Sue Patrick's Workbox System A User's Guide [Spiral-bound]

Sue Patrick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2008

*Please note: Used copies of this book will not be eligible for website registration and free downloading of materials.* Sue Patrick's Workbox System User's Guide is a complete homeschooling guide providing an easy approach to optimize and organize your homeschool from Preschool to High School. Here you will find the tools you need to transform your classroom into an organized, well-structured learning environment. Easy to understand and implement, Sue Patrick's Workbox System User's Guide will enable you to gain control ofyour children's attention and focus, and help them grow in self-control and independence. In the few hours it takes to read this book, your days can become less stressful, more productive, and more enjoyable for everyone in the home. Excerpt from the book: "I believe it is our job to train up our children. Our children should become smart, sequential, forward thinking, self-drive, independent people. But I don't think they have to achieve it by themselves. Some of our children will never blossom into the individual who loves to learn. But at least they will have learned how to learn. Learning how to learn is one of the most important things we can teach our children. It is a first step many parents just assume that kids will have accomplished on their own. Some of them have not. We must start by giving our children their learning materials in a way that will make sense to them, so that they can learn. If we do it any other way, learning will be too hard and it will never be fun--nor will our job of training them be easy. "With this system, you and your children will move through your homeschool day more efficiently and with greater understanding than ever before. The way you teach will be fun for your children and more rewarding for you. You will be able to spend more time having fun with your children and less time on the "business" side of homeschooling. Once you have this system in place, you will truly wonder how you ever homeschooled without it."

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 122 pages
• Publisher: Wend Publishing; 1st edition (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981896847
• ISBN-13: 978-0981896847
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #687,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

I am Sue Patrick, a homeschool mom, with a Bachelor s Degree from North Carolina State University.  While in the process of pursuing a Master s Degree from NCSU, my oldest child was diagnosed with Autism at the age of two.  His diagnosis was a crushing blow to my husband and me, and I found myself caught between two worlds.  One in which I was grieving the loss of the child I had hoped for and prayed about for 10 years.  And another world in which I was determined to do everything humanly possible to help this child, whom  suddenly I didn t think I knew.     Over the next 10 years, I pursued my son s improvement, balance in my life, and an understanding of homeschooling a special needs child. It was during this time that I developed the Workbox System. The Workbox System was loosely based on the structured teaching approach from Division TEACCH, Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-handicapped Children, A Division of the UNC Department of Psychiatry. So many of us who were thrown into the world of autism were also thrown into a world of unnatural teaching. There are so many people, organizations, institutions, and professionals out there who have found the new key to curing autism. I learned very quickly that there is no cure for autism, and fortunately, I learned from TEACCH the value of teaching in a structured way to the individual mind. Though TEACCH vehemently stated that there is no cure for autism, I contend that they saved my child s life. They introduced a thought process to me that allowed me to develop this Workbox Systemsm. Without TEACCH and this system, I would not want to imagine where my son would be now. I had such great success with his progress, that I began showing other families with children with developmental disabilities what I had learned, and what was working so very well for my son.  Over time, with trial and error, always seeking to understand and improve a system I was developing, I was able to share with more and more families.   My son, who was never considered high functioning, began to function at a very high level even though he has a language disability that seems insurmountable. Through this system, he has learned so well that he is academically on grade level with his peers. He participates in groups and social activities, and on sports teams, independently, with his peers.  I believe this is all due to what I have been able to glean from all exexisting therapies, theories, and educational plans and to implement them as a home program.  After attending seminars, conferences, and certification programs for nearly every therapy based work for special needs children,  I did not adopt any existing program or other therapies because I thought a meshing of the best of all programs, along with a Specialized Parent-Based approach was the only logical choice.  I am thankful to God every day for giving me that discernment. Over the years I have shown an uncounted number of families how to successfully work at home to create their best homeschool. I have worked with parents whose children range from too wiggly to severely disabled to just plain large numbers of children in their home, and have found that I simply did not have enough time to reach as many people as would call me for help. I have now packaged my system, Sue Patrick s Workbox System in an effort to reach even more families working to achieve the highest academic and cognitive potential they can in their own children.  This system works very well with all homeschools and all children ranging from typical to disabled.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 122 pages
• Publisher: Wend Publishing; 1st edition (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981896847
• ISBN-13: 978-0981896847
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #687,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 59 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Great Idea, Unimpressive User's Guide May 13, 2011

By EReads

Amazon Verified Purchase

First, I love the idea behind workboxes. Sue Patrick deserves a big "high 5" for the idea. Does she deserve the cost of this User's Guide? In my opinion, no. I don't mind someone trying to capitalize on a good idea, but I expect more for my money and found this guide to be a very poor value. I would feel differently if it had cost me $5.

You can do a simple Internet search to see the ways many families have implemented this idea in their own homes. How many of these families follow this User's Guide to the letter? Not very many. In fact, I'm not even sure if I've run across one person - though I'm sure they're out there. I guess?

Sue Patrick is quite adamant about following her system exactly before tweaking. Yet, she doesn't always cite the reasoning behind every element and there are many components that I knew wouldn't be as successful as other things we already have in place. Why throw out something that works well to replace it with something of dubious value backed by anecdotal evidence?

For me, a quick Internet search and browsing some homeschooling blogs culled all the information I needed to know to make use of the workbox concept in my own home. I can't say I picked up even one new piece of information in the User's Guide. Outside of blogs, I would have found the guide helpful; however, even with that, there wouldn't have been a lot of takeaway for me. I even created my own cards for our workboxes, as so many other homeschoolers seem to do.

If you're a new home educator or have a failing system in place, following this system exactly might work well for you. However, I have one major issue with Sue Patrick's guide that I think will make it hard for many people to implement successfully.... In the guide Sue Patrick claims that lesson plans are merely a function of state laws. Essentially that they're useless outside of legal requirements. I couldn't disagree more. I'll explain more below.

Sue also encourages educators to come up with goals. (Great! So do I!) Then, you're to check the goals off as you complete them. (Yes, this is a good idea!) However, without a plan to ensure you're reaching the goals, I think you might be setting yourself up for failure. Especially if you are one of those people who lack internal organization - i.e. most people. Why create goals that are to be accomplished in the span of months when you only have weekly plans in this system? I personally like to have a road map and I believe many home educators *need* one to stay on track.

Sue Patrick does recommend the use of a curriculum grid, but this grid fails to make sure you accomplish your goals in a given amount of time. Yet she tells you to set the goals to be reached over a few months (if you can't manage yearly goals). I find it incongruous to advocate setting goals linked to a certain time-frame while denying the value in creating a plan to make sure you'll reach your goals.

You can, to a degree, rely on curriculum to help you out here, but even that is going to require some looking ahead to make sure the curriculum will cover those goals within your time-frame. I don't think a curriculum grid is going to cut it all on its own for many people. At least, if you don't want to spend hours planning every week.

One of the biggest flaws I find in doing away with lesson plans is the amount of time you will spend filling the workboxes each night. You will be constantly looking ahead and trying to lesson plan "on the go" to make sure you fill the workboxes appropriately. If your curriculum doesn't tell you how many days each week you need to work on that subject, you're going to need some way to figure this out too. Lesson plans, anyone? Even if your curriculum comes with a lesson plan, you're going to want to look it over and get organized so that you don't have to do this each and every night. Who wants to spend an hour stuffing workboxes each night?

My belief is that you need goals, then you need plans in place to make sure you accomplish those goals. And I want to make sure we accomplish them in a set amount of time, if possible. If not, we'll re-work the plan as necessary.

My other major issue with the guide is how repetitive it is - as someone else noted. I really don't need to be told the same thing in the same exact way multiple times. I found the repetitiveness to be a bit ironic, as this system is about organization. Aren't efficiency and organization related? I would have liked to see a bit more efficiency used in this the writing of this guide.

I also found a few typos in the guide. Granted, this review is probably rife with typos and errors. No doubt, it's not well organized. And it's probably repetitive to boot. I'm not going to invest any time to make it right either. But I'm not charging you over $20 to read it. Read more ›

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars less stress, more accomplished February 18, 2009

By A. OConnor

The book is an easy read and the system is simple to implement. We homeschool our 4 children, one of whom has autism, with structure and peace by using this system. The setup allows them to work independently and allows me to structure my time to best work with them when needed. It has helped them to manage their time and helped me to manage their workload much better than any other method we have tried. It has brought peace and calmness to our homeschool.

Besides the basic set up information, the book contains many tips and tricks. And, if you ever get a chance to hear the author speak, you will be impressed with her problem solving skills and the many tips she offers in her talks.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Concept! September 2, 2010

By beautybeen

Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this for our first year of homeschooling. This system gave me the confidence to hit the ground running. I can't imagine what our days would look like without the workboxes. My 8 year old daughter is able to breeze through 10 subjects in less than 4 hours, including snack breaks, which leaves the afternoons for field trips and fun with friends. I like that it keeps me organized in my teaching, as well.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Very informative July 9, 2009

By C. Anthony

This is an excellent resource for those who are trying to organize and put structure into their children's work day. It builds self esteem when the kids see how much they can accomplish!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great System, kids will enjoy August 25, 2010

By Electra Spy

Amazon Verified Purchase

The "User Guide" has many helpful tips. I don't believe every part of the system need be applied, as author states you should follow her advice 1st, change things later. Though many of these components would be good to consider, if you have a child with special needs, as the book gives many visual reference tips for directing work. The concept of Workboxes do intrigue the kids about doing schoolwork & gives a feeling of accomplishment as they work through them. No doubt about that! I got the guide with hopes it would give more than just the basic idea I had around it, after reading it I can honestly say, it is as simple or complicated as you want to make it. I didn't use much from the book, such as schedule strips, box # tags & such. The structure of my "workboxes" is quite simple, it's tall, the kids work top to bottom. A bulk of the support tags & things are for directing through left to right, top to bottom, shoe box organizing racks. Too cluttered for me, so forking out the extra $50 for an Ikea structure, was so worth it as I will be looking at these for years. The author does have a few great resource listings in the book, I have used as vendors (ie. CISS printing, laminating supplies, teaching links) The small guide is a comb bind with about 100 pages of information, so the price leaves one feeling a bit over charged for what the "user guide" material delivers. But it is a great concept & that's one hard working mom behind it, so I feel good to contribute for it. =)

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Resource! June 23, 2009

By Bargains*by*Christine

Hi,
I purchased this as a guide to what I was already learning online on blogs, etc. It is very helpful to those that have a "special needs" child. We do. She has a school-type homeschool and we are a bit more unstructured. Great for picking out what you want to use and just trying some of the other suggestions if needed/wanted. Worth the purchase to support a woman that has made most homeschooling mom's lives better. FYI - I'm writing from a unorganized person's perspective.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring August 10, 2009

By L. D.

New inspiration is definitely to be found in this handy guide! It has really put consistency back in our school day. This very simple, obvious (why did I not think of it!) system has revived our school day! Sue Patrick has caused an entirely new movement in the homeschooling community!-- I would call it the latest homeschool fad except that, I believe, it is here to stay!