Workboxes, Strips and school store

We have finished our second sucessful week of using the workboxes and task strips. I think this may cost me a fortune because we are using the school store reward system. The boys have been EXCELLENT in making sure they are finished with all their tasks assigned (except vacuum their rooms!). The girls have done SO well and are setting their own pace. Abby has been THRILLED with this system, which was a MAJOR shocker for me. She says to me in the morning "Hurry up mommy! I have to work on my boxes!"... If for some reason I have been delayed she will go to the classroom and get started RIGHT away. I am just standing in amazement. We have always had a pretty good program of organization in place. I think the actual ability to remove the number or task from their workstrips is what the motivation is. The sense of accomplishment after a hard day of COMPLETED assignements is very rewarding.

These are some of the goodies we have available in the school store.

What our ledger looks like. This one is Abby's. They each have their own.

I laminated some cash I found at the store. I have up to $50 denominations. I will give the kids their "balance" using these each Thursday.

Here is Abby with her purchases. She was THRILLED and also managed to save a dollar towards next week.

Here is Aaron filling out his ledger and receiving his money.

And he then tore into his candy. For those of  you who don't know, I seldom let my kids have candy. I have my reasons. So it's not surprising that three of the four went straight for the treats!

Hali filling her ledger out.

Hali FIRST chose some really cool fluffy socks. THEN  she smelled her brothers candy and got a little sample. The socks went back and the candy corn was purchased instead. LOL

Here on the board I have the five areas they must attain in order to get credit that day for the store. Each task is worth a quarter. Additionally, on the right hand side are BONUS cash items. Reflecting the fruit of the Spirit and being especially helpful and encouraging. We ended up listing the fruit of the Spirit at the end of the week on the board. Each morning after Prayer, pledge and preamble we discuss the day before. Each child is accountable for themselves, but the other kids can correct a false statement if they see a need to. The kids can earn $7.00 per week for the school store.

Oh, and if your wondering WHERE Nick is in all of this, I yelled for him to come cash in and he decided he wanted to save for his big item. I have it stashed away, and is a surprise. He just knows it has SOMETHING to do with his favorite Kansas City Football Team...

Workboxes and Work Strips

This is Hali's work strip. It is 3 strips, has four Velcro slots each. I let her decorate her own so it will be personalized to and for her. When we come into class, we do the 3 P's. The prayer, preamble of the constitution, and the Pledge. Once we are done with that, they begin their work strips. If box #1 is listed on her strip, she goes over the the shelve and takes out the work that is in that box. She then takes the number off her strip and attaches it to the box with that coordinating number. At the end of the day, all the work boxes SHOULD have 2 numbers on them. That way I know everything is completed.












This is Abby's work strip. Here is it turned to the afternoon section. I cut out and used different signs and also have some blank cards that I can attach to hers. I put the fun activities in at the end of the day. For example this particular day, box number 7 had a wooden doll house that we are constructing.
I decided I didn't like the idea of the boxes laying about once they were empty, like the original work box system suggests. I know that this was a proven method for her, and will work for most. However with 5 of us in a classroom full of computer stations, manipulative's and books there was just no way.







This is Nicks work Strip. Customized just for him since he is such a football nut. I didn't do any pre-assigned or printed cards. The reason for this is that I don't feel that my senior should be micro-managed. He is well beyond the age where he should KNOW what is expected from him during the school day and perform to that level. So what I have done is use a dry erase marker and list the general things I want him to accomplish for the day. For example, the first card will say Story Prompt. For years my kids have written a creative story every morning based off of a starter I put on the dry erase board. The second card may say Rome, which is a unit study we are currently working on. The third may say SOS, which is the computer bases curriculum that we are using for 5 of our subjects. Number four strip may say work with Abby. He then knows that at some point I am expecting him to help her with the assignments that she can't do on her own. The next strip may include things like photojournalism, yearbook, graduation preparation and planning, sign language, or reading....

Aaron' work strip works just like Nicks. I have chosen NOT to micro mange him either. The reason is different however. Aaron will stay up late in the classroom and work on assignments for the next day. That way he has more time to work on the activities he loves, and for some strange reason (genetics, perhaps?) he does better work later in the evening. So for his strip I will include all the things I would for Nick, plus Aaron's extra electives. Once his work strip is done he is finished for the day. He is able to work at his own pace and is also learning how to be a self starter and a finisher of the objectives set before him.

So this is our work box and work strip story. I won't bother to show you the actual work boxes at this point because they are basic plastic bins, placed on a shelf, numbered 1-12 with an extra large bin for projects that are too big to put inside. In my opinion, its not the boxes that make this project~ I think any kind of box will do.