We are learning all about flowers this week...and I thought I would go ahead and implement a new system I've been considering for quite a while to make things even easier in preparation for the babies.
It's called "workboxing"...you can find it everywhere on the web in the home school community
(just google it!).
There are lots of theories behind why it works so well for everyone involved, and I thought it would be a perfect way to keep me organized and keep Taylor on task.
The key is to divide up the student's day so that they are able to see how much work is still ahead for them to complete. It also forces you to be organized before your day begins, which leads to a much smoother school day. Some people divide their child's day into 12 sections, but I chose to just start off with 8 and see how we did. Today was our first trial...and I must say it was WONDERFUL! Taylor and I both stayed on track...I had everything already prepared beforehand (didn't have to leave her sitting bored (and likely to get distracted) at the table to gather all the supplies between subjects), and we knew exactly what we had left to do for the day. I even put some surprises in there...so some slots were normal school work and some were mainly for fun. A great way to break up the day, but also get even more work completed than we normally would. I also plan on letting my mom help Taylor with some of the work once the babies arrive. Since everything will be planned and collected prior to beginning our school day, it will be easy for my mom to help Taylor with something if she needs it.
The key is to divide up the student's day so that they are able to see how much work is still ahead for them to complete. It also forces you to be organized before your day begins, which leads to a much smoother school day. Some people divide their child's day into 12 sections, but I chose to just start off with 8 and see how we did. Today was our first trial...and I must say it was WONDERFUL! Taylor and I both stayed on track...I had everything already prepared beforehand (didn't have to leave her sitting bored (and likely to get distracted) at the table to gather all the supplies between subjects), and we knew exactly what we had left to do for the day. I even put some surprises in there...so some slots were normal school work and some were mainly for fun. A great way to break up the day, but also get even more work completed than we normally would. I also plan on letting my mom help Taylor with some of the work once the babies arrive. Since everything will be planned and collected prior to beginning our school day, it will be easy for my mom to help Taylor with something if she needs it.
This is the organizer we're using for the time being...a lot of other people use clear shoe boxes, but we already had this, and it seems to work just fine!
Taylor seems to really like it so far! She would take off running to see what was in the next box.
This was our first box...we always start off our day with themed literature. I read Zinnia's Flower Garden and Taylor read the poem.
The second box was handwriting...I give her words that are related to our theme to practice her writing...and throw in some letter practice sometimes too. Handwriting is where Taylor has the most trouble all around, so we work on this regularly.
The third box was math...I included the ruler in the box too so everything was all together.
Earlier in the week we began a science project with daisies and colored water...Taylor added food coloring to 6 different glasses of water, we added the daisies, and we've been checking out their changes everyday.
The first day...
The fourth box was science...we observed and discussed the changes we saw with the daisies and also had an article about flowers from one of her science magazines.
The fifth box was phonics...we reviewed some blends and did a workbook sheet.
The sixth box was a surprise art project...Taylor painted flowers with Kool-Aid paint! It smelled so yummy!
The seventh box was spelling vocabulary words...
I put the letters in her box so they were all ready to go!
And the eighth and final box was independent reading.
She really did seem to enjoy this process and definitely stayed on task. And although there were 8 different areas we focused on, it really didn't take all that long to complete. So we'll see how it goes tomorrow...:0)
Every good teacher I have known over the years has had an organizational plan and system that made her work flow easily consistently and kept the class on task and happy. It sounds like you may have found yours!
ReplyDeleteI highly recommend something of this nature for anyone home-schooling. There is a wonderful sense of peace when you are prepared ahead of time and can let the child then take the lead in determining how long she works with one concept and set of materials and sometimes what order she does them. Giving limited choices like this is one way to give learners ownership of their process, which is so important in crerating life-long learners. Because Taylor can work with some independence, I think your work-box will encourage her investment in her own learning and keep Taylor's school work from becoming something she does to please you.
You are so smart to establish this routine now, before the babies arrive. I can see Taylor is loving it!!
Thanks Susan. :0)
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