Tag: kindergarten

The Workbox System to organize preschool

Tracy1 Comment on The Workbox System to organize preschool

I have loved the idea of the workbox system. The method has literally transformed our homeschool. Not only do they keep me organized, but they have kept our day moving—THE key to a successful day with little ones that have zero-attention span. One fantastic thing about workboxes is the variety. From blog to blog, I see so many variations of this idea, each family finding what works for them.

The basic idea of the workbox system is to have 9-12 compartments (or however many you need) for different assignments and projects. As the child works through the assignments in a compartment, he will take off the number attached to the compartment and add it to a grid. Then, the completed assignments will be returned to the teacher. (For a video tutorial from the originator of the idea, click here.)

Though the original idea calls for actual boxes in a rolling cart, there are so many ways to incorporate the principle. The space-saver version is what we use—file folder pockets that hang from the wall using Command Hooks. You can purchase these for around $15 on Amazon.

Another idea, especially for younger children, are the toy bins or trays. A more expensive option, but they allow little ones to see what’s planned for the day. For older children, some other ideas I have seen include a file box with numbered hanging file folders. The assignment pages would actually go inside the folders, perfect if you have a lot of workbook pages or notebooking pages. Last idea, create a notebook with pockets and place assignments inside. 

Our Workbox System of Choice

First, our workbox method is the space-saver version from Amazon, 12 pocket files that hang from Command hooks beside each child’s chair. I attached velcro dots to each file pocket and each laminated workbox number card. When work is completed, they turn it in to the “teacher tray” which is simply Wal-mart’s cheapest paper tray. Then the workbox number is pulled off the file and placed onto our “workstation” grid. I’ve seen many people cut these grids into strips and hang them from office rings, but the single sheet of paper works best for us. I have velcro dots attached to this as well. (And I laminate everything!)

I place scissors, glue, pencils and whatever else is required directly into the pockets. For art projects, I put the small pieces in a ziplock, and then place the ziplock and supplies into a pocket. If a project is too large for a pocket, I stick a card in the pocket for them to see me, and I’ll hand the activity to them. And that’s our system, as simply as I can state it.

workbox system | organizing preschool

Our Workbox Printables

Just search Google for “Workbox printables” or “Workbox Grids” and you’ll find a myriad of options. But some of the ones that we use and love are from two separate websites. First, our grids, number cards, and a few of our activity cards were from Robin’s Heart of Wisdom blog. I love how bright and colorful they are! And they coordinate with our bright red pockets, which of course is important. She also has a workbox weekly planner. 

I’ve also used a number of printables from Erica at Confessionsofhomeschooler.com (scroll to bottom of the page for the workbox printables). And all of last year, I used her workbox planning page, modified of course, to fit our schedule. Erica’s blog is actually where I first read about workboxes, and I am forever indebted to her!

This year, I’m going to try a couple of things differently. Primarily, I’m using an editable pdf planner from Homeschool Creations, so my format is more lesson plans than necessarily workbox plans (for my son). She also has a couple of preschool planner pages, which is what I’m trying for my daughter.

I’ve actually used the preschool pages as a template for our week, more than specific plans. And the space for workbox planning, I’ve kept very general. Since her schedule is pretty routine, I figured I could just look at my template, find the activity for the specific pocket (i.e. “wipesheet”) and pull out the activity for the letter of the week that we are working on. Trying to streamline my planning, we’ll see how it goes. If all fails, I’ll go back to Erica’s method; it worked great last year.

And if you’ve made some printables or have a favorite you absolutely love, please share it with me in the comments section!

The rest of the plans…

Tracy4 Comments on The rest of the plans…

Well, we’ve covered my two subjects that took the most planning. Today, I’m sharing the rest of the year!

Bible

For Bible this year, I’m hoping to do a survey of sorts of the entire Bible. My goal is to give the kids an idea of its message as an entire book instead of a lot of individual stories. So, here’s how I’m trying to accomplish that with a four and a half year old kindergartner and a soon-to-be-three preschooler. One of the things I’ve picked up for Bible this year is 50 Great Bible Stories audio CD, which tells the story of the Bible in an audio book format. I’m wanting to foster a little more independence and the feel of their own quiet time with God.

Together, we’ll go through What the Bible is All About for Young Explorers. With this book, we’ll be learning the books of the Bible within each category: the books of the law, the books of history, the books of poetry, etc. I figured that broke down the task of memorizing the books of the Bible into bite-sized pieces. Also, What the Bible is All About provides great outlines, synopses of each book, and the purposes of each book within God’s greater message of the Bible. We’ll cover all of that, but probably focus on memorizing a short summary of what each book is about, or a key verse from the book. I’ll make adjustments as we go along.

Critical Thinking

This is a subject we don’t want to neglect, as part of their classical education. I have it positioned in our day right before math, and I have a few different ways I’m wanting to teach it.

We’ll start out the year in the Building Thinking Skills and add in Lollipop Logic as the year progresses. BTS starts very simple with grouping similar objects and tracing a path between objects without touching their sides. Lollipop Logic progresses to organizing a process into the right order (building a tower, picking apples from a tree) and finishing analogies. I have my son doing three pages a week from these books. On the other days, we are going to play with our teddy bears.

With the teddy bears, we’ll work on finishing patterns and get into a little bit of graphing this year. The little one will follow our routine, doing her teddy bears (working on grouping colors and sizes) on the days Brother is doing his pages. On her workbook days, she’ll have a few pages of her own from these fun books.

Phonics and Numbers

My son will be working through the A Beka Kindergarten books for this subject and reading through the A Beka little readers, as well. I’ll adjust the pace as needed, but so far he’s  done great. I’ve started in the books this summer and skipped about 60 lessons of review work. He never missed a beat. My son is the child that stays motivated by a challenge. If I have him doing the same thing for too long, he gets very bored. With that said, I’ll probably cut some of the handwriting assignments. On some days he is assigned two manuscript pages and copywork! That’s okay to keep a classroom of kids busy, but I’ve got better busy-work planned than handwriting. And handwriting is one of those skills you can incorporate into so many other areas of study. So, all that to say, I make adjustments; I don’t follow A Beka “by the book.”

For the little one, she’ll be doing Erica’s Letter of the Week curriculum. I had her doing some of the activities last year: the coloring pages, puzzles, and motor skill activities. This year, I’ll have her doing it all. She is so excited! She has really been upset with me for not filling her pockets this summer. I’m thinking she’ll be very ready to do “school” with me this fall. I’ll also have lots of her “toddler” activities interspersed to keep her busy.

And that does it for curriculum this year! Our schedule, in summary, will be about 15 minutes per activity, or about two hours a day.

See what other’s are planning at the “not back to school” blog hop, and thanks for stopping by.

Discovering what works

Tracy

For this year, I went ahead and purchased the A Beka Kindergarten Handwriting for manuscript. It has saved so much time compared to making my own sheets, more than I even thought it would. However, I was really surprised at how small the lines were! I really thought the lines were that size in first grade.

My son does fine with the individual letters and even the individual words, but the sentences, all crammed into one line, have been a real challenge for him. My first clue was that his handwriting pages started to get really sloppy and took him forever to complete, and then it seemed as though he’d forgotten even how to form the letters sometimes. But when I watched him, I realized why.

His first word was fine, but come the second word of the sentence he was already squished right next to his starting dot. So when he tried to start the next word, he had no room and had no idea how to form the letter.

After the fourth time of erasing that line and trying again, I finally had recognized the problem. I got out my tablet paper and told him to copy the sentence there instead. What had been frustration and agony turned to absolute relief! He finished the sentence without the aid of any of those annoying red starting dots. And with the larger lines, his letters had room.

Of course, we’ll still need to work on spacing the words and eventually move to those smaller lines. But you should have seen the zest with which he tackled that page!

I’m writing about it because I think it was a huge learning experience for me, recognizing the symptoms of a problem and finding the solution. Someone once told me that if you look into the eyes of a child you are teaching and they’ve lost their spark, stop and come back to it another day. But coming back to the same problem day after day, might not always be the solution. Sometimes, it might be taking a step back to the last place of success.

After all, we’re all motivated when we feel successful.