The winner of last week’s Rainbow Resource giveaway is: Betty from Peace Creek on the Prairie! Congrats, Betty, and thanks for sharing your Spring Workbox ideas!

This week, I’ll be giving one reader a subscription to Family FunMagazine! You’ll find lots of workbox-worthy ideas in there!

Here’s my inspired idea…

No, I didn’t forget to fill my six year old’s box. Once in a while, I’ll intentionally leave one empty! It became apparent to me sometime this year that Soleil was having difficulty creating her own fun. It’s not like she didn’t have good ideas. She’s very creative and has done everything from put on a thirteen act play to crafting gifts for everyone we know.

However, she had gotten so used to me planning all her fun for her that if some free time came up, she’d spend the entire time asking me what she should do, to which I would reply, “Whatever you want!” Not a huge problem, but I wanted her to be able to spend a few minutes on her own once in a while.

Hence the empty box. Her task when she comes upon an empty box is to find something to do on her own for thirty minutes. The first time she had an empty box, I helped her make a list of all her fun ideas. She rarely refers to it anymore, and she’s now not only bursting with ideas, but she’s taking control of her own free time, which must be a little empowering, right?

I’d love it if you linked up a workbox post today! Please read the link-up guidelines here.

Wednesday Workbox Day will be a Weekly link-up featuring YOUR favorite workbox posts! Write a post about your workboxes and come back to link up here on Wednesday.

One participant this week will win a $20 Rainbow Resource gift card for your workbox needs!

Ideas to get you started:
A unique workbox filler
All of your workboxes for the day
Customized workboxes
Shared workboxes
Workbox printables
Workboxes and different homeschool approaches (classical workboxes, Charlotte Mason boxes, etc)
Why you use workboxes
How you make workboxes work for you
Workboxes and special needs
Workboxes in high school
Workboxes in middle school
Toddler workboxes
Preschool workboxes
Workboxes for co-schooling
Anything and everything workboxes!

Here is a little form I made for our workboxes. It is a basic guide of what to drop in each box each day. The PDF is below.

Filling the boxes isn’t difficult, but it’s nice to have a routine laid out for me. I don’t always do subjects in the same order, and I like to split up big chunks of reading, and boxes that are independent vs. working with me. There are some subjects I don’t do all five days of the week, and the scheduler reminds me of what days I’ve planned to do what. This is a mindless way to make sure I get it all in.

I’ve made schedules and lists before, but I really like this version because it’s not set in stone. I can just glance at the chart, and if for some reason I need to switch our boxes around for the day, no biggie. You can also see that we do not do twelve boxes on days when we have outside lessons.

I’ve included a filled-in sample, and a blank one you can fill in for your use. I keep mine in page protectors in my homeschool notebook.

Workboxes have totally simplified our homeschool, and the master scheduler just makes them that much easier. Between this and my quarterly planning sheet for subjects I need a daily plan for, my mornings are easy breezy!