Charlotte Mason Meets Workboxes ~ Part 5

Lessons Learned

1. Don't get too cute with the workbox system. When I made up all the kids task cards (that's the laminated card that goes inside the box and has detailed instructions to tell the students exactly what to do for that subject/task) I thought each child might get bored if all their task cards were the exact same color, so I gave each child two coordinating colors. Well, it turns out that when I am filling the boxes late at night I only have about one working brain cell left. That poor, lone brain cell should only have to sort three colors, instead of six. Lesson learned, the hard way. We are stuck with the multi-colored cards until I'm ready to reprint and laminate again, and that won't be anytime soon.

2. Don't buy all the boxes you think you need until you've tried the system for a few days with just a few boxes. You could even try the system with large manilla envelopes at first, before buying boxes at all. When I finally chose my boxes, I was scared I wouldn't be able to find enough of that kind, so right off the bat I bought 2 of the larger size for each child. In reality, each child only needs one of the large-sized box. Oh, those extra boxes I bought will still be used, but I'd rather have just saved that money when implementing this system. {I've already assigned this creature to one of those bigger boxes. He'd been lying in pointy pieces all around the boys' room for a while, and last week one disembodied claw fell out of the laundry onto my bare foot while I was sorting. I'd give anything to have a video of myself at that moment. Good times.}

3. Don't fill boxes just to fill boxes. Make sure each box has something in it that you really want the student to do that day. If that only takes 6 boxes, go with it. This is your system, remember?

4. Find a place to store your workbox supplies. I shuffled stuff for several aggravating days before I finally cleaned out a nice, big drawer where I keep all my workbox stuff now. Ah, that's better.

5. You usually get what you pay for. I tried to save $3 by purchasing the cheapest 1.5 inch circle punch I could find. It didn't work. I fiddled with it, had hubby take it apart, put it back together, gave up, drove back to town, and bought the other one. It works like a charm.