Thinking Outside the Box Meme -summer stuff

This week's question has to do with what we are doing for summer...schooling all year or what...so here is my Reader's Digest answer:

we are on break until late July (we have been off 2 weeks and it feels good) but are participating in the library's summer reading program and the Splish program thru TOS. We are busy reorganizing our play area, being entertained by the Mallards who show up quite frequently in our yard (named George and Gracie), exploring the areas around here and looking for critters (altho it has been difficult due to the cooler weather [no pollywogs yet] and the rain) and just hanging. We are off to the DC area for almost 2 weeks mid-July, so we'll be doing some major historical exploration and art museums. When we return-it will be back to about 4-6 boxes (mainly continuing the reading/spelling and basic math) until mid-Aug. when we start at full capacity. We cannot really do any school breaks anymore-too much info lost, I am on the TOS review crew, so we have those items to try out, and I like to take a good stretch of time off, during the Christmas season, and early spring. SO to make a long story even longer-we are not really doing the boxes right now-I am working on all sorts of games/folders for them and we're just taking a breather.

Here is one project I just wrapped up (outside of getting velcro dots on the cards)to use when we start our weather center/study in August. We'll be doing the lapbook for The Bravest of Us All (I submitted it to HSS so it should be posted soon) and general weather experiments, books and weather watching. This will be his daily activity to record what is happening outside. I chose to laminate it to cardstock, put a couple of the pocket envies (dollar store find) for the pieces, and then tape it together to fold up all nice and spiffy like. I found this activity for $2.50 on Homeschooling with Index Cards (weather center). I messed up a bit and had to cut/retape, so I am missing one strip of record keeping sections-but it was something we could do without-so anyhoo...there you have it. That is a great site by the way. Cheap to buy and easy to print. There are a lot of freebies in the notebooking and freebies section too.










Now starting next week, I have this meme until August-so please stop back here each Monday for a new topic to discuss. I look forward to hosting this! Have a great week! To link back to Gabby's blog for this week's question-go to The Work of Childhood.

This week's Meme

This week, let’s interview our kiddos! I know all across the blog world, you can find ALL kinds of moms ranting and raving about the wonders of the work box system! So, let’s hear what the KIDS have to say?!

**I interviewed my 7 1/2 yold son-here are his responses:


(he isn't mad, the sun was in his eyes and I made him take off the sunglasses for the pic..bad mom I guess...LOL)

1. What is your favorite thing about the workboxes? "I can see all the stuff that I am going to do, and it easy to get to."

2. What is your LEAST favorite thing about them?
"I like it all." So apparently, he has no "least" fav part-Yeah!

3. Do you think the workboxes are helping you become a better student?
"Yes" (Daddy said he definitely thinks so)

4. If you could change one thing about the workboxes, what would it be?
"More candy in them, I do a lot of work, I do deserve something."

5. What is your favorite activity that you didn’t really get to do much before you started the workboxes?
"the centers"

Anything else you want to add?
"The workboxes are really fun and I like them."

Visit The Work of Childhood to join this meme and see other's responses

Thinking outside the box meme

Sponsored this month by The Work of Childhood (previously known as Cheeky Monkey Preschool) at The Work of Childhood, please stop by and leave a ditty with you answers to these workbox questions.


Alright, here are my answers to this week's questions for the meme:

How many boxes do you fill? 11

Do you expect your children to go in order? Yes but have skipped on around on occasion because I just couldn't be there to work with him when he hit a particular box.

Do you use the schedule strips? no

How long does it take you to fill the boxes? 15 or so mins. depending on how brain dead I am, or if I am actually functioning at full capacity

Do you fill your work boxes EACH night with all new items? Yes but it usually is the morning (he gets up later than me) or late afternoon when "school time" is done-not night.

Do you have some boxes repeat each day so there is less filling/refilling? No, each day is a new experience-altho the biggest box is reserved for big projects which can carry over for several days

What do your kids do with the empty boxes? He piles them up in the number one spot

Do you put away the ‘supplies’ each night? or do your kids? I have him dump all non-consumable supplies/books into our Dump Box, then the worksheets and papers that have been completed, go into our Finished Work box-I put the stuff away. Altho, he will help me put stuff away if I ask.

Anything else you want to add? There is more and more info out there with great ideas on what to put into these beauties, ideas for centers and links to sites with downloads. Check out Homeschool Share-they will have a whole new section just for workbox helps, the yahoo groups and fellow bloggers-with all of us adding our ideas, we'll have a wealth of info to keep the workbox system flowing and non-stagnant.


Right now I am only using this system for my soon to be 8 year old. I will figure out a more "mature" system for my high schooler-not sure what holding system it will be yet-or to what extent we'll have her using it....needed to tweak it out for the boy first.....good thing it is almost summer, I need that down time to figure it out.

Scheduling Workboxes

Well now-that is a new one for me (schedule ideas), since I have not truly started the full use of em. I spent most of last week working on a lapbook for Easter, and this week is sort of a week off. I have some things we will work on, but I haven't had too much time where I didn't have to have something schoolish to do-so I am taking a mental break.

Scheduling certain things by certain times is most likely not going to happen. Some days we have to start later due to daddy's work schedule, or doctor appts. and so forth. I tried to to do the schedule thing for years, and as a result-I became a slave to the clock and lost the joy of teaching and interacting with my children. I have some guidelines, but try to stay flexable.

Next week, I will get "serious" and get his boxes filled for him to work on. There will be some math (M, W, F) and on T and TH there will be math games instead. Science and history will be 2x per week. Reading and writing skills are top priority right now-so we are mostly concentrating on those. I will add games, play time and such but right now, I am just in the planning stages. I do have some organizing ideas posted below, so please feel free to read on. Other than that-our boxes are remaining rather empty.

Visit Cuddles on the Couch for more ideas~