My Method to Tame the Madness

Posted by Debra | 0 comments

“Mom can I just do [fill in the blank] and then take a break?”

“Do I have to do ALL of this now?”

Do you hear these words every day like I did? I wanted my kids to know what the daily expectations were, but I still wanted them to have a say in how and when they met them. As a result, I found that I often dealt with a lot of negotiating. This exhausted me and I began to spend my summers preparing a new and more elaborate way to cut down the negotiating and make the expectations plain and clear. I tried many different methods, but one of the simplest, The Station Box, is one approach that has stuck because, for us, it works.

The Station Box is simply a portable file box with hanging files inside. Tabs mark where one son’s stations end and my other son’s stations begin. Inside the station files I have placed regular, colored pocket folders. Each colored folder is matched with an academic discipline. They change every year depending on our objectives but this year they look like this for each child:

Red Folder = Penmanship practice

Blue Folder = Critical Thinking/Language skills

Green Folder = Reading

Yellow Folder = Grammar/Writing

Black Folder = Math

Purple Folder = A topical project based on our unit study

Each day the boys find in every folder what they need to complete its contents. I have very distractible kids so I take great efforts to simplify. I rip out the math page(s) for the day and include two sharpened pencils (because you KNOW they’ll lose one) in the black folder. In their green folder I include the book they are reading (either to themselves or aloud to me depending on which son it is) and any follow up phonics exercise or reporting sheet (like a journal or book report form). In the yellow folder I include the manipulatives my youngest needs to learn about pronouns and my oldest receives instructions on how much of his writing program he needs to accomplish that day.

Do you get the idea? It’s all there so that I don’t have to go wandering off looking for paintbrushes or dry erase markers while they … for lack of a better word… spaz out. And because it only contains the one thing they need to focus on, they don’t get overwhelmed by all the other pages in the math book or lose their place in the Latin book and spend the morning looking for it again.

In addition to this Station Box we also incorporate three other things: Bible time, Read Aloud (I read to them) and a lesson (social studies or science) based on our unit. This portion of the day requires my complete involvement. However, once we’re done with this portion they can pick and choose from The Station Box what they want to accomplish and when. Some days we even start with The Station Box.

Because the contents of our Station Box tend to follow a certain pattern (or curriculum) each week, they actually know what to expect and this gives them a greater sense of control. If math just isn’t clicking then they can choose to set it aside until later. If they are excited about what we’re building for our purple station then they can begin there. Because they have this sense of control they usually pace themselves fairly well. And once it’s all done they have access to the privileges they enjoy the most.

It’s not foolproof, because we all have days when everything seems to take forever, but I’ve found that it’s helped all of us stay focused, remove undue stress, and know exactly what needs to be accomplished. And who wouldn’t benefit from that?

Debra Anderson has been married to her true companion for 14 years and has three sons under age 10. Debra’s passions are education, art, her husband, church ministry and missional living — not in that order. She has served as her co-op’s coordinator in Portland, Oregon and loves connecting homeschoolers in relationships to one another. Debra has her seminary Masters degree in Christian Education and has always home educated their boys — even on the hard days. She maintains a blog at www.emergent-homeschool.blogspot.com.