How workboxes work for us

I was inspired recently to actually remember that I have a blog when a fellow homeschool mom announced that she had found workboxes. I got excited! Workboxes are the ONLY way to survive homeschooling, in my humble opinion. As we enter our second year using them (and- wow- 7th year homeschooling!) I simply wouldn't homeschool without them!

This morning I took some pictures of our workboxes to give you an idea of how we use them.

Here are Logan and Kelsey's workboxes. They each have their own style of numbers so it's easy to see who it belongs to. The numbers are velcroed on. The subjects are the same, in the same order, for everyone. That consistency helps us always know where to find what we are looking for (the consistency is mainly for me- I know to grab drawer 6 for science, no matter whose workboxes I am working with).





Logan's math drawer. I only allow one drawer out at a time. Everything they need for that subject will be in the drawer. When they are done, it all goes back in and the drawer gets put away before pulling out the next one.



They each have a large 3 ring binder that I customize, which holds all their completed work. I remove and check their work from the drawers and file it in their notebook.





Grant's workboxes. We keep books that are used daily and are too big for the drawers, on top. It works well for us. Logan and Kelsey have HUGE saxon teacher manuals that I use daily so they stay right on top of their workboxes. I can easily grab them when it's time for the math lesson.




The kids at work. Grant is on the computer because he uses Alpha Omega SOS this year. So far so good. He still uses Saxon math and IEW writing and Phonetic Zoo spelling with me though.

There's Logan working on his math. Notice his math drawer and that monstrous math teacher's manual next to him.



Kelsey is doing Language Arts. The pink drawer is hers. I sit in between them and field questions and issues.



I fill the workboxes on Friday or over the weekend, for the entire week. I used to fill them daily and it very quickly became drudgery! I have an excel file that I use to print out weekly assignments and place that in their first drawer, so they know what to do for the day, but all their printables, books, worksheets, etc are in there for the week. I try to go through daily and pull out and grade completed work, but if I don't, it's not a big deal. They know to put completed work on the bottom so it doesn't get in the way.

As they finish with a drawer, they remove the number and throw it in the drawer. That is a big deal for them. They like that tangible sign of progress. I put them back on at the end of the day to be ready for the next day. I am not bogged down during the week because their assignments, etc are all ready for the week. I do spend 2-3 hours on the weekend prepping for the following week, but it is worth it to me to avoid the daily drudgery of having to setup for the next day.

Our first drawer is Bible and we try to always do that first. After that, I schedule subject according to who is going to need my help. Grant does Bible, History, Science, and Language Arts on the computer, though he needs occasional help. It is mostly juggling the 2 younger ones needing me, and Grant with Math. We do read alouds in the afternoon, and Kelsey reads to me in the morning from her Bible reader and again in the afternoon from her choice, usually a reader from the library or a Sonlight grade 2 reader. Logan always reads our devotional out loud.

I am using Institute for Excellence in Writing's Writing program for all 3 of them this year. I love them so far. Grant is doing the student writing intensive and the others are doing a lower elementary program. We are also using their spelling, phonetic zoo for Grant which I mentioned earlier and All About Spelling. Fabulous programs.

We are using Lesson Pathways (a free program) for the first time this year for History and Spelling, plus supplementing our Language Arts, for L and K. I think it is a really thorough program and I love it so far. We have found tons of great books at the library to enhance our studies. The library system here is fantastic. I can easily go online and reserve any book I need then pick it up in a day or so. Perfect for Lesson Pathways. I plan to have what I need about a week in advance, since we can keep the books for 3 weeks. We have learned so much already!

I'm going to wrap this up as I am rambling off topic now LOL. Don't get me started on curriculum! I could go on all day!

Happy Homeschooling!

Happy Birthday Grant :)

In honor of turning 11.

Click to see larger.

That Snow Joke!

Last weekend we finally made it up to see Jason's parents. "The Inlaws"- well actually I love them so that whole connotation is lost on me. Anyway, one of the highlights of the visit was their hot tub. This is kind of fun- the last time we were at their house was Christmas of '03. Jason and I were planning to surprise the family with our announcement that I was 7 weeks pregnant with what would turn out to be Kelsey (whew, that didn't come out sounding too nice, did it?) Logan was only 8 months old. Grant, Jason and Poppy played in the hot tub with these very same rescue heroes that you see in this picture! How fun! At the time (in '03), Grant was BIG TIME into Rescue Heroes, and we brought some with us. Wendy Waters and Billy Blazes, seen here, along with someone else whose clever name escapes me at the moment, were especially cool because they had water hoses they could squirt. Eventually our family outgrew Rescue Heroes and got rid of (and mostly forgot about) them. Well, we were so excited when Jason's mom pulled these characters out, that we apparently left behind on our last visit 7 years ago! It was Kelsey and Logan's first time in the hot tub, and although Grant says he remembers, he was only 3 1/2 so I'm thinking he just remembers hearing about it.


Oh, and for the record: the highlight of my trip was mixing up Mojitos with Jason's mom;)

Okay, here we are doing school. But first, you might remember this:

Uh huh, he still likes to sit in chairs that are too small for him, with legs hanging off all sides. I love this dog.



It finally occurred to me that I don't have to be the only one who does any work around here, and so I taught the minions to do laundry. Guess what? They *LOVE* it. They fight over whose turn it is. Cracks me up. Here's Kelsey, using the kitty litter as a stepstool so she can reach into the washer.


The kids have been begging me for years to buy a stupid coconut so they could crack it open. Last week, I got tired of hearing about it and brought one home. The next morning they were in the kitchen bright and early, armed with a hammer. The coconut milk (juice, water?) was nasty. Now I can browse the produce section in peace.


Big news! I bought a lens I thought I would never touch. No variable ap lens was good enough for the likes of *me*. It's amazing what a limited budget and a football playing kid will do to change your mind. Here's why: I finally got a dslr after having sacrificed my true love D700 in the name of a vacation to see a Mouse. I needed lenses. It was like starting over. I couldn't, however, afford all the lenses I wanted. So I chose carefully. I started with the 50 1.4, of course. The must have. Then, after literally agonizing and reading reviews for days, I chose the 85 1.8 (I agonized over the 1.4 vs the 1.8). Jason was a go for the 1.4, but the cost, being like 3x more, was just too hard to justify. A few days later, I found a deal too good to pass up on the 35 1.8. Oh wow, I LOVE that lens. Sooo sharp. Anyway, I wasn't in love with the 85 1.8. Enter the ....

wait for it...

Nikon 70-300 3.5-5.6

I KNOW! I never thought. But someone on Clickin Moms was selling one, so I started looking into it. I called B&H and talked at length with a sales person. I realized that, in order to get the zoom i wanted for Grant's football, I was either stuck with the 85 1.8 which, for the limited zoom, wasn't all that. I ended up returning the 85 and purchasing the 70-300 from B&H refurbished. Turns out, I LOVE it.

Check out this shot. Tell me that bokeh is not gorgeous. (I know, I was in such a hurry to test it I used an orange. This was taken moments after taking it out of the box).


You see, bokeh is determined not just by your depth of field, or aperture, but also by your focal distance (this baby has a great focal distance) and distance from subject. The closer you are to your subject, the greater your bokeh. The orange was shot at f/5.6 and 300mm. I was right at the minimal focal distance (if I got any closer to the orange I wouldn't have been able to focus).

I never took these facts into consideration before. All I knew was you needed a wide aperture to get good bokeh. Not so, my friends.

Okay, in keeping with the nature of this post, I will continue randomly jumping around.

We visited COSI in Columbus last week while Jason spent the day at the Columbus VA. We would later continue on our way to his parents for the weekend.

This leetle lizard was shot with my lovely 35mm lens.


This is about as close as you're gonna get to a self portrait. I was hiding behind Logan to snap this ball on a display that proves the earth rotates. It continues to swing back and forth all the time, while the earth's rotation causes it to gradually knock all the balls off the rim. It was fun to wait for it to knock the next ball off.


Logan, the Lego man, created this ship and asked me to photograph it so he could submit it to Lego magazine. We will be anxiously watching our mail for the next issue. Fun!


And finally, what the hell?!?!? It is snowing tonight. Um, hello, Spring is in 10 days. I'm over it. Poor Grant had to practice in this cold, wet snow on a cold, flooded field. He didn't even dress for it because he was so sure practice would be cancelled. Oh well, it'll toughen him up.

I guess I should read my own blog!

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've blogged. Well, here I am. I vow to post every day. Hmm, maybe every other day? Well, a girl can try, right? My heart is in the right place, anyway. I want to post more. We'll see.

We took Riley to the playground at the elementary school today. We've done it before, simply because the poor dog doesn't have anywhere to run anymore. We went from having a huge fenced yard to a tiny, not-fenced yard. Now I have to take him for daily walks (great for me, even though I never actually want to get off my butt and do it) but that is still not the same as running 90 mile-per-hour circles around our huge yard in SC and playing on the trampoline whenever he wanted. Poor dog.


Totally happy. This is his favorite thing to do in the world. Besides play on the trampoline and go down the slide at the playground. And eat ice cubes. And chase the cat.


The kids had fun at the playground, even though it was cold and the ground was wet, as in, huge deep puddles everywhere. This is the school Logan will go to next year.




Isn't he handsome?


I love this shot, he looks like such a dork trying to get the ball.


Even the dog knows how to pose for momma.

Happy New Year!

New house, new state, new neighborhood, new car (yes, van was falling apart after many long years), new job for Jason, new cpap machine for me (and probably Jason too), new homeschool group. Happy New Life is kind of more like it. I am excited, but let's be real here. I am skeered. I am so stressed it's ridiculous.

I guess that's it. All this newness, I thought I'd better put up a new blog post to go with it. For all zero who read. But this is therapy for me so it's all good.

Santa has spoken

to Kelsey: Portable North Pole message for Kelsey

to Logan: Portable North Pole message for Logan

Answered prayer!

It looks like we found a house! Of course we haven't actually seen it in person yet, but in our online search, we found that housing prices are considerably higher in Cincinnati than they are here. In order to maintain our standard of living we'd likely have to pay hundreds more per month on a house payment. Or we could live in a tiny little, less-nice-than-our-current-place home. Neither option was enticing.

Then we found it. {cue angels singing} The perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, for the right price (exactly the same as we pay now, in fact). Even better than our current house. Right next to a big grassy field. Bike trail to the YMCA. Neighborhood pool and playground.

Only one problem: someone else beat us to it. So we went back to square one, but we couldn't find anything that compared or even came close. Then Jason called the realtor on that dream house and found out the people who beat us to it, fell through. So we quickly put in a good faith deposit and found out last night that it's ours. Only after a couple days of praying about it. And I really trusted God on this one. Sometimes I trust Him but at the same time worry that what He has planned for us won't line up with what *I* want. This time, I just *knew* that whatever He had for us would be perfect for us. As if I could ever doubt such an awesome God!!!

I won't publicly post the listing but I'll add pictures to the blog later once we have a chance to see it and finalize details early next week.