Workboxes from Michael's

I have been thinking about re-doing our workboxes as the ones we have don't work as well as I would like them to.  I had been looking at these from JoAnn's.

I liked the workboxes but wasn't crazy about the "industrial" look to them.  I was looking at the Michael's ad this weekend and noticed they had craft storage units on sale buy one get one for $0.01.

I went to our Michaels and decided I really liked the 3 drawer stack (seen on the bottom left).  The normal price was $34.99 so for a 6 drawer stack it is $35.00.  This is the same price as the JoAnn's.  Plus, since I can get 15% off as an educator at Michaels, it turned out to be a better deal.  

Unfortunately, they didn't have 12 in stock, so I had to get a raincheck for 6 of them.  The rest are in my car trunk for now since I don't want to put these together before we move.  I'll post a picture of them after I get them in the new house.

Instead of the velcroed numbers for each box, I'll probably just make laminated cards in each of the kids' colors with the numbers on them and then drop them in the label slots on the front of the drawers.

Homeschool Update - One Month Home

We have made some changes to our homeschool routine for the boys.  Our initial plans just didn't work quite right so we mixed things up.  The biggest thing we have learned is that ALL of the online ESL sites I've found assume a child at least has some conversational grasp of the language.  This is particularly frustrating to TJ.  He can't understand the instructions so he quickly gives up and I don't blame him.  Even Starfall was a bust.  He was able to do the work, but his comment to me was "I don't know what any of it means."  So, we backed up.  Right now, we are focusing on Dolch Sight Nouns with him so he at least has some vocabulary for what is being talked about.  The fun part is that HJ is also learning these, so the two "compete" to be the first one to get the word right.  They do this part of their schoolwork with Grandpa.

We have also implemented workboxes for TJ so he gets a variety of things to do each day.  (I'll post a picture of his workboxes later). 

Workbox (WB) 1 has his Bible in it.  He still reads 1 chapter a day. 

WB2 has his math work.  We've changed this as the early Saxon 5/4 lessons were TOO easy for him.  He was whipping through them in about 10 min.  So, we have been using online worksheets from http://www.math-drills.com/ and also the Supplemental Exercises in the back of Saxon 5/4 to try and figure out what he does and doesn't know how to do.  He still does Sterling Math each day also. 

WB3 is usually an English skill.  A wonderful friend bought a LeapPad type device in China for her daughter to learn English.  However, it turned out that her daughter couldn't read the characters so she never used it.  She offered it for sale and I jumped on it.  So, WB3 contains the workbooks for this device.  TJ really likes it because it has both Chinese and English.  However, we quickly discovered that he was reading the Chinese and saying it in English and not really learning the written English. So CP covers up the Chinese and says the words and has TJ repeat it back to him.  TJ also is using LiveMocha now which includes the Chinese characters as well.  We quickly discovered that he likes to race through the "Learn" section and jump to the "Review" - but he doesn't know the material yet.  We'll be working on that tendency :-)

WB4 is also usually an English skill.  We are using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons for him which also provides good bonding/attachment time for him and CP.   We also picked up this Chinese/English Visual Dictionary from Barnes and Nobel to work on vocabulary.  It has pictures as well as the English, Simplified Characters and Pinyin for a TON of things in it.  I also had created a set of flashcards for HJ a while back using colored construction paper.  Each color paper has that color word written on it.  So those go in the box.  I also printed off flashcards from Semanda.com which have Chinese on one side and English on the other.  JA and TJ work on these together.

WB5 is usually video or computer based.  We borrowed the Your Baby Can Read videos from a friend and TJ and HJ watch these together.  We also have the LeapFrog videos for Letters and Words.  We use the flashcard quizzes at Semanda.com and LiveMocha.  I finally broke down and paid the $30 for a one year subscription to LiveMocha.  I think it will be well worth it. 

WB6 is usually something fun like an Animated Storybook or a computer game that I think he will enjoy, but still learn some English.  Today I gave him I Spy and asked AT to help him. 

I do need to add back in his 45min of reading one of the books we brought from China, but I'll do that next week.

GW's schooling has been moving along well.  We have made a few tweaks for him.  I purchased the LiveMocha subscription as that was working well for him.  We are also giving him online worksheets from Kuta Software to help figure out what he knows and what he doesn't.  We're still trying to figure out exactly how much English he knows.  He is continuing his copy-work from a book and we will have him start reading out loud to us soon so we get a good grasp of where he is.  We will probably let him read to SG so he won't be intimidated, but she will be able to correct him if he makes a mistake.  We also added Mingoville to his list of activities. He is able to do OK with this as his conversational English is good enough to understand the directions. 

I'm not sure we have really challenged either one of them yet, but that's OK.  We've only been home one month TODAY!

More Workboxes

A couple of questions were posted in the comments to my previous post, so I thought I would answer them here:
We have a separate box next to the 'mailbox' for the bigger box 1 stuff. Sometimes, I'll just put a note in there for what they need to do.
Instructions are the same: Math 1 lesson; Reading 1 hr; writing 1 page; Vocab 10(4th grader) or 12(5th grader) words/week
We don't have "tests" - Math has to be 90% or better or they redo the entire lesson; writing they make corrections after I have reviewed; Reading - I talk to them most nights at dinner and sometimes find online tests; Vocab - Dad makes sure they know them all on Fri

Workboxes

We homeschool using the Robinson Curriculum.  When I first read about workboxes, I didn't think they would help us much since RC is a 3R curriculum.  However, I have discovered that it really helps keep things on track for our kids with no excuses about what is/isn't done. 

We have 4 kiddos - 6(K), 7(1st), 9(4th) and 11(5th). For the two youngest, I actually have the Sterilite "shoeboxes". The 6yo has 8 boxes (sounds like a lot, but isnt). The extra boxes are mainly to keep her busy so she isn't distracting the other kids.

1 Box has math(counting,number recognition) activities - done with Grandpa,
1 box has writing activities - done alone,
1 box has reading(phonics) activities - done with Dad (Dad tag on box)
1 box has math (more counting or addition) activities - done with Dad (Dad tag on box)
1 box has fun (playdoh, bendaroos, coloring, etc) - done alone
1 box has an educational computer game (Reader Rabbit, JumpStart) - done alone
1 box has random "school stuff" matching,phonics, etc - done alone
1 box has a game (Zingo, computer, puzzle etc) - done alone

The 7 yr old has 5 boxes - done alone except as noted
1 box has math (flashcards for review with Grandpa and Saxon 54) - done mostly alone but occasional help from Dad
1 box has reading (current book)
1 box has writing (McGuffey reader and writing notebook)
1 box has fun (varies from tangrams, to puzzle workbook to computer game, etc)
1 box has piano books

The 9 and 11 yr olds have a cardboard mailbox from Office Depot and a business card holder for a 3 ring binder (like baseball card holders).

In the mailbox, each section is labeled (GodTime, Math, Reading, Writing, Vocab, and "Box 1"-I'll explain later) and the boys keep their stuff for each subject in the section. In the business card holder, I have a card with their Name (so they know who's is whose), God Time, Math, Writing, Reading, Vocab, Music, and Box 1. As they complete each task, they pull the card out and put it backwards in another pocket. When all their tasks are done, all you can see is their name and a white card. I hung these on our fish tank which sits at the end of our dinner table. That way, when I come home and sit down for dinner, I know immediately whether the boys are done or not. The girls usually tell me before I'm 10 feet in the door that they are done.

Box 1 is just something extra and fun I give the boys. Tangrams, Alice computer programming  http://www.alice.org/, an electricity project kit, learn to draw, build a rocket, etc. Since it changes every day, I couldn't really give it a name - hence Box 1. On occassion, if they need extra work on something (capitalization, grammar, etc), I'll put that work in there.