Introducing: Tot Boxes

Posted on 27/02/2010 by Momma Jo

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~Koko is 34 months old~

Because space is such an issue here, I’ve modified Carissa’s Tot Trays to suit our needs. After realising how well workboxes have worked for Noo, I decided to create Tot School Tot Boxes. I bought 5 deep containers with lids, from Westpack, for the Tiny Tag Alongs and labelled each one Monday through Friday with the labels I created.

I am a planner and like to plan activities for an entire week giving me more time with the children during the week. I’ve made two labels per box, so that they can get accustomed to removing a label as they complete a box, as Noo does when he has completed a workbox.

Each box will be filled with an activity/tot book for a specific day at the beginning of the week and stacked. During our tot school activities the Tiny Tag Alongs will be given their relevant Tot Box to work on. I’m super excited to get this started. I’ve been so badly organised where it comes to their “lessons”. At this point in time I only have Tot Boxes for Koko as Fifi is still in the play and explore phase.

Here are the Koko’s Tot Boxes

In the storage container, packed for easy access. Activities that are to big to fit in the boxes, will be put in the storage container and a note will be put in the Tot Box explaining the activity

These tot boxes can be put away under the table. It has a “tamper proof” lid for the littlies.

Our Tot Box lables
Koko loves Lightening McQueen, so I made him “Cars” themed tags and Fifi has a Miffy blanky that she has adored since birth, and thats why she has Miffy themed lables.

Download Tot Box Tags
Plain black and white
Cars
Miffy

free glitter text and family website at FamilyLobby.com

Tweaking the Workboxes

Posted on 03/01/2010 by Momma Jo

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I downloaded these cook Transformer workbox number cards from Confessions of a Homeschooler and Noo LOVES them.

I bought 4 sets of stackable drawers from West Pack on Saturday and set them up this afternoon. Since we don’t have much space for our school area, I’ve had to make do with the space we have. I just love the colour 8)

After every drawer is completed, the second number (on the right) will be removed and placed in the “completed work” shelf along with the work completed, that way we know which boxes have been completed. I have a feeling its going to go so much more smoothly and keep us on track even more than before.

Our *new* workboxes

Weekly Planning

Posted on 28/09/2009 by Momma Jo

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General over view

Workbox Planning

Back to “school”, back to reality

Posted on 05/08/2009 by Momma Jo

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We started school again yesterday and Noo is doing so well with his reading. He started on his first curriculum readers yesterday and read through 19 lessons and he did 21 lessons today. He is still doing very well with his math, though I see he is starting to battle with a few concepts, so we will be focusing some extra time on those concepts till he fully understand them.

I also reorganised the workboxes and storage today as we are now adding new activities this term.

Noo’s current time table. It starts with brushing his teeth and his day is then planned till lunch time at 12pm. We start lessens between 8:30 and 9am in the mornings.

1: Reading.
2: Writing.
3: Maths Work Book.
4: General Maths Work Book.
5: Lapbook.
6: Cricket practice. He gets bowling “homework” every Saturday.

Our Workboxes. Some of the shelves have a “Work with Mom” label, that is for work that he needs my assistance. Other shelves are just numbered, those are individual assignments.

I am thrilled to be back into our routine. The kids are thriving now that their days are full of learning and fun activities again. I think a 12 day break was too long for them, to be totally honest.

Update on our workboxes and our workbox labels

Posted on 19/05/2009 by Momma Jo

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The workbox idea is working really well for us. Noo wasn’t very impressed with the new system when we first started it, but he now sees the benefits.

He is working more independantly now and tries his hardest now to ask for help during his independent work times. His confidence in his ability to do his work has also improved 10 fold, which was something I’ve been concerned about.

Here are the label explanations for our workboxes:

1 – Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
2 – Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons writing and Clonard writing sheets
3 – Clonard English workbook
4 – Letterland flashcards and magnetic letters
5 – Clonard Maths workbook
6 – Clonard Plain Mathematic workbook
7 – Theme related lapbook and worksheets
8 – Clonard Read/Write/Spell workbook & audio CD
9 – Simple Scissor Practice by Angela Jones
10 – Cricket bowling practice for 30 minutes
11 – Crayola Arithmetic flashcards
12 – empty at present

Planning our lessons for next week

Posted on 08/05/2009 by Momma Jo

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Now that we are using workboxes to set out our daily lessons, I’ve decided to plan our lessons for the week the weekend before.

This is the basic outline for the day (excluding his breaks):

Reading (Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons).
Writing (part of the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons lesson).
Writing sheet (part of our Clonard Curriculum).
Lapbook based on our theme for the month and an activity linked to that theme.
Letter and Word Flash Cards (Letterland)/Math Bingo (by BrandenburgStudies)/Word Matching (ie Lotto part of our Clonard Curriculum)/Simple Scissor Practice/Music (which will be introduced next week).
2 Maths books (part of our Clonard Curriculum).
Art