Work Boxes and Dead Celebrities

Work boxes are apparently sweeping the home schooling nation.  As a reader of several home school blogs, this term “work boxes” kept cropping up, and I was like, “What the heck is a work box?!”  So then I did what I always do when I say, “What the heck…?”.  I googled.

Here are a few of the links I found….

http://www.workboxsystem.com/   This is the official work box site, which sells a book by the inventor of the system.

http://www.blogcatalog.com/topic/workboxes/  This is a list of sites and blogs that have posted about their use of the system.

http://dir.blogflux.com/topic/workboxes.html  And another list of links.

I was intrigued by the idea.  Basically, you set up a little center with see-through shoeboxes.  Everyday you put the work your student is to complete in the box, along with the materials they need to complete it (i.e. crayons, glue, etc.).  Your student will then have a visual of exactly what they need to do each day and can work systematically through their box system.

I don’t have the space to set up eighteen or so boxes for Bonny Annie and Dirty Harry, but I still liked the concept, so I modified.  I bought these….

And then I set them up with a pocket for each subject…

Instead of filling it with their daily work, I’m trying to make it work on a weekly basis.

So far, it’s working pretty well, although it still needs a little tweaking for my organizationally challenged children.

My blogging friend Angela from Homeschooling and Loving It said that I could share a picture from her blog of a more traditional workbox system.

Pretty nifty, eh?

And because work boxes are perhaps not the most exciting of blog material, I thought I’d share about a little informal game that my sister Debbie and I have been playing over the past couple of years.  It’s called “Dead Celebrities.”  And basically the object of the game is to try to shock one another with a phone call announcing the death of a celebrity.  So far, I’m winning 3-1 because I called Debbie to tell her about Heath Ledger, Farrah Fawcett, and Steve McNair.  She told me about Michael Jackson.  Technically, I told her about Farrah when she told me about MJ, but it still counts.  And technically, Debbie didn’t know who Steve McNair was, but it still counts too…..mainly because I’m the one that’s making up the rules….mainly because I’m almost six years older than she.

So, are you curious as to who gets the Patrick Swayze point?

No one!

I was talking to Indiana Mimi last night on the phone as I was walking into a Mexican restaurant when she told me the news.  I immediately thought about calling Debbie, but then the smell of salsa hit my nostrils, and I completely forgot about it.  The first thing I thought about this morning was that I forgot to call my sister to tell her of the passing of Johnny Castle (which is another testament to how lame my life really is)!  I called her at 6:30 AM, but she had already heard, so we decided it was a no-pointer.

Indiana Mimi could have the point if she wanted it, but she thinks we’re heartless and callous to be playing a game like this, so I don’t think she will want it.  Oh well.  Her loss.