Workbox System set up

Even though Peter is only 14 months old but knowing how fast a baby becomes a toddler and then a preschooler, I decided to search for some preschool fun games on-line last Wednesday, just to see what’s out there that I could print out for free (especially lap book ideas). Boy, was I surprised at how the homeschool world has changed since we first started (’94). There are tons of resources and supports out there! And…. I bumped into this system called Workbox and the rest was history! I was bitten by the Workbox bug! What a wonderful idea to help move through your school day meaningfully and smoothly.
After reading many bloggers feed backs and through the email loop of the system; showing how they tweaked the system a bit to fed the needs, I was just about to tweak mine, too. Then something inside me just felt very uneasy about it. You see, I only learned about this system through the wonderful blog world but had not actually read the guide myself; after discussed this with Robert, we agreed it might be better to see the “original” idea first before we started. I devolved the ebook and must say that I am glad I did. Robert is reading through it right now so we could both be on the same page. So far he really likes the idea. We decided to follow it very closely to the method and thus eliminate the anxiety of the uncertainty of if we are doing it right. We may tweak it later to fit our situation and budget, but for now, we would just do what it said in the book (the order the child moves through the boxes - not the buying the treadmill or laminating machine). Sue emphasized strongly on using the clear plastic shoe boxes. I was not very thrilled about this part as we have been trying to go green since last year, “plastic” has become a banned word in this household. But if the system works, I guess I could put up with some plastic boxes… :)
It took us a few stores and two days to get the set-up (cart from Target, plastic bins from Dollar Tree, Velcro from Staples – it took two days because I got two wrong size items and had to make the exchange – and I was so shocked at how hard it was to find the simple plastic boxes. Both Target and Wal-mart carried only the fancy ones) and some printings of numbers, cutting and taping, we finally got the physical part of the system ready to go. The only things I’ve added to it, so far, are the Ten Commandments cards and my favorite verse at the inside of the box on the opposite side of the number. I figure visual is everything with this system, I might as well take advantage of it by posting verses for memorization.
This system is set up for Joshua right now, I will see about setting up one for Christine. She may not want it as she is very (extremely) organized and self disciplined enough to get her school work done on her own. I will be setting one up for Peter when he turns two or sooner (I will start him with perhaps three boxes).
I took a couple of pictures of the set up and will be loading the boxes maybe by Monday night for next week’s lessons. I will post more on how we like it next week.
If you want to see how others are setting theirs up, click here. Gabby had a survey for Workbox users and I will update this post to reflect the survey.

Update: I just went over the Gabby's blog again and realized she had another post for blogers to talk about the Workbox set up. I am not sure how to switch the post to the correct linky. So sorry. Here is the linky I supposed to link this post to... I was a bit too excited about the system. :)


Christine and Joshua helped cut and "laminate" the little cards.


The system doesn't stay here. I moved it here just to take the picture. We are making some rearrangement of our "schooling" area this weekend.



Number in the front and memory card in the back.





To save money on laminating the practice sheets or game sheets, I put them in the sheet protectors and erased the dry eraser board marker marks after the work/fun is over, just like I would if I laminated the sheets, the difference is in the pocket book. :)