Today is our last day of summer vacation, come Monday we will be in school mode once again. I had everything ready as far as planning but now everything is ready and waiting for Monday morning!
So here we are... it's July already!! Summer is going much too fast. I have been purging my house of all things unnecessary. Summer is a great time to get rid of all those things that have been gathering dust during the long winter months.
I was able to donate a big box of books, workbooks and the like to the local used books store..I have two more boxes to give them. Out with the old and in with the new!
Homeschooling requires a lot of books around, but even that can get out of hand sometimes if you are not careful.
Speaking of homeschooling, I'm done making the folders for each week for each kid for next year. I have A8s notebooking journal done for American history and I have X5s Jr notebooking journal for science. The last thing I need to do this month is plan the workbox schedule for each kid.
I'm making some changes to the boxes this coming fall. X5 had the more traditional boxes, with the shoe rack and 9 individual boxes. That is about to change! After talking to him about it, he would rather use the Iris 6-Drawer Mobile Chest that his sister has been using.
He told me he likes it better than having to bring the box with him to the table, he would rather get the stuff he needs from each drawer and then when done just put it back in the box.
This works for me since I was going to go from 9 boxes to 6 for him this coming year anyways.
He wants the black and clear model.
This weekend we are having Nina and Grandpa coming over to celebrate the Fourth of July! We have burgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob and sausages ready for the weekend, and hopefully we'll get to watch a little movie called Eclipse while the kids stay with Nina and Grandpa!
Happy 4th everyone!!!
A few posts ago I made a comment on how X5 is doing great with the workbox system but A7 isn't. I decided to go right to the source and ask her why she didn't like them and if there was any way I could make it better for her.
She likes how X5 has his boxes but not how she has them, you may remember his look like this,
and hers looked like this...
No more! I don't have the room for another rack like X5 has, but I do have room for something like this...
This is the Iris 6-Drawer Mobile Chest, found it at Office Max and it is a perfect workbox! I like the clear one better. This is what her station looks like now...
You can't take the drawers out but we came up with "move the label" system. At the beginning of school the numbers are in the middle of the drawer, once she is done with that box she moves the label to the right of the drawer as you can see in the above pic.
There are only 6 drawers but that's okay. Anything extra I can just add to her schedule strip, things like free reading, read aloud, games etc. Those kinds of things don't need to be inside a box.
She loved it! She knew exactly what to do this morning, hardly needed my help. Needles to say, today we had a great school day. Yes, they do exist!
It's been over a week and I can honestly say the workboxes were a great investment! X5 knows exactly what to do during school. He'll look all the boxes over just to see what he's going to be working on, then picks #1 goes at it, then #2 and so on.
Today he worked on all the boxes without a break! He did not want to stop. I have to say he is doing so much better than I expected with this. During the summer he didn't even want to go near them.
Here is A7 at the end of school doing her 15 minutes of reading on her favorite place to read, our couch.
I wanted to do an update on our Art curriculum. I wanted a more hands on, getting dirty type of art stuff and I found this art book: Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters
Featuring more than 150 activities, this guide teaches the styles, works, and techniques of the great masters—Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and more.
I also purchased Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists. These are books about different artists, composers, etc..
We'll be doing art study on Wednesdays, take three to four weeks learning about an artist and his paintings and do one project to go with the study. The plan is to learn about two artists per semester. We are going to start with Michelangelo and Leonardo(DaVinci is where he is from, not his last name, I've been told). Then next semester we'll learn about Picasso and Van Gogh.
In between the artists study we are going to be using How to Teach Art to Children, Grades 1-6. I've had this book for a while but I'm finally going to use it with the kids.
This year I finally have art covered!
Homeschool Share now has a Workboxables' page. You can print games and activities for your workboxes. They have it divided into different categories like preschool, phonics, graphs etc.
Speaking of workboxes I went to AC Moore the other day and found these wood model kits for our boxes, I bought the bird feeder and the tall ship for only $1.49! Not only do they get to build it but paint it as well. I know my kids will enjoy that!
Which reminds me, I signed the kids up for the Lowe's Build and Grow clinic. This Saturday(25th) they are building a helicopter. They provide the kids with goggles and an apron as well as the kit. You don't have to stay and build it there, you can take it home, which is what we are going to do. You can go here to sign up.
Here are some of games and activities in X4's summer work boxes .
I've seen a lot of homeschool blogs who are using the workbox system, post what they are going to have in their boxes for that week. I thought that would be a neat idea. The thing is my kids are going to have pretty much the same things in their boxes week after week.
We are using 9 boxes instead of 12 and most of them are going to be filled with the usual math, reading, handwriting etc. however, there will be a box or three that will change week to week. I thought maybe I could post about those boxes at the beginning of each week.
So I made this icon pic to go along with that post:
Yes, there are much cuter ones out there but this is as good as it gets for mine!!
I will show any games, activities or even snacks in the boxes for both kids. I get so many ideas from other blogs that I feel is a good thing to share any ideas I might have!
Even though we are not doing school right now I still have stuff in the boxes for the boy, I will post some of the fun things I have in there for him in the next few days!
