Workbox Systems. Every homeschoolers dream. Well atleast mine.

So.... we have crossed over into the world of workbox systems and I will NEVER go back!! This system allows much more freedom and our very precious time is being used more wisely. Basically you fill the drawers with what you would want your child to accomplish daily. I will give you a list of examples at the end of this post. We set a couple rules:
1. The boxes need to be completed in order and you may never look ahead.
2. There will be no whining, complaining or asking of the dreaded question "Are we done with school yet?"

Just so ya know, I have not heard that question since we started with the workboxes. My girls actually love looking in their workboxes everyday to see what they get to do, its like a surprise to them. They know that when the boxes are completed they will have free time. Then we will grade the things they have completed and do the subjects we need to do together such as: history, read alouds, projects, etc. This system has been exactly what I needed with a new (high maintenance) baby, a kindergartner and a preschooler. Plus all of the other things us Mom's have to accomplish in a day. Then I re-fill the workboxes at night, it has been alot easier to refill than I thought it would be. I just wanted to pass along this idea because it has really blessed our family.
Some ideas to fill your drawers with:

math papers
English papers
creative writing journals
bibles and devotionals
books to be read
poetry books or projects
draw write now books
coloring pages
handwriting/cursive
God's World News with biographies
Spelling
movie tickets (to watch at home that moment or in the afternoon)
snacks
sweet notes of encouragement
bible verses (especially ones that will bless them with whatever their struggles may be)
coloring pages
write a letter to someone

Any ways you get the idea. Here is the link to some more information on the workbox system: http://www.workboxsystem.com/

Morning Board: Revised.

First I must apologize for committing to 3 updates a week and then falling short to my commitment. I have been tending to a sick family and then I fell ill. Figures. But needless to say we are well (on the way to being well at least) and I am BACK! We have revised our morning board and put up some "schoolwork display" boards. Thought I would share some new pics :). I will be posting a new dinner recipe tomorrow. So keep a look out!

Busy, baby and blue eyes....

Aislyn loves holding Jaxon.



Sweet blue eyes



Yummy.

Holding Daddy's finger.



Smiling at Daddy.



We learned about the 5 senses last week. This one being taste. :)

Kaleb giving it a try.

Learning touch.



Kaleb was WAY into it. Come to think of it what isn't Kaleb way into?



My Boys.

We have had such a busy week but I thought I would share some of what we have done. :)

Manners.

I thought these were adorable! The girls and I had fun learning our Hoops and Yo-yo manners. :D

http://www.hallmark.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/article%7C10001%7C10051%7C/HallmarkSite/hoops_yoyohome/Animations/HYY_MANNERS

Our Morning Board

This is our morning board. It is such a time saver for me. Especially when using Saxon Math. Every morning the girls write the day, month, year and then the abbreviated dates (i.e. 9-16-10). Then they do the outside/inside temperature and graph it on the thermometer. Next Bee does the weather for the day and then marks how many school days we have done above the the place where the older girls record the date. Liberty also uses the 100 number chart to count to 100 by 1's, 5's and 10's. Our weekly memorization verse (from My Father's World curriculum) is on the top in the middle. I just cut a page protector in half and slip the new verse in weekly. The older girls also make the date using coins in the upper right hand corner with the coins stored directly below it. For example if it is the 23rd they would need to find the right coins to make 23 cents. All three girls will be given a time to show me on the clock, Liberty's obviously being fairly easy :). Then in between the temperature and the date is where we will put 5 Spanish words to learn for the week for all 4 kiddos and then right next to the Spanish words is Kaleb's letter for the week, since he is working on his ABC's. Now all around the morning board are our flashcards. We have a 20 min. "drill time" with these daily. The skip counting and the multiplication/division flashcards are done daily. Then we alternate between the others which are fractions, telling time (for Bee), states and capitols, counting money (for all 3 girls) and then our artist flashcards. We are studying 2 artists a year. This year we are studying Mary Cassatt and Vincent VanGogh. The girls name the painting and the artist who painted it. Liberty and Kaleb also do sight word flashcards and I am amazed at how many sight words they know, I do think the pre-school prep sight word DVD's have played a huge part in this. I love them. I really do. So.... this is our morning board, it is sooo nice to have everything right there and its a good reminder to do all of this. So many times we get busy and these "little" things get pushed aside. Plus we can use dry erase markers, write it, erase it and start new every morning, no mess and no excessive papers to throw out!

Toronto Zoo...... Field Trip!

This was one of our many trips to the zoo I am sure of this for two reasons...... one it is HUGE!! We walked around for hours and saw 1/3 of it. Two, we bought a membership, so we will go back for sure, probably weekly when we are finished with school!! They have such a wide variety of animals, especially exotic, rare ones. It was very educational. I bought a biblical zoo guide from Answers In Genesis and we had a blast putting it to use, especially stumping a evolutionist zookeeper! I will share a few pics.........

My little Irish girl.... Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I can't believe out of all the festivities that were going on around here for St. Patricks Day I only took these pictures!! Well it was a BIG day around these parts not only because the girls got to wear green glitter on their eyes (which only happens on VERY special occasions ;) but because we spent all last week studying St. Patrick. He really was an amazing man. Anyways we had such a good time getting ready for our party, the older two girls help me make irish cheddar potato soup, bacon cheesy bread (which is so unhealthy but phenominal), crab cheesy english muffins, reuben stuffed twice baked potatoes, potato fries, honey carrots, KFC coleslaw, chips and guac (because its green), chocolate chip scones and a green tea sparkling punch!! We spent most of the day cooking but it was so much fun! I added pictures of Liberty and one of the picture the girls drew of St. Patrick. If you can't tell there are 3 pirates about to kidnap Patrick and take him back to their ship to sail for Ireland. Patrick has a bible in his hand and a shamrock to teach about the trinity in the other! We all learned so much this past week and the party was the perfect end to our week!

Liberty's Love of Art...

I have never seen a child love to do crafts, color, glue, paint, dot, watercolor or any other kindo or artsy activity and much as Little bee loves it! She is constantly doing something artistic even if it is rearranging her room. For a while she was waking up in the middle of the night with pains in her right arm and for the longest time we couldnt figure out why....then it dawned on us that she was having cramps from all the artwork she was doing!! Poor thing! So we limited her to an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon so she wouldn't be in pain!! How crazy is that? Bee is so funny and so creative! I am going to start framing her work and hanging it in her room so she can see her accomplishments everyday!! We were watching some videos online about the Northern lights because we are going to try and see them this spring and I thought I would share her Northern Lights picture!

School Days......

So I was thinking of posting our school day type schedule thing .... :) Only because I am so proud of myself for being so diligent the last few months on doing school and have seen some serious progress!!!

8:00-8:30 school with little kids- letter of the week, workbooks, reading
8:30-11:00 shurley grammar, saxon math, state and capitol flashcards, science reading and journaling
12:00-12:30 little kids blanket time, bible study (right now its here comes heaven-awesome book!! ), read a child's garden of verses
12:30-1:00 audiobook
1:00-1:45 history
1:45-2:15 read aloud
2:15-2:30 girls independent studies- depending on the day its geography, explode the code or spelling
3:00-3:30 all kids do sign language or spanish depending on the day
3:30-3:45 study a famous artist, read come look with me, little kids blanket time
3:45-4:15 girls independent reading, mom reads to little kids
4:15-5:00 (not everyday) xtra activities like cooking, art, craft, nature walk, homemaking

Just thought I would share :) The Lord has definitley blessed this house with a wonderful schedule and happy hearts to fullfill it....most days :P

Creative Writing Sticks.....this one goes out to Marnie :)

Ok so I am going to explain the creative writing sticks it's simple, free and fun! All you need is a sharpie pen, popsicle sticks and somewhere to keep the popsicle sticks. Basically is the kids are stuck on what to write or want to arite a story it makes it fun to pick a stick that gives you the setting for your story. For instance a couple of things we have on our popsicle sticks are if I were a pirate, if I lived when Jesus walked the earth, if I were lost at sea, if I lived in a castle, if I could breath under water, or if I lived in another country. There are also some that have only one word on them for example dinosaurs, birthday, summer, vacation, knight and so on. This way they can write about anything that includes the one word. We have done this for 2 years and still they come up with awesome stories! We also use Prayer Sticks. We put family, friends, and random people on them. For example we have pray for homeless people, pray for someone that doesn't know jesus, pray for orphanage children, pray for people with addictions and so on. The of course we have some with all of our families and friends ( they each have their own stick) :) This not only reminds us to pray everyday but to pray for others, not only ourselves. We have found that sometimes we will pick the same sticks a couple times in a row ( the chances of that are slim there are atleast 75 sticks in the jar) and we will call them to see whats up and 9 times ou of 10 there is something going on specifically that they need prayer for. The girls get so excited because its God showing them who to pray for when they pick a stick (because they know he puts it in their hands :) anf then they get to see prayers answered. Prayer is a powerful thing and I am so glad my children enjoy praying for others!

Journal Entries.......

My kids write in their journals everyday. They can think of what they want to write about on their own or choose a stick from our creative writing cup, which have all kinds of ideas written on them. Faith and Aislyn chose to write on their own yesterday. Faith wrote about God's armor and how she likes to put it on everyday, how she feels safer and like a real warrior here on the earth to conquer satan and share Jesus with all :). I think she just wishes now I would let her talk to ALL strangers :). Then there is Aislyn. Aislyn wrote about Marco Polo, don't ask me why we arent even studying him yet we are still in Ancient Greece and Rome. So anyways Aislyn wrote about how he was a believer, and how he came to a new land and found nuts as big as his head and how he saw monkeys and thought they were little men with tails. She could hardly control her laughter while reading her entry to Faith and I. So as the tears were pouring down her cheeks and she is hysterical, she stops dead in her tracks....stops the laughter and the tears and says.......hey there is a game you play in the pool called Marco Polo.....I wonder why he never swam in his story, hey mom do all believers know how to swim and why isn't there a game called Christopher Colombus??? Or Florence Nightengale or William Bradford??? We all laughed so hard and then later on that afternoon I was thinking back on what she had said and, giggling, I thought how many 7 year olds even know who those people are?? Homeschooling just rocks....I admit I hate teaching math with a passion but I LOVE history and is shows because my kids devour anything historical and love it. I am so glad I get to cater to their loves..... <3