What's in the Box Wednesday - Third grade

I loosely use a method called the Workbox method. Basically I put each subject in a type of workbox so that my son can grab the box and everything he needs is in there to do a certain subject.

I thought we could take a tour of those today.

Here is the set up.  I have these on shelves on my Ikea cabinet.  I bought these at Target for about $4.99 each.  I bought about 4 at a time and at first I kept two subjects in one.

History box - Story of the World curriculum
I keep the activity book, the audio CD's, the book and the lapbook and our timeline figures in there.

Reading - we are doing Toe By Toe - which I highly recommend for struggling readers.  We do a little of it each day and then next to it is the read aloud that I read a chapter or two of each day.

Writing - he does half a page or a few lines of this each day - Handwriting without Tears cursive

Bible - We are doing the free Bible Road Trip curriculum.  I really like it because its not just Bible study but an explanation of what the Bible is all about and where it came from, how we got it.  We also have the praying for the World book and pray for different people groups too.  Those books plus the notebooking pages are kept in here.

Math - We use Math U See and right now we are on Beta because I started him a little below his level to build confidence and it is working and he is flying through the lessons.  I keep the blocks elsewhere though.

Science - We are more about doing than reading about doing so I LOVE this curriculum.  Supercharged Science.  It is just doing experiments.  I keep a copy of the lesson for me and the DVD but I gather the materials we need separately.  With this curriculum you are just suppose to put the supplies on the table, they watch the DVD and then they do the experiments with little help from you.

Art - Home Art Studio - I love this curriculum too.  It is like the science where you gather the materials and she teaches the kids and you just help them.  We do a co-op so we are using the first grade art so that the little ones can do it with us plus none of us are great at art so this works.  I keep the DVD in here along with the week's lesson and a few supplies we might need.

Spelling - All About Spelling.  We have been through this once and I am planning to go through it again in a few weeks.  Right now we don't do any spelling.

If you are wondering about Grammar I don't do it right now.  Since my son is dyslexic I have read a lot of research about how they learn. 

"Because almost all grammar concepts are abstract, it is recommended that the Basic Level be done in 5th grade when children most often have developed their abstract thinking skills" - Winston Grammar

Although I am looking into doing Montessori grammar with him but it is taking me some time to figure that out - maybe by second semester or I might just wait until next year!

This is what we do.  Now we only do music, art, science once a week at our co-op.  We do history twice a week at home and then do a hands on history project at our co-op.

For music we use Calvert's Discoveries in Music homeschool version.  I bought it on Ebay for half the price!  It is also DVD based with hands on things to do.  I do not know music so this is a good fit for us.

This is a peak into our work boxes.  It works really well.  I just say - go get your math and he goes and gets his math and its all there.  It helps him to be more independent and it helps to have things in one place!

Also, I buy as much of my curriculum used as possible.  Mostly from Ebay.  I borrow some from friends if they aren't using this year.  I buy things on sale through homeschool e-mails I get.  I keep it as affordable as possible.  I also go to used curriculum sales in the spring!