Our not so boxy ‘boxes’

I promised a while back I’d get some pictures posted of our workbox setup so I thought I’d share those with you today.

As I’m sure all you workboxers will recognize, I’ve broken some ‘rules’ of the system, but, hey, it’s now my system. = )

First up, for the olders I’m using paper trays that I had leftover after my scrapbooking area downsizing. (or better known to my husband as “yes, I get my bedroom back!” day) I ended up with all these empty trays about the same time I stumbled upon workboxes… I think it was God’s timing. ; )

They had to fit under a table top so Zion’s first 8 trays are on the far right there with Abby’s first 8 are in the middle of the picture. The trays on the left side turned the other direction are for the last activities of the day and are things they do together. Only the first 3 or 4 of those trays are used. I keep frequently used items in the bottom trays. All of their individual work is done first, then work they do with me is next and work they do together but without me is last. This may look a little confusing but I promise we know what we’re doing.

The youngers have a completely different system. I wish I had more of these cubes so that all of them could use this set up but that is not an option right now. Plus I have no idea where my mother got these. She gave them to me free! Woot for mom!

I do actually have more of them (not enough for all of the kiddos) but my yarn is calling them home at the moment. Beans only has 9 boxes a day. I don’t have a ‘lid’ on the top middle box because this allows me to slip in larger books, binders and other things that won’t fit. See the 6 plastic boxes on top there? Those are Maggie’s. Every morning I line them up in the floor and fill her boxes. She’s not a full time student yet and this satisfies her schooling desires and requirements. Sometimes I’ll put things in Caleb’s boxes for both of them to do such as the ice cube trays in the 4th box or the bingo game in the 7th.

I have two baskets (courtesy of mom again – thanks, mom!) hanging from the side of the Cubes. The top one just has miscellaneous junk in it and is now officially a ‘catch all’ (for now, not forever!) and the bottom is where Caleb keeps his science binder. This is something we do often and always at the end of the day because it’s his favorite. Yes, I bribe the boy with “hurry, let’s finish language arts so we can get to do science today!” Hey, sometimes I have to bribe myself to get through language arts with him! The binder doesn’t fit in the cubes and because science is something we’d never do in the #2 box, it has its own special basket. = )

Anyhoo, for all those who were curious, this is our system. We are slowly adding in more of the structure Sue Patrick recommends. I’m not in any hurry to rush into it all at once though. We’ll take our time and ease into it. We are more likely to stick with it if we take it one step and day at a time.

If you’ve posted pictures of your workbox system setup, please leave a link in the comments!