I love how Ian looks so serious in the background reading his book!
We are done with our second week of home school and the kids and I are enjoying our time together and they are motivated. Last year I taught Ev while I attempted to do some Preschool with Hobs, but, after a couple of weeks Mr. H left us and would come back only on his own and he did sit in and listen to me teach but he mainly played around us. Little did I know that he is an auditory learner and he picked up quite a bit from Ev's kindergarten year.
So this year I needed something new to motivate my son to come to school and I found it. I was looking on other home schooling mom's blogs and found an organizing tool that is making all of our lives easier. And my kid who ditched me last year is learning and motivated to do his work.
I've talked about the workbox system in a few posts ago but now that we've actually used it I am so glad we did.
It helps organize us all and it makes the day go smooth as I am teaching 1st grade and Kinder at the same time. Here is how our day goes.
School starts around 8:45am, we do the Pledge, calendar time, then the kids do their Daily learning notebooks, then we move on to Bible, they take a 5 minute break, then do our Theme (Social Studies and Science curriculum). Ian joins us for these times. He is really learning a lot through our calendar time, which is just more than calendar. We go through learning the months of the years, how to write the date the long way and short way, they are able to tell me what day it is, what day yesterday was, what tomorrow will be. We graph the weather, talk about what season we are in. We have a shape for the day, they each find an example of that shape in the room. We keep track of how many days we've had in school and then use cups and add a straw and teach place value with the number of days in school. We count together, skip count, count in Chinese, we go over digraphs, blends, short vowels, we do a daily language sentence where they will correct my sentence. Then on their own they will fill in a lot of these questions in their Daily Learning notebooks.
The kids love to draw and this year we are using Grapevine Studies and we started with Creation and are drawing our Bible stories each day. Then we do our year long thematic unit for Social Studies and Science. Then they get another short break before the work boxes start.
At this time Ian brings in toys and plays in the room as I am working with the other two kids. Even though he is playing he is listening so that is exactly what I want. Both Ev and Hobs will get their first box (box #1) and come to the table. They have a step stool beside the table and they will take out what is in the magazine folder box and put it on the table and the box on their step stool. In the middle of the table I have colored pencils, pencils and dry erase markers for them to use. Ev starts off with Handwriting and Writing. I a sticky note on the page she needs to do when she is finished she returns it to the box. After she puts in the box I pick it up and move the sticky not over the page for tomorrow which helps me prepare for the next day. Then I go over with her her grammar/writing page. I have a resource book that I printed off and put in a page protector, she will use a dry erase marker and when we finish the page she wipes it clean. I will then use the same sheets next year for Hobs and then year after for Ian and she can use them over for review.
She also has a "schedule chart" that I made for her with the order of her boxes and the picture of what is in her boxes for example, "sight words". She will move a clothes pin down her schedule so she can see what is next. Hobs has one too that he uses. Once they finish a box they will turn it around to the side that says, "done" and they will move their clip down to the next subject. Hobs love that he gets to take the box he finished turn it around to show he is done and pick up another box and bring it to the table. My kids love competition so on the first day I realized I needed to explain that it wasn't a race against each other. Ev has more boxes and therefore we spend about an hour more on her work than Hobs. Depending on how much is in their box they will finish quicker or slower than other days and that is fine. I try to throw in a fun game or reinforcement skill activity using a lot of games I've made or had when I taught school that make it fun. I also will throw in a new coloring sheet, or something other than just school work to give them a break and something fun to do. My kids love Highlights Hidden pictures. At the local bookstore I found a large book of them. They are bilingual too so that is fun. I tear out a page and throw it in a box once in a while and they love it. I've found with Elijah he loves Legos and Baseball so I've been making games and activities for him to do with his sight words, numbers and counting relating to Legos and baseball and boy does he love those.
The kids go through their boxes and can see on their shelf where they go where they are in finishing school. Once they are finished with all their boxes they are done for the day. This really motivates Hobs. Half way through their boxes I put in a snack. The first day of school they were not expecting that and boy where they excited. I've tried to come up with special and new snacks they haven't had in a while. Hobs loves to get to his box with the snack so he can eat! Around the box where they have snack some times I will throw in a game, like sight word UNO or Go Fish or Skip BO where they can play with each other while eating snack.
So far Hobs hasn't complained about doing work. He gets to move around the room and I've realized even though he is just walking his box back to the shelf and getting another one he needs that. Then he is able to sit for the amount of time it takes him to finish the next box.
With the boxes I have tried to alternate the subjects the kids are doing so that if I need to do a Phonics lesson with Hobs Ev is able to work independently and if she needs help it is easy for me to guide her. I sit on the other side of the kids so I can reach and help both of them and see where they are at. As they get older and more independent the less I will have to guide them. Ev ends with Math and so we have a DVD for her and we take all her supplies and have class in the living room in front of the TV. On the first day my boys were off playing in their bedroom and heard the DVD so they came running. And ever since then they have joined us for Ev's Math class. Hobs even participates.
We usually finish around lunch time or sometimes we work a little after lunch. On Mondays and Thursdays they have Chinese class for two hours each day and on Tuesday afternoons they have Art class with a local teacher for another two hours so in a week they get 6 hours of solid language time.
After our school day is over I spend maybe 15 minutes refilling their boxes with the next days worth of activities. Then once the kids go to bed I lay everything out for us (their Daily learning notebooks on their desk, their schedule, their pencils and other things out so that all they have to do is enter our room and we are ready to go. The workbox system keeps us organized and the kids have everything they need in their box. Last year I found myself stacking Ev's work on the chair beside me or I would have to go hunting in the room to find what she needed. We don't have to do any of that and that saves time, keeps the kids on track and helps makes the morning run smoothly.
Another thing that helps me using the workbox system is that I make one lesson plan form for all the kids. I can't get away from making lesson plans, I don't know if other home school moms or not make them but the one lesson plan sheet I made helps me know what everyone is learning in each subject.
