Our New Workboxes

My good friend, Kelly, from http://absolutehodgepodge.blogspot.com/, first introduced me to Sue Patrick's Workbox System.  I read the book and thought...Hmmm...that's a good idea.  What's there not to like about it?  That was toward the end of last school year.  I pondered the idea...met Sue Patrick at a homeschool convention...toyed with the idea little bit more, but that was as far as it got.  School began, and we continued in our old familiar way with the thought of possibly trying to implement the workboxes later on in the year. 

Well...as we moved into our first couple of weeks of school...my son, having only completed two subjects for the day, accused me of "just wanting him to do school all day"!  (You know, the old "adding to the list" trick that moms are so good at doing.)  Martin is a very visual person...the kind that loves checking off boxes and seeing his progress!  Surely the workbox system would be a good fit for him!  I would load up the boxes and set his schedule.  When he got through the boxes, his day would be done. 

I began to do as much research as I could...perusing Sue Patrick's website http://www.workboxsystem.com/, reading of other homeschools that are using this system, stealing..er...umm...I mean borrowing their ideas (thanks for sharing)...and finally I came up with a few ideas that I felt would work best for us.  (It's still in the developing stages.)

Now that I had my mind made up, I still had one little glitch.  My family was (and is) still in the middle of our "invalid project".  Daddy is housebound, and so are the rest of us.  Fortunately, Kelly (http://absolutehodgepodge.blogspot.com/ ) had plans to make an IKEA run.  She was happy to pick up a few things for me, and her husband was so kind...thoughtful...chivalrous...etc. to put the whole unit together.  Thank God for such thoughtful Christian friends!  I was so grateful.

Here are pictures of the system being put to use for the first time.  We have just completed day 2, and are excited about using them the rest of the year.  The kids loved it!!!
Here are the workboxes loaded and ready to go.

Here is the front cover of Rayne's schedule book.

Here is the inside.

Another inside picture.

Rayne completing her last box.  She began this puzzle by first locating "The Man In the Map".  Can you see him?

The workboxes at the end of the day.  Notice all of the numbers are missing.

Martin being goofy as he shows off his completed chart.  What do you expect from an 8th grader?

Rayne was thrilled to have completed her day.  "Oh, yeah!"

I will post more about the workboxes as we figure it all out.  My next post will be an update on Pastor Sean, and then, hopefully we will get to share pictures of our other big project we have been working on...a kitchen makeover.