Workboxes... Well, Kind of Anyway...

When I first learned about Workboxes, I wanted to try it out right away but I did not have the space. I had to change them a bit to fit my needs. So I came up with what I call, "Workbinders." They have evolved every year to meet the needs of my children.

Here are the links to the workbinders I have created in past years.
first year
second year
third year
fourth year

and this year.....

drum roll please....

Do some of them look familiar? Yeah, I admit that last year we stopped using the binders after only a few weeks. So we basically had 2 brand new binders. I am bringing the binders back this year because last year we all had a hard time keeping track of what was completed and what needed to get done. We are mostly working out of workbooks so the binders are not going to be keeping all of their work in there so much as letting them know what needs to be done and in what order. 

I made a planner page on Microsoft Excell that lists each of the subjects to be completed weekly. Each day I will write in the boxes what needs to be done and when it is complete, I will check it off. That way, hopefully, we can't fall behind. I am not super thrilled with the way the planner page turned out. I will be tweaking it this week and hopefully, I will have something to share with you all next week. I wanted to buy a couple this year because Queen DOES make some that are PERFECT but I could not afford them this year.

Each subject gets a divider page. The dividers have pockets so if there is anything that they completed that is not in the workbook itself, they can put it in the pocket and I can move it into their portfolio at the end of the week. I also added blank notebook paper if they need it for any reason. 

This year Hershey has a binder too. Today he decorated it with pirate stickers. He loves pirates. He calls them, "Yo ho!" His binder only has 3 subject pages. One for math, one for "reading," and one for science/history pages. Basically they are all coloring pages but if he likes doing school this year as much as he did last year, I think this will make him feel very important. 

Workboxes... Well, my version anyway.

I wanted to try work boxes but I don't have room for so many boxes. I spent about a month trying to figure out how to do this.

My goal was to give my children an idea of where they are at in the day so that they are motivated to keep working. Also, I wanted to encourage a bit of independence in my 7yo, Skittles so that I can focus more on my 4yo, Twizzler who is struggling.

So here is what I came up with.. I got a binder, some magnetic album pages, and some plastic sleeves.

I printed up a paper that I laminated to the cover. The paper has 9 squares on it and the child's name.

This one has stickers over the bottom 3 spaces because it is for Twizzler and he only has 6 tasks per day. Skittles  has 8 tasks and then a sticker. This way the binders can grow with them.

On the inside, I put a page from the magnetic album and a paper with a subject heading and then to-do list.

Behind the subject and to do page is the work that needs to be completed.

For math it is a worksheet but for Literature there will be a poem in the sleeve for him to read before our classical reading. For science there is a piece of his lapbook to fill in. For history I will keep his book of centuries behind the subject page.

Each subject page has a paper clip with a matching subject card. When the task is completed, he moves the card to the front of the binder, in one of the boxes.

 

Not all of the subject pages have a sleeve behind them. In fact most of the subject pages in Twizzler's binder don't. They are just to show him what comes next. When it is completed he moves the card to the front. When his boxes are filled in, he is done for the day.

If you do not have any magnetic album pages available, I recently found this alternative for only 75 cents at Walmart. It is an 8 pack of dividers. The last one has pockets on both side. I use the front pocket to hold my weekly planner page. I use the back pocket for finished work. Once the kids have finished a worksheet, they bring it to me and I put it in the back pocket. At the end of the week I staple the planner page to the front of all their completed work. Then I stick it in an expandable file folder.  

I might print a picture or let the kids decorate the colored side of the divider.  On the opposite side there are lines so that I can write down the check list like I had before. I am not sure yet. 

Here is a link to another great way to use binders. 

the dogs a boy too

Here are some more links on workbox systems. 

work box system

spell out loud

spell out loud 2009

our busy homeschool

ruby slippers school

the reed family

wayzley academy

kgb thats me

clothes line musings

mama-jenn

And I got the majority of these links from.. 

squidoo

As you can see workboxes are very flexible. You can pretty much make it work any way you like for your family. We have been using our "work binders" for a few months now and they work for us! I am no longer answering "now what do I do?" Ok, that is a lie. They still ask me that but now I always have a ready answer and it never changes, "Get out your binder." In fact, sometimes, I can see into the future and in it my children are doing impersonations of me saying, "Get out your binder."