We did start our Tapestry of Grace studies this week. The little ones and I read one book about St. Valentine and another called Brigid’s Cloak. We all began listening to an audio book on King Arthur. My bigger kids started reading in their history spines. My 6th grade son will be reading Our Island Story and my 4th grade daughter is reading The Story of the Middle Ages. We didn’t really complete week 1 to my satisfaction, so I think we’ll carry it over into next week.
My oldest son is really liking Life of Fred for math. However, I see a real weakness in his paper and pencil computation skills. (This is NOT due to Life of Fred.) I am going to have to add daily computation practice. I keep saying that. Maybe eventually I’ll do it!
We’re still working through our first unit of Write with the Best. I am liking the logical lesson plans. My children (sigh) don’t jump at the opportunity to write. My daughter did write a descriptive paragraph on a cardinal last night. It is interesting to say the least. We definitely need to work more on her spelling. My son struggles with coming up with things to write about.
I was supposed to be using the workbox system with my 2nd grade son this week. But, I didn’t do enough pre-planning to make it work. I did pre-plan all his regular work as usual, it’s just finding the extra things to put in the workboxes that I am struggling with. I can find things to put in there, but I question their value. I have never given my kids a lot of "busy work" and frankly, a lot of the worksheets seem to be that to me. Somebody enlighten me please. Most of the things that I find that I do think would be good, he needs help with. If he needs me with him, then the whole workbox idea is kind of pointless. It may be just a manner of teaching an old dog new tricks. I don’t know. I’ll give it a better try this week!
This week my daughter will be preparing her baked entries for the fair. She’s making Molasses Crinkles (cookies) and Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Muffins. She’s also got a weaving project that isn’t quite finished. My older son has a digitally manipulated photograph he’s entering, and my younger son is entering a drawing of a giraffe. I am not entering anything this year. I am feeling just a little overextended already!
My older boys struggle with doing computations on paper as well. They are convinced they can do it all in their heads and are just shocked when I want to see their work. Oh well, I just refuse to help with missed problems when their is no obvious work for me to see. How can you help if you can't see where they went wrong???
Hope y'all have a blessed weekend,
Christi@Reedpartyof6
I've got the workbox book to review, too, and, like you, I'm having a hard time with it. I was so excited to get it to review, but now that I have it and I'm trying to plan it, it seems like I'm trying to (as someone on the crew forum said) fix something that isn't broken. *sigh* Maybe we'll get it figured out — or just be among the inevitable handful of people who aren't crazy about it. 😉
This is just my take on the work box thing. I agree about not wanting to fill boxes with busy work. For my youngest DD (5 1/2 yo), I will put in play things- zoob snap toys, coloring page, puzzle to work, lacing cards, a game to play with me, things like that. Not all in the same day- typically I only fill 5 or 6 envelopes for her. I see it more as providing a recess time for her between readings. She is learning phonics and working through Handwriting without Tears. My oldest DD (8yo) usually gets 7 envelopes. I include violin practice in one of them. We are loosely following Ambleside Online, but I don't include everything that they suggest. I will have one of her boxes include some fun time too. One of many things I have to watch is not overlapping the boxes they need me to help. So my oldest can do her math while I am doing phonics with the youngest, and then I will help the oldest with something while the youngest does her free time activity. For me, the work boxes keep me from just letting things slide. I have to plan out the next day's boxes. Hope that helps a little! 🙂
Ooo Kimg Arthur, I bet that's an interesting read! Tell your daughter I'll take any leftovers…molasses cookies are one of my favorites! YUM!!
Good luck with the whole workbox "system". I've been reading a lot of posts about them and what I've discovered is very few people use them exactly as described in the book. Everything seems to be "tweaked".
The work folder that I've been using for my daughter is simply because she is an only child. I'm trying to tweak the w/b system to get her to do more individual work. Sometimes, the assignment will be "with mom", but that forces her to look at the task first. I never fill it with fun stuff or breaks. I want her to be able to figure that out on her own.
I'm looking forward to reading everyone's reviews of this "system", which when left "untweaked" seems like a whole lot of unnecessary work.
Shannon
http://mountaineercountrywv.blogspot.com
We have been using workboxes since the first of the school year and are quite happy with them. It keeps us very organized. Some of the extra items I put in the boxes are games, art projects, baking projects, etc. The blog "Whats in the Box" had many ideas that are helpful.
Blessings
Diane
Choc pumpkin cookies sound heavenly!!! Yum!
I hope that you are able to tweak your workboxes to fit your needs. I'm not organized enough to even attempt them. LOL
Mmmm…I bet those muffins would be delicious! Do you happen to a have a tried&true recipe that you'd like to share?
I've heard a little about the workbox system – just enough to know that it likely wouldn't work well in our house. 😛
http://tailsgonewest.blogspot.com/