TOS Crew Review: Sue Patrick's Workbox System

Specialized and Structured Teaching

Sue Patrick's Workbox System

An effective teaching system to reduce your organizational time and increase your child's self-control, independence and learning.

Specialized for: Autism, ADD ADHD, and

Large Home School Families

This system will compliment your existing curriculum!

(Quoted from: http://www.workboxsystem.com/)

I was pleasantly surprised when I received this book, that I really like it. I had been hearing about workboxes for sometime on email lists I had been on and purposely ignoring them because I doubted it was me. WOW, was I surprised!

Sue calls the book a users guide. Sue developed this system for a special needs child, but has gone on to use and teach it successfully for all ages from preschool through high school.  She gives detailed info on how to set up the workbox system in your home.  She does recommend a wire rack with shoe box sized containers.  You would need several for each student to use and work through.  I did wind up adapting this somewhat for my family as I assume many families will (homeschoolers by nature do this.)  However, Sue recommends you follow her method as closely as possible.  Her system is not hard to do at all.  I just had some space issues and a couple of the things I didn't feel would work in my home.  But over all it is very easy to implement and follow.

The book is more then about how to setup workboxes, it goes into some philosophy of homeschool and how to structure your homeschool day. This is great for the new homeschooling family as well as the seasoned one needing a breath of fresh air to their homeschool. She also gives several ideas that she uses in her homeschool besides the workbox system that I really thought were excellent. She really convicted me in some areas and I implemented several changes in our homeschool immediately.

If you are thinking of implementing workboxes, I can not recommend her book enough. She gives so much detail and other helpful info that can really help the struggling homeschool plan their day and help it run smoother.  If you are looking for help to teach your children how to work more independently, provide structure for a special needs child, or just need to learn how to set up your homeschool - I highly recommend this system.  Don't worry, this really is an easy read, even though it has 12 chapters and over 113 pages.

Visit Sue Patrick's Website by clicking HERE.

This product was received free of charge in exchange for a honest review.

TOS Crew Review: Heads Up!

http://www.headsupnow.com/ AKA Heads Up! is a supplier of information and products for struggling learners. There products are designed for use with various learning styles and strengths to help children feel sucessful. Products are for homeschool families, occupational therpist, teachers, and parents to use with academic and life skills*. (*Information paraphrased from the Heads Up catalog.)

The product we reviewed from Heads Up! was one of their own creations. They are different types of reading aides to help keep visual attention while drawing attention to a smaller portion of text. They can also be used to help keep a child from being overwhelmed when seeing the entire page.

(This yellow one is 4" X 9" and the pink one 4" X 4-1/2" )

They come in various sizes, shapes, and come in 6 colors. They are made with transparent colored polycarbonate with a frame printed on it.

For older children the Heads Up! Reader can be use for focusing just one line of text at a time in a larger chapter book. This can also be used as a book mark as well.

I have been using these with my beginning readers to help keep them focused on one sentence at a time. My younger children (6 and 7 years old) have enjoyed using them with their phonics and early readers. I have been letting them choose the color to help keep interest. Also, if they are distracted by another sibling, using the frames helped them quickly to return to the word or sentence they are suppose to be reading, quickly.

This frames are very sturdy and I expect we would lose them before they would be destroyed - LOL!

Visiting their website, they have various products that I never have thought about much because I don't have a struggling learner. I imagine these tools would be helpful in many homeschools. I saw items to help with hand writing, sitting still, phonics tools, audios for seminars given by Heads Up!, math products, speech therapy, and even books for various learning disorders. If you have a struggling learner, this catalog is well worth a look!

"Children, 'fair' means giving you what you need when you need it. It would be unfair to treat you all the same." Melinda L. Boring (one of the many quotes of encouragement in the Heads Up! catalog)