Work Boxes Lessons Learned

For tomorrow, with a few exceptions, I swapped today's activities.
3 Lessons learned:
#1 - An evolved, time consuming box, especially one that needs to be done together, needs to be last. We have a lot to cover in history before Friday so I gave them too much for one day. We got distracted midway through the material and it took all day to get back to our boxes. If we had finished all the other boxes first, it would have been easy to regroup later to read one or two more history books.

#2 -Both boys had a science research activity today but in different boxes. I explained it thoroughly to boy #1 and assumed since boy #2 was right there beside us, that he heard and grasped the full explanation. Turns out he didn't which caused a lot of problems when he did the activity wrong. Never assume a child is listening when you aren't even talking to him.

#3 - Accept a child's assessment of what is too much. Of course kids will balk at everything - I insist on going over missed reading or sign language words a 2nd time despite their protestations that they have had enough because I know that immediate review will help them immensely. However, today I put the entire box of Math Match It pieces in Tackler's box, and halfway through he was tired so I let him quit. Next time I'll just do the counting or just the addition and subtraction.

#3A - Today I gave Prince a dry erase booklet with a dozen activities in it. I thought he would go through the whole book. He loved doing 3 pages, then quit. I was surprised but let him decide he was done. If I push it on stuff like that, next time I bring out that book he will balk. Instead I bet he'll happily do 3 more.

#4 - I know I said only 3 lessons but this doesn't count because I didn't learn it today. I already knew but it's SO worth pointing out. Several projects we did today could have easily been done with a boring worksheet (the dry erase booklet, the math match it game and the color/shape activity). Instead they were hands-on and in two cases, involved a lot of movement. Same lesson but engaging format. I realize some kids like worksheets but I bet even they would prefer hands-on.