Making Workboxes Work For Us

I've read quite a bit about the workbox system and homeschooling.  While I do not have the official book, I have been able to glean a lot of information through blog posts related to this system. Since my children are still little I do not feel I need a lot of structure to our days.    I am teaching some reading, handwriting and math lessons to Bo who will turn six soon.  Since the workboxes seem to be designed to teach students some independance I have not included any formal school lessons in mine such as handwriting or reading.  I could do this and may end up including some review lessons later.  For now, I have decided to include some books and activites that I would like to do with the littles, but may not always make the time for.  I look at the shelves of books, games and activities and think I would really like to use this or that but when and how.  This inspired my own verison of the workboxes. 

I came up with an alternative to the boxes because of my limited space.  I am using a file folder box with 12 file folders right now.  Each folder is numbered and the number is attached with velcro.  Inside the folders I place the activity or an index card directing the littles to the activity.  The outside of the box has velcro tabs in place.  When we finish with our file, we attach the number to the outside so we can see how many files we have accomplished.  Below is the finished product.  Bo helped me make it and he was very excited to begin trying the activities the next day.

I placed the following activites inside the folders:
1-legos
2-Old Maid
3-The Magicians Nephew by C.S. Lewis
4-Color the Shapes worksheet
5-Blokus (This is a wonderful game to teach critical thinking skills)  The index card inside says Play Blokus
6-Practice Guitar
7-I Spy card game
8-Practice Bow and Arrow
9-Picture Search
10-The Magician's Nephew Ch 2
11-Gummi Bear Counting Book with gummis
12-Pattern Blocks

We started these activities yesterday and we have already completed the fourth one.  I had no idea that Bo would find them so exciting.  I had originally planned to complete all of the activities in a week's time.  It may not take as long this week since it looks cold and rainy.  And I suspect when it is warm out it might take us a couple of weeks to work through the folders.

I am very pleased with this system so far.  Here's a picture of the boys cooperating while they play legos.