Today....

After 5 days of running, we are finally home today. We've had so much fun on Friday through Tuesday, but it's really nice to have nowhere to be today. I found myself happily cleaning the bathroom so you know I am glad to be home.

When I reminded the girls they had to do 2 workboxes before lunchtime, Little Bit said, "YEAH! Workboxes!!!" So you know she's glad to be home too. She told me yesterday she was ready for Kindergarten and wished it was starting "tomorrow." What a change from even a month ago when the thought of starting school still brought tears to her eyes! She's learned to swim in the last 2 weeks---all on her own with no one even suggesting it or showing her how. (There she is recently playing dress up)

One of her workboxes today included the letter projects from Totally Tots. (Today we painted ants on the A's) I know she's 5 1/2, but remember that I am leaning towards a "retro kindergarten", so letter activities are perfect for us. She knows her letters and the sounds, but this is great reinforcement and paired with the Kindergarten Handwriting Without Tears--it's exactly what we need for this summer.

They have watched a fair amount of TV today too, but that's OK because we have been SO busy, they need some summer down time. And this day just seems really long. I guess because I haven't had this much uninterrupted time in a while. So I guess I really need to get busy.

And may I just say that not having a digital camera is really cramping my bloggy style? I have had so many things I would like to show you guys and no way to do it. Ug. Not to mention the fact that I have missed many cute things the girls have done in the last few weeks. Must. Get. A. Camera. Soon.

Oh, and the only thing that has happened on the great (as of yet non-existent) girls' room makeover, is we changed out the purpose of those underbed storage boxes. When they had their own rooms, each girl had a rolling Rubbermaid or Sterilite or something plastic underbed storage box. Very nice. We stored videos and DVDs in them. I found another place for those movies and gave some away! Now, their boxes are used to store art work and papers they want to keep, which are plentiful and also blankets. Both girls sleep with a variety of blankets and lovies, etc. and even when their beds are made, they don't look neat because of the pile of sleeping stuff on top of the bed. I told them they could throw their current pair of PJ's in there too. I like this solution.

Hope your day is productive too!

The Great Summer Plan....

...is actually working! I think I need to finish telling you about it.

So I got the workboxes all fixed up and each day (except Tuesdays, that's cousin day. Except today because Little Bit has fever so I've got to rearrange everything!) the girls do 3-5 boxes. I don't have a set time for them to start on them, I just expect them to have at least 2 done by lunch time.

Here is what you might see in their workboxes this summer:

• They each are doing Handwriting Without Tears this summer as handwriting simply does not get done during the school year. This only takes 10 minutes or so.
• Sweetheart is alternating between the Math U See online drill (15 minutes) and Math U See worksheets. We've GOT to keep up with her facts. She needs to have this daily practice.
• They each get a book or books in their boxes. I read with them. This week's theme is First Aid so Sweetheart is reading an easy biography on Clara Barton. She really got into it! I was very surprised.
• They each get a theme-based activity in their box each day. Today's activity is playing "pharmacy." I'll credit sister for the beginning of this idea and then we got to talking and added to it a bit. They are going to fill orders by counting pony beads into old medicine bottles and applying labels to the bottles. The "prescriptions" will say something like, "10 Blue Pills". It's mainly an activity for Little Bit, but I know it will launch pharmacy play with both of them.

Those workboxes have done wonders to stave off any thoughts of "I'm bored." Sweetheart told me she was bored yesterday afternoon and I reminded her she had workboxes to complete. She brightened right up--especially when she saw that one of them was her first piano lesson!

The other part of the summer plan is the chores. Their "morning chores" that they do every morning have been put on wooden door hangers. I got the idea from this site. Aren't they cute? So that allowed me to be very specific about their morning and bedtime routines. (I skipped the clip art for Sweetheart's sign.)

Then, each day they have a specific area of their shared bedroom to concentrate on. This is hanging on the wall and has pictures as well as words.

Monday--clean off headboards (My word, they collect crap there!)

Tuesday--clean off top of dressers (includes dusting)

Wednesday--straighten bookshelves

Thursday--straighten closet

Friday--clean doll area

They are always expected to pick up their things in the bedroom and pick up everything from the floor, but this way specific attention is given to areas that get to looking really bad otherwise.

AND...(I'm not through yet!) they have chore cards. These are just google images I grabbed off of the computer, printed onto card stock and cut up. I was planning on picking three chores a day for them, but I think I'll leave that more flexible. We were busy yesterday, so I just had them pick one. These chore cards are all things that would serve the whole family--not just chores about my kids taking care of themselves. I didn't want all of their chores to be about them. I did the "pick a card, any card" routine yesterday and they kind of liked the excitement about what they might get! Sweetheart had to straighten the blankets in the blanket box and Little Bit had to clean off the lamp table in the living room. No big deal. Also, these chores are age-appropriate for each girl.

I have all of these documents and if you are interested in seeing any of them, just give me a holla. I'll be happy to share.

The Summer Plan

I bought the materials for The Workbox System in the spring. I tried it for a few days to see how I liked it before next year. If you don't know what I'm talking about, please take the time to google "workbox system" or "workboxes" because there is simply too much out there to link to. Here is the really short explanation: it is basically an organizational system that aids whatever curriculum you use and encourages independence on the part of the student. There is much more to it, but that's the short answer.

I think I've visited every single blog that shares about workboxes and I got so many great ideas from them. I did purchase Sue Patrick's e-book and there is no doubt---it is a great organizational system. But a few days after we tried it, I just had the feeling that something was wrong. I couldn't put my finger on it, but something nagged at me. I finally figured out what it was--I didn't WANT to be that organized.

Now let me explain. I have been learning about the benefits of organization around here and that is another reason I am excited to organize our homeschool day a bit more. But not THAT much.

See, I LIKE spontaneity. I like the kids to get to pick the order they get to do things sometimes. Will they pick all the fun things first and be stuck with all the hard work at the end? Probably. What a great lesson though! Yes, they need to learn to follow instructions, so MOST days they will probably follow the system in order. Maybe Fridays will be "you pick the order" days.

To be fair, Mrs. Patrick developed this system for her son, who is autistic. There are definitely kids, and families, who need that structure. But I don't want to give up the freedom that homeschool affords to become slaves to a schedule, you know?

There was something else though. Twelve boxes are WAY too many for our school day! The system suggests 12 workboxes for each student. When we tried that in the spring, the day seemed to go on forever! If we can finish school in a few hours, then I want to! I considered using the workboxes for just extra work for the kids to go to when they were waiting on me or to use as an assignment every now and then.

In the end, I decided that 6 boxes per child were plenty. Here are our boxes:

You can barely see the green number stickers on them. Sweetheart's are on top and Little Bit's are on the bottom. I had affixed the downloaded numbers, printed on blue card stock, to the shoe boxes already. But when I saw these I decided to spruce things up a bit. Great inspiration. I haven't ripped off all the old tags yet, as you can see.

Here are our boards where the numbers go when they complete the box.

(Their names are in the green sticker letters as well.) These were just made from scrapbook paper, good, thick laminating from an office supply store, and velcro.

When the board is full--you're done with school. I love that. It's my new motto. We just have so many subjects that we do together and curriculum that requires me to work with them--6 boxes work well for now.

Hmm. I talked a lot and never got to our summer plan so........to be continued! :)

P.S. The shelf was $15 from Target's laundry section and the shoeboxes were $1 each, also from Target. Some folks have done it cheaper. Google the blogs peoeple--there is a wealth of info out there!