Homeschooling Ideas and Activities Article

http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/homeschool-ideas.html

Homeschool ideas can spice up a mundane routine, and make learning fun for parents and kids who are experiencing burnout.

When considering homeschooling ideas, look for activities that are inexpensive, require few supplies, and are easy to set up and clean up. Choose activities that are enjoyable, and don't make your children think of school. Here are some homeschool ideas that students of all ages will enjoy:

• Poetry Night - Teach your children about poems and poets by hosting a poetry night. Have each member of the family recite a favorite poem, and provide background information about the style of poetry and the poet.

  As an alternative, take turns reading poems from a favorite book or place poems written by family members into a book of your own.

• Family Business - Starting a family business is a great way to build math skills and encourage entrepreneurship. Let your children sell homemade items, wash cars, walk pets or perform odd jobs for neighbors.

  Teach them to develop a business plan that includes choosing a valuable product or service, setting a fair price, estimating their expenses and setting realistic goals. Help your children think of creative ways to market their business.

  Remember to carefully supervise younger children when they are performing services for others.

• Special Days - Set aside special days in your home to let your children spend the day in their pajamas, wear a specific color or dress up as a favorite character.

  For fun, let family members experience each other's lives by switching roles or impersonating each other. Have an appreciation day where family members state what they appreciate about each other, or a day of service where siblings try to brighten one another's day.

  Once a month, have a "mental health" day where everyone sets their duties aside to relax and have fun.

• Go Outside - Taking school outdoors is a simple homeschool idea that adds sunshine to a dreary day and builds habits that lead to a healthy lifestyle. Read or complete lessons outside in your back yard. Take lunch to the park, or head to a local pond to feed ducks. Ride bikes around the neighborhood or take a few laps around the block to allow wiggly students to burn off energy between assignments.
• Book Club - If you no longer read aloud as a family, set aside one night per month for a family book club. Have every member of your family read the same book, or choose a topic and let each child select a book on their level.

  Have your children present background information about the subject and the book's author, and prepare a list of open-ended questions to discuss. These meetings will help your children develop conversation skills, and look forward to reading.

• Word of the Week - Place a vocabulary word on your dry erase board or refrigerator at the beginning of the week. Discuss the word and its meaning, and encourage your children to use it in a sentence. Throughout the week, keep track of the number of times it is used in context, and reward the family member who uses it most frequently.
• Family Newsletter - Publishing a monthly, quarterly or semi-annual family newsletter will help boost your children's writing and computer skills. Prompt your children to write about family news, community events, hobbies, books, movies or subjects they have studied. You can also include artwork and family photographs.

  Assign each child an area of responsibility or let children choose their own topics. These newsletters will help you remember your family's adventures for years to come.

• Celebrate Holidays - Decorate your home, dress up and make special meals for holidays. Research the day's origin and traditions, and how it is celebrated in other parts of the world. Celebrating holidays is a great way to study history and culture, and create memories.

  Here are some ideas for celebrating homeschool holidays.

• Debate Night - Separate your family into teams and choose a subject to debate. Encourage your children to learn as much as they can about the topic. Help them organize the information, and develop and evaluate their arguments.

  Debates help children develop critical thinking skills and confidence speaking before groups. This is also a fun way to teach your children research skills, and help them develop an interest in history and current events.

• Homeschool Games - Set aside one night per week for a family game night. Order pizza or prepare a favorite meal. Turn down the ringer on your telephone, turn off the television, and focus on your family. Chess, Scrabble, Monopoly and other games are great for math and language development.

  Here is some information about choosing homeschool games your family will enjoy!

A great article

I feel so much better after reading this. Wow, I was beginning to believe I wouldn't be able to tackle this Homeschool thing successfully. Wow, this is just the thing I needed for today. It came to me in an email-issue of Carolina Homeschooler and the original article is located at http://www.carolinahomeschooler.com/articles.htm. I added it to here to keep my "customers" from having to follow so many links - I like being able to just click and read.

My House is a Mess!

by Kim Blum-Hyclak

My house is a mess. I want to get down to the business of schoolwork with my children, but the clutter is getting in the way. Colorful Legos� dot the floor like land mines ready to be stepped on. Books have escaped the prison of the shelves and lie open, hiding in freedom in the stairway alcove. The box of craft supplies exploded and the debris lies in creative concentric circles. The two dishes I left in the sink last night mated. Their offspring now enjoy the run of the table and the counter top. The piles of laundry I lovingly folded now lean like a famous monument, inching their way to the edges of the washer and dryer.

I survey the damage and feel overwhelmed. I yearn for the day when I can sit at the table with my kids and their lessons and open their minds to all the wonderful "stuff" the world has to offer, without the distractions that our daily living heaps upon us.

But after years of homeschooling, I know this is not the dream I want realized. I am living my dream. The Legos are not just creations, they are lighthouses. They are modeled after the lighthouse we visited on a trip to Florida. In one afternoon at Ponce Inlet, we learned about the inlet and its lighthouse, climbing its 203 steps to the top. We toured buildings packed with exhibits and learned about how the lighthouse works and its history, about lighthouses around the world, about ocean life and what it's like to be a sailor, about how Cuban refugees escape to America and the courage it must take.

The books in the alcove had help escaping. There is never a complete set of encyclopedias on the shelves; my children squander them in their rooms. The delinquent books in the alcove are the remainders of the journey my children took looking for Alaska. There is "w" for world, "u" for universe, "m" for maps, and finally "a" for Alaska. Along their journey, I know they also found many surprises.

The other books scattered about are the pleasure books that I have to pry from their hands when it is time for bed. There are the lighthouse books and my ninth-grader's John Grisham from the library. There is the young teen book my daughter absorbs, opening the door to questions and discussions that take place at the dinner table or wherever she needs.

Out of the creative explosion of the craft box comes a colorful "ojos de Dios," eyes of God. My son has given me this offering to place alongside the other gifts of my children's handiwork. Like an archeological dig, my bookcase and shelves are lined with artifacts from our various studies. There is the Egyptian pitcher molded from clay, the heraldry shield with our family crest, the quilt sampler from our American Girls Quilting Circle. There is pride in their workmanship and love in their offering.

The dishes were a lesson in science. Mixing water and flour makes paste. Mixing bouillon and water makes a solution. Heat from the stove causes a chemical reaction, the liquid of eggs becoming solid. They are also a lesson in math � figuring the correct amounts for a recipe and the correct time for cooking. Full meals have been cooked in my absence, including pasta sauce from scratch. The three kids help each other and divide the tasks.

The clothes would have been put away if we hadn't had a field trip to the state park for a program on birds. They would have gotten put away later, but we had to meet with other homeschoolers for a Lenten activity. Later that night, they were still patiently waiting to be tended to, but I was playing Monopoly and reading to my children.

I would like my house to be neat and tidy, but now is not the time. Webster defines education as "the development of knowledge, skill, ability, or character by training, study, or experience." He defines "learning" as "the gaining of knowledge or skill." In our homeschool, we do this in the distractions of our lives, not exclusive of them.

My children have taken responsibility for a portion of their education and taken it out of the boundaries of the kitchen table. As I write this, my older son does Latin and Algebra in his bedroom. My daughter is reading on the deck. My third is in the clubhouse with the dog, writing a story with the words he knows how to spell. Work is still done at the kitchen table, but most of the learning is done around the house. And it is done in an environment that not only encourages, but expects them to be respectful, compassionate, helpful, and encouraging to each other.

These lessons, now being applied to someone older or younger, or of another sex, will easily transfer to others of a different race, culture, or religion. This is what education is all about � taking what is being learned and assimilating it into their everyday playing and living. So yes, my house is a mess, but more importantly, at this point, my children are not.