I am linking up with Show Me Your Homeschool Classroom blog hop hosted by Mama to 3 Blessings and "Show Off Your Homeschool" Link Up Party hosted by Melissa at The Joys of Home Educating .

We are blessed to have one large room designated for our classroom in our home.  This photo is the view from the entrance of our classroom.

In one corner of the room is a closet that I have art supplies/manipulatives/resources stored in and an art area.  I won the art table several years ago and we have enjoyed it alot!


Be sure to check out my post from yesterday where I am giving an "UN-birthday" gift to someone by having   a hand-made jewelry giveaway and you can read all about it here.

I just finished my lesson plans for this week for our 2nd week at Sacred Heart Academy Homeschool.  On my recent "Organization System Saturday- Workbaskets + Workboxes=Works for 4 (children)"  post I blogged about how my children's subjects and workboxes were organized to help make our school days as stress-free, tear-free, and productive as possible.

So this post will focus on more details about how I have organized the 10 drawer rolling cart that I am using for my workboxes. I am showing you what is in tomorrow's workboxes as an example, but our workbox activities will rotate daily. (except for the "Busy Box" sheets)

Before I explain with photos the system that I use, I will tell you that each of my children have one workbox designated for their "Busy Box" sheet (see explanation below), one workbox where they are assigned an activity with my youngest child, and then one workbox is an activity/worksheet that my child does alone or with a sibling if they need help.  



Workbox #1 for oldest child:  When my daughter sees in her workbasket her brown board that has a "1" on it, she opens her drawer #1 which is a "Busy Box" sheet for August.  Each child is assigned one of these laminated sheets in one of their workboxes.  Since these "Busy Boxes" will stay in their drawers everyday, this is one less drawer I have to fill :)  I got the "Busy Box" idea from a teacher resource book.   It is 9 squares divided up with one activity listed in each square.  She is to do one activity per day and then put a star on the activity with a Vis-a Vis pen when the activity is completed.  The middle square always says "FREE Choice" where she can decide what quiet activity she wants to do until her next subject begins. Some other things I have listed are "do a puzzle", "do a math sheet", "read a chapter from a book", "Trace and color a picture from a Catholic art book ( I have Seton's Art 2 for Young Catholics that I use)", etc.   So I plan on making a new Busy Box sheet for each month to keep things interesting.


Workbox #2 for oldest child:  My daughter knows that her #2 box will always have something that she can do with our youngest child to keep her sibling entertained while I work with my other children on one on one instruction.  Tomorrow my daughter will be reading these picture books to her little sister.


Workbox #3 for oldest child:  Box #3 will always have an activity/worksheet that my daughter can do independently.  Tomorrow I have assigned her a page in the "Building Thinking Skills" workbook.


Workbox #4 for my son:  Box #4 will always have an activity that my son can do with my youngest child.  So tomorrow he will be playing with magnets to help entertain his sibling while I work with my other children.


Workbox #5 for my son:  Box #5 is where he will find his "Busy Box" sheet for the current month that we are in.  He will choose one activity and after he completes it he will put a star on it with a Vis-a Vis pen.


Workbox #6 for my son:  Box #6 will always have an activity my son can do independently.  Tomorrow he will be doing a ziplock bag activity where he matches up insect cards to their names.  There is also a puzzle that I made and laminated about where different products come from.


Workbox # 7 for my third child:  Box #7 will always have an activity my daughter can do with my youngest child.  Tomorrow she can do different puzzles with her. 


Workbox #8 for my third child:  Box #8 will always have my daughter's "Busy Box" sheet for the current month.

Workbox #9 for my third child:  Box #9 will always have an activity my daughter can do on her own or ask for help from one of her siblings.  Tomorrow she will do a page in her Draw Write Now book, which she loves.  She copies the sentences in her Draw Write Now Workbook, then she tries to draw the steps to make the picture for her handwriting entry in her workbook.  We have enjoyed using these books for our homeschool activities.


Workbox #10 for my youngest child:  I have this box designated for our 2 year old to make her feel included.  Tomorrow she can use Melissa & Doug stamps and an ink pad to make a picture.

So I have all these drawers filled each day with different activities, but the problem I am having is that most of these activities don't last as long as the lessons that I am teaching with another child.  My 2 year old's attention span is very short and she begins to disrupt things (or my other children start quarreling over something)  and then chaos usually breaks out.  So I'm still trying to figure out what works best during our school days.  This is at least a start as my homeschool journey continues....

So we started our homeschool year at Sacred Heart Academy this past Monday on Aug. 16th.

Even though I have been homeschooling since 2005, I ALWAYS feel anxious, overwhelmed, and wonder how in the world am I going to fill my children's hearts, minds, and souls with more of Christ's love and book knowledge AND keep up with housework AND keep my sanity through it all???????????  For me, every time I begin another homeschool year it's like it's my first year.
 But why is that?  I think it's because each year our family dynamics have changed as our kids grow older, there is new curriculum to get used to, a new routine, new challenges with discipline to overcome, and new triumphs to embrace.

To be honest with you, by the end of last year, I was in tears ALOT along with my children and I didn't know if I could do this homeschool stuff anymore :(  It's times like these when I start to think that no other homeschool mom is feeling as frustrated and down in the dumps as I am.  I was wondering what I was doing "wrong" because our homeschool days were not peaceful like all those "other" homeschools I visit through blogs.

Something had to change and I realized that one thing that needed to change (besides me having a more consistent prayer time) was more organization and clearer expectations for my children.
So last year, a local friend first introduced me to Sue Partrick's Workbox System which is a way to break up your child's work assignments by placing one lesson/assignment/activity into separate boxes.  Usually these boxes are plastic Sterilite shoe boxes or crates, but most homeschoolers find any type of container that works best for them.  The child works through the boxes throughout the day and when they are through with all their work in each container then the child has a feeling of accomplishment after completing all their work in an organized and systematic way.

So I have used ideas from Sue Patrick's book and have visited many blogs to create a system that is working for us so far ( it worked for Week #1 at least).  I call it the Workbaskets + Workboxes = Works for 4 (children) organization system.  Here are some pictures and explanations:

I already had 4 cloth baskets that I have used for several years, but they were always in a disorganized mess with my children's books thrown in there and papers flying everywhere.  So my husband built this white shelf to hold the workbaskets with 3 cubbies underneath.  Each child gets their own workbasket, but the green basket on the far right is where I store all the teacher manuals that I use for each of my children's subjects.  Having my teaching manuals all in one place makes it easy for me to pull out the next book I need to teach from.   My 2 year does not have her own workbasket yet.



Here is a close up of Cupcake #1's workbasket. Her name is typed out on bright pink paper (Cupcake #2 is blue paper and Cupcake #3 is purple paper) and slipped into the front pocket of the workbasket. (refer to first photo). I printed out all her subjects in the same pink color. I then used clear packaging tape to tape each subject to a piece of Elmer's sturdy white foam board that I bought from Wal-Mart, but any craft supply store should have foam boards.  Behind each board is where I store their books for each subject.  Then on brown wood paneling I have numbers taped to each wood piece.  The numbers correspond to the workboxes that are in the form of a 10 drawer rolling cart that I bought on Amazon. Right now the price of the cart is $31.13, but I paid $53.00 for mine when I purchased it in the summer!  Here is the rolling cart I use for my workboxes:
There are many blogs and Yahoo groups that have number templates already prepared to label workboxes, but the numbers I use came from a bulletin board set that I bought at the Dollar Tree Store a few years back.  I just cut up the numbers, laminated them, and taped them to each drawer.  Cupcake 1 has drawers #1-3, Cupcake 2 has drawers #4-6, Cupcake 3 has drawers #7-9, and our two year old has drawer #10 .

So when each child sees their box # on their assignment sheets they go to the corresponding drawer and pull out the activity.  As my children complete their book lessons and their workboxes, they just put their textbooks behind each foam board divider, turn the foam board / numbered brown boards over to show that they have completed that assignment.  When all the boards are flipped they know they are done with their schoolwork for that day.  Then in the evening I flip the boards over to the subject/numbered sides and refill their workboxes in the rolling cart.

Here is a picture from Cupcake #1 and Cupcake #2 workbaskets of some of the boards flipped (subjects/numbered workboxes completed) and boards still showing subjects/numbers (subjects/numbered workboxes that still need to be completed.)



I must say our first week of school was actually peaceful for the most part and my children enjoyed working through their Workbaskets + Workboxes = work for 4 (children) organization system.  Of course, this is only the first week of school so the "newness" may wear off, but I'm hoping that this organization system and setting clear expectations for my children will = (equal) a much more enjoyable homeschool year compared to the one we had at the end of last year.

In a near future post, I will talk about what type of activities I put in each of the numbered workbox drawers so this will have to be continued so check back here soon!  Like I said, this is only our first week with this organization system, but I'm hoping in another month or so I can give a positive update and tell you that it's still working.  Only time will tell...

I always like to start each of our homeschool years at least a week before traditional school begins.  That way during my birthday week I'm not completely overwhelmed and can relax a little to enjoy my birthday.  Since my birthday (August 24) usually falls on the first week of public/private school in my area, I started schooling my children this week and we are gradually getting into a routine as I ease into our schedules.

One of our new school year traditions is to make and decorate a cross-shaped cake the night before school starts.  So our family had fun this past Sunday night baking, decorating and eating our colorful and yummy cross creation.   You can see other cakes I have made for my "cupcakes" here.


Here is a link to a free t-shirt printout that is similar to The Mailbox version that I used.  Click here for the printable t-shirt.

After they decorated and colored their t-shirts, they cut them out and "hung" their t-shirts on the clothesline with clothespins that I made on our bulletin board that is hanging in the hallway outside our classroom.

Well, I'm getting my homeschool room in order to get ready for our first day on Monday, Aug. 16!  I am still working on organizing and planning (2 things that never end as a homeschool mom).

Earlier in the summer I organized my file cabinet that I picked up at the goodwill store for $6.99.  It's a little beat up, but my children decorated the blah tan cabinet with lots of colorful stickers!  I was an elementary ed teacher for a short time BK (Before Kids) and my mother-in-law taught 1st grade for 30 years so I have accumulated resources that I hope to use more often this year with my new organization system.  Lots of the resources came in the form of worksheets that I organized in file folders.

In the top drawer I am keeping all file folders that have Math and Reading/Writing resources.  The middle drawer has Science folders, and the bottom drawer has folders filled with Activities by Month and Miscellaneous.  I used to organize the file folders in ABC order, but it was difficult to find things so I decided to organize the drawers by topic.  I typed out each topic on the computer, glued them to bright paper and laminated them.  I then taped them to a big flower shaped magnet to put on the outside of each drawer.  Here are a few pictures:


Tomorrow I should be done with my Workbaskets + Workboxes = Works for 4 (children) organization system that I have been working on and I hope to post pictures of how I plan to organize my day and curriculum.  So check back to see my ideas!  I know it will be a work in progress and I will have to make adjustments, but this will be a start for our school year.

I have been busy these last several weeks reorganizing our classroom to prepare for our upcoming homeschool year. It's quite a task and sometimes overwhelming for me to decide what I will keep and what I can get rid of as far as academic resources go. We are recycling tons of old papers, magazines, and used workbooks and this morning I had a yard sale to get rid of some things. I sold some educational material, but mostly I had baby girl clothes for sale that my youngest cupcake has grown out of. It was a hot day, but I am happy to say that I got rid of ALL my baby clothes and shoes thanks to a sweet young mother who came to the sale. She has relatives and friends who live in Mexico and she teared up when she was telling me that there is so much poverty in Mexico so she has decided to collect children's clothing and she is personally delivering the collection to those families who need so much. She drove away with 3 garbage bags of clothes as I told her to take all that was left to help with her ministry to help those in need. Win-win situation for everyone! Besides decluttering, I am also reorganizing our classroom and I'm always looking for ways to store math manipulatives better. I love collecting empty containers and storing them until I find the right "stuff" to fill them. Since my youngest cupcake was a baby, I have held on to those cute Gerber plastic baby food containers thinking they are just too durable to throw away. They remind me of "mini" Rubbermaid/Sterilite boxes like those used in Sue Patrick's Workbox System and since baby food can be expensive, I was determined to find another use for the boxes besides filling up the trash can with them. So I have decided to store all my real coins in the boxes to make them easy to get to when we do money lessons in our homeschool day. I have several paper punch out coins from my days of teaching elementary school so I taped the "head" of each paper coin on top of the lid and the "tail" side on the front for the pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. From the pictures below you can see that I have also reused the plastic seasoning containers to store all the paper punch out coins. I used to store them in ziplock bags, but packing and unpacking ziplock bags does not make for quick cleanup or easy storage sometimes in my house and everything ended up on the floor. Cleaning up coins after an activity is easy now and makes for a great sorting lesson when my cupcakes place each type of coin in the right place. So are there other "Gerber geeks" out there who like and reuse these baby food containers in some way to store things? If so, I would love to hear what you put in them!