"It's finally fall, Aidan. You can tell". I hear my little girl exclaim to her brother as they run to get their long sleeve shirts on. Yeh! I love the fall. And it is about time!!! I am just not a heat person. I'm sitting here wanting to play, but knowing I have work to do today. I have all their boxes ready to go. Each filled with a subject. They have art, reading, vocabulary, math, spelling, memory work, History, correcting, and a chore to do. These are their time sheets. I decided to go with this instead of a scedule strip. Each box gets a number. When they get done with their box they put the number on this poster board. As you can see there are yellow tags on the poster already. The tags are their breaks. They get a ten minute break, a snack break, a lunch break and a recess break in between their boxes. Once they fill in the empty squares with their numbers they come to a break. Sometimes I have allowed them to schedule their own breaks after they have seen their filled boxes. This works well, because it gives them a little choice in the matter. My biggest struggle with the box system is my own laziness. I HAVE TO MAKE SURE I FILL THE BOXES EVERY NIGHT or early morning. Also, timing can be a problem. We have had to rearrange break times or haven't finished all the boxes in a day. See, unexpected errands come up. Then it throws us off. I'm still trying to figure out how to work that. For example today is a beautiful day! The boxes are filled. I want so bad for the kids to enjoy the beauty of this day a bit before they get started on their boxes. But they have drama class at 2pm. Already, those two things throw a wrench into getting their work done. I guess that's when I have to decide what is the priority. Is it savoring Gods creation or preparing God children to serve. They are both important. And each day a different decision will have to be made. But for today... we will first...savor this wonderful weather. For today is the day God has made.:-) We should rejoice and be glad in it!