Welcome

Welcome to The School Box, where we hope our students learn to Think Outside The Box!

We happened upon calling our homeschool "The School Box" because way back when, we carried my homeschooling ds's school books around in a file box. I would take my younger ds (Jman) to the special autism preschool class he was in each morning a good 40 minutes up the road. He was only in class for 2.5 hours, so it wasn't worth driving back home. Instead, I would take my older ds (Sly) and his 'school box' to some restaurant where we would have breakfast and knock out his school work for the day. He was only 5yo, so that was plenty of time to knock out his K work.

Well, over the years, things have changed some. We eventually pulled Jman out of school and began homeschooling him full time as well, and Sly of course moved up in grade level. But our family also moves fairly frequently (dh Habeeb is in the Navy), and we just love a good road trip! When we'd be on the road for as much as a month at a time (or occasionally more), we'd pack the books and supplies we thought we might want in an old metal milk crate, yet another 'school box.'

Now, more recently, we're thinking about giving the latest homeschooling organizational fad a try. It's called 'workboxes.' Perhaps I was intrigued simply because it had the word 'box' in it! Whatever the reason, I went out and bought some racks and plastic shoeboxes to try as a system for my ds on the spectrum. When I get the kinks worked out, I'll take a pix and post it.

Honestly, workboxes are not something we haven't seen before. They used workboxes in Jman's autism classrooms, and that's apparently where the 'workboxes' author got her idea, from the TEACCH model. It's really not much more than a hands-on manipulative and visual schedule and organizational tool, much like an office inbox/outbox system, but with a lot more boxes. Different folks are finding different ways of implementing and adapting the basic idea, and a search on the internet will reveal many blogs, homeschool forums, and even a new yahoo group that discuss workboxes and adaptations thereof. This, I suppose, is another of those.

I do however have a slightly diffferent spin on my intentions with workboxes. Most folks seem to see workboxes as a way to help their kids work more constructively and especially more independently. That, indeed, was much the approach in the autism classrooms my sons was in. There is something to be said for that. However, I want to use workboxes for exactly the opposite effect. I intend to use the workboxes to work on things TOGETHER with my ds on the spectrum. He does plenty enough independently. What he really needs work on is NOT academics for the sake of academics, or keeping himself entertained so I can be free to do other stuff besides deal with him. No, what he needs is more opportunities to do things WITH ME.

So, instead of loading up workboxes to keep Jman productively managed and occupied or to develop his independence, I intend to use them to scaffold opportunites for us to work together. I will be sharing more about how we do that (including whether we are successful or failing miserably) here.

But this is not a blog just about workboxes. Quite the contrary. This is our homeschool blog for The School Box, a place where we learn to Think Outside the Box. With that in mind, we could post just about anything on here! Fwiw, I'm not planning on using workboxes with my oldest son at this time. Sly is now 11.5 yo and doing Sonlight Core 5 (Eastern Hemisphere). For him, we use a large chart that has about 5 weeks worth of school scheduled in pencil, and X things off as we go. It's working pretty well for him right now, so no need to change that up. We also have another little man in our student population--SB3, 8 months old and as cute as they come. His current homeschool goals include mastering forward propulsion--he's ALMOST crawling, but not quite! Our principal, of course, is Habeeb, mentioned before, a wonderfully supportive homeschooling dad and husband. And I, JamBerry, am the tenured teacher, mom, and wife. Welcome to The School Box!