The Workbox System - Good for HODies?

[MainelyJen]

So, I'm on a big spring-cleaning, organizing binge (wow! my entry way looks fabulous now! LOL) and I was up early this am to continue my search for some fresh ideas. I stumbled upon some posts on another site about the Sue Patrick's Workbox System http://www.workboxsystem.com/index.html, and it struck me that this might work very well for HOD users. I'm thinking of purchasing the book (also available for instant download at currclick) to help keep us on track with Preparing. I think the system would appeal to my son.

Has anyone here tried out this system? If so, did it help your children with working through some of their HOD assignments independently? Keep you on track? Or is this overkill?

Here are two blog posts about using this system -
http://ginger-snap-shots.blogspot.com/2 ... boxes.html

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LeslieNelsen/662628/

Now, obviously, these blog posts are not by HOD moms. But my brain just clicked with the box method, because I love my neat little boxes in my Preparing guide. Would it be cool to have the corresponding books and materials in boxes for my son to move through each day?

Oh, and Carrie, if this is off-topic or not ok, just delete me! I'm only interested in this as an organizational tool for HOD, and haven't even purchased the book or anything. Not intending to promote other products here or the homeschool programs that other moms who use this system might be using, KWIM?

[MamaMary]

Oh Jen,

I'm so glad you posted this here. It is all the rave right now and I was curious too? I look forward to seeing if you get any responses

[Jessi]

This looks very interesting. I don't have the space for boxes like this right now but I really like the look of it to visually organize the boxes of HOD and let the kids see what they are doing next. Thanks for sharing.

[MainelyJen]

I went ahead and purchased the book. I'm very impressed by what she shared, especially her emphasis that her goal is to help moms succeed at homeschooling, as directly opposed to helping moms ignore their kids all day long so they can do their housework (ahem - she didn't mention names, but. . .). She won me over right then and there, as homeschoolers who hope to not do any teaching are a pet peeve of mine! LOL She reminds those of us with high schoolers that we need to be very actively involved in teaching and helping our teens stay organized and moving forward. Amen!

Her scheduling system with the workboxes is very simple, but I can see how it will be very effective. I pulled together the things I need to get started without having to purchase a thing but the book - of course, I'm an office supply junkie, so I had much of what I would need on hand. I explained the system to Sam this afternoon and he thinks it's a great idea. I have his HOD day all out in his boxes for tomorrow. The nice thing is that it forced me to really evaluate his day ahead of time and organize his work by independent vs. one-on-one with mom; difficulty of task/amount of writing involved; and fun. There will be balance with all this because of the boxes/schedule.

HOD really shines as you set up the boxes, because Carrie has done all the planning for us, right? It's just a matter of in what order to you want them to tackle these tasks, and what are your extras/fun things for the day? For Sam tomorrow, in and amongst his HOD boxes, are a couple fun things like a box with a Jonathan Park cd and Sony Disk player and another box with an educational game for the two of us to play. It was so fun to lay out the HOD materials in this way. For example, one box has all the supplies needed to make the next timeline card (right down to the colored pencils!). Another has his dictation on an index card for him to study and then come to me when he's ready to take the dictation. Books to be read are in their own box with a post-it note indicating which pages to read.

Finally, her emphasis on review, review, review really clicked with me. Sam really struggled on Friday with his English assignment (we're not using R&S). It's just moving too fast. I got some great ideas from the book on how I can review with him in this area. I tend to be a "do the next lesson" kind of gal, and we usually just keep moving through lessons. I feel now I have some good ideas on how to personalize things to help with difficult concepts.

I know that some of her ideas come from working with her autistic child, and she's really gleaned solid ideas for working with kids with learning challenges. However, I think this is a great system for anyone. You can feel the built-in accountability of the system, and I think it is super easy for HOD moms to implement. Nice!

[MamaMary]

Oh Jen,

Your on my husbands LIST! You know the list. The list that says you're one of my friends that makes me want to whip out the debit card : I have a few questions:

1- Is this good all the way through highschool?

2- Does each child have to have ten boxes? If so, how? (1200 sq ft)

[Sharon]

I am so glad you posted this!! The first blog had a pic of the plastic cabinet with drawers in it. I thought WOW, a drawer for every subject! So off I went to Walmart and bought two on wheels with 7 drawers. We live in a small house and I do not have a school room so our books are on a shelf in the kitchen looking messy most of the time! Each girl has their own and it worked out GREAT today! No hunting for books, pencils, scissors or teachers editions, everything was right there in the drawer right next to us. The best part was I rolled them into the laundry room and shut the door when we were finished!!! I love it !! My younger dd was quite attached to hers and kept pulling it right up next to her chair!

I actually think this saved us some time and I know it made the day go smoother!!

Thank you for sharing!

[MainelyJen]

Mary, yes. She has a section on working with high schoolers using her system. I wasn't particularly interested in setting my Catherine up with this, but after watching Catherine spin her wheels all day today. . .I'm considering it!

For the younger set, I would definitely say that using clear plastic bins (or drawers) is key. Her system caught my eye because it follows several suggestions for organizing for ADD types. Visual cues are very important. Having boxes that the child can pick up, carry to where they do their work, and then pile up/put away somewhere is a good thing -- they see immediately that their work pile is decreasing as they go. Also, they can peek into the boxes and see things like "No way! A brownie mix for me to bake today!" or whatever you've put in there for fun. (Ah, remember that? Homeschooling is supposed to be fun? LOL) This motivates them to focus and work through the next couple boxes in order to get to the one with the fun stuff.

Leslie Nelson's blog, linked in my initial post, has some great photos of the wire racks and bins she set up -- many kids, small space. I'm impressed! And, you said it, Sharon! Rolling carts with clear drawers which can be slid away into a closet or something at the end of the school day -- now that's a visual cue that you're done!

She's got some great ideas in here. There might be one or two things I don't need to implement in my homeschool, but most of the system (and it is a system, not just a "buy some boxes and throw your stuff in there"!) appeals to me. I'm loving HOD so far with Sam, but I find myself scrambling at the start of the day to deal out his assignments in a way that keeps balance. The lesson plans are awesome, but I still need to decide in which order to serve them. And that can change depending on how quickly a child is grasping things, what your week looks like, and so on. Then there's the non-HOD things that we all want to try and fit into our weeks. The workbox system is that other piece I was looking for. I think it's a tool that will enable me to keep on top of things, because I'm a person that needs visual reminders in front of me. (Must be that 40 year old brain of mine!) His work in the workboxes, my stuff in my Desk Apprentice. . .I'm good to go!

[lmercon]

Oh, man, you girls can't leave well enough alone! LOL!! I'm an organizational nut. I used to have handy little things like this all over my ps classroom when I taught. My ds is only in Beyond, so I'm not familiar with the amount of independent work in the upper levels. Most of what we do is together with a little independent work. Is there enough independent work in the upper guides to make this useful? How does Mom "check in" throughout the process? I see that there are cards that indicate if it is independent or together work. Does that work well with HOD? I see the strength of HOD being the closeness and interaction of Mom and children. How does this fit into that? Inquiring minds want to know!
Laura

[LeAnna]

I think this sounds very neat! I am one to get into anything that has to do with Organizing! Although I don't aways implement it. I have one child especially, who I think would benefit from seeing her work load go down. I love the idea of putting in games, or fun things to do along with it. There are so many things that I mean to add to our day, that the kids would enjoy, but don't seem to get around to it, so this would definitely help with that. It would also be fun, to add a treat in the last one when all your work is completed for that day.


Thanks for posting this!:)
LeAnna

[Jessi]

Ok, now I was thinking this was going to be too much work for me to implement with my own workload. But the way you are all describing it, it might be beneficial for later on when she is doing more independent work. I'll keep this in mind for down the road, though I don't know if it will work for us or not. We don't even have a room or closet to wheel a cart into at the end of the day to signify the end of school...that's how little space we have to work with.

[Sharon]

I am so glad you posted this!! The first blog had a pic of the plastic cabinet with drawers in it. I thought WOW, a drawer for every subject! So off I went to Walmart and bought two on wheels with 7 drawers. We live in a small house and I do not have a school room so our books are on a shelf in the kitchen looking messy most of the time! Each girl has their own and it worked out GREAT today! No hunting for books, pencils, scissors or teachers editions, everything was right there in the drawer right next to us. The best part was I rolled them into the laundry room and shut the door when we were finished!!! I love it !! My younger dd was quite attached to hers and kept pulling it right up next to her chair!

I actually think this saved us some time and I know it made the day go smoother!!

Thank you for sharing!

I just wanted to clarify that all I took away from this thread was the plastic cabinet with the drawers...I am not implementing her system. The only thing that didn't flow smoothly in our day was the amount of time my kiddos spent going back and forth to the shelf finding where they put their books and pencils, and scissors...etc..etc. This created a waste of time and frustration on mommies part. The cabinet has been the perfect solution to our day!
This looks very similar to the system we set up when we cared for an autistic child for 5 years. It helped her have structure and ownership in her day. I can see this helping some children and being over kill for others.

[MamaMary]

Jen! Thank you..., I just know I'm going to be organized now!!!! I plan to order this next week when I get home from being out of town

[MamaMary]

Ok, where did you order? I'm not seeing the E-book option? Am I missing something?

[MainelyJen]

The e-book is available on her site, I think, but I ordered mine through currclick. Here's a link -

http://www.currclick.com/product_info.p ... 25933&it=1

Sharon, that makes sense. Just getting organized is a plus, even if you don't implement her whole system.

Laura, you asked about independent work vs. working with mom. Let me just give you an example of how my day went with Sam yesterday with the workboxes. (He loved them and his schoolwork was all done by 1pm).

Each workbox basically contained everything necessary to complete one box of the HOD plans for the day. Then there was a box for our Latin program, and two boxes with fun things to do. I had grabbed my HOD manual (God, please bless Carrie and her family again today!) and post-it notes. On books he was to read, I just jotted the pages for that day. The same with his Draw & Write book, his dictation passage and so on. Because he's 12 and using Preparing w/extensions, he basically can do almost all his work independently if I want him to. Our things to do with mom included the Latin, a read-aloud, his dictation and poetry exercise.

His focus was excellent, and he loved stacking his boxes up in a pile of "completed work" and seeing how few he had left to do. He seemed shocked that listening to a Jonathan Park cd and playing Scrambled States of America with mom were going to count as school yesterday. You see, I've fallen into the habit of just putting him through his assignments every day and forgotten to make it fun. Isn't it neat that I found HOD and the box method at the same time? God is good!

[moedertje]

My books have gotten more and more as the year goes on and I am in such need of a good organizational system. I love the 7 drawer idea even better than the rack system. So thank you for sharing your ideas.
Even if it is not for my child's independent work it will keep both of us organized!
I'm going to Wal-mart tonight, because the books are starting to get in our way.