Everyone seems to be asking this question right now, and rightly so. School plans seem to be changing on a daily basis. I feel for you!
After a summer break from the blog, I am back and excited for the year to come. Today I offer this article, Not Everyone Hates School at Home, that may be useful as you make your decision for the year. Whatever school choice you make for your children, my posts this year will offer resources for a variety of learning plans. If you have specific questions, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. I am always happy to talk about children and learning! I hope your Sunday includes moments of wonder and clarity.
0 Comments
Summer is looking a lot different than planned this year, but I am convinced it will be a good one.
One way to help your children engage in fun activities is by organizing items for creative and outdoor play. Here are a couple ideas:
I hope your Saturday includes moments of wonder and play! I love introducing creative projects to children and watching how the projects grow and expand with each child's curiosity and imagination. I have two requirements for creative projects: they need to be straightforward, and they should use materials I have readily available. There are ideas all over the internet, but having many ideas in one place takes the Google rabbit hole out of the equation when you are looking for a quick activity. The book I have returned to many times over the years is The Best of Making Things by Ann Sayre Wiseman. The book was first published in 1973, but it has stood the test of time. Perhaps the fact that it was created in the '70s is what makes it so good. The ideas are simple and straightforward. They use items you likely have around the house, and foster expansion and further creativity. This is a perfect book for this time, especially with summer break upon us.
Here are some ideas for today with links, but they can also be found in the book:
I hope your Friday includes moments of wonder and a fun creative project. Writing a story can be a daunting task for many children, but creating a map of a fictional or real place is often tremendously fun. My daughters loved creating and examining maps when they were young. Instead of asking your child to write a story, ask your child to create a map. When the map is complete, your child can move on to storytelling using the five elements of a story – characters, setting, plot, conflict and theme.
Two ideas for storytelling with maps: 1. Create a map and story – Ask your child to create a map of a neighborhood, town, or imaginary land. The more detail your child uses, the easier it will be for them to tell the story. Your child can also draw and cut out characters, or use small toy figures to use with the map. Once the map is complete, ask your child to tell a story about the day-to-day life in the location of the map. Your child can also build on the story with new scenarios for the characters, such as a storm or town celebration. 2. Create a map for a book – Ask your child to create a map based on a favorite book and narrate the plot of the book using the map and characters. There is a good post about this from National Geographic. I hope your Wednesday includes moments of wonder and a good story. I adore middle-grade fiction, and I loved reading them to my daughters when they were younger. I still find myself picking up a middle-grade novel at the library to enjoy on my own from time to time. During this time of library closures, I have found myself pulling old favorites off our shelves with some regularity. Good middle-grade authors create wonderfully complex characters and highly interesting plot lines. Middle-grade novels are engaging and thought-provoking, and they stay with the reader and stand the test of time. Although they are intended for 8- to 12-year-olds, I think that middle-grade novels make great read-aloud books for younger children, as well as silent reading for all ages.
Here is a list of wonderful middle-grade novels for reading aloud or quietly in a cozy corner this summer: (Some of these books may not be appropriate read aloud books for younger children, so I organized the list from more appropriate to less appropriate for younger audiences.)
I hope your Tuesday includes moments of wonder and time spent with a good book. We held a quarantine prom a couple weekends ago. As a homeschool family, most of our academic celebrations are different than that of a traditionally-schooled child. This year is no different. We have one daughter graduating from high school and another graduating from eighth grade. As with most students, these milestones will be celebrated in a much different way than planned and anticipated. As a result, we are finding ways to mark the occasions from home, which brought about a quarantine prom. Even if you don't have a high school senior, I highly recommend taking this opportunity to dress up for dinner and dance a little in the comfort of your living room. We had so much fun that we have been celebrating in various ways every Saturday.
Dressing up and eating dinner together is enough, but here are some suggestions for making it a little extra special:
I am sorry it has been a while since my last post. We have been working hard at finishing the school year over here. My older daughter has now completed all requirements for high school graduation and my younger daughter has completed all of her bigger tests and projects so she is near the finish line. I will be posting regularly starting next week with a focus on summer enrichment and fun. Do any of you remember the student newspaper Weekly Reader and the Weekly Reader Children's Book Club? I have a soft spot for the hardcover, jacketless books that were sent to children each month through the book club. As I was scanning our bookshelves recently, I found one of the book club books, The Tyrannosaurus Game by Steven Kroll and illustrated by Tomie dePaola. The premise of the book is that the children are bored, so they decide to tell a story together with each child telling part of the story in turn. The illustrations are better than the story, but it reminded me of a game often called Pass the Story. I have used the game at home and in classrooms, and have found it a very easy and fun way to incorporate story elements into a child's day.
Here is what you do. One person starts the story with a few sentences and ends with a cliffhanger. They then pass it on to the next person to continue the same story. When you get to the last person the story can end or go back around the circle again. That's all there is to it. Here are a few story starters: Once upon a time...
Story Cubes are used in a similar way, but each person uses a picture on a cube to continue the story. I hope your Thursday includes moments of wonder and some fun storytelling. Math is the subject I have tweaked the most over the years. I have used numerous curriculums and supplemental materials to meet the learning styles of my daughters. There are so many ways math can be taught and learned, so the key is to figure out what works best for each individual child. Over the weekend I read a very useful article in The New York Times. I have used many of the suggestions over the years with great success, so instead of writing my own math post today, I am sending you to the article. I hope you find the suggestions as helpful as I have.
Here are links to the two resources from the picture, if you are interested: I hope your Monday includes moments of wonder and math success. When my sister and I were little, we loved giving gifts to our neighbors. The gifts were always handmade or something found in nature. We had a number of older neighbors in our neighborhood and they seemed to truly appreciate our unbridled enthusiasm for gift giving. One of our favorite days to do this was May Day. We would arrange cut flowers from our yard, put them in baskets made of paper and hang the baskets on our neighbors' doors. We joyously hung each basket on a doorknob and ran away, imagining the recipients' excitement when they came upon the surprise gift.
The past few May Days have found us at the May Day celebration at the Waldorf School, where my younger daughter is a homeschool enrichment student. May Day is a grand celebration there with flower crown making, lots of singing, and dancing around the maypole. This year the grand gathering around the maypole cannot happen, so we have decided to recreate what we can in our backyard. We will create a maypole from odds and ends in our basement, make flower crowns with scavenged flowers and branches from the yard, and sit around a fire in our fire pit in the evening. We are also planning on leaving flowers on the doorknobs of a few neighbors (wearing gloves for delivery). This time of quarantine continuously reminds me that small acts of kindness are deeply appreciated. A few resources to help with your May Day celebrations:
I hope your May Day includes moments of wonder and celebration. Math word problems – do those words conjure traumatic memories of math class? Word problems are often the most despised type of math problem, but arguably one of the most important. Children are required to use their reading and comprehension skills as well as their math knowledge to answer the problem. Math word problems help develop an understanding of math in the real world, critical thinking skills, and using multiple math concepts to solve one problem. Math word problems can be a fun family activity, and writing problems is one more giant step towards fully understanding math concepts.
Here are some suggestions for incorporating word problems in your daily life:
I hope your Monday includes moments of wonder and some fun math problems! |
AuthorWelcome! My name is Heidi. I am a mom of two daughters, one dog, and one rabbit, and wife to one guy. I have been a homeschool mom for thirteen years – the first ten in Chicago and the last three in St. Louis. I am glad you found your way here! Archives
July 2020
Categories
All
|