And the boy defeats his mother with glee!!!

Jackson (9) and I played Battleship today while his baby brother slept.  It was not pretty!

What my game looked like!!

What his game looked like!!!

His reaction!

Great lots of fun!  I hope he is as good a sport when he loses next time. :)

Best wishes
Jen

Blogging tips

Funky Junk Interiors is a great blog that I found one day when surfing around for things to build out of old pallets.  I have stayed as the author has a great style, inspiring for her decorating and refreshing because of her honesty.

I have set my blogger settings as she has suggested because, quite frankly, I was new to Blogger after using WordPress for years, and I had no clue.  She hasn't steered me wrong.  Everything works and that is good.  I hope you find her tips helpful too.

Best wishes
Jen in Oz

Happy Birthday to Me!

And it was one of those big significant ones.  Yay!  I made it, with not too many grey hairs.

The cake was chocolate, yum, and was decorated with little icing flowers and jungle animals.  My "name" on some websites is JungleMama so the little animals were every appropriate.

Sorry there is no picture - if you have boys you will understand that demolition goes quickly on projects like chocolate cake.  lol

Best wishes
Jen

Updating old posts

I have been figuring out lots in the last few days about how to put images in my posts.  Check out these recent posts to see how I am doing.  Still some refining to do but better than just me yammering on, huh?

The Workbox System - Jen's Way

My School Room in All Its Reality

Our School Photo

Best wishes
Jen

Is this a typical school photo?

Me thinks not!

Homeschooling is much more relaxed than school so please know before you view this photo of all my boys that - yes, one is still in his pyjamas at 11am and, yes, the baby dressed himself in yesterday's dirty clothes. 

My biggest kid in bright blue is 12, almost 13 years old and likes to remind me he is taller than me.  Jack in red is 9.5 years old and loves to play tricks on Mama.  Harry is 6.5 years old and cute as a button.  Don't try to cuddle him too much though.  He squirms.  And the littlest guy, well, Griffin is 3 and is cute today but that could change at any moment.

And in the background we have most of my books.  I love Anne McCaffrey, keeping old books from my grandfather's era and the school book section is always messy as I actually get to read and use those books whereas I haven't read a fiction book for well over 2 years.

Best wishes
Jen

My school room in all its reality

Well, I had meant to do this post about 2 weeks ago to link up with the Not Back to School blog hop at Heart of the Matter.  I somehow had this idea that I could get the school room all nicely set up and clean before I took photos.  Reality check Jen!!  You live in a house with 4 boys and an adult male and none of them, repeat None of Them, is interested in cleaning up after themselves or anyone else.

So here are my school room photos.  This space is actually a really large bedroom in this strange old house so one end is our lounge room and the other end is our school space.

Mum's shelves

On the top shelf are my LLBean totes, one for each child.  These are our workboxes.  They can stand on their own and I llluuurrrvve them.  On the next shelf down is my filing box with our worksheets photocopied for the next term,each filed by subject and then book title.  I also have my printing supplies and some stray worksheets and notebooking pages.

The colourful plastic files are my way of doing workboxes.  Each child has a colour and they are numbered.  The plan is to fill them each day with their worksheets or a photocopy of the cover of the book they will be working from with me.  These go in their tote along with a set of pages set out as a checklist.  My children share a lot of resources at different levels so this I keep them in my purple day crate.  On this shelf I also store our pencil jar, our erasers and our sharpeners in little metal buckets.

Mum's shelves and purple day crate

The middle shelf  of the shelves houses a box full of preschooler activities.  These are the product of many printing, laminating and cutting hours.  I love creating them but am still to get my 3 year old to be able to fully appreciate them.

My purple crate fits in the empty shelf when it is empty and the books out of it get sorted into the bottom shelf by subject.   I fill the purple crate each day with our books for the day.  I like to file them in the order I will need them and just work my way through the box.

The crates to the left in the picture contain some craft supplies and a much larger LLBean tote that I use for the library or just about anything actually.  Did I say I love my totes?

Sonlight and craft shelves

This bookshelf contains my eldest's Sonlight books and some extras that are for this year but not this term.  Down low are the supplies and activites my 6 and 3 year old are allowed freely.  Up high are the electrical kits, maths manipulatives and special paper supplies.  Just to the left edge is our morning notice board.  I have a calendar chart on here and I use the rest of the board for teaching.

These shelves are more for storing the boys' work.  I am not the greatest at filing.  Erk!!  So when the boys have art work or worksheets that need to be kept they are put in their own crate.  Once a term I pull them out, throw out the rubbish and file the rest.

Of course I also store the obligatory laminator, paper cutter and other tit bits here too.  The plastic boxes (a favourite storage method of mine) contain past school work, past art work and more craft supplies.  Some day I should just let the boys have free reign of the craft supplies, photograph the worthwhile creations and throw the rest out.  Some day!

The posters are for our Zaner-Bloser hand writing curriculum.  When we get back to being able to use our school table (see next photo) they will be a great reference as we work.  I love my printer but this one is dying.  Please pray it will hold out another 12 months until next year's tax refund.

School table taken over by dh fixing up a computer

The computer will be moved back to the desk against the wall soon and we will be able to get on with school more easily. Yay!

The reality of a lounge floor and no toy storage

This is the lounge room floor right now.  It is probably only 15 minutes away from clean but it hasn't been on my radar for a while as I have been spring cleaning my kitchen.  That is my youngest in front, eating a very healthy breakfast of a chocolate weetbix biscuit.  Groan!!!

Ok, I did it.  It took quite a while to get it all put together but now you know how homeschooling with 4 boys looks.  Messy!

Best wishes
Jen

Space-challenged Workboxes

I have read a lot of posts about Sue Patrick's Workbox system. I love the idea yet haven't been able to justify the cost or the space requirements when I know I am dealing with 3 kids, possibly 4, with anything I set up.

Now, I will be the first to admit I haven't read her book (can't justify postage to Australia, do you get the idea I am careful with my money?!). If you have and my ideas here don't suit her system I apologise. I am just a mum trying to do my best to help my little school work better.

First of all, a note on scheduling. I have scheduled my day into 3 blocks of school, hopefully about an hour each, but some days are shorter, others longer. The idea of 3 blocks is also so that I can change it up a bit. For instance, if block 3 keeps getting missed then I just make it the first block for a couple of days.

Next, I use Homeschool Tracker Plus to keep track of lesson plans and daily tasks. I love how it has become easier and easier to use as I have child 2 and 3 use lesson plans I have already created and used for child 1. It takes a while to get in your groove with it but it has been worth its purchase price and the discussion group is priceless for help.

Now, down to the workbox system. I am using tote bags from LL Bean for each boy.

In front is a small binder with memory work that I work on each morning individually before we all sit down for school together.  I then add a set of school block checklists and their plastic envelopes to each tote with a number on the front. Each boy has a different colour envelope set up and different little race cars to match.

This is how the school block checklists look.

The first column has either a race car with a number to match the folder number or a picture for an activity like snack, game, play outside etc. If Science, Art, History or Music don't need a folder for any paperwork then I put a little card in the appropriate spot so they know what is coming. If there is a colouring page or mapwork etc to be done then I just use a folder number race car.   The final column is where the little car or other card ends up when the folder is completed.

The little race cars, one colour per child

Cards for breaks, reading and computer time

Cards for subjects not likely to have anything in folder

The folders are see-through and expand out so I am able to fit in their heftier books and they can see what is coming.  If a book is used for several children I just include a photocopy of its cover/s.

To be more true to Sue Patrick's system the boys then put their completed folder into a "Done" box for me to empty out, correct and refill. This is an important part of the visual aspect of Sue's system, seeing the amount of work needing to be done diminishing as folders disappear. The goal for each day is to empty out their tote bag.

Each child has an appropriate number of folders for the level of work they do. This is a variation on Sue's system. Also my sheets for the school blocks have much more detail than her system of just cards. I fill these in with a permanent marker from my HST report of daily tasks for each child and just leave the workbooks in their folders.  Each day I just erase and rewrite the details.  It is not often I need to change the books in each folder as we try to work in the same order each day.

I think there are a great number of good ideas out there on how to organise your workboxes.  Please don't feel you need to do any of them exactly as written, even mine.  Always adapt anything to suit you and yours.

Best wishes

Jen

PS This post has been updated and better photos added since its original posting in 2010.  I am also linking up with Workbox Wednesday at Adventures in Homeschooling and Heart of Wisdom.