Building Excitement with a Yearly Education Box

At the start of each new school year 

(well for the last few years for us),

I have given my son a gift.

He gets an Education Box.

Basically I fill a box with all the new books (and often resources)

 we will be using for the year and let him 

discover them, 

get excited by them 

and want to learn with them.

It helps in a number of ways, more than just getting my son excited and wanting to learn. My son has Aspergers and various other learning disorders so there are a number of things we need to do to make a year go smoothly.  The box helps with that.

1. By letting my son see the years worth of books and resources for the year, it eases his anxiety and helps him know what is planned, what will be used, what it all looks like, what is expected (volume of work) and gives him time to get his head around it all.
2. By giving it to him all at once, I am able to see what he is interested in the most. It means I can start off with that area and use the time to build excitement and interest in the other areas of study and know if I need to approach areas differently (and have the time to make those adjustments).
3. By having it all in front of him, my son gets to feel in control and gets to pick what he wants to read and study first. Children with ASD especially love having control (mainly because so much of their lives and even their bodies and actions can be out of their control).  Control often equals calm and co-operation, well it does in my house. A calm and cooperative child is then open to learning and engaging.
4. When he sees it all at the start of the year, if he asks for something to go with it (either extending on an idea or subject area or thinking of a resource that I haven't considered) then I have time to find it/buy it/make it/research it to fit it into our study plan.

So again this year, in preparation for 'Back to School', I packed his new books into a box ready for him to discover.

What have I got packed in this year's box? 

Reading Books

Resource Books (a LOT of resource books LOL) 

Workbook Units

Posters

Maps

Other years I have filled it with Science Kits and Models, Stationary, Art Supplies, DVD's, flash cards and games as well. 

He loves it.  He always does.  He has been sitting with the box for the last hour sorting through it and looking forward to the year.  I have already heard (numerous times) "Can I read this one now?"

Check out for my post about our curriculum choices for 2016 (Grade 6) to read more about the contents of our box.

Here is a photo collage of the contents in case you want to Google some resources to add to your collection: 

And due to the size of the collection I have for the next subject theme, I only put a few books in, enough to prompt my boy into searching out the rest of the books.  However these are the most of the collection: 

Let me know if you use an Education Box type system at your Homeschool.  
I'd love to hear what you put in yours and how it works for you.