A Restructuring

First things first, let me tell you about this picture below. As if I don't already have an addiction to Starbucks iced chai, I had to go and try their oatmeal. Sat I got a steaming cup of it with mixed nuts and brown sugar. Not expecting much, I was in heaven after my first bite. They make some good oatmeal......

It has rained here for more days than I want to count. I am in desperate need of my vitamin D and I am praying we see a glimpse of it tomorrow. In the mean time this is what I am greeted with when Piper feels like coming back inside. This is the down side to a white dog, just like a white couch they don't hide the dirt very well.

While on the Homeschool Lounge I came across a great thread talking about a new craze in the homeschool arena (not really i just made that up). It was about a system a woman named Susan Patrick came up with to help teach her autistic sons. She had found that it was also beneficial to anyone homeschooling, no matter the age or with or without any learning disability. It is called a work box system. The summary of the system is that you divide up the kids schooling into the boxes and they work through starting at number one, until there are no more boxes left on the shelves. Here are Keegans shelves in order. I am not doing this product justice, so if you home school and care to look you should follow the link above to find out more info. I swear this is one of the smartest things I have come across. I read the 122pg ebook on Sat. There are so many great ideas.

One of the things that using the work boxes allows is time to get to all those creative things we all want to do and have the best intentions of getting to, but always seem to run out of time. For me that is centers. I went to Dollar Tree this morning and stocked up on some great teaching resources that the kids can use for review, but to them they are just playing a game. The beads are for pattern stringing, instead of just making necklaces out of them. I got 4 bulletin board games that practice compound words, counting to 10, color matching, and long and short vowels. I also got earphones and a audio cd devotional of bible hero's so they can do a listening center. I am hoping to add to it with some easy books on tape for Keegan to follow along to and some more in depth ones for Avery.

I will post and update in a week or so on how this new restructuring of the schoolroom works. In the mean time you might want to check out this blog to see it in action. She has been using it with her girls and has some great ideas and links for things to use with the work boxes.