A week of pre-school work boxes

Work boxes are still working for us! I think, eventually, Z-Man will move on to something more like a checklist or a daily schedule that he can cross off. For right now, however, work boxes really help to keep us on track and moving through our day without whining or complaining. And THAT is worth a lot.

Little Man participates in our breakfast Bible time and our Morning Service, where we learn a new hymn each week and learn about a certain character trait. We then do FIAR all together and work on our current unit (weather) and read another picture book on our unit or our history study (Z-Man and I tackle the more advanced books later.) The funny thing is, Little Man doesn't think of any of this as "school" (which is fine with me!) No, only his "chores" say school to him - and that means workboxes. He gets three a day and is very pleased with himself when he finishes them. So cute!!

So here is a week's worth of Little Man's workboxes:

Tangrams, a geo board with shapes to make and a world puzzle

This was a tent in a house with telephone poles and a road. :)

Cutting project from a Kumon First Steps workbook, sounding out three-letter words, a really cool pack of raised pictures for doing crayon rubbings.

Our 21 Rules of This House coloring page - he prefers to paint it, Cuisenaire rods with a pattern book for making buildings and vehicles with them, glitter glue to decorate our Bible verse with, once we write it out together.

An adorable little foam counting puzzle, right and left counting puzzle, a four seasons activity to go with our Henry books (there are four books - one for each season.)

Tangrams again! A basic addition puzzle and another cutting project from the Kumon book. We also have a Kumon workbook for pasting and one for folding. We also have quite a few letter recognition activities but I'll have to put those in another post.

So there you go! I hope to do more of these posts occasionally so you can see what Little Man is up to.

Speaking of Pre-School Work Boxes

You really have to go check out these pre-school activity bag ideas with free printables to go with them. Really. In fact, this blog (Walking by the Way) has a plethora of wonderful pre-K and early elementary ideas. All brought to you by the same talented homeschool mom who is responsible for the Homeschool Share site. Wow! Now there is someone who is very busy being a blessing to others! Thank you, Ami!!

Pre-School Work Boxes!

Since Little Man feels the need to do things that Z-Man is doing, he has his very own set of work boxes!

Here are some of the things he finds in them:

He loves pages from Kumon books:

• books on tape
• puzzles - Noah's ark, a fishing puzzle, this alphabet puzzle:

• a paint with water book
• games (Goodnight Moon is the current favorite)
• books to read with Mom
• animal matching cards from Jan Brett
• a box of foam shapes to sort and make designs with
• Leap Frog magnetic letters:

• an ABC sticker book
• this great letter activity from Carissa's blog
• strips of construction paper and scissors to cut them into a million pieces
• toys for water play in the sink
• measuring devices and small trucks for play in his "flice" (a flat rubbermaid box of rice - kind of like an indoor sand box)
• trampoline time
• educational and Bible memory videos
• magnetic animals
• French words to practice (this was actually his idea and he loves it)

We'll also be doing pre-school activity bags from a wonderful swap! We have 20 bags, each with a unique activity, from matching to fishing! I think he's really going to enjoy them.

Of course, Little Man will also be participating in our around the world travels and I hope to do more Bible memory work with him. And, starting this year, we'll be doing a lot more with the alphabet - I'll keep you posted on that.

What to put in a work box?

I was explaining the work box system to a friend the other day and she asked what kinds of things I put in the kids' boxes. It occurred to me that a post listing some of those items might be in order. Check here for my initial post explaining and extolling the virtues of this wonderful homeschool organizing system.

I put as much of Z-Man's "regular" work in the work boxes as possible - math and language arts worksheets, books to read alone or for read-aloud time, copywork, etc. - only one activity per box and I try to alternate fun things with challenging work. He has to do them in order and, since we use clear shoe boxes, the fun stuff is visible and serves as motivation.

In Z-Man's boxes:

Games:

Telling time bingo

Domino math

Scrambled States of America

Pack of cards for addition war

Here are some fun games with money

File folder games - free ones here

Here are some free, printable game boards for Bible review

Misc.:

coloring pages of things we're working on

a mind bender or word puzzle

materials for science experiments

ingredients and recipe to bake something!

magnifier and things to examine

Bible with a verse noted to look up and write for copywork

note to review memory verses with Mom

look up something in the dictionary

nature scavenger hunt

all sorts of craft projects

animal cards to classify (mammal, reptile, amphibian, etc.)

month cards to put in order

put the animal cards in alphabetical order

materials and address to send a thank-you card

audio book

trampoline time!

an educational video

lapbook components

permission to do something fun on the computer:

• free sample Mark Kistler art lessons - love these!
• a watercolor tutorial with Mom (8 lessons in all - scroll down on sidebar)
• listen to a classics for kids program - love these too!
• watch a (previously bookmarked by Mom) Youtube clip relating to what we're learning
• and, yes, the occasional computer game

Math:

a cup of change to count

tangrams

geo board with shape cards

ruler and things to measure

our Math-it game

skip count tape to listen to

note to watch a schoolhouse rock video on Youtube

a 100 board with a fun little mystery to solve

calendar problems

wrap-ups

a graphing assignment (ex: At the gym today, find out what everyone's favorite cookie is. When we get home, create a bar graph with the data)

That's all I can think of off the top of my head and from going back over my day planner. I think you can see that the possibilities are probably limitless and I love that!

Coming soon - Little Man's boxes!

The Workbox System

A friend emailed me today, asking about our workbox system. After I sung its praises to her, I thought it might be a good idea to write about it here too. Probably the best site I've found so far about it is here. 

In a nutshell - each thing your child does is put into a clear plastic shoe box (or plastic envelope, or magazine file box, or whatever) and the boxes are numbered. They do them in order BUT they can see everything they have to do and as they get done with one, they  stack it and the amount of boxes left gets smaller and smaller. It's great VISUAL feedback for them. PLUS, if there's something fun (like a game, or trampoline time, or something online) in box 9, there's a little more motivation to get through boxes 1-8.

For us, the work box system was nearly miraculous. The benefits were immediate and, with a little tweaking here and there, they lasted until we "relaxed" into our summer routine. Off the top of my head, here are some of the benefits:

• the "can I go play now?" whine virtually disappeared
  
• we got waaaaaay more accomplished in a day
  
• I actually USED some of the fun stuff that I had been accumulating - like telling time bingo, geo boards, craft projects, etc.
  
• I actually did educational things with Little Man (he has his own boxes) instead of trying to get him to occupy himself while I worked with Z-Man
  
• Z-Man worked much more independently
  
• Z-Man actually liked being more independent and being in control of his schedule
  
• Little Man really, really loved doing his "chores" as he called them

I'll try to write another post soon to give you an idea of what kinds of things I put in their boxes.