Workboxes Our Way

As I began seriously researching homeschooling this past summer, I kept seeing “Workboxes” popping-up all over the place.  The Workbox System, designed by Sue Patrick, is basically a way to organize and structure your child’s learning by setting up each day’s assignments or activities in bins.  The child then works through the bins in order, giving an easy visual of how much work is left to do, what activities to look forward to, etc.  {For more detailed information on the Workbox System, you can visit the website – I have not read the book, so I can’t give too many specifics!}

We are using a similar structure, although instead of bins, we are using plastic envelopes in one large bin.  Here’s what our set-up looks like:

Each night, I fill the girls’ folders with the next day’s activities.  Some of the activities are independent jobs, like puzzles, picture sorts, journal writing, etc.  Others are jobs to do with me, like math lessons, reading, etc.  I don’t generally put science or social studies activities in the folders, since we do these all together.  The numbers go on the folders in the order I want them completed.  On the front of the plastic tub is the day’s schedule.  I have cards for things like science, social studies, snack, outside time, field trip, free time, computer, art, etc.

During our school day, the girls’ place the numbers on the schedule as they complete each folder.  We generally have anywhere from 6-10 folders, depending on what else we have going on that day.

The girls have loved this system from the first day!  I like that it forces me to be organized and ready to go for the next day’s work.  It seems to be working well for us for now, so we’ll keep on truckin’ with it.

There’s a lot of great workbox resources I have found surfing around – I’ll get those posted soon!

Tagged as: organization, planning, workbox