Going Out With A Bang

I have recently been using ideas from a book called Turbocharged! 100 Simple Secrets to Successful Preschool Ministry in order to find fresh ideas to use in our "Littlest People" group of kids at church.

You may be thinking, "So? My kids aren't in preschool." Neither are mine. But I have found little golden nuggets hidden among those pages that are universal to all children, not just preschoolers.
Last week I wrote about trying to beat that Summer Itch, and I realized that some of these ideas can be useful for adding a little change to your possibly boring or dry end-of-year lesson planning. They are great ways to tune in to your child's learning style as well.

Word Play - story telling, word games, creative writing

Logical exploration - discover how something works (take it apart!), collect things, puzzles

Get Physical - dance, act it out, active games

Make some music - use music with lyrics to support your idea, play classical in the background as you work, sing a rhyme or song to help you learn a set of information (states, presidents, grammar rules)

Make it beautiful - paint a picture, color, do a maze

Tune in to Nature - find a "live one," cut pics out of magazines, use hands on, touchable displays

Voice it - allow them to re-teach the idea to you or a sibling or other family member, let them write and recite a poem about it.

Leave them alone - give them some reflective questions and a quiet corner

Get techy - Find games they can play on the computer or electronic devise where they can "play" and learn at the same time!

There isn't much time left of this school year. Go out with a bang so they are begging to start again in fall. Remember, it's not about making them learn a set of information, it is about teaching them to learn and to love it!

The Summer Itch

It's that time of year. The sun starts shining in through the windows in the morning. The birds start singing and the flowers spring up. The weather gets warm enough to not have a coat when you go out. Chicks are hatching and lambs are running around the fields. Soon to follow the allergies kick in and right behind it you get - the summer itch.

We've all had it. We long to be outside playing in the sunshine instead of inside doing multiplication. The kids begin to take 2 hours on a page that should have only taken them 20 minutes. Instead of jumping, giggling, racing to get out their next subject, they are groaning, slumping and dragging to get out their book. You feel like pulling out your hair and can't figure out why they can't remember an answer that they have gotten right all year long. And if you aren't sure if you've got it yet, then here is a sure sign - you begin to use bribes.

The exciting this is that when the summer itch sets in, it means that summer is getting close! The best thing for me is to take Easter Break (which we just had) and refocus. If you are struggling with the Summer Itch, here are a few things that I suggest:

1) Get a new view. Change your location. Do you usually do school in the "school room?" Move to the kitchen table. Already at the kitchen table? Consider tv trays in the living room. Sometimes just a change of scenery can give a fresh outlook to an old routine.

2) Change up the schedule. If you are like me then this is like pulling teeth. But sometimes just switching up the order you do things can give a new momentum to your day. Usually start with Math? Go with Art today! Begin the day with reading? Try History for a change.

3) Take it outside. As the weather warms up, there is nothing better than to cure the Summer Itch with a small dose of sunshine. Take out a blanket and do your lesson "picnic-style."

4) Give Vision. Let your kids know how close they are! We only have 5 weeks of school. I printed out the assignment for these last weeks in check-list style so that after completing each day they can see how close they are coming to summer vacation!

5) Add a touch of something new. Read a book aloud. Have you read this year's award winners? Give that a try. Take a nature walk. One of my favorite sites for outdoor activities can be found on their fb page: https://www.facebook.com/naturedetectives. Do an end of the year project to reinforce what you have learned in science or history.

We are so close to the end of another year! Be proud and excited!
1 Corinthians 9:24
"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize."

Finish strong, my friend!

Celebrate the Small Stuff

I am so excited to begin this second half of the school year. Yes, I was a little burnt out come Christmas, but now I am ready to go.  I want to keep to my pledge to make this the best school year ever!

Here are a few little things that I am doing to keep going:

1) Take breaks...lots of them. BREATHE.

2) Pray....lots.

3) Smile...lots.

4) Go outside. I know for me this is the hardest time of year to get outdoors because I hate being cold. But do it anyway. It gives your body fresh air, your mind something new to observe, and those kids open range to play and feel the energy flow through them that only nature provides.

5) Celebrate the small stuff. Find those awkward holidays and do something special for them. For example -- last week was the Grimm Brothers Birthday. We read Grimm stories during reading, even one in Spanish for Spanish class, and had a late night watching Grimm-based Disney movies. It was so much fun! Who says learning can't be fun??

Today is National Bird Day. So we made feeders out of oranges. There is always ways to brighten your day and give you the needed motivation. Sometimes you just have to look and be creative!

Filling the Holiday Gaps

I don't know about you, but the curriculum I use (and I wouldn't change it!) is a little lacking in the holiday celebration area.  Looking back on when I was in school as a kid, holidays were the best because there were so many special crafts, activities and stories read during this time of year. Now getting us drowned in Christmas books and stories is no problemo for this literature-addicted mama, but the crafty side of things? Oh, dear.

Now I am sure that some of you are thinking, "Oh, that is my favorite time of year! I have so many ideas I can't do them all." Well, I am jealous of you and happy that you have such ease in this area. I do not.

But I have found a friend. I used to spend a good chunk of my time googling the different holidays and searching out "do-able" activities and crafts for my kiddos. I am determined that they aren't going to miss out because of my lack of creativity! Now, I have Pinterest. It is a creativity-lacking, homeschooling mama's best friend! I have been able to "pin" and reproduce so many ideas this year, that I must say I am proud. I believe my kids are enjoying it as well!

Once I have an idea, I can take it and run with it, putting my own twist and flavor to it. I think it should be called Pinspiration instead of Pinterest! So today I will share with you our latest project, inspired by Pinterest, and encourage you to take a look at Pinterest if you never have (if you were like me and avoided it as long as possible because you just knew you'd get addicted!).

Merry Christmas!

Hand Print Keepsakes

 

Ingredients:



2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup water (or more to reach doughy consistency)

Roll out dough to about 1/2 inch thick and press child's hand firmly enough to make an impression. Then cut dough around the hand. Use remaining dough to make other shapes and ornaments by hand or with cookie cutters. Arrange on baking sheet. Bake at 220* for approximately an hour or until the ornaments are white and solid to the touch. Allow to cool and paint them as desired! (I used basic acrylic paint)

Make one each year to remember how tiny your little one once was!

"But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2:19

Schedule Solutions

If your child is anything like mine, then she likes to do things in her own time. When we first started homeschooling this drove me crazy! I wanted to have a set schedule with blocks of time for each subject. The problem? Princess was not wired that way. Somedays it would take her 10 minutes to do math, and then the next it would take 50 minutes. There was no way to judge how long anything would take her. This drove me crazy! And it drove my poor daughter crazy too. Once she told me that she loved everything about school except when I told her to hurry up. Oh, no! I didn't want her to have that sort of attitude about school stemming from me!

After two years (sometimes it takes us a while to get over our preconceived notions!), we figured out a way that worked for both of us! I liked to have the assignments all planned out and in order each day, and she didn't care about the clock. What I did is create this lovely "dry erase" schedule board. On each day I would write (in dry erase marker) her assigments for that day. As she accomplished each thing, she would wipe it off the list. It worked for us both! It is also a really cute feature in our school room:



It is very easy to make! I found this cute frame at our local Family Dollar store for very inexpensive. The kids and I looked through old magazines and used construction paper to create the backgrounds. (Note: the more solid and light colored the background, the better you can see your writing) Then you just write on the glass with a dry erase marker. We use a tissue to erase. It is so much fun!

Today, for Project #1 of Project Week, I added an addition to our wall planner:

I found also found this cute corkboard frame at our local Family Dollar store. I didn't have a really good place to display the kids work (really, really important to do!).  This frame is not terribly big (ie. it won't make your house look terrible!) and is perfectly decorated with pictures of my beautiful babies!

What ideas have you used to make your homeschool room cute instead of gaudy??

Easier than Pie 4th of July Dessert

This 4th of July week has been pretty hectic, so I decided on a super easy 4th of July dessert. All you need is:

1 box blue Jell-o
1 box red Jell-o
1 tub cool whip
Some pretty clear glasses or goblets

Step 1: Make the jell-os
Step 2: Layer them, along with the cool whip, in the glasses - red, white, blue, white, etc.
Step 3: Celebrate with a cool and refreshing 4th of July dessert and some fireworks!

I will post pics later of how mine turns out!