I am back..... to FunSchool

Since I have turned over reins of homeschooling to my other half I have been searching old notes for fun activities that neither one of them realize that they are really doing school but more of the playing that is focused. My DH is a great read the book and telling her what she needs to know but I think is more unsure of himself to think outside of the box that make school fun and engaging.

I cruise the homeschool forums and blogs and find all kinds of wonderful ideas of things to do since Lily was only a baby. How many we will do I have no idea but I thought I would share some. I have gathered these ideas (and then some, over time none are mine although I have added my own twist to how it will work for me and my family. I wish I had links to go back to the blogs to see what these families are doing now but alas these are coming from memory and old notes where I was not smart enough to write down the name of the blogs)

My little student is taking off with her reading. One of the many blogs that i saw has their student hanging their book up on the home made clothes line. We have decided to do something similar. Once Lily has master the book with no help she gets to hang up the book and earns a reward for so many books on the line. A new book of her choice from the book store or library for sale bin at her level. I may regret that part but I want her to have a visual of how far she is coming and to get her more reading material that she is in to.

One other thing that I came across for older stronger readers is a reading bingo game. In the blocks you can fill with all kinds of things such as Read a book from such and such author read about book about an animal read a non fiction book ect.

Another reading activity that I think we are going to try is to find a simple book with only one sentence per page and write it down on the strips of paper and then read the book and then have her put the story together with the strips. The strips will be cut for each word so that we can also work with capitalizations. My little student loves puzzles. The book will be there for her guide. I am really looking forward to this!

A fun phonics game is to get plain wooden blocks then take a few and set them to the side after writing a letter per side (you can skip Q Y and Z) the other ones paint the sides and then then use a sharpe and write word endings. That way you can use the blocks to play with instead of writing on paper or on a white board. It is also something the pre-writers can do independently. I have seen other versions of this with the paint strips and the paint chips with a whole in them.

A fun handwriting thing to try is a wishing wall. There are various ways to do this. You could put a sheet of paper on the wall and write them down or write them on a sheet of paper and roll them up and put them in a jar. The site that had this found a honey comb wall hanging and was using that to put in the wishes. I also loved her idea of holding on to those so that you can see the growth of the wishes as well as the growth of the handwriting. You could make your own honeycomb by using glue together toliet paper rolls that are painted. We are doing this as a family project.

Handwriting can start with making letters and numbers out of rocks or blocks or cars or what ever your child is into. It isnt always about pen paper and a desk. Using yogurt or pudding or hair gel in a ziplock bag. What about using a stick and writing the sand or the mud?

A totally fun idea is to sit down with your child and write out a list of things he or she wants to do that season. Put it on a fun piece of paper and put around their door or on their door. Then when bordum hits have them pull something off the door and go do it. It could be go to the park or swing in the yard or something like go to a free concert in the park or a play date with a friend at the mall indoor playground. It is also a good way for the kids to practise their handwriting! Keep it fun by finding using different color paper and different cut outs. You can take pictures and scrap book about their adventures.

Math can be done with cutting scrap paper in to strips and then making paper chains. They will use fine motor skills and hand eye coordination. They can learn about patterns or measurements as it can be use to measure the couch or the family pet. It can be used as a item to count as you build or to count down to a special day.

Geography print the flags of the state or of the world in black and white and then color them. Print them in color or while your child is coloring one set you or another child color another. Glue on to card stock and use that as your next memory game. You can also do this with states, countries or continents

We have had an issue as of late with Lily saying things that are not nice to other people and when we correct her and say that you are not suppose to say things like that and have her apologize. I dont think that she is getting what she is doing wrong and why saying things that just arent nice to people is really tearing them down. So in search for a solution to that I came across the heart story. Take two hearts put one down and tape one to you and tell the story of a child who gets tore down. Waking up late and getting called lazybones (rip a peice of the heart and let it fall to the floor) her sister gets the last of her favorite ceral and she is told oh well that is what you get for not getting up. (rip the heart) continue on with the story until the whole heart is ripped on the floor. Now grab the heart and tell the story in a build up instead of a tear down way.

Too hot to play outside and too much energy to burn. Make a hopscotch with construction paper and tape. Use it for colors or a math challenge to switch things up.

There is the work box system where you set up the night before and the child has a shoe box for each subject snack. They can do it any order and it is a great visual to are we done yet how much longer. Another way to shake things up is between each subject do a ring toss and on the pole on a folded note it will tell you what subject you are going to do next. Or set up the table with their subjects and do musical chairs and when that subject is done the chair gets pulled

I know a mom who has her child who does a math problem then stand up jumps and then sit down and does the next problem. It helps with movement that some kids just need to do and it helps mom see how long it takes for her child to do the problem. I have also talked to parents who do math problems orally while the student is jumping on a tramoline or rolling or bouncing on an exercise ball.

One thing we are going to try is spelling words out with chalk and having her jump on the letter saying the sound and sounding out words that way. I have read someone that a mom did that wither her kids during the summer for spelling words. They jumped on the words and spelled them as they did it and then they jumped on them so much they wore them out and had to spell them with out seeing them in the chalk.

Math with dice games or a beach ball with number written on there.

The beach ball can be used for LOTS of things. Putting words number state or capitals and what ever their hand lands on when they catch it they have to say the capital or the state or the math fact (skip counting or addition of the two number subtract multiplication or division) Random words written on there can be used for identifaction of nouns verbs ect. If you are artsy enough draw (or have your student) the world on their ball and then fill in the bodies of water the land countries ect. Get a set of the balls and use them as planets and write facts on them and then have them read the facts as you throw them back and forth to one another. Then hang them up in order. Pull back down when you need a refresher.

Adventure box is something that i am going to try to incorporate if not now then when she is a little older. This is a box (or basket or bag or what ever you think is best) where you put items in that helps set forth an adventure. Ask your child what do you want to learn about. What interests you that we are not learning about now or something we have talked about in the past that you want to know more about. Use those ideas that they give you and create a box for them that they can use to delve in to the subject. If they want to learn more about chemistry and do more experiments get some books together and some of the basic supplies and put it in a box and tell them have fun with it. The experiments arent to be all done in one day but thru time. The time line is yours to make. Some want to learn to crochet so get books on that and yarn hooks patterns. Bugs you could get books on bugs bug holders magnifying glass butterfly nets coloring page on the bugs in your area. Dinosaurs their interest books plastic dinosaurs crafts. The possiblities are endless. This should help cut down on the I'm bored.

A mom I greatly respect has a jar with chores like washing windows the blinds cleaning the garage the shed and chores that need to get done but dont get done as often as they should. When her kids say I am bored she has them go to the jar and pull out a chore to do. Now there are other things in their too like read a book go do something nice for your sibling, make a card to send to a resident that you met at the nursing home. Write you grandma a letter. This family also has one TV that they only use for school DVDs (I could never do that that is just use tv for school) so her kids have to find something to do besides be on the computer or use the TV.

With Lily we have had her in the kitchen helping us with cooking talking about the measurements taking her grocery shopping talking about the items and the ingredients. We talk about budgeting and how if we spend money on all of our wants then we won't be able to take care of our needs. We dicsuss what our big goals for our money is and what the small goals are. Now when she is a little older we are planning on having her grocery shop at home with a set of money and her groceries to learn the value of a dollar and under stand money. Then for more of a home ec lesson I want her to pull a recipes out of the books and we will go grocery shopping and have her find the most economical way to purchase those items and then come home and use her math skills also in measuring them and making us a meal that I am sure will involve chemistry. My plan is to be there and over see her but to not take over for her. There are so many disciplines in doing this that is a whole day of school that really wont feel like school at all.


As we are entering our K4 year I am hoping to get this updated more often as my schedule is more manageable.