How I Planned My Year Incorporating Workboxes

Many new homeschoolers ask how to plan out their year. There are many good ways to do this, but I will share what works for me.

I plan out my year of history, science, music and art in advance. I find having an overall plan makes things go smoothly. My dd is in 7th grade this fall, and we are new to workboxes. In my mind, it was important to keep goals for the year first and foremost, rather than just "filling workboxes." I don't care for needless busywork.

Here is how I planned the curriculum that I schedule in advance (for math and language arts, I just "do the next thing') HINT: to build in time for bunny trail, extending topics of interest, or for catching up, I plan for 30-32 weeks of content, but actually do school for 36-38 weeks. I find it best to plan t0 have "Flex" weeks.

1) Choose basic history curriculum (I chose Diana Waring's Ancient Civilization and the Bible and it includes a variety of subjects in a unit study format).
2) Choose history and science biographies for the year (1 per term - I use AmblesideOnline heavily).
3) Choose a history overview book (I chose Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World).
4) Choose a science overview book (I chose 'Chemical Interactions' by Prentice Hall).
5) Choose science enrichments (fun books, videos, kits, etc)
6) Choose a composer for each 12-week term. (I use AmblesideOnline).
7) Choose an art appreciation for the term (I chose the "Art in Ancient ________" series).
8) Choose one important, quality literature book per term (I use AmblesideOnline Year 6 heavily).
9) Choose independent devotional reading

From there, I scheduled each one of the above into 12-week terms. I use something similar to the pattern from AmblesideOnline "Books." http://amblesideonline.org/06bks.shtml
It is extremely helpful to me to envision what my year will look like so that I can gather materials and use time wisely. I also tweak as I go.

For workbox plannning, I broke down:

1) Core Subjects Done Daily
2) Core Subjects Done Twice Weekly
3) Subjects Done Once per week
4) Surprise Me! (Games, Beauty Break, Online Educational Games, Craft kits, Treat, Movie Tickets, Gift Card to go shopping with, Scrapbook items, etc)
5) Enrichments to rotate in (Baking, Cooking, Health, Dance DVD, sports skills, etc)

My boxes ended up looking like this:

• Box #1 - Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World alternated with Prentice Hall Chemical Interactions
• Box #2 - Math
• Box #3 - Literature
• Box #4 - Composer Study alternated with Phy-Ed, 10 Free Time Minutes Ticket
  
• Box #5 - Memory Work
• Box #6 - Diana Waring's Ancient Civilizations and the Bible (cd's and student manual)
• Box #7 - Poem-A-Day, Lunch Ticket, Ticket for 30 Free Time Minutes
• Box #8 - Rotating Studies (one chosen each day) - Nature Study, Logic, Science Biography, or Art Appreciation
• Box #9 - Grammar and Spelling
• Box #10 - Devotional Reading (CLE Calls to Courage alternated with Adam and His Kin)
• Box #11 - SURPRISE ME - something fun and different each day
  
• Box # 12 - Enrichment - a Home-Ec, Art/Craft or Health-related task or activity such as baking a muffin recipe
  

For storage, I have a big bin with a bunch of manilla envelopes in it. I am using the bin to gather "SURPRISE ME!" items and "Enrichment" items so they are ready to go and full of variety. I use the same bin to store my teacher's manuals. It's been a blast pulling out all those fun items that have been unused on the shelf. It's also exciting to think of SURPRISE ME! items to bless my dd with. Miss M loves doing nails, for example, so I am going to gather some fun nail polish colors and nail stickers to rotate in. I made up a ticket for a "Beauty Break." Since she is older she has a lot of work, but having at least one fun box and one enrichment box is motivating to both of us.

For books or subjects that require a schedule, I make the schedule up for the term and leave it in the box. For other boxes, I have task cards. I am also experimenting with the idea of subject contracts as outlined in High School: A Home-Designed Form-U-La see how this would work for us. I am doing a Subject Contract with one subject this year, and I chose Science. I am including the Subject Contract, and Schedule with the science textbook as a trial run for to see if the contract system would be do-able for us.

As far as a weekly schedule, my dd will not have weekly checklist sheet. This is feeling pretty radical to me! : ) Her workboxes ARE her schedule and living checklist! She will complete boxes #1-12, and when they are completed, her day is done. Two boxes have tickets for "15 minute break" or "Take a lunch break when you are finished with this box."

To help me coordinate variety into my boxes, I am using Andrea's Workbox Planner. There is a picture of the filled out grid on my slideshow. This is merely for my own planning purposes, not for Miss M.

I like the idea of getting the planning and gathering phase done early, and then simply letting school take care of itself using the workboxes method. Teaching prep is either done early on the "front end" or later "in the trenches." I find lessons to be much more haphazard when done "in the trenches." Things go much more smoothly when I am prepared and organized, and I love how the workboxes organize all materials AND plans.

So there you go, a little about how I plan both my year and week with workboxes.

New for Fall: Workboxes

I love being organized and having a place for everything and everything in it's place. We have always used a written checklist and book baskets to keep our materials organized. It worked ok.

Then I heard about the Workbox idea to organize our homeschool day. This took me right back to my days as a Montessori teacher, with activities stored neatly and individually on trays. When a child chose an activity, they pulled the tray off the shelf, completed the activity, put the materials back on the tray, and returned it to it's shelf to rest neatly. This is the picture that jumped into my mind the minute I heard about Workboxes, and I knew that a modified version would work for me.

When my dd was younger, I pulled out individual daily work and put it in subject folders. As she got older, I pulled out work for the week and stapled it in packets, placing it in folders. For the past couple of years, she can manage work for six to twelve weeks at a time, so I plan and organize in larger increments. For 7th grade, my Workboxes will be filled with all materials, directions/contract, and books for a 12-week term. The Workboxes themselves will serve as her checklist this year! Work through all the boxes, and she is done for the day. Although most boxes will be filled for several weeks, I will have a couple of workboxes that will have different things rotated into them every day: Practical Life, Crafts, games, even computer time.

I keep changing my mind about the order of the boxes. Just last night I looked at some of Charlotte Mason's old PNEU schedules, and made some changes to the box order. Right now here is what I have:

• Box #1 - Usborne Encyclopedia of the Ancient World alternated with Prentice Hall Chemical Interactions
• Box #2 - Math
• Box #3 - Literature
• Box #4 - Composer Study alternated with Phy-Ed, 10 Free Time Minutes
  
• Box #5 - Memory Work
• Box #6 - Diana Waring's Ancient Civilizations and the Bible (cd's and student manual)
• Box #7 - Lunch, Chores List, 30 Free Time Minutes
• Box #8 - Rotating Studies (one chosen each day) - Nature Study, Logic, Science Biography, or Art Appreciation
• Box #9 - Grammar and Spelling
• Box #10 - Devotional Reading (CLE Calls to Courage alternated with Adam and His Kin)
• Box #11 - SURPRISE ME - something fun and different each day
  
• Box # 12 - Practical Life - a Home-Ec or Health-related task or activity

Weekly Report for Week of 2/23/09

For the past two weeks we have been learning about one of earth's most explosive features: volcanoes. Miss M chose the topic, and we have been running with it. Here's a peek into our homeschool and some of the things we've done the past 2 weeks:

Volcanoes Unit

• Read Prentice Hall's "Inside Earth" Volcano Chapter, sections 1 & 2
• Completed the guided reading booklet on the chapter sections
• Watched 2 Volcano videos
• Spent 2 mornings exploring internet sites on volcanoes from the National Science Teacher's website
  
• Wrote 2 mini-reports using IEW format
• Listened to the "Volcano" song from Lyrical Earth Science
• Created a crossword puzzle with unit vocabulary words
  
• Built a volcano and modeled a volcanic eruption
• Completed 2 experiments from "Inside Earth"
• Had a scavenger hunt for the unit vocabulary words. (SHHHhhh! I was really using this as an assessment, but Miss M just thought it was a game. Mom's are tricky that way. )

World War I - Week 4

Here is an update to our current unit study.

We have 2 more weeks (of six) left to study The Great War, and have really enjoyed the books, discussion starters, and activities from World War I Thematic Unit by Teacher Created Resources. I highly recommend these studies for 6th-8th, and one nice thing is that they can be downloaded instantly from CurrClick. I have used several of these units, and each has a literature book, a "spine" book, discussion questions, suggested schedule, and cross-curricular activities. It has been fun learning about The Great War, as it was a topic I knew very little about before. Gotta love homeschooling!

Here are some of the things Miss M did this week in our unit study:

• Read Chapters 13-16 of World War I and discuss provided questions. (History)

• Read Chapters 16-20 of After the Dancing Days and discuss provided questions. (Literary Analysis)

• Researched the Purple Heart award and it's origin. (History)

• Learned about the different types of gas used in WW I. (Science & Technology)

• Discussion, "Is the use of chemical warfare ever justified?" (Critical Thinking)

• The need for faster, quicker, more powerful weapons brought about numerous inventions during this time period. Research one WW I weapon, and create a scrapbook page to show what you learned. (Science & Technology, Language Arts, Design)
  

• Create a short story of an imaginary war experience, using one of the story starters listed in the Thematic Unit. (Creative Writing)

• Second Lieutenant Frank "Balloon Buster" Luke became one of America's greatest flying aces during WW I. Read about his problems as well as his triumphs. Discussion, "What makes a good hero?" (Critical Thinking, History)

• Video: "The First World War" Part 8 - Germany's Final Gamble (History)
  

• Family Read Aloud - Rilla of Ingleside (Literature)
  

• Free Reading - Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (audiobook) - Miss M really enjoyed listening to this on audio. She says the story was exciting, and she loved it. She wrote down a recipe from the book for World War I time Spice Cake, and just announced that she wants to make it today. (History, Practical Life Skills).

Here is the WW I Cake (eggless, milkless, butterless) recipe from Hattie Big Sky:

War Time Spice Cake

Ingredients:

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/2 cup water
1/3 cup shortening or lard
2/3 cup raisins
1/2 tsp each of ground cloves and nutmeg
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder

Directions: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and floud 8x8 inch baking pan.

Boil brown sugar, water, shortening, raisins, and spices together for 3 minutes. Cool. Dissolve soda in 2 tsp water, and add to raisin mixture. Add salt. Meanwhile, stir together flour and baking powder, and add to raisin mixture 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.

Pour into prepared 8x8 inch pan and bake at 325 degrees for about 50 minutes.



I will close with the poetry assignment Miss M completed this week, a World War I-themed cinquain.

"World War I" by Miss M
Death
Gone forever
Lost to war
Never coming back home
Grief

Thanks for taking a peek into our homeschool. How was YOUR week?

The Great War: Week 2 - Life in the Trenches

We just finished a great week of schooling. I am so thankful that things are going smoothly around here! Here are some highlights from the second week of our World War I unit study.

• Family Read Aloud (girl interest): Rilla of Ingleside

• Read Ch 5-8 of World War I

• Write 10 true or false statements from Ch 5-8 on 1/2 size index cards

• Read Ch 6-10 of After the Dancing Days

• Explore life in a Trench with the websites HERE and HERE.

• Create a "Life in the Trench" scrapbook page

• Mini-project choice #1 - Write a newspaper article covering the sinking of the Lusitania.
  

• Create a map of WW I Europe. Visit interactive map.

• Digging Deeper: Do you think the United States should have joined WW I? Should it have waited so long after the Lusitania was sunk? Write down at least 3 good reasons to support your opinion in your notebook.

Videos:

• Sinking of the Lusitania,
  

• Upstairs, Downstairs: Season 4: Disc 1

Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek into our homeschool happenings! I hope your week was blessed.

THE GREAT WAR UNIT STUDY

We're back from Christmas with a new six-week unit study focus on World War I. I am so excited about this! Since I know next to nothing about this topic, I read an EXCELLENT book over Christmas break called The Yanks Are Coming. It pulled me into a topic I am a little reluctant about, and I can happily report that The Yanks Are Coming is back in print, published by Beautiful Feet! This is a factual history that reads more like a novel, and is perfect as teacher background or a high school level spine.



We are beginning a couple days this week by watching one of the excellent videos from the series The First World War, an outstanding DVD series! The remainder of the day will be devoted to unit-related reading, research, writing, and student-selected projects. To keep our day simple, we are only adding math daily and alternating language arts and Bible.



Here's what we are doing our first week:

• Family Read Aloud (girl interest): Rilla of Ingleside
  
• Independent Literature Book (girl interest): After the Dancing Days - Ch 1-5
• "Spine" Book: World War II by Peter Bosco - Ch 1-4
• Videos: The First World War (Parts 1 & 2 of 10), The Trench
• Discuss and or Define: Causes of WW I, The Central Powers, The Allies, Militarism, Imperialism, Nationalism, Alliance
• Begin Making The Great War review game: We will create True/False questions from each WW I chapter and play a game with them.
• Student-selected mini-project: Write a newspaper article covering the sinking of the Lusitania
• Notebooking: Design a page on either "The Sinking of the Lusitania" or "Causes of The Great War"
• Supplementary challenges, accountability questions, and cross-curricular activities: World War I Thematic Unit by Teacher Created Resources

I will post more over the next six weeks, and will be compiling a six-week WW I lesson plan AND WW I videos list, so please stop by again soon!