I’ve been promising a workbox update, and here it is. Though I don’t use Sue Patrick’s Workbox System in the purest sense, I highly recommend her book and her methods. I simply do not have room for the cart, and Michaela LOVES the mystery of her assignments being hidden in the cereal boxes until she pulls them out one by one. So, for now anyway, we are sticking with the cereal boxes and loving the organization this has brought into our homeschool.
Our system consists of 9 cereal boxes, which I first posted about nearly a year ago. I fill them up with assignments each evening or each early morning, so they are all ready to go when Michaela starts school for the day.
Box 1. I think this piece of paper speaks for itself. And one thing I want to say right now about these boxes is that it takes me out of the loop in a way. I know that sounds crazy because I’m the teacher and the one who puts the boxes together and the one Michaela comes to with questions, and yet once the ball starts rolling, it’s like Michaela is answering to the boxes getting done and not to me. I love it!
Box 2. The next day in her Daily Gram book. Upon completion, Michaela immediately checks and grades her own paper and we talk about anything she did not understand.
Box 3. Spelling Power.
Box 4. Need I say more? Well, maybe I’d better. In years past, one of my biggest weaknesses was grading math sheets. Then the next thing you know we’d be a week or two into ungraded papers when, lo and behold, I’d realize a child totally was not getting something and we had moved on and suddenly were behind! With the boxes, I do not allow myself to put in the next lesson until I’ve graded what Michaela has done.
Which brings me to a second point here. When Michaela is done with something, she sticks it right back in the box. I pull it out that evening and file it or put it in her end-of-year keepsake book or whatever.
Anyway, only when math is graded do I put the next assignment in — either the next lesson or review on what she’s not getting.
Box 5. Oh, yeah, the chores. They go in there too, and once again, she’s answering to the box, not to me. I have been surprised at how little complaining there is when it just comes out of the box and not from my mouth.
Box 6. Her read-aloud. And no, she has not finished this book yet. It has been a slow, wonderful read, along with our other Ambleside books that we are lazily working through. The good thing? She has enjoyed this book tremendously and tells me something about it each time she reads, and it’s sticking.
Box 7. A test I made to review some writer’s tools we’d talked about just the day before. (Thank you, Five In A Row.)
Box 8. Practice your harmonica. Michaela had been wanting a harmonica. She got one in her stocking at Christmas and is learning to play it.
Box 9. Oh yay, the fun box! This week our Five In A Row Co-op will be centered around Grass Sandals. Michaela and I “rowed” this book last year, but it’s been very good to go back and revisit it. It’s a beautiful book.
When we review like this, I like to revisit the art element of the book. For this assignment I filled the basket with bright pieces of felt in primary colors. I put in black acrylic paint, a black pencil and a black marker. I took a couple of sheets of blank sketch paper and folded them to make a “greeting card” shape. Michaela’s asignment was to create a Haiku poem, type it into the card, and then decorate it with inspiration gained after looking through the book. She was only allowed to use materials that I had chosen based on colors and art media used in the book.
This is how her card turned out! I’ve used this specified-materials-only concept several times lately to review a FIAR book and to teach art, and it has turned out great each time! Michaela also gets to use her typewriter, which she loves!
Making The Cereal Boxes:
Several of the cereal boxes are very large family-size boxes, because they hold large books and a lot of stuff. Some are covered in fabric, some in scrapbook paper. They are embellished with little bits of this and that. I used some glue sticks, but mostly the hot glue gun. Be aware, it takes a few hours to cover 9 cereal boxes. I cut the tops out of the cereal boxes first. I chose either a base paper or fabric for each box and just wrapped the box using a hot glue gun. One sheet of paper was usually not enough. I did one side at a time, wrapping neatly around the bottom and sides. I did fold over and wrap down into the top about two inches for neatness and glued this down as well. It took quite a bit of glue and — AGAIN — time. I, however, LOVE doing things like this. Once a box was covered, I embellished it. While working, I was thinking of how I would fill the boxes each day!
Tomorrow is a big day, so I better sign off and get some zzzzzzz’s.
A peaceful night to you,
for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
[...] PS — There is an update on our cereal boxes —>> here! [...]
Do you share somewhere on your blog how you made the cereal/workboxes so pretty?
Blessings,
Kim
Thanks for sharing! The boxes are beautiful!
Michele
Kim, thank you for asking that. I had answered that question in the original post, but it was in the comment section and would be very hard to find! So, again, thanks for asking. I’ve added my comment to this post. I hope the extra paragraph helps. There’s really no set rule for covering a box. It just takes time.
Thanks Michele!
Thank you! I am not very crafty…
I’m gonna be nosy and ask what the books are above the boxes. The spines are so colorful and pretty!
Kim
Dear Lynn,
We needed to see this post today~I bought some file boxes for the girls last year to do this, but AnnaMarie had an insulin reaction and was really sick at the time, so the boxes are still empty! Time to get them out and try again.
Thanks for the reminder, and have a lovely “day off”
!
Love,
Marqueta
Looks like some fun boxes today!
Janet W
Dear Lynn,
This is just very inspiring. I have for many years now, had a daily “seatwork” list for my kids. But this just takes that to a whole new level.
I will have to try this with my 6th grader! He would love the boxes!
Thanks so much for sharing,
Val
Hi Lynn,
We started using boxes for Anna Rose’s assignments this school year, and it has been a resounding success. She loves that when she takes the box off the shelf and finishes what’s inside, that it is done. The visual aspect of the empty box is very important to her. Ours are just see-through plastic shoeboxes set on a wire rack…not gorgeous like yours, but they do the trick.
The “specified-materials-only” is something we’ve never done before, but what a neat idea. Anna Rose and I both love doing projects like that. What a great way to teach the ooncept of making do with what you have on hand.
Thank you for sharing! Have a blessed day in the Lord!
This sounds like such a great idea, but I am not sure how I would pull it off doing three different students and grades. But I think anything would be better than the system I have now which is scrambling in the morning to get their work in order. I am going to think on this. Thanks!
I think this is a wonderful idea. I wonder, also, if I could do it with three kiddos but perhaps if I start now (while I have both a preschooler and kindergarten student) I could get it down over the next year.
What a charming use of cereal boxes xoxox Clarice
Lynn,
I love your workboxes…that was how I first found you…from a workbox search…a friend of mind went into the PO and asked if she could have some of their express mail boxes…they let her have some and she cut them in half and uses those…I see those on Freecycle every so often and I think I will try to grab some next time I see them come up…but I keep yours in mind because I want to do some like it for my daughter….time, time, time…if only there was a little more!
Have a great day!
Love,
C~
Kim, sorry to be so slow to get back here. The books above are our Childcraft Library.
Marqueta, I can only imagine dealing with insulin and the ups and downs of that. You are a good mommy.
I think you’d like a box system of some kind. Again, I do recommend Sue Patrick’s book and her ideas, and even the clear boxes. I simply do not have room for them.
Janet, they were fun!
Valerie, thank you. As I just mentioned, I do recommend Sue Patrick’s book and her method.
Oh, Emily, I’m not sure how gorgeous mine are. I think it was “necessity is the mother of invention” taking over. I really wanted to do Sue Patrick’s clear workbox suggestion, but, again, I just did not have room. I would have to tack the cart to the wall! LOL. I’m glad to hear you’ve had such success. I have heard that from SOOO many people who use them.
MamaHen and Amanda, I would highly recommend Sue Patrick’s book to help implement the system and to use it with multiple children. I think it takes dedication to the system and may seem a bit daunting at first, but the people I know with many children who use the system really love it. I think you get on a roll once you get the hang of it. Many things placed in the boxes are just the next assignment in the series, but there are other ways to be creative, to plan ahead, etc.
Clarice,
Carrie, I know! Time, time, time. I settled on cereal boxes because they’d fit into a shelf. That was my sole reason.
[...] again, home again, jiggety jog, to work on budgeting, grocery lists, filling up Michaela’s cereal boxes, and bill-paying, all before settling into my desk this Friday [...]
I absolutely LOVE your system! But have a couple questions. First of all, how do the cereal boxes hold up? I would think they would be flimsy, but maybe the fabric/paper reinforces them?
Also, have you ever tried self-adhesive contact paper? That would be my first choice, but maybe there’s a reason you didn’t use it.
Blessings!
Melinda,
Thank you for your comment! Our boxes have held up very well, but they are always in the same shelf and are simply pulled out long enough to take assignments out of or put assignments into. I love Contact paper and use it for lots of things, but simply opted for the paper and fabric because that is what was in my mind!
I really didn’t even think of contact paper. I think it would work well. I am sure the combination of hot glue, paper and fabric would be enforcing, but it was a couple- or three-hour job.
Lynn
Oh, that answers the question I asked before.
OK, I’m late to the party as per usual;-) But this looks wonderful! It would be especially nifty for my Millen. I especially like the idea of decorated boxes in lieu of plastic shoe boxes.
Thanks so much for sharing♥
Thank you so much for Sharing your cereal box idea. I was trying to find the money for boxes and now I don’t have too. Thanks.