Sunday, September 02, 2007

Mixing it Up

We are about 50 days into our homeschooling year so far right now. For those of you who stick to a regular school year, just imagine that it feels like mid-November for us. This is the point where a little bit of change is necessary to avoid boredom with the same old routine day after day.

Therefore, last week we did something a bit different. We devoted a few days to homeschooling purely through reading. No worksheets! No workbooks! It was alot of fun. I let them draw pictures about the stories we were reading and do art projects. They drew wonderful pictures of bible stories like poor Job covered in sores. Danya even added a cartoon of Job's wife saying, "Curse God and die!" They also made Chinese paper lanterns while we read the Magic Treehouse book about China "Day of the Dragon King". That book led to a great discussion about rulers who have burned or banned books around the world and how some governments control the people of their country through controlling reading, learning, and education.

We used some of the books that we read for math, too. We did multiplication, addition, and subtraction while acting like monkeys and reading "Caps for Sale". This week we are adding five new states for them to memorize. We're also having them paint one state bird and flower each day. I've got a reproducible book of all 50. Did I mention that I love my copier? We also made a matching game for math (pictured above). The math problem will be on the cow and the answer is on it's bell. After they help the cows find their bells they'll get to write their names on the big cow. I'm going to attach a sign to it that says, "I herd you were smart!"

4 comments:

Michele Moore said...

You are officially my hero. Your homeschooling is amazing. I would love to know your schedule and any tips. We are starting our first year of Story of the World and a semi classical approach on Tuesday, and I am already a lot intimidated. I have been reading your blog a few weeks and have throughly enjoyed every post. Thanks!

Delaina said...

I just love your creative ideas! :) Thanks for sharing them and giving us inspiration.

We're only into our 3rd week of school because I decided I really needed an extended summer this year. Normally, we school all year taking a week off here and there. I'm happy that we took that time off but my girls seem to have forgotten quite a bit and we're doing a good bit of catching up, now.

I was wondering if you schedule a time to do scrapbooking or if you kind of leave it on the back burner just in case you have some free time?

Jess said...

Scrapbooking? I remember when I used to have time for that...

Just kidding. It's definitely an after thought these days. There is just so much else that demands my time. I do get an hour or two a week usually at some point. Yesterday I got a few pages done. Maybe I'll post a picture. I made the girls a little scrapbook for our homeschool photos, but we've only put one picture in it so far.

I know that this time will pass. I won't always have such small kids demanding my attention and I'll have more time for scrapbooking again. Speaking of which, Kevin just woke up from his nap, gotta go!

Delaina said...

I know exactly what you're saying. My 3 are a wee bit older than yours but we also have our Goldens which demand a lot of our free time for training and walking and such. But, I have a few favorite blogs that I check in on and often wonder how in the world they squeeze in the time to scrapbook. I have one Friday night a month in which I go to a friend's home and try to get some layouts done.

I think we pick our priorities in life and although I love scrapbooking, it has definitely fallen lower on the priority list. lol Thanks for answering my question.

I'm also keeping you and your family in my prayers. Hope all goes well on Tuesday (God Willing!). :)