My Workboxes

My recent post on Workbox Change up! : http://coneshomeschool101.blogspot.com/2010/03/workbox-change-up.html

Ok so here are my workboxes. Yay! They are done, Finally! Well with the exception of redoing a few of my strips. Lol! I honestly have changed my workboxes from the original system. You can view Sue Patricks system at the link here: http://www.workboxsystem.com/

I don't discourage her system at all... However, I am incline to say that her system is not for everybody. If you have alot of kids or little space you will want to make some minor changes. Unless you have seen other blog postings on her system and know exactly what it is and if it will work for you, then I say go for it. But if you have not or you are a large family - it is just too too too much of the tote thing for each child and too much space involved. So I am doing the drawers which is working out better for our family and I believe will work fine when I begin my sons schooling next year. Sue Patricks Workbox system is wonderful for any family that homeschools. BUT... Again I mention- you may need to make a few minor adjustments but for the most part, I would recommend it.

Also, keep in mind as I mention in a previous post, we school in our dining room for the moment which is directly in sight of our front door, [Lord willing we are able to find another house. Lol.] So neatness is extremely important to me and having a bazillion of the totes is just plain tacky to me. Heck, I dont even like the drawers, Lol. But they are better then the totes everywhere.

Items you may want to use or alternate:

-workboxes or tote drawers
-velcro coins (dots)
-laminate or clear contact paper
-duplicate sets of number cards (one set for your boxes, one for your schedule strip)
-2 pockets, one for checking in school, one to check out. [we are not using these just yet]
-Something they use to check in and out (I used the print outs from Sue's book site for this). But it can be a book mark type paper with their name or photo on. [You can also make your own rather then buying Sue Patricks and or google some for free. I am not trying to take away from Sue Patrick by any means. With todays economy, Saving is on the mind of everyone!]
-work with mom cards (to stick on any boxes that you have to work with the child on)
-Any other visual cue cards that you may want to make - ( Our friends kids do a therapy activity with Beans, My kids just love it. So I made a card with beans on it - Beans Fun for 15 min. (they can do alot with beans, make letters, animals, shapes, counting, patterns.] Other Ideas I have read or seen made for picture cards: Leapsters, Wii games, snacks, Cooking, etc...)

In case you are interested in the tote drawers : I found the wide white 3 drawered totes to the left of the picture at Walmart for $7.00. I also found the blue 3 drawered totes which is on top of the white ones in the picture at Walmart for $6.00. The black 6 drawered totes I found at Staples for $29.00. I bought two of them and put velcro on the bottom of the top 6 drawered tote so that it would fasten on the bottom set and not fall off, merely for safety.

Here's the first shot with all of our drawers! Dd 1 & Dd 2 Have 6 drawers each...

You can also so from both above and below that I have a few

extra drawers to the left right now holding other activities I can switch out to

later on. Also the six fatter drawers are full of supplies and craft things, including

our musical instruments in the bottom drawer.

Here you can see a close up of the drawers.

In the bottom picture I laminated a few extra numbers for later use so on the blue tote drawers for right now, I am storing things in the three drawers for both girls... So I added the numbers that matched the ones the girls used. Both girls same numbering type on each drawer to show them it is both of theirs.

I had to add this picture of our bulletin board. It took me a while to finish up but Yay! It is done. Both sides usable.

In the bottom picture you can see the smaller board I made.

I am using this for our strips. Many use the strips on the ring, but I have honestly No space to ring strips up and hang. As I mentioned I have a chracker box house. Lol. Our family has just simply out grown. So I am velcroing the strips and alternating them out daily to our routine. I have a few strips made up so I can change them out every other week. You will want to alternate out your activites. The strips I have on there right now are for both girls daily activities. I have to finish laminating my completed and not completed cards and we are good to roll on. Right now we are just writing down what is completed. I am running short on laminating pouches so waiting for a order. I love laminating. lol!

Below I will note a few other blogs you can look at for ideas as well as see what they are doing. I will note the ones that really stood out to me for our family and others that I found. Some had great ideas. I really like the cubby stand but there was too much space wasted.

Here are a few links to other blogs that have posted on their workboxes:

http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2009/03/workboxes.html

http://duklings.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/workboxes/

http://farmer-in-the-dell.blogspot.com/2009/08/workboxes.html

http://thesnailstrail.blogspot.com/2009/05/vacation-work-boxes.html

http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-were-using-workboxes.html

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/669091/

http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/music/games.htm

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/workbox.php

http://kgbthatsme.blogspot.com/2009/07/new-workbox-system.html

http://forum.homeschoolshare.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=3368

http://sunflowerschoolhouse.com/free-downloads/

I also wanted to post a few sites to check out for Activites you can use in your workboxes.

http://www.kizclub.com/index.html

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/workbox.php

http://www.thetoymaker.com/2Toys.html

http://mspowell.com/funfreestuff.html

http://www.earlylearningactivities.com/printables.html

I will also note at one of the blogs above, I am sorry I can not seem to find the link to the pdfs, but at one of the blogs above they linked to their site a rather large website with many many pdfs that you can download and incorporate with your agenda. If I can find it later on I will post it and link it to this post.