get smoother as time goes on but for now, I'm pleased that it went smoothly considering I was schooling three kids at a time - two of whom can't read.  

Do you use the workbox system?  How does it work for you?

E is for EXCITED!

It's been a super awesome week here at my house!

A few updates for you.  We named our school!  We are now The Halls of Learning.  Seems appropriate since our last name is Hall.  I even made the kids their own ID cards - complete with school logo.  Laminated them and everything.  That actually happened a couple weeks back but I'm just now getting around to writing about it here.  It's much more fun to order things for our "school" now that it's named.  LOL.

So, this week I went to the local Classical Conversations parent practicum.  In the spring, I ordered the Foundations guide, the History Cards and the Cycle 1 items that compliment the curriculum.  We enjoyed it but we were doing it on our own without participating in the local co-op.  We visited the co-op one day and decided it would likely be a good fit for our family.  To be honest, in order for me to be able to afford the fee I needed to sign up to tutor.  Luckily for me, they had a space for me. 

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I went to the parent practicum in the morning and tutor training in the afternoon.  I'm even more excited about the program now than I was before!  I have some new tools to help drill my children on the information and I have a new desire to give my children a classical education.  Frankly, I think I'm going to finally get an education too.  I was schooled before but now I'm going to get educated.  There is so much to learn and my feeble old brain is pretty excited to tackle it all. 

While I was in all this training, my kids were all in camps.  They did educational things in the camps but they had a LOT of fun.  All three of my kids came home talking about new friends and fun projects.  It was $33 per kid to participate in the camps for 3 days.  Eleven bucks a day.  Wow.  I couldn't have hired a sitter for all that - much less expected the level of education and entertainment that they got. 

Now - another fun thing I've heard about but recently started to explore...  WORKBOXES!  I know, they are all the rage and you've already heard about them, haven't you.  Well, I've been up LATE these last two nights searching the internet about this.  I won't do a big write up about them because there is so much else out there that is far better to explain the process.  But - in all your workbox searching - make sure you check out this list.

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/workbox.php

Many ideas of things to put in your workboxes.  Mostly for early elementary ages. 

I'm really looking forward to seeing the lady who started the whole phenomenon talk about it at the homeschool convention that is coming to my area in two weeks.  Wanna join me? 

The lady who started it all is Sue Patrick.  And the convention where I will be attending and she will be speaking is the Northern Virginia Home Education Conference that will take place in Chantilly Virginia on July 9-10.  I can't wait!

Personally, I'm going to start saving my pennies to buy some workboxes from Joann's with my coupouns.  I intend to buy these because I think they will serve my space and my needs best.

http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/productdetail.jsp?pageName=search&flag=true&PRODID=zprd_02348241a

I'm super excited about this method of planning my school day and helping my kid(s) get the most bang for their school day buck. 

My intention is to start our school day with bible reading, family story time, and Classical Conversations drill/review before sending the children to their boxes for the remainder of the day. 

I'm super charged about the opportunity to sit down (in two weeks) to plan our our next six week cycle.  I've decided to plan our school year to be year round in six week cycles.  Six real weeks on and one light week while Mom plans the next six weeks.  That's how I'm tackling it right now.  As with all homeschool planning, plan for change too!  LOL.  Anyway, we're getting into our groove still as we're so new to this adventure.  But I'm totally excited!!

Cheers!

Egg-cellent experiments

Looking for some fun science to share with your kiddos this summer? Try this site to see what you can find. I heard about it from my friend Anna-Marie. I'm going to try some with my crew!

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000023

She suggested "go under the section related experiments to find the egg in the bottle trick."

Will do! Thanks!

Peace

It's been a rough day here at my house. Eventually, after the morning bickering died down, I got some workbooks out for Ashlee and Mason while Case was at kindergarten. That helped. Then I got out the Crayola Crayon Maker. That helped a LOT. After the bus came, we all went outside where it went back down hill for awhile. What can I say, it's been a rough day. I think they didn't get enough sleep over the big weekend and they still haven't caught up.

But then, God decided to smile on me for a few minutes. And he gave me this. This scene above. Ahhh....

Now, if you'll excuse me... I'm going to put my children in bed.

Home manager

I don't know about you but I really need to get a handle on this job of mine. I went to Costco on Saturday and spent $236. Doesn't sound so bad to some people I know but I went over the budget my husband sent me with.

Yes, I bought a rice cooker that I could have done without. However, I've been talking about a rice cooker for ages and I decided that was the day to get it. (Along with 25 lbs. of rice.) In addition I bought a shelter umbrella thing (http://sklz.com/umbrella/sport-brella?gclid=CInarbHJ2aECFY9M5QodjzQgIg) which is something I tried to buy last year but they were sold out. (PS - they are $40 at Costco versus $60 that I've seen everywhere else.)

SO, yes... I could have saved $70 from that purchase total but I don't think I was extravagant in my purchases. Everything else was food and household management. Now that I've gone over budget, I don't have any cash for the regular old grocery run that I might need to make.

It is time for me to figure out how to build up a pantry (in the basement) for a longer term supply of items than just one week's worth. Buying groceries at Giant one week at a time is expensive. We went on Friday and bought about two days worth of food and spend over $100! That's crazy.

Soo... on my hunt for ideas I've found The Frugal Girl's blog. (http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/) She seems to have some good ideas that I'm going to try. But if you have any other sites or ideas about helping me get our food budget under control and how to manage my home more effectively, PLEASE SHARE! I need to know.