Angie's been hard to coax into her lessons, lately. I chalked it up to the lack of a routine. And I couldn't figure out how, with Maddie getting into absolutely everything we do, to get a routine going. Though I made wonderful lesson plans, we seldom got through them and they'd be put off and put off until a later date. Sometimes, we'd not even do a lesson and I'd put it in the "some other time" box. But after spending a couple of Mondays with Sandie and her kids, I was convinced that this workbox thing might be the organizational kick-in-the-pants we needed.
Now, being the researcher that I am, I had to look it up before I tried to implement it. I saw all kinds of setups -- the approved box format, the file folder format, envelopes, shoe organizers -- you name it, people have done it. And then I tried to determine what might work for us. Two things decided the issue for us: firstly, we don't really have any extra money to spend right now on things like boxes and shelves. Secondly, we don't really have a place for those things to go, even if we did have the money. So I looked around at what I already had lying around.
After a recent "storage area" cleaning, I'd come away with an empty wooded crate that I was sure I could use somehow for Angie's schooling. Up until now, I've just stuffed our books and supplies into it willy-nilly. That wasn't really getting us very far, so I dumped it on the floor of the office and looked for something new to stuff in it. Pulling open the filing cabinet, I saw all of my lovely hanging file folders neatly arrayed in the bottom drawer. Wait! I think I have a box of those somewhere! Lo! There they are! Now where did I put the tabs?
And moments later, I had the basic plan laid out. I had to trim the folders a bit to fit in the crate, but once done, they looked splendid. I added a large address label to the front with the folder number on it, and created tabs to slide into the plastic tab holder with the folder number on it. The tabs are about half an inch loger than the plastic holder, so they stick out for grabbing. The idea was that as Angie finished a folder, she would pull the tab and put it in a pocket chart on the wall so we could keep track of what she'd completed, then return the tabless folder to the crate and move onto the next one. A decorative pacard on the front of the crate declares it "Angie's Workbox".
Now, to fill the folders. The obvious advantage of the boxes is that ALL materials for a given assignment fit inside of it. Crayons, phonics tiles, counting blocks, memory cards and the like just won't fit inside of a folder. So assignments that require supplies present a challenge. Then too, some assignments don't have any supplies at all! To solve the problem, I created little cards that said what the assignment was and piled the appropriate supplies into the back of the crate, behind the folders. Even though the folder didn't contain the supplies, she could find them easily right there in the crate. As a caveat, though, there are many things that just reside on the bookshelf in the office and she can get them as she needs them. That way, I don't have to put EVERYTHING in the crate.
OK. So now, what do we put in the folders? Well, sometimes it's worksheets. For writing and things like that, a worksheet is ok. Sometimes a file folder game (as introduced to me by Sandie, again). For other things, it's a book or a card indicating what we're going to be doing. I wrote down the subjects that we need to cover and what topics we'll do in each subject and tried to put one in each folder. I keep wondering "why 12 folders?" though. I don't think we'll use all of them, except maybe to force me to remember to add play time to the day. We have a "counting to 100" folder; read to mommy; language lessons; math; spelling; story time; art; game time; music; social studies; science; and spanish; we'll add other stuff as we go. I also include cards for things that we go out to do -- soccer, library story hour and music lessons with Sandie.
Now, I need to figure out the optimal arrangement of the subjects in the folders so that I can cover things with Angie that she needs my help with while Maddie is napping. Things that she can do on her own, I want to leave for while Maddie is awake so that I can spend time playing and working with Maddie too. (Maddie seems to be speaking at a much more advanced rate than Angie did, and she's learning very very quickly.)
My assessment after 3 days? It's working like a charm. Angie actually started her first folder before breakfast this morning because she was excited to see what was in each folder. I think I'm going to have to be careful about arranging things each day so that there's always a surprise. I don't want her to think that music is always going to be in folder 4 or that spelling is always in folder 6. By mixing it up, I hope to keep her looking for more.
As a reminder to myself, I'm going to start adding books to many of the lessons, too, so that we can do more reading during our day. Oh, and there's a series called MathStart that looks promising for math topics. Stories that illustrate a math concept and then activities in the back, just like what I want to write!
If you've anything to add to this, comments and the like, I'd be happy to hear. For now, we'll see if I can keep this ball rolling.
