I say back to school, but we've really been doing school all summer. Off and on. Ok, I'll just admit it, more like 2-3 days a week. As fall approaches and the public school kids get ready, I can't help but feel excited for us as well. Finally, the cooler days of fall will arrive, which for me signals it's time to get work and learn.
I wrote a review a few months ago about the Konos curriculum on here. The other one that I'm using is Epic Beings Courageous Adventures. It is also a unit study based curriculum, but we spend almost the whole school year studying one subject. I enjoy them both and have found I can combine them together and we have had some awesome units over the summer using these resources.
We are going on our 6th year of homeschooling!! I cannot believe we've managed to homeschool for this long. Of all the temptations any person experiences, the hardest for me is that temptation to put my kids in school. I say this because I get all excited in Walmart in the back to school aisles of glue, crayons and notebooks. I get all excited at the thought of getting back to work, on a schedule, planning field trips, and I love some sharpened pencils! I want my kids to be just as excited as I was about school starting, but to them, we are homeschooling. Does it really get THAT exciting to revisit the kitchen table year after year?
These are some of the changes I have adopted over the years to keep it fresh, exciting and motivating to continue.
* They each get a three ring binder and notebook for the new year. I add dividers for specific subjects: vocabulary, quotes, science, writing, journals/notebooking.
* Individual boxes of crayons, pencils, markers, glue, and scissors. Of course, by the end of the year, these are either gone, or dumped into one big bin, but it adds a some excitement that these are THEIR supplies.
* Clipboards. I have shied away from these in the past, thinking they may have added more bulk or just that 'one more thing' we have to haul around. These have actually been really nice for us on field trips. Some websites list scavenger hunts for their exhibits. The clipboards keep the papers and pencils in one place and we have less chance of loosing the information.
* Costumes. I took this idea from Epic Beings Courageous Adventures. Some of my kids really like to dress up, some not so much. But it helps in their imagination play and gets us more interesting in discussions.
* Workboxes. I got a set of three plastic drawers (in the storage bin aisles) and I labeled each drawer with their name. They keep their workbooks (math, language arts, notebook) in there so we know exactly where things are. I also got some manilla folders and labeled each with things like Reading, Copywork, Social Studies, Art, Science, etc, and if I found something I wanted them to read, put together, play with, or use, or if I knew we were going to have a busy day and wanted them to get something done for school that day, but quickly, I add things into those folders.
* I get a teacher's planner. While some curriculums will come with a planner for you, I used mine to write down each days assignments, appointments, and short notes on the kids (like if we had a bad day, good day, difficulties, or cute things they did). This ends up more like a journal for me, but it helps for me to see everything for the week laid out and then I just check off the things we did accomplish and then rearrange some things we didn't get accomplished.
* Because we have two preschoolers sometimes homeschooling doesn't go as planned. We have learned to be flexible, with the kids doing more individual work in the morning and our group activities in the afternoon. I also moved the toys upstairs and made room for them in our school room. I hope this will keep them where we can see them plus occupy them for short periods of time during our discussions. I also sorted and stored some toys so that it's not overwhelming for them to choose what to play with and so they can't dump everything and make a huge mess. Who wants to clean up an entire room after a hard day of schooling?
So, those are somethings I thought I would post about today as we get ready to return to school. I will try to get pictures up of our rooms to enhance this post. Visual aids are always a good thing, right?
0 comments:
Post a Comment