Our Version of the Workboxes

Have you heard about workboxes? Well, let me tell you. This simple idea has become very popular across the country.

This is what our workboxes look like.



The front of each box has two velcro dots; one for the number and one for an extra card, i.e. Work with Mommy, Story Time, Do with Sister, etc.



If there is not a "Mommy Card" on a box, Samara has to figure it out on her own. If she is having a really hard time she can use a "Help" card, but she only has three. This was a very stressful concept for her at first. She felt that if she needed help, I would "take away" one of "her" help cards and that made her feel like she was in trouble. She got the hang of it tough and now understands it is ok to use a help card. Daddy explained to her that her help cards are like money. She can buy some help, but she needs to make sure to spend her help cards wisely since she only has three. This has been a really great tool to teach problem solving and creative thinking. Since she doesn't want to spend one of her cards, she will really try to figure things out, rather than asking mommy for help before she really tries. She doesn't always do it the way I would have expected, but she does a great job. Some days she only spends one card and many days she doesn't use them at all.



The first thing Samara likes to do is peek into each box to see what is in store for the day. She loooooves it that she is allowed to do this. I love that she loves to! :) When she knows something extra fun is coming up, it is very motivating to keep working on something that is more challenging.

Samara starts with her schedule strip, which hangs on the side of the workboxes on a suction bathroom hook that I pulled out of the closet. This tells her where to go first and on throughout the day. There is a number for each box and 4 other activities, i.e. 20 Minutes on Starfall.com, Fold Towels, Reading Time, etc.



When she is on a number on her schedule strip, so goes to that workbox, pulls the whole thing out and takes it to her desk or sits on the floor with it, etc.

When she is finished with a box, she turns her work/activity into the pink canvas box on top of the workboxes and pulls the cards off of the box and places them into the clear box sitting in the top of the pink canvas box. (These boxes were added a couple days after we started, which is why it isn't in most of the pictures). Having her take the cards off of the boxes and place them into the clear box as she goes makes setting the boxes back up a lot faster for me.



Next, she stacks her box to the left.



Finally, she takes the number off of her schedule strip and sticks it to the grid on the side of the boxes, so she can keep track of where she is. Then, on to the next number/activity on the schedule strip.

This is what it looks like when she has completed home school for the day.



I purchased these boxes from Target. They are by ITSO and I love them. The shelves are super easy to move around, so I can put my larger books or items I don't want to bend, anywhere in the sequence without a problem.

This wasn't exactly a cheep option, but each piece (including the shelves) are individually priced, so I was able to purchase a couple items at a time, until I had everything I wanted. (The green box on the floor, was from the girl's bedroom and is now being repurposed for our workbox system).

All of the cards were created by other home school families that use the workbox system. Some came from blogs, but most came from the Workbox Yahoo Group, which I would highly recommend joining. There are a ton of ideas that people post on what they are putting inside their boxes too. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/workboxes/

I printed everything on card stock and then laminated everything at Mardel for $0.25/foot. They have the large double roll machines. The rolls are just over 2 feet wide, so you can easily laminate two sheets of paper for a quarter. I laminate the whole page, then cut out the pieces.

I used velcro dots on all of the cards and boxes. I used a strip of velcro on the side of the workboxes, for an easy place to stick the Help cards. I also used a strip of velcro for the grid on the side of the workboxes that Samara puts her completed cards on. This just makes setting up the boxes each night a little easier. It is handy to be able to pull it off and have everything right in front of me.

I also have a weekly planning page with a grid of 12 boxes downward for Monday through Friday. Filling this out as much as possible before the week starts really helps me fill the boxes each night A LOT faster. I don't necessarily keep the workboxes in the same order as I have written them on the paper though. I rearrange them each night as needed, strategically placing the super fun things in the best place.