Friday, August 28, 2009

If at first you don't succeed...

...try, try again. I was going to attach this to the previous post but I felt like this warranted its own entry. This is my new workbox system I am going to try this year. I think I may have mentioned that I was an Industrial Engineer in my previous life. My mother tells me that I am always analyzing a process. I can't seem to help myself. Anyway here is my new take on workboxes.

There are 2 hooks with these hanging by the door. This will be where each child physically checks in and checks out of school. "Checking In" means taking your hang-tag set down and go to your desk to begin work for the day. "Checking Out" means hanging up your hang-tag with all the little cards for that day turned over (to the back or white side). Read on if you're thoroughly confused right now...



I have each page for each day already loaded and ready to go based on a master schedule I made up (I am using Adventures in My Father's World curriculum). I will use this grid to help me determine what to fill each child's 6 workboxes with. The most helpful thing with using a grid is so that I could see where I needed to stagger the "work with Mom" activities for each individual child. Most of the boxes will be with standard items each day but one or 2 each day I will just throw random and/or fun things. Here are Monday, Thursday, and Friday's daily pages...

Monday

Thursday
Friday

All Week


If you click on the above pictures you will see that there is a hard ("hard on the card" for any of you that have sat in on one of Sue's seminars) velcro dot on the front of the card and the back. This way everything is all self-contained which means no pieces to keep up with so hopefully none to be lost. All the girls have to do is turn the card over when they're finished with that activity.

Here they have checked into school for the day and both girls have completed their Calendar Activities (hence the first square which read "Calendar Activities" has been turned over)


I have re-labeled all of the drawers with permanent numbers. It was getting to be a huge pain for me to bend down and put all of those velcro'd labels back on each drawer. Sounds like I have real problems, huh? But there is another advantage because we found that the number tags were always falling off of the drawers and getting lost in other drawers, on the floor, etc...


Finally, when they have turned over all of the individual cards on their daily hang-tag they hang it back on their hook and they're done with school for the day. They have officially "Checked Out"

Now I'm checking out. Later!

17 comments:

Isabel said...

Ginger,
I love what you did with your workboxes. I'm setting mine up now and haven't laminated yet...luckily because I may change mine a little now. So, you have the daily cards w/ workbox number and activities mainly so you can stagger the work w/ mom time, right? I only have one girl doing Adventures and the other doing MFWK so I could probably stick with the one chart per day, I think. Also, I copied your American Flag Binder idea. We followed your instructions and it came out perfect. Thanks so much. I'm starting a blog just for our homeschool and added a pic of the binder idea of yours. Thanks so much!

MasterpieceMom said...

Yeah, it all looks great. I just got my boxes so i haven't set anything up yet. I was trying to figure out how to maneuver some things and your post is helping me thing. Thanks!!!

Suzuki Mom said...

Thanks - I am in the setup stage, and I like how you combined the schedule grid with the check in / check out.... I may do something similar.

(I already put permanent labels on the boxes - I didn't see a point in removable ones...)

Anonymous said...

Can I just say I love your blog? :0) I think this is great! I haven't read the official book but I've made labels up for our workboxes. I love what you've done and I'll keep it in mind. I am going to punch a hole in our workbox labels and hang them on tiny 3M hooks on the drawers. Then, my oldest can flip over the tab when she's done and leave it on the workbox containers. If that doesn't work, I may just try your idea.

I like your schedule too. Hmmm . . . food for thought. :0) I guess I should get the book though.

Marvan said...

Waauw, I love this system of the weekly schedule cards. I've just made mine a few months ago but if they are old and ugly I might change to your weekly ones. I definatly love the clock in and out idea

Frogmum said...

WOW - so well thought out. I really like what you have done with the hanging booklet schedule thingy - great idea - so organized - and simple :D It looks like you organize yourself in a similar way to me - only better :D

Anonymous said...

Ginger,

Did you use a specific template for your file cards? Would you be willing to share a copy of the template if you do have one? I'd love to be able to organize our week in a similar way. Of course, I guess I could do a form without tabs and just label it by day at the top (thinking aloud here) but the tabs look nice. :0)

Unknown said...

THIS IS AWESOME!!! THANK YOU FOR THE GREAT IDEA!!!!

Honey said...

I love your new system. It looks great. I am glad it is working for you. I am thinking of tweaking mine a bit for this year and was thinking maybe I am missing something by not using the schedule cart? I am going to read "the book" again and see if I can glean some more information from it.

Jolanthe said...

Love it girl!! :) Looks great {and right up my alley}.

Jolanthe

Sheri said...

this is an absolute genius way to save time, lay out the whole week and if you don't mind-I would love to post the link on my blog to send others here to see your post-it is too good not share it!

By the way-Ginger Snaps are my fav...and now your blog is one of my top 10-sweet!

Blessings-
Sheri
What's in the Box?

Deana said...

Thanks for the info..this is such a blessing as I have been struggling to come up with a way to organize by the week instead of day. I have a couple of questions..do you reload the boxes each day? If so where and how do you store the daily work? Thank you so much!!!

Anonymous said...

Your system looks great.

I also like how workbox system has helped me see how to stagger the "work with Mom" activities. No more children sitting by waiting for assignment. While one is working me the other is doing something productive.

Added you to my Google Reader labled Workboxes. Keeping all Workbox user posts in one easy to read area.

I'm asking everyone: Have you made any changes since your original workbox setup? What are they?

I found my eves were bigger than my schoolday i.e. I planned way too much. Now being more realistic.

Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Your system looks great.

I also like how workbox system has helped me see how to stagger the "work with Mom" activities. No more children sitting by waiting for assignment. While one is working me the other is doing something productive.

Added you to my Google Reader labled Workboxes. Keeping all Workbox user posts in one easy to read area.

I'm asking everyone: Have you made any changes since your original workbox setup? What are they?

I found my eves were bigger than my schoolday i.e. I planned way too much. Now being more realistic.

Thanks for sharing.

Joyce said...

Looks great! We just started workboxes last week...and I have no read the book. Eventually:-) We are doing MFW Adventures and AtoZ, too! So far this system works great with it. I also have a 4 yr old and a 1yr old....so "staggering" is one of my issues as well...bc even though I am trying to plan it staggered...it never really goes as planned. Looking forward to you all paving the way:-)

Jill Stanish said...

Thanks for the link at workboxes. I love the daily idea (we have so many variables every day of the week). Love your blog :o)

Christy said...

I was looking for ways to tweak our workboxes (files/drawers) and ran across your site. Thank you for putting up your blank grids for weekly scheduling!