When I heard I would be reviewing Sue Patrick’s Workbox System I was very excited.  At work I am very organized, methodical and motivated.  Everything has its place and everything gets done on time and very efficiently.  I find myself quite frustrated at my personal life, though.  You would think chaos is my personal motto when it comes to school, my house, and pretty much everything else.  So anything that helps me get organized and stay on the task at hand is a win-win.

Sue has a Bachelor’s degree from North Carolina State University, and while pursuing her Master’s discovered her oldest child had autism.  She began to pursue knowledge that would help her son progress through homeschooling.  Based on the teaching approach from Division TEACHH (Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-handicapped Children) she developed her system. Through this her low functioning child with autism began to function at a high level and is now academically on grade level with his peers as well as participating on sports teams and social activities.

Although this system was developed with special needs in mind, this system benefits ALL children because it is designed to motivate children to work independently and with purpose.  The book begins explaining why homeschooling is beneficial and how we teach our children.  It also specifically outlines how to build the Workbox System and putting it into use.
The Basics: The Workbox System basically uses stackable boxes for each subject or activity during your child’s day.  Everything is clearly laid out for your child before the school day begins.  She also utilizes visual charts so they can see exactly what is expected of them that day as well as the order in which they are to complete tasks.  As they finish their work the boxes disappear and they go on to the next activity or assignment.

The Details: Sue’s book is full of ideas for making your work day more efficient and effective, from school “clock-in” to Learning Centers to Help Cards.  She has thought of almost everything!

Setting Up the System: To set up the Workbox System you are going to need to purchase some materials, such as a wire shoe rack, plastic bins, velcro, laminating sheets and other optional supplies as needed.  Setup time varies depending on how many children you have.

How did I use the System? When I began using the Workbox System dear hubby and I had just introduced Learning Centers to the children and they were very excited at this new schedule.  They absolutely LOVED waking up in the morning and running to their work station (we don’t have individual desks for our kids, just a general work station where we keep all their materials for the day) and seeing what we had assigned to them.  They liked knowing in advance exactly how much work they had to do, what “fun” stations we had scheduled in (such as Play-Do, building blocks, art stations, read alouds, etc).  This really helped to break up the day for them.  They could see that after getting through Math they got to read to their little brother, a big motivator to get through the tough work.

We did not use the wire shoe rack or the individual plastic bins.  Because we had tons of stackable files (left over from our old office), it made sense to save $$ and put these back to good use.  We simply put each subjects’ work into each file, which they could empty out and complete.  We also did not put all the supplies into each file (as recommended) because their work station is right next to our supply station, so everything is easily accessible for them to get to if they need it.

We did  not do the visual strips, although not because we didn’t want to, but because time has not allowed me to get this done yet (hence the disorganization and being distracted I definitely plan on doing this and believe this is a huge key to the success of the program.

Learning Centers are great and she has excellent ideas for setting these up and putting to practical use.  How cool is it that the children look forward to doing “fun” activities that really are simply learning activities that help to break up their day?

The only thing I really disagreed with in the system is the use of “help” cards.  I can’t imaging making my child give me an “I need help” card or raising his hand for help.  We are very relaxed and open to continual conversation throughout the day, if needed, so this was just not something that “fit” for our family.  Part of the joy of homeschooling is being able to veer away from the school mentality of quietly doing your work independently all the time.  Anyway, I think this would be a great tool for some people who are highly structured, but as you can tell, I’m not.

The PROS: Hands down the children LOVED this and are so highly motivated by this style of work.  We also noticed that they were flying their work so much quicker than normal because of the motivating factors of the program.  We definitely got twice as much done in the same amount of time as our previous method, and seemed to retain the information, too.  They have told everyone they know about the “cool new stations!” which lets me know it is a success.  There are also a lot of ideas and helps in this book, such as utilizing lap books for learning and folder activities that are so simple to put together and enjoyable for the kids.  I also like the fact that this system allows me to assign specific books and things for my kids to read during their independent reading time, or for time they read to each other.  This works great if you are studying specific topics and are having trouble getting them to read.  Just assign it – it’s part of their day and required.  So much you can do with this, and I highly encourage you to make this your own.  You can tweek this however you need to in order to make it fit your individual needs.

The CONS: The con for me is a big one.  Because we have three children, it is SO time consuming to get this set up each evening.  You can count on spending 20 minutes per child to get their boxes in order for the next day.  For three children, it takes at least an hour, and sometimes more.  Because we have a lot of evening activities, some days it is just plain hard to get it done in advance.  Since part of the magic is having it already done when the kids wake up in the morning, it loses a lot of steam when the children see you rushing to fill their boxes in the morning, so make sure you have evening time to get this done.  We are working at finding time each day to make sure we get this done because it is worth the time and effort.

All in all, I recommend this book and system to anyone who needs a little more structure and organization to their day.  For you unschoolers or eclectic types who do not want to be tied down to a certain routine or schedule, this is probably not for you.  Anyone else, though, with children of any age or learning style, this is a winner!

Sue Patrick’s book is available online.  You can download the ebook for $19 Check out her website for other materials, including the Whole Package, including coaching sessions and everything for $119.95.

This ebook was given to me in return for my honest opinion.  I was not paid for this blog post.