Toddlers

Special box of toys. I have four children (ages 9, 8, 4 & almost 3).  We have all learned to be quite creative in occupying the little ones (when I started they were almost 3 and 17 months).  These are some of the things that we do or have done in the past to keep us all from becoming frustrated with our precious little treasures...I keep a big box of toys that ONLY come out when my older children need my undivided attention for a substantial amount of time. They love to "wash dishes"...my daughters' kitchen set sparkles!  The added bonus of this is running the mop over the kitchen floor when they are finished. As much as I hate workbook pages, they love them!  It makes them feel like they are "doing school", even if they just color on them. Submitted by K.W.

Counting and Sorting. We used jelly beans, and M&Ms. On nice days, we went to a park that had small rocks under everything. I had my son count the handfuls of tiny rocks that he could throw on a vacant slide. We also counted somersaults from one end of the house to the other. Submitted by D.O.

Phonics blends, color/number/letter recognition, addition/subtraction

Letter and number recognition. Bowling. We wrote them on old computer paper and laid them around the living room and they had to find the right one. They also rolled balls across the living room and knocked down the correct letter or number taped to a plastic tumber. Mom was catcher and did resets. (Use a soft ball). Submitted by D.O.

Flash card replacement. Feed the bunny. In the Abeka curriculum, they had a cute little idea for learning to read those blends. Take a shoe box and cover the lid and box separately with white paper. Draw a bunny face on one end, attach ears, and on the other end put a cottonball tail. Cut out a mouth. Now take colored index cards or construction paper and cut into carrots. Write the blends on the carrots. If the child can say the blend correctly, they get to feed the bunny.  Use in place of flash cards. ABeka has that dreadful blue-backed speller. While I loved that all the blends I ever needed to know where right there, it was dreadfully boring. Convert all of your drill skills into a game. Expand this idea to a picture of a squirrel on construction paper. Write the blends on acorns cut from construction paper. Correct responses get to feed the squirrel. Do it again with waves drawn on construction paper. A ship cut from construction paper moves across the waves with each successful response. Draw those ABeka blend ladders on construction paper and use Monopoly tokens to jump up the ladder. Submitted by K.O.

More flash card replacement. Captain Sneak-Up. For wiggly days, draw footprints on construction paper and place across living room floor like a Captain Sneak-Up game. They start on one side with mom on the other. Correct flash card response moves forward. Submitted by K.O.

Spelling

Spelling. When my children were young and restless...ha ha....and the gorgeous weather was beckoning, we would write the alphabet on the street with chalk and they would run up and down the letters landing on the correct letters to spell their spelling words.  Submitted by K.O.

Science and Geography

Challenging different ages with one lesson in science and geography. With different ages I would try to combine questions such as  What is the capitol of...for the younger student and then I would have the older one spell it.  This works well for Science too where younger kids learn so quickly but they are not ready to spell difficult terms.  It allows you to work together but challenge each age level.  Also having activity/coloring books for the younger(and older too if you like)  gives each a challenge at their own level.  You could have a simple map for the younger to color (or label ) while the older has a more detailed map of the same area.  You do some general teaching to both while they work on their maps (or activities). Submitted by C.R.

Here are a few sure-to-be-a-hit ideas for preschoolers and K who are even remotely interested in dinosaurs.   After reading about a particular dinosaur, take a tape measure outside and measure off how long the dinosaur was.  (My kids loved to do this.)  You can also mark it on the sidewalk if you're doing it on a sidewalk, or cut a piece of string the same length.   Dinosaur World:  Make a volcano, arrange toy dinosaurs and plants, rocks and twigs around it, make the volcano erupt, then play with any surviving dinosaurs.  For volcano get an empty large frozen juice can and build sand/dirt up around it, leaving the top open.  Put 1/4 cup baking soda in can.  In separate container, stir together 1 cup water, 2/3 cup vinegar, and 1/3 cup dishwashing liquid.  Add a few drops red food coloring.  Pour into juice can and watch your volcano erupt.  (Give the can a stir to keep the eruption going longer.) Submitted by M. G.

Energizing nature walks. Nature walks in the early morning are great to stimulate interest in actually learning the names of birds, trees, animals etc.  It is energizing for all and you can do pictures, stories, journals etc. around you trips. Submitted by C.R.

Revving up the Brain

Change of Scenery. We take our books outside to the picnic table as often as we can.  (This is also a good incentive for my reluctant learner to work diligently so he can play with his siblings.) Submitted by K.W.

Take breaks. My little ones got tired or bored quickly so we would take recess and go outside for 15 min. ride bikes, play ball, etc. Just don't forget to come back in and start school work again. That is the hard part. Submitted by D.O.      

Quiet time for mom. I also try to remember that if mom isn't content, no one else is either. 45 minutes a day just for me is a must.  We all have begun to take that time to read our favorite books (even the little ones can look through theirs).  The quiet in a very busy house is a blessing. Submitted by K.W.

Waking up the Brain. If you want their brains awake before you start school, start out with exercise or a fresh air walk. In between tough subjects, take another brain refresher and do jumping jacks, run around the house, jump rope on the driveway, or walk/race to the mailbox. Submitted by K.O.

Language

Auxiliary/helping verbs. Learning the auxiliary/helping verbs is always difficult, because they don't show the typical "action" that we associate with verbs.  I learned this song in the 5th grade that has always stuck with me, and which I've now taught to my 5th grader, to pick out these tricky verbs.

Sing to the tune of "America" (Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies)

Is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been, has, have,
had, do, does, did, shall, will, should, would, may,
might, must, can, may, might, must, can, and could.
(Repeat for the chorus portion of "America")
Submitted by K.S.

Flash card drills. Popcorn. Play the game of popcorn for addition/subtraction/multiplication/division flash card drills. Children are seated when flash card is presented. If they know the answer, they can pop up and shout the answer. Submitted by K.O.

Bar Graphs. Take it to the streets. When I wanted to explain bar graphs and their uses to my children, we took it to the streets. Using our rulers and pencils, we drew out our graph:

Where do you go on vacation?

Where do you stay on vacation?

Each child had a different question/graph. I gave them each a clipboard and their favorite color marker. Then we stood outside the 7-11 at lunch and asked people exiting 7-11 to help us with our math lesson to learn about graphing. With each response, the student fills one block. When one row is filled all the way out to the end, the survey is over.

We also did this to identify the most popular color car on the road. Submitted by K.O.

War Card Game. Play this instead of using your addition or multiplication flash cards. For two players. Deal all the cards face down (no face cards). Each player flips two cards. If you're working on addition, you'll add them together; multiplication, multiply them together. The highest sum (product) takes all four cards. Continue until one person has all the cards in the deck. Submitted by K.O.

Foreign Language

Post-it Everything. When learning a foreign language, we used post-it notes and labeled everything in the house with its German name. Submitted by K.O.

Trouble Getting Started?

Morning Chart. Children often need training on how to get ready for school. We used a pictoral chore chart. Cut pictures from magazines and paste them in order and number them. You relax while they run around checking their progress on their chart. Post it on the frig. Submitted by K.O.

1. Get up
2. Kiss Mom
3. Get dressed
4. Make Bed
5. Brush Hair
6. Put all your toys away.
7. Feed Animals (Animals were always fed before people. The hungrier the child, the more work gets done.)
8. Eat Breakfast (Eat Breakfast is always near the last; the hungrier the child, the more work gets done.)
9. Brush Teeth
10. Get pencils, papers, books.
11. Do School.

What to wear weather bear. We had the toughest time getting season appropriate clothes on in the morning. You know, swimming suits in winter and snowsuits in summer. We mounted a weather bear on the bulletin board. This little paper bear had an assortment of clothes. One child observes the weather conditions outside while another calls the weather on the phone for the temperature. A paper thermometer is set to the actual temperature. The paper themometer has a sun near 90 and a snow flake at 32. The bear is dressed accordingly. Now the children can dress like the bear. Submitted by K.O.

Writing

Shape Books. Boost the excitement after a history, science, or performing arts outing, with a writing activity in a shape book. The cover is cut out of construction paper in the shape, such as a bat after visiting a cave, or a slipper or sword after viewing Aladdin. On every other page, glue a couple of lines of the lined writing paper. Students write a sentence or two on each page and draw a picture on the facing page. Submitted by K.O.

Good Job

Good Words. Cut positive words from a magazine, like Superior, Amazing, Hot. Put them in a Word Jar. The child gets to reach in and pull out a Good Word from the Word Jar and glue it on his worksheet for a job well-done. Builds their vocabulary, too. Alternately, use stickers or stamp and ink. Submitted by K.O.

Skeptics

Portfolio or Yearbook. Do you have friends or family giving you a hard time about homeschooling? Show them the money. Get a three-ring binder. On the first or last of each month, pick out your child's BEST work from each subject and put it in the binder by subject so the progress will be shown from month to month. Include field trip photos, photos of the kids working on art or science projects, brochures from field trips. Let your child add their favorite pieces even if it is not yours. When skeptics inquire, show them the real work you are accomplishing. Submitted by K.O.

Reading

I have a hard time getting my daugher to sit and read, but she loves to play tea party. So we fill the teapot and put crackers on our plates. She reads while we sip our tea and nibble on our crackers and before you know it, we've finished five books. Submitted by A.H.