New system

Jeremy and I were frustrated lately with the way the school work went. I wrote a schedule and gave him a copy and he was supposed to do it. Well, that didn't always work very well for us because at time he didn't know what to do and had to wait for me to have time for him to explain the work that needed to be done. Sometimes he had to wait for about 10 min because I was working with one of his sisters. I think you can imagine what happens to a young boy who has to wait to find out what schoolwork he has to do.....yes, I lost him to his Legos and it was hard to get him back.
I came across a system I had heard of before, but due the fact that we live in a small place always discarded the idea - until a few days ago... I came across a blog from a mom who uses workboxes. After reading and thinking about it, I thought we should try it. It was fun to set up the boxes, though I must say, it does take a little more work on my part. However, my little guy really gets what he has to do and is now happy that he can work independently. He worked on quite a few subjects today without needing help! The only really bad thing is that we now have all the boxes in a corner of our already small place. But it does seem to work very nicely for us. I will let you know how the rest of the week goes, as this is our first day and so I can't say too much about it.
So here is what I do. I have one box per subject, say for example, Literature. I put a blank paper, pencils and his cd in the box. Then I write a note of what I want him to do. In this example : listen to Wind in the Willows ch. 4 and draw a picture about the story and write two sentences. I print this out and add it to the box. Done! Then I move on to the next subject. It gives him a good idea of the work that needs to be done and he can freely choose which subject he would like to do next. Some things we will do together, but most he can do himself.