"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!

WorkBoxes!

Ok, I jumped on the bandwagon and began this school year with the workbox system. Totally unexpected. We had plans this year of having the kids do Classical Conversations-our homeschool co-op. Classical has been my accountability for the last five years. We meet every week and the program is structured as a guide to what subjects to teach the children each year. You know what to expect each week. Here I was at the beginning of August getting ready to plan my CC year. We only had half a payment to go. I had other curreculum lined up on my budget for math, reading, spelling ect. (Not to mention the gymnastic class, football and drama class I wanted them to participate in this year.) I was excited, too, because this would be the first year since homeschooling that I would not be tutoring for Classical Conversations. In previous years I had tutored in order to have my kids in the program. The money I would make from Classical paid for my kids. Well, last year we had saved tuition money and we made the decision for me to spend one year not tutoring, so I could see how my children are in a classroom setting. I had never before been able to be in their classes, because I was always teaching. So, I really thought this year was going to be good and allow us to bond closer as a family. We were finally able to afford for me not to tutor! And then...BOOM! All my plans died. My husband lost his designated load ( he's a truck driver for those that don't know him) A designated load is a load that is the same each week. Every week we knew how much money was coming in. Every week we knew when he'd be home. Every week we just knew. And it was great! The money that had been saved for all my BIG PLANS has ended up paying for mortage, car payment, bills and Big truck expenses. WHY!!! I asked God. Why? I thought I was doing YOUR WILL. I thought you wanted me to homeschool-to bring the children up in your ways- to prepare them to make you known. How can we do this without money! So, go the thoughts in my head. No more curreculum, no more books, no more CLASSICAL... Oh! Misery. What to do, what to do. I had no plan. Me. Without a plan. I love getting my little notebook out and planning away. Not always do I stick to the plans, but there is a plan none the less. And now school should be starting and NO PLAN! All my plans had money involved. NO MONEY, NO PLAN. It's a test. I know it. It's a test- and it is SO HARD. I'd like to say I turned to my Bible and began reading, but that would be a lie. I turned to the internet. My mind was in chaos. My thoughts were a jumble. I began exploring ideas. :-) (Let's just go all the way here.)
God's Word is the rock we stand on and everything has to line up with it. I believe he also uses other mediums to guide us to his Word, such as books, computers, people, ect..(Let's be clear..not mediums as in fortune tellers-that's not the medium I'm talking about here) Anyway, in my exploring I came upon the Workbox system. (A friend had actually, mentioned the name once and I googled it.) I'm sorry to say I haven't bought the book yet. But by reading what others have said I was able to figure it out. Hmm? I thought. Boxes. Boxes are organized. Boxes are cheap. Boxes can help you plan...I need a box. I need to just go sit in a box and maybe it will all go AWAY... Uhh? Thoughts of the grave just went through my head. OK maybe that's not a good idea. Not that kind of box!!! Boxes are compartments that can organize things. I need order. I need a box! And I scrounged up some spare cash and went in search of a box. If I had shoe boxes I would have used those but I did'nt. So, I did have to go spend some money, but not much. I found boxes on sale at Walmart. Five boxes for $3.50. It's a sign! I got 24 of them. I went home to put my thoughts in a box. I went through all my old curreculum and found old workbooks that the kids never completed. I found old books that the kids had never read. I found coloring books, computer programs and craft projects that they had never done. Hmm. It was time to clean house. We needed to finish things not finished. We needed to do what hadn't been done. Prayer. We need a lot of prayer. And here sits the Bible. It needs to be read. No curreculum stands up to it. But I just can't put it in a box... It is THE BOX.