Out of my Homeschooling Rut!

There are just not enough hours in the day! I'm sorry that I have not been better about keeping my blog updated. But being a single mom to 3 kids is a lot of work! Who'd a thunk it? lol I want to thank my friend Gabby for introducing me to something that is taking the online homeschool community by storm. Sue Patrick's Workbox System is fantastic! I have been in a real homeschooling rut since Graham has been born. I wasn't really worried about Natalie getting behind because she's already doing 1st grade stuff anyway. But I just could not figure out a way to get organized, and to make it more than "let's sit down and do your workbook now". I wanted it to be FUN. And not just fun for Natalie, but fun for me too! Natalie does like doing workbooks, but I personally need more than that. And I was trying to get as much done when both of the other kids were asleep as I could. So this workbox system sounded great to me. A great way or organizing all the day's work. A great way for Natalie to be able to do work more independently (which means I can be doing something else like laundry, feeding Graham etc. while she still gets her work done). And a great way to add in more of those fun things that seem to get left behind because there just isn't enough time. If you want more info on this system, feel free to leave me a comment and I will try to further explain it or send you links to others who have done so quite eloquently.

Now, this is only our first day implementing the system, and I can already tell it's going work very well for us! I started it just for Natalie, but now realize that Erica is going to greatly benefit from her own set of workboxes each day! (I'm gonna work on that tonight). Just an example of how well it worked for us today. Normally, we don't even begin trying to do any schoolwork until both Graham and Erica are asleep in the afternoon, after lunch. It's just been too chaotic to try and do anything while they're awake. I filled the boxes for the day last night and I showed Natalie the system first thing this morning and she got it right away. It's not hard to grasp the concept, even for a Kindergartner. She got started right after breakfast. Around 11:30, we all left to go to the post office and a quick stop at Target for some things. When we got home, we ate lunch and I started to get Erica and Graham down for a nap. Right now, it's 3:00 and Natalie has been done with all of her work for the day for about 30 min. And today is one of those days where we normally wouldn't have gotten much done, because Erica and Graham were only asleep at the same time for about 30 min. And not only did she get all of her basic curriculum done, she also got to do some more fun things (like make an Easter card for Daddy, bake muffins with me, and do some art projects that go along with her lessons). I am just floored by how easy it was to implement and how much time is saving me! I am getting twice as much done!

And because these are the only pics I have taken since my last post, I just have to share. This is how I found Graham when I went to get him up this morning. (Please ignore his stained sheets, that boy still has some major spit up days)

what?