Homeschool Monday

Yes that would be little Izzy on our table! Not my choice but after I told Kiersten she could not hold her while she worked on her writing this is where she eneded up. And of course she just plopped herself right down! To say the least, Kiersten is in charge of cleaning the table really well before we eat tonight! But she is cute isn't she?!

We had a great day at school, though a little longer than our normal day, but still good. We started a new unit study on dogs that Kiersten is very excited about. We are taking a small break from Five in a Row to do this. We also started working on a pizza pattern from Buggabugs that Kiersten is SO excited about! She is planning on using all the patterns we bought last week to feed all of her Webkina in her webkinz village that is growing bigger everyday in her room! She loved finding this in her workboxes today and couldn't wait to get to that one! Of course I had to set a time limit of 30 minutes so we could actually finish school today. But hopefully by the end of the week we will have a completed pizza! :)

The workboxes are going just wonderful and this weekend I actually planned our next 40 days! That sure feels good! The next 2 weeks are completely planned and ready and the rest is in outline form just waiting for the things to be gathered. I am such a planner and it felt great to get this all done this weekend. Now that I'm not so busy with the business stuff and event stuff I was doing so much off I can concentrate more on school and it's a wonderful feeling! Of course Kiersten would love to have me a little more divided in my time I think since school isn't her favorite thing to do, but she doesn't get much of a say in this one!

Homeschool Happiness

We are in our second week of using our workbox system and absolutely loving it! We are getting so much done and also adding in the fun that I have always wanted to. And I just love the beauty of homeschool as I witnessed Kiersten working on a worksheet yesterday with her headphones. The freedom she has to do things like this is what I love about being at home! :)

Some fun finds for our workboxes!

I went to a local teacher store today and found some good finds to use in our workboxes.

The first thing I found was The Mailbox Idea Magazine for Teachers. I really liked this because it has worksheets on lots of different topics, it's based on different grade levels, has games and arts and crafts and it's cheap! It was $6 for over 25 different topics/ideas to use in it. Very cool in my book for cost and the fun ideas I found in their most recent issue.

The second thing I found was a new item for them called Animal Adaptations Reading Comprehension Cards. These are 6x8 cards that have colorful pictures on the front and on the back have info about the animal in the picture and reading comprehenion questions. There are 32 cards and a teachers guide included. They will fit great in the boxes and be a fun addition to what we do on a regular basis. They had different themes as well to choose from as well. For the $10 cost I felt it was a great deal for how much use I can get out of them.

And last I found Writing Styles Photo Prompts These are 6x8 cards just like the above ones that have a photo on the front and writing prompts on back. They give you options on different writing styles that include expository, narrative, descriptive and persuasive with prompts to go with each one.

I was pretty excited to find these and wanted to share them with any fellow workbox girls! ;)

Workbox Success!!!

We had such a great day with our first day of the workbox system!!! I can't even begin to say how much this is a answer to my prayers of trying to figure out what works best for us and keeps our day running smoothly. I know it's only the first day but I can already tell that it's going to be just what we need. And Kiersten really liked it too! The only thing I had an issue with was her wanting to move too fast through them and grab more than one at a time. :)

Moving right along through the boxes and going great!
We are doing Albert from Volume 4 and it is such a cute story! We loved it!




This was the craft that we did today. Of course Kiersten said that this wasn't part of school but part of my reason for doing the workboxes is to put more fun into our school and that is just what happened today! The green bunny is mine and Kiersten did the little pig. Take note to their little cotton ball tails too!

So here we are all finished with our day that only took about 2 1/2 hours. I know somedays will be more and some less but I was quite happy with the turn out and how things flowed for our day. I have my week already planned out and all I have to fill the boxes up and be ready for tomorrow. It's pretty amazing what 12 bins and a shoerack can do to revamp your homeschool time! I'm loving it! :)

Here is what was in our boxes today if you are interested:

1. Read Albert

2. Discovering the Truth 10-2 (Language Arts) (from homeschool share)

3. Weather and Spring Season (Science) bbc website (homeschool share)

4. Art: Progressive Details (draw)

5. Snack

6. Craft (need to get glue) (our bunny and pig!)

7. Math (Identifying place value) (used Math Envelope Centers)

8. Math (mulitplication 2's and worksheet) (Blue Mammoth and flash cards)

9. What Does it Mean? (Take It to Your Seat Literacy Centers Grade 4-5)

10. Read Chapter one in The Case of the Hunchback Hairdresser (such a cute book!)

11. Before I was born book (yes we had the talk on sex! Kiersten's response besides giggling was to say a big EWW!!! when I read the part of the man's *enis going into the women's *agina!) Sorry if that's too graphic for you but that was part of our day! ;)

12. Created for God Session 1
    

Workboxes

**Please see The Sue Patrick Workbox website to inquire about a planner for the Workbox system. Thank you!

Workbox System!

So you have seen this taking over on homeschooling sites and blogs you have been reading about homeschooling? It seems to be the craze right now and one that I can't wait to get started. A few weeks ago, Leslie introduced this small little book to us and it seems like light bulbs went off over so many of us there. As I sat and listened to her explain the system and how it was working for her, I couldn't help but to think how wonderful it would work for Kiersten. (and me!) It is all based on this book and the system that this mom created for her autistic son.

My reasons for using this system are:
1. To create INDEPENDENCE in Kiersten. I don't know if it because she is my only one or just her personality but she expects me to sit by her one on one for everything we do. Don't get me wrong, I love to sit by her and help her but there are times that she needs to learn to do things independently and I feel this system will help her do just that. At least I sure am hoping that is what it does!

2. TIME MANAGEMENT and to put an end to that question of "When will we be done?!" Now I have a system in place where she can actually look and see how much she has to do and she will have a little control over the flow of her day. Once she reaches her twelve box she knows that our school day is over.

3. ACCOUNTABILITY for me. I love to organize and keep things moving at a good pace but there are so many days where it just doesn't happen and we get off track so easily. I am hoping that this system will help me to stay focused and on track. It's a little more in my face than the folder I have been using that can easily just get left on the shelf and not seen. The whole out of sight out of mind kind of thing.

4. To make school more FUN! There are so many fun things that I just don't get around to doing because we are concentrating on just getting it done. This system will give me the ability to add in those fun things and allow me to see where to put them. I can't wait to explore all the fun stuff that I know my girl will just love and eat up!

We are officially starting on Monday and I'll be working this weekend on what I want to fill the boxes with and I'm really excited. I really think this is the answer to so many of mine and Kiersten's frustrations with school and I think it is going to be wonderful! From the wonderful things I have heard from so many on how it's changing their days in good ways, I can't think anything else about it!

And I am loving how versatile this is for so many and how people are making it work for thier families and their lifestyles. There seems to be no wrong or right way to do this and I love that!

Here are a few friends that are using this and how they are doing it....

Jessica: She was there in our group when we first heard about this and with her 8 children she would have to have 96 boxes!!! Now that is a lot of boxes to fit anyway! So she has developed what works for her and I think it's great. Check it out!

Kristina:
She has 2 kiddos and you can see on her blog how she is using the system

Leslie:
The one responsible for introducing this to us and I'm SO thankful for her!


If you want more info on this you can visit the Five in a Row message board and look at this thread for lots of ideas. There are many other threads there as well on this system and so many fun ideas!

We officially start this on Monday and I'll update here on how it's working for us and fun things I find to fill our boxes. :)