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Back to HOME School: Workboxes

Sep. 4, 2009 • 10:58 AM

September is zooming by. The start back up to our Home school year for 2009-2010 is underway and going well! How is your year going? Are you into the swing of things yet? I think we were all ready in our household to get back into a regular schedule even though summer seemed to go by too quickly.

We started using Workboxes. I am sure you have probably heard about these. This idea seems to be sweeping through the homeschool arena and I can see why. It is such a simple set-up but so wonderful in how it works. It really keeps the child working more independantly and is a visual and self-motivated approach to scheduling a student's school work for the day. I was never one that liked to print out daily schedules for my children (of reading age.) Each day confirming what the next pages to do took time out of the day and seemed to break the momentum. Our new workbox system has solved these problems. Also, I often had little projects like art projects or small kits that never seemsed to work their way into our school time. Now these things can simply be placed in a box and they get used, after all that is why I bought them! This workbox idea is from a book called Sue Patrick's Workbox System. 

Here is what one of our workbox system's looks like. This is my oldest daughters set-up:

I had a wooden shelf that had been given to us many years ago that never felt I used well. It sort of caught our overflow, etc. I decided that was what I wanted to use but I still wanted to find the right bins/boxes for that shelf. It took some looking but I found them (and inexpensively, too! WhooHoo!) I especially like these bins because they fit most school books in them flat.

You can adjust this system to fit your needs. For one of my children I will probably be using the stackable drawer system. The rubbermaid product that has clear drawers that pull out. This will fit right on top of the desk.

To number our bins, I used a bulletin board strip that had numbers on it. I got a whole package of them (14 strips) in a pack from the Dollar store. I cut them apart and laminated them. I just attached a twisty-tie to the back and once dry, twisted them onto the bins.

Here is a wonderful website. It should answer all your worbox system questions. It shows pictures of other homeschoolers' systems, each being a little different. This site hosts many great links to printables  well as ideas for items to add to younger children's workbox trays.

If you have questions, leave them in the comments. I will try to answer them. If you have a workbox system post at your blog, let me know. I'd love to stop by and see your system!

  Happy Homeschooling & Have a great year!