A Typical Charlotte Mason Workbox Home School Day for us

This is a follow-up or Update on three other post of mine:  Habit of Crying out to God  ,  What about our own Habits and  Habit of finding what works for you . 

I just want to go a little more in detail about how the workbox system looks in our home on a day-to-day basis. The post “Habit of finding what works for you” (mentioned above) has pictures of our system along with an explanation and links to great info on the workbox system.

A typical Charlotte Mason Workbox day for my youngest (6yrs):

*We do take advantage of the short lessons suggested by Charlotte Mason*

Typically we listen to Hymns while preparing and eating breakfast

Family Activity: Bible (& Narration) and Scripture memory

 God-Time (10mins)

Box 1- Olympics Unit Study (we all do this together)

Box 2- Practice a Knot just learned in “Boys Club” (Handicraft/Life skill)

Box 3 Spanish on Computer

Box 4 Living Math Book (For Math I have just started rotating between worksheets, Oral Math from an old CM style Math Text book, Living Books & Games)

 

Box 5 History Together: Abe Lincoln Bio with paper for sketching while I read, Oral Narration and an Abe Lincoln book full of pictures to browse through

Box 6 Reading Lesson

Box 7 Poetry

School Day ends with Family Activity: Listening to Patriotic Songs while heading to the park

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A typical CM workbox Day for my oldest (8yrs):

*We do take advantage of the short lessons suggested by Charlotte Mason*

Typically we listen to Hymns while preparing and eating breakfast

Bible (with Narration) & Scripture Memory

God Time (10mins)x 1 Olympic Unit Study together

Box 1-Olympic Unit Study ( we do all together)

Box 2 – Spanish on computer

 

Box 3- Practice a Knot he just learned in “Boys Club” (Handicraft/Life Skills)

Box 4- People of the Far North Article: Reads to himself, Copy work- 2 sentences from article and sketch a narration of story

Box 5: History together: Abe Lincoln Bio with paper for sketching while I read, Oral Narration and an Abe Lincoln book full of pictures to browse through

Box 6: Living Math Book ( For Math I have just started rotating between worksheets, Oral Math from an old CM style Math Text book, Living Books & Games)

 

Box 7 poetry

Box 8 Read To Self: A book suggested from the Olympic Unit Study

School Day ends with Family Activity: Listening to Patriotic Songs while heading to the park

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This schedule strip is my oldest and it goes with the day planned out above. As you see it starts with a Family Activity which is Bible & Scripture Memory, next is God-Time (10 mins alone with the Lord), then they go through their boxes with one 15 min break with a snack  (maybe a 2nd break in there for only 10mins) and the day ends with a family activity which is driving to the park to meet friends and listening to Patriotic songs on the way.

Click to Enlarge Pic: For right now this is what I am using for a daily schedule. I fill the boxes first and then I fill out this daily schedule. As I fill the boxes I am keeping in mind rotating subjects so they do them in a different order each day and I try to keep it where I would have to work with one while the other works independently, etc.

Click to Enlarge: This is a close up of the top of my daily schedule sheet. I have listed out what I want to cover daily and weekly so it stays in the front of my mind when I am filling the boxes. I got this from Ambleside Online but I tweaked it to fit us.

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I have 98% of everything that we would need for school right there next to the boxes so it takes me as little as 10 mins and as much as 20 mins to fill boxes and write out their daily schedule. I know the longer I use the system the faster I will get. The beauty of it is I may be taking 10-20 mins each day to set them up for the next but that is precious time I am saving during the next school day.  Since I have been using this system 98% of the time I do not have to go looking for anything because I already have what I need right there in their boxes. Since I do not have to go get anything during school, there have been a lot less distractions for my boys and myself during the day.