Workboxing, traveling and consistancy

About five years I heard about a method of organizing homeschooling activities called Workboxing, based on Sue Patrick's book. The jist of it is to separate your children's activities into six to twelve individual boxes, (depending on age, abilities and interests), with all the supplies they need to complete it. Boxes are numbered and your child has a schedule strip to let them know when to do what. You set a timer to let them know how long you want them to work on each box or let them just progress at their own speed. It is a way to set up activities for multiple children to be done at the same time, adding fun activities to your school day, and allowing children to be more self sufficient. Children as young as preschool and up through high school can successfully use the workbox system. It has worked for us, (off and on), since we started using it. But I have a confession. I have never read the book. The book suggests using shoe boxes, but we found these 9x12x2 tupperware boxes at the dollar store that were big enough for notebooks or workbooks. They fit easily on a bookshelf and she was very happy to take control of her education. I just needed to fill the boxes as needed. I even delegated a fair amount of that for my daughter to do herself. I had her bring me her completed work as she finished each box, I checked it, made notes and set it aside. Her last activity of each day was to make any corrections, reset her boxes and choose her fun activities for the next day. It worked for over a year in North Cali before we left, and the entire time in Arkansas. On the way to Cape Cod, our RV caught fire and we lost pretty much everything. Including her schoolwork and her workboxes. We usually take off school between thanksgiving and new year's anyway, so when we left the weekend after Thanksgiving. We thought we would have a month to get settled knowing no one in our new place and a new state. But it took us much longer to get over the shock and trauma. The workboxes helped to re-establish consistency and allowed her to occupy herself while I got stuff done. Last year we switched from boxes to folders. We found clipboards with a attached covers at staples, but they were too thin for her workbooks. We cut the covers off extended their spines when we re-attached them with duct tape. Then we covered them with fabric. Because we were intending on getting a new RV and full-timing, we made a curtain with pockets to hold her folders that would do double duty giving her privacy in the over cab loft. We couldn't find a rv we liked in our price range before we needed to leave Cape Cod, so the curtain wasn't used, but the folders work seem to be working.

Game Review - Dungeon

Long ago TSR released a board game based on basic Dungeons and Dragons called Dungeon. Players explored the map on the board rooms, chambers and corridors defeating monsters and collecting treasure as an Elf, Hero, Superhero or a Wizard. I never heard of it. But when we saw the new edition released by Wizards of the Coast, we thought it looked like fun and the price, $20, was right so we bought it as a Father's day activity. The new version allows the players to be wizards, rogues, fighters or clerics. The goal of the game is to gather a set amount of treasure, decided by your class, and get out of the dungeon. Thieves and clerics need 10,000 gold. Fighters need 20,000. Wizards need 30,000. Each class has its own perks and each has their own level of difficulty for each monster. Rogues can find secret doors, but tend to have higher difficulty in combat. Clerics are better in combat, but not as good as fighters. Wizards are worst at combat, but can cast spells, fireball or lightning bolt from outside the room before entering, or teleport for movement. Some spells have no effect on some monsters, and some are just worse against certain monsters but most of the time the spells have lower difficulty and if they fail, the player suffers no penalty. There are six levels of the dungeon each with their own monsters rising in difficulty, and their own treasures rising in value. When in combat the player needs to roll higher than the number for their class listed on the monster card. If they do they usually draw a treasure from that level. If they fail another player rolls for the monster's retaliation, and the monster and any treasures it holds remain. Failure usually results in dropping at least one random treasure, and you could drop up to half of your treasures. You might stay where you are, be pushed back a step or all the way back to where you started. Or on a really bad roll, you can die, drop all your treasures, get a new character. The first game we chose to play the cleric, the fighter and the wizard. The wizard rolled well for number of spells, and so she dominated upper levels while her parents were still clearing out the lower ones. The second game we chose characters randomly and got two fighters and a cleric. It was more balanced and went smother because we followed closer to the suggested strategies in the rules. Then we discovered alternate rules on the internet. The official WotC website has alternate rules for another methods of movement which sped up the game, another method of regaining spells which further unbalanced the wizard class, a boss fight, and cooperative play, which ended in happier players because there were no losers. New York Hobby Examiner had more variants. They add a chance of wandering monsters, class skills and multi-classing. They give multiple skills for each class but suggest adding 5,000 gold to the player's goal to compensate for the benefits of each skill. Rogues can choose to have a sneak ability to avoid encounters in chambers or receive treasures from a level above the monster they defeat. Wizards could get spells back faster by defeating specific monsters, or gain treasure that allow them to peek at the monster and/or treasure cards. Clerics could attempt to lower the level of retaliation of failed combats, or gain bonuses against specific monsters such as undead or evil clerics. Fighters could choose to focus on killing certain types of monsters, receiving bonus gold at the end of the game for each of that type they kill, or could start with a magic sword to aid them in combat. Our first cooperative game we played the wizard and the cleric, (until I died then I played the fighter), each with both of their class skills, the wizard took standard movement and unlimited spells, and the others took the new movement rules. With the cooperative rules, you add up everyone's goals and divide by two, but the goal is the combined total of all treasures of all players. So in a two player game we had a really low goal even with the extra costs for skills. We discovered that the unlimited spells and the foresight really made the wizards overpowered, but as it was combined total we were going for we were OK with it. If it had been a competitive game people would have felt cheated. We didn't really have a chance to explore the cleric's skills before a series of really unlucky rolls killed her, but they looked like they would help balance out the game well. The fighter getting to start with a magic sword was a big help and allowed me to head for higher levels earlier in the game because adding two to a 2d6 roll makes a big difference. Fighter's difficulty numbers are generally the lowest, (except for spell attacks), so it made success almost assured. The specified targets may have worked better if I could remember what monsters I was collecting, but I kept forgetting so I lost track. Which is how we wound up nearly doubling our goal before we even considered checking how close we were to reaching it. Our second cooperative game we had two clerics and a rogue. We decided to try the multiclassing rules. One of the clerics multi-classed to fighter giving the option of using the fighters difficulties instead of the cleric's if desired. And the rouge decided to multi-class to wizard to gain a limited number of spells. She also took both the rogue class skills so she was able to avoid the combats that wouldn't get her treasures, and get better treasures for the combats she won. We kept better track of our goal and where we were on the road to completing it. So my overall review of this game is about four stars. It is a little unbalanced right out of the box, so at first sight I would only give it three stars, but definitely worth playing. The WotC rules tipped the balance further our of wack in favor of wizards, but the boots of speed really get the game moving and the cooperative rules make it a fun team experience. The multi classing was a mixed bag. A fighter or rogue with spells can get a bit overpowered, so can a wizard with fighter's difficulty rolls. But multi-classing to rogue only gives the same perk that is found on a first level treasure for 500 gold, so seems underpowered in comparison. The class skills are what pushed it to four stars for me, they balance the classes better and with the cooperative rules they make it really fun.

Reviving what was once dead...this blog

Ok, I kinda let this blog go, but am going to try and revive it. As my dear husband has said our background music got turned up to drama mode, or life got interesting for awhile. Long story short, my first book was published, DH's job got outsourced, the house we were renting got sold, we moved, moved again half-way across the country to care for my in laws until it became unsafe, lost everything to a fire, moved to the east coast, DH applied for disability after his unemployment ran out, it sailed through so we took two months driving across the country to move back to the west coast, visiting the Smithsonian, Disney World, Universal Studios Florida, a ton of other museums and stuff along the way. We have homeschooled through it all, which was a nightmare in Arkansas, but we found a good group on Cape Cod, and now in Southern C.A.. And that was just the last three years. I am going to try to write at least one post per week on each of the following subjects, homeschooling, my craft business, and the classes I am planning and offering. I love board games and own so I intend to post a critique of that week's favorite. We got annual passes to Disneyland and have been going every other week for about six months, but will be blocked for the summer soon. I am sure I will post a few about tricks and tips for doing Disney on a shoestring, (we usually only pay for the gas to get there because we have parking on one of our passes and bring in food). I have been been dealing with most of my many allergies for almost ten years now, and others for many years more. I will probably write about recipes I figured out to give myself the illusion of eating normal food. There are occasionally current events that drive me up on a soapbox, so they will be discussed here too. There are those real life issues the provoke a rant or raise a question that will prompt a post as well. So we will see how this goes. Thanks for reading and please leave comments.

American Girl Series

Well she figured out that Hogwarts wasn't real and asked to learn about American Girls instead. For those unaware, American Girls is a series of books, (and dolls, furniture, clothes, craft sets, paper dolls, activity books, etc), focusing on a girl in each of nine time periods in American history. I had heard glowing reviews about the series, with the only complaints being the cost of the dolls and their accessories, (Dolls are $90, clothing is $20 and up, furniture is $32-200, accessories are $15+), and the sheer amount of stuff available for each girl. The books are at about 3rd to 4th grade level, with short chapters and vivid pictures. There is even a few pages at the end of each book explaining further about the time period, customs or typical daily life of a young girl at the time. There are whole books for each girl on what it was like to live in that time. There are craft, party and cook books for each girl. So I was thrilled there was so much ready curriculum available after having to design so much for her Hogwarts, Disney Fairies, CSI, Magic Tree House, and other curriculums. There are nine girls and nine months of school, so that worked out well. Each girl has 6-7 basic books, some have up to 5 more, that I can let her choose from, so roughly 2 books per week. I even found brownie try its that tie in with each girl so she can keep up with that, (which is a whole other issue I will do at some later point).

The Girls are:
Kaya- Native American from the Nez Pierce tribe in North Western US in 1764

Felicity- Daughter of a patriot store keeper in 1774

Josephina- New Mexican girl from in 1824

Kristen- Sweedish immigrant pioneer to the Minnesota territory in 1854

Addy- Escaped slave from North Carolina to Philadelphia in 1864

Samantha- Orphan living with her Grandmother, (and later her uncle), in New York in 1904.

Kit- Depression era kid entrepreneur in Cincinnati OH in 1934

Molly- 1944, "girl on the home front", in Springfield Illinois

Julie- Flower child in 1974 San Francisco, CA

We finished four weeks with Kaya. I found a workbook on Native American activities and history. I found other printables from the internet. And I found a set of American Girl quiz books at the library book sale. I copied out the quizzes and of of all that I gave her a page or so per day to work on. She made a paper teepee, finger puppets, a medicine bag and a dream catcher from kits from Michael's. We watched Dreamcatcher from Netflix. She made a Native American paper doll from a dover book. And she spent loads of time on the American Girl website.

We are four days into Felicity. She has begun her paper sampler, coloring squares on graph paper to make a picture like a sampler, she will be making a sampler for her lapbook with yarn and plastic canvas and a actual cross stitch for a quilt, from the same pattern. She copied the inscription from the Liberty Bell.

My week from Hell

The car dealership where we bought or new car 2 months ago had asked for checks for the first three months payments made out to the finance company, as well as the down payment. They were supposed to hold the checks until they were due, but they instead turned them over to finance company all at once a few weeks ago and they were all put through last week. We found out when we went to pull our rent out and has $3 instead of $2K.

We heard our niece is in the hospital on a feeding tube, but she is with at her Mom's and her Mom doesn't like anyone in this family since the divorce and is three states away so it's not like we can go check on her. So we know nothing of what is going on.

Our toilet started running and got worse and worse so within a few days we just turned off the water to it, and started using the other bathroom instead, even though that bathroom has no lights. The landlord says he will fix it soon, but has been saying that about the lights for about a year. and the family room floor for even longer.

My Grandma had a stroke and we live close enough to visit, but far enough for it to be a hassle to visit and do anything else in a day. She is an avid reader and opinionated speaker but now can't get her mind to understand written words and has to concentrate to speak even slowly and still struggles to be understood.

I started a new role playing game based on Grimms' fairy tales. Very dark and twisted. But as I am running it it has to be child friendly, or at least PG-13. I'll do a separate blog for Grimm and roleplaying. But needless to say it is time consuming, distracting and another stress I most likely should have put off but didn't because it is fun.

I cleaned up the house before game last Sunday, and it is a wreck again.

I play on Second Life with DH, (Ok, another blog is needed to explain that world). We have fun. We have friends there, but lately there seems to be several extra helpings of drama. Nothing directly involving us too much, but several issues that plant land mines around conversations. I am still not sure of the etiquette of it all, so am not sure how to handle certain things.

DH had a eye Dr. appointment on Saturday, so after driving 2 hrs, (due to major traffic because a RV broke down where there wasn't a shoulder), on mountain roads, a half hour visit with my grandmother, and another hour back, we all drove over to the Dr's office. He was scheduled to have his eyes dilated and I had suggested walking the mile there because then we could just walk home afterwards, but due to time issues he drove instead. I was intending to order DDs new glasses, but the prescription for it must have fallen out at home because it wasn't in my wallet when we got to the Dr's. so DD and I sat while DH had his eyes dilated, and examined. We did choose what glasses she wanted but couldn't order them without the prescription. We wandered through Costco because it was the only place to go kill time. It was hot and we got tired but were a few blocks from costco on our way back to the car, before we decided we needed drinks. So we searched the Dr's office complex for something that was open, only to find nothing was. We eventually found a deli that had it's door open but was not officially open that was willing to sell us some gateraide. DH decided to try and drive home. So we went home. It was 6pm by the time we got home, and 7 by the time we ate dinner.

I, like a fool, tried to prepare thirteen weeks of curriculum in a little over a week, which would have been easy if not for the other issues that sprang up. I didn't really get started until 10 or so at night, and only the last few nights this week. I had collected stuff that may be useful, but not organized it into any logical fashion until late on Saturday. I had asked DH to help but he hadn't gotten around to it, (had intended on working on it on Saturday but couldn't due to his eyes dilation). So I had a few late nights.

Spring Quarter at Hogwarts

For this quarter she wanted CSI, Tinker Bell, (Fairy dust and the Quest for the egg), Herbology, and I insisted on Arithimancy so she can keep up with her skills. We couldn't decide whether to have a 7 week quarter then a 5 week break before our vacation, ( a car trip so she will have schoolwork to do on the way), or a 13 week quarter with no break before vacation. There seemed too much to do in only 7 weeks, but not enough to really fill 13 weeks. I thought I would save myself the weekly hassle of collecting schoolwork by making textbooks for her to go at her own pace with. If I did a little extra work now I would have less to do later as we prepared for vacation and did girl scout stuff, planned a camping trip, cleaned house, and all the other stuff I knew I would have to do soon. I intended to put together the workbooks during her 3 week break after she finished her last thirteen week Magic Tree House quarter. But life interfered. I will write about it in a separate blog. She usually gets her assignments on Sunday morning so she can go over them with her dad, so he is included, and I can sleep in after staying up late to finish them. So she was expecting them when she got up. I did welcome letters, and packages (we found a CSI kit at B&N, and terrariums at fry's), for delivery on Sunday morning with a note from the Hogwarts Owls saying that due to the immense number of things needing delivered they had had to split it into two deliveries. I wound up staying up until 3 a.m. Thursday night, 4:30 a.m. on Friday night, 4:30 Saturday night, and 5 am last night getting the texts finished. I was up by 10 every morning, by 9 on Saturday so we could go see Grandma before DH's eye dr appointment. So I am EXHAUSTED. But there should be less stress as far as school for a while.

Herbology- I found mini terrariums at Frys on their clearance section last fall. I am hoping they will still sprout. If not I will be buying new seeds at OSH this weekend. They need to be watered once then will recycle the water as long as you keep the top on, or up to 4 months, so it seems pretty easy easy to maintain. We have to plant them, figure out where to put them where they get the right light, (one needs SW, one needs SE and one needs E), and check daily for changes. One is a "Princess' garden" with gemstones to decorate the terrarium, and make a path through the garden, which will grow into tiny flowers. Another is a "Dragon's Lair" which has lava rocks to decorate it and a plastic dragon to hide in it, it has seeds for some dark grasses and unusual flowers. The last one looks like an easter egg. It is in an egg shaped terrarium with seeds in a disc of plant food that will grow into polka dot plants. Which looks kinda like ivy only it has pink spots on it. I made her a log for her to circle each day when she checks her plants, C for any changes, (she describes lower on the page), and N for no change. Once a week she needs to draw a picture and write about one of the plants.

CSI-Mysteries, I spy, Logic, Spot the differences, Fingerprints, Footprints, Blood Type, DNA, Observation, Witness description, and other evidence . About 40 pages with about 1 activity per page.

Fairydust and the Quest for the Egg- This is a great book by Gail Carson Levine, the author of Ella Enchanted, (so much better than the movie), and other girl empowering books. It has Tink in it, but more as a connection to the fairy hollow, to show the reader what is happening there, while three other fairies go on a quest to save the source of their magic. It was supposed to kick off the line of new Disney fairies books, toys, clothes, etc. And they tried to save money by having other less known authors write the rest of the fairy books, (10-15 of them in paperback about 10 chapters each), but though they were cute, they were not on par with this one so they had her write sequel last year. I made up or found an activity for her to do after each chapter. Some are on the disney fairies site, where she can make her own fairy, decorate her fairy home, tour Fairy hollow, and play games there. Some are more active, (like acting silly to cheer someone up), or hands on, (such as laying in the tub and singing so she can hear herself like a mermaid). And some are in the workbook, some writing, (What do you think your talent would be and why), some coloring and some more fun activities like crisscross or word finds. About 20 pages for the 30 chapters. She follows along with each chapter on CD. then does her activity for it.

Arithimancy- I made a workbook with about 35 pages of math from single digit addition to simple division, adding fractions, telling time, and money. We also play lots of card and board games.

Hogwarts at Home Year 2 -Magic Tree House

For her 1st grade she asked to learn about the Magic Tree House series of books. It's a great series with a brother and sister who travel through time and space using books they find in a magic tree house. They travel to explore dionosaurs, knights, mummies, pirates, the amazon, ninjas, stone age, the moon, dolphins, the old west, lions in Africa, polar bears in the Arctic, Pompeii, China, Vikings and Monasteries, Ancient Olympics, Titanic, Lakota tribe, tigers in India, Austrailia, Civil War, Revolutionary War, Pioneers, 1906 San Francisco, Shakespeare, Gorillas, first Thanksgiving and Hawaii.

There were 28 books. We did about one book per week. I combined the first two books into one week because we had read them over the summer, so only needed a review. That also meant we got to do the pirates book on the week of International Talk like a Pirate Day. We also combined Amazon and Ninjas because I had a hard time finding stuff for them. So we did them all in 26 weeks, two 13 week quarters.

I made a workbook for her with a page of centers to do in the theme if she liked, a W.A.N.D. page, (Work Assignments Needing Done), 10 vocabulary words, three or four activities do do with them, (crossword, definitions, drawing, word shapes, word find, etc), 5-10 theme activities, 3-7 coloring pages, and 3-5 math pages. We also did a art project, a cooking project, and a movie in the theme each week.