“School in a Box”
Carbon just got back from vacation, and it didn’t take him even 15 minutes to notice the new school boxes I put together for him. Today was the first day of “school in a box”, and it went very well.
What I’ve done is purchase three portable file boxes, the kind with handles on the lids so they can be carried about easily. One box is for reading and writing, one for science and math, and one for world studies and Spanish. I put five hanging files in each box (one for each day of the week). Then I loaded each file with one activity.
Today, Carbon took out his reading and writing box, and found a page of handwriting practice in the file. He did that pretty quickly. Tomorrow he’s going to find a Bob book, and on Friday he’ll have a piece of lined paper to practice writing his name.
Next, he selected his science and math box, and he found a collection of objects in there for the “float or sink?” experiment. We filled up the bath tub, and he tried a variety of ways to get things to float. We talked about what made something a better “boat” and we talked about what materials he wants to try for making model boats and what materials we are going to avoid. Tomorrow he’ll find a book about boats, and on Friday the box is loaded with a math work book page.
In his World Studies box, he found a book about Australia today, which we read and then immediately put in the library bag to take back. Tomorrow he’ll find a project for making a model of an Aboriginal bark painting, and on Friday he’s got labels and a page about the Spanish words for common household objects so we can label stuff around the house.
So this is my new plan. I’ll load the boxes on the weekends, and I’ll try to make sure each day has a variety of active and sit-down type activities. We’ll do three things a day, and there’s going to be this “surprise” factor involved because he can’t look ahead in the boxes. I’ll write more about what our current preschool goals are, in a later post.
What a cool idea! I’ll have to see how we can incorporate this, because it seems like it would really add an air of mystery and surprise to the daily routine…
It sounds like a very well organized and fun system!
This is a neat idea and I think it would work wonders for my active son..thanks so much for sharing!
Wow. Kudos to you. I don’t think I could be trusted to faithfully arrange all the boxes for all my (three) school-aged children. I think one day ahead at a time, usually. There are some things I map/plan out in advance (usually 3-4 weeks in advance), but the least advance planning the better, in my book. I’m NOT saying that it’s a poor system — it sounds fabulous. I just would not be able to do it over the course of a whole schoolyear; I’m not organized enough.
Karen,
Well, we’ll see if I can make it keep going long-term
. And, I’m sure it would be different with more than one kid to keep track of. For one thing, I just wouldn’t have space if I had to multiply the boxes by 3! Luckily for me, I still just have the one preschooler, and the one long-distance middle schooler.
[...] Learning Umbrella has a wonderful idea about School in a Box. Well worth a try, possibly modified, to fit your family’s [...]
I think the boxes sound fabulous! Great idea!
Can you tell me about the Aboriginal bark art project? I am doing an around-the-world study this year and am having a hard time finding Australian stuff.