Workboxes

We're using a variation on the workbox system this year. I haven't read her book (yet, hopefully I'll get it in the next several days, it looks excellent!) and she recommends to do it her way before customizing. So I just thought I'd share that disclaimer first. But I think what we have is working really well for us so far!

I took the kids' toy rack that had various size bins and emptied everything that was in it into shoebox sized boxes. Then I gathered other fun "educational" type toys and activities. Everything that isn't being used at that exact second is stored in either the kids' closet in the shoe box bins or in shelves in the hall by the kids' room. I fill the "workboxes" (plastic bins) each night before I go to bed.

In each workbox I put the "work" I want the kids to do for the day. I also put something for each of the kids in each box, so they all have something to do without me having 3 sets of 12 boxes. It currently takes me about 10 minutes at night to fill all the boxes.

So what goes in these boxes, you ask?

In another post I'm going to tell a little bit more about my curriculum, but here's a brief rundown of how I fill the boxes. Heart of Dakota (HOD), C's main curriculum, is divided into boxes, and many of the activities go together. So all of the history/Bible/science/poetry activities go in one workbox together, along with something for D and E to do at the same time. Then C's spelling words and sidewalk chalk, or shaving cream, or finger paint, or something else to make it fun goes in another box, along with her story time and activity for the day. Reading and math get their own boxes, again with something (often related) for the two little ones to do as well. When we start Lesson Pathways, whichever pathway we're working on for that day will have a box. Our calendar/weather cards have a box too. Spanish gets a box. So that's already 6 boxes! We have approximately 12 to fill (depending on how many big boxes I put on the shelf that day) altogether, so what goes in the other boxes?

Well... I really like for our learning to be as natural as possible (I'm sure that's difficult to believe with all of the curriculum we use, but it really is much more natural than it seems!) so I try to just put a bunch of fun things (because after all, play is children's work!) for them to do. Really, it's been a neat exercise for me to have to spend some time each night thinking about what I want the children to do for the day, instead of just letting the day happen and wondering where the time went at the end of the day when I go to bed. I guess in some respects, it's kind of like budgeting the Dave Ramsey way with money-planning out your money before you spend it. This way I'm planning our time before we "spend it" so to speak. I've found that since starting this we've accomplished more during the day, had less squables, and really had more fun.

So... Here's a list of some of the things that I've collected or made to put in the boxes.

• play doh (can also be used for spelling words)
• lacing cards
• stamps/ink pad (alphabet stamps can also be used for spelling words)
• stickers
• stencils
• word/picture matching puzzles
• Wikki sticks
• 3 Bear Family Dress Up Wooden Game
• Wooden Bear Dress-Up Lacing Box
• Wooden Paper Dolls
• Puzzles
• Legos/Duplos
• Bristle Blocks
• Mr. Potato Head
• Wooden Blocks
• Doll House (I just put some of the pieces from the doll house in the box, not the whole house)
• Board Games
• Card Games/Flash Cards (I just let the kids decide how they want to play with them-they come up with some awesome uses for them)
• Letter BINGO (purchased from the $1 section at Target)
• Letter/word matching/sorting
• Pick-an-activity Cards (These are cards with all sorts of activities for the kids to do-washing the doors, sweeping, looking at photo albums, picking up their room, coloring-some activities are "fun" some are helping around the house, but for some reason my kids love doing whatever the cards have on them)
• Build a Word Cards- I made these from paint samples using these directions
• Alphabet Tiles-I took the idea from the Build a Word Cards, and cut up some paint samples and made alphabet tiles that we can use for matching, making words, just playing with

• Funtastic Frogs Counters/Stringing
• Bear Counters
• Large Block Beads Stacking/Stringing
• Pre-K File Folder Games
• Tangrams
• Spanish CDs
• Audio Books
• Signing Time DVDs
• Fun workbooks/sticker books/coloring books
• Egg matching/shape sorting game (this is something I found for Emma Cate on sale, she loves it! I'm so glad we got it. It keeps her occupied for a long time)

• Animals
• Purler Beads
• Pair Matching Puzzle Game
• Bean Bags (for various activities)
• Sidewalk Chalk
• THINK weekly activity materials
• Weekly Slow and Steady Materials for D and E
  I'm sure there's more, but that's probably most of them. I made myself a list so I could remember to rotate through everything. We still also have dress-up clothes, baby dolls, stuffed animals, the train table, and the play kitchen that are always available to the kids to play with. We've used this system for a couple of weeks now and we're loving it. I really can't say enough about it.