Make it a challenge
16 Feb 2010 1 Comment
in Children, Homeschool Tags: Homeschool
Most of my time is spent homeschooling right now. I thought I would blog today about the importance of keeping children challenged and motivated to learn. This is the primary reason that I LOVE homeschooling because you can tailor the curriculum to each child.
Davy and Matt are my math whizzes. Even though they are technically finishing up kindergarten, they are doing so well in first grade math workbooks. I’m amazed at the problems that Davy can already do in his head. He’s a pattern thinker and math makes so much sense to him.
Abby is in first grade but yesterday she begged to start learning cursive. She had mentioned it before but I wouldn’t let her start til her print was less sloppy. Cursive writing is a third grade activity and one that I’ve heard may be cut back on in public school curriculum because the teachers need that time to teach computer skills. So I gave her the penmanship manual and she worked on A-D. It was challenging for her and she’ll need a lot of practice but I’m so thankful that I have the flexibility that I do to grant her request.
James just turned 5 and he’s very smart. But he speeds through his workbook so he can get to pretend play. I can’t complain too much about that because it’s good for him and Davy. They act out Larry Boy and Around the world in 80 days. Davy has started playing with toys like dinosaurs and characters from Ice Age 3 and giving them voices. That is just totally awesome. But since he’s not really motivated right now with workbooks, I try to find opportunities to bring out math problems in play or meal preparations. At bed time when we read a story, I’ll start and pause. He’s such a go-go-go person that he can’t wait to finish that page so he’ll read the rest of it. With little boys, you sneak in as much academic practice in as you can.
Andrew is just 3 but we’re working on basics. He has his own workbooks about colors and numbers so he feels like one of the big kids. Matt finished the Hooked on Phonics workbook yesterday so now it’s Andrew’s. His main goal will be to learn the sounds of the letters and to be able to recognize the letters out of order. He can sing his ABC’s and Abby and Matt praise him for knowing his ABC’s. But he really doesn’t know them yet. I know from the ease with which Davy and James started reading compared to Abby and Matt’s frustration with reading to begin with that knowing your letters frontwards and backwards is truly key to transitioning easily into reading. He’s such a smart cookie that he’ll probably be reading when he is 4 like me.
With five children to teach, even though they are so close in age, they all have their different strengths and weaknesses. Homeschooling allows me to capitalize on their strengths and fortify their weaknesses. And that usually means you aren’t going to stay on grade level all the time. You can let them run away with their strong subjects. And you may have to pull them back a little on a weaker subject to give them a stronger understanding and grasp of that particular subject. Just whatever you do, don’t let them get bored.
Homeschool-in-a-bag
27 Jan 2010 Leave a Comment
in Children, Homeschool Tags: activity bags, Homeschool, on the go
I have occasions like Monday that I will have to take all five children by myself. Taking five children ages 7 and under without something for them to do is just asking for disaster. So I’ve created what I call Homeschool-in-a-bag. I even use it sometimes when I take just two or three. Davy, often, won’t let me forget it.
Any bag will do but a sturdy strap is important. I use a black diaper bag. I fill it with simple readers, crayons, colored pencils and coloring books. Dollar Tree has some awesome workbooks for pre-K to 3rd grade. You can fill it with snacks like small boxes of raisins or fruit snacks. Different colors of pipe cleaners are fabulous for a quiet activity. They can be twisted into letters, numbers and shapes without making any noise. You can let each child take their own backpack but with five young children, I find it easier to keep track of just one bag.
This is useful in the van, in waiting rooms, at appointments like speech therapy that only include one child at a time, etc. It’ll keep children occupied and make waiting time go by a lot faster. It also helps us not to have a school day wasted because of appointments or necessary travel.
