There are many reasons you might not want to "do school" on certain days. Maybe you or your child is ill. Or perhaps something disruptive is going on in your home or neighborhood, like construction. Regardless, there will definitely be days when doing your regular curriculum can be a challenge, so plan ahead for that inevitability. Here are some ideas for not totally losing those days to ineffectiveness.
1) Buy some workbooks. I have some workbooks like the one pictured. They are good for days when you have to be away from home or you can't turn your full attention to teaching for whatever reason. I like these in particular because they are broken into sections. I can tell my kids to do a page(s) from each section, so I know they are covering more than one thing that day. And they have the answers in the back (my kids know not to peek), so it is easy for me to go over their work with them.
2) Make some learning stations. These can be as simple as a basket or box. In each container, put in envelopes or ziploc bags with one activity inside. You can arrange your containers by subject, age group, particular child, or type of activity. Here's an example for what you could put in a Math station: flash cards to do with you or a friend, pre-printed worksheets, sudoku puzzles, 3-D solids, dominoes, an old clock or a clock made for learning about time, jacks, etc. These learning stations can be used for busy boxes or for earning extra rewards, too.
3. Brush up on your listening skills. You can get audio books and lectures from a lot of places. Spend 30 minutes or so listening to something and then discuss it. Or discuss as you go. You can listen to some things in the car, depending on the format. Here are some ideas of things to listen to:- Project Gutenberg's Audio Books (free)
- Diana Waring History Talks (Christian)
- Adventures in Odyssey (Christian)
- Bible Gateway Audio Bibles (free)
- The Magic Tree House CDs (read by the author)
- Have the kids read aloud to you or each other.
4. Watch some videos. TV gets a bad rap sometimes, but there is so much to watch that is educational. You can watch:
- Things that air on television stations like Mythbusters, Brain Games, or Drive Thru History.
- Get educational movies from Netflix or Amazon. There is a helpful Facebook group called Homeschooling with Netflix. And Amazon Prime Members get lots of instant videos free. You can check out my list huge list of New Dimension Media educational films on Prime here. You can try Prime free for 30 days by clicking here.
- There are so many things of value on YouTube! But, if you are concerned about what might pop up on YouTube while you are watching something with the kids (I know I have been), you can download a plug-in that lets you download YouTube videos and keep them to show your kids later. c|net has the one I like here. Here are some channels I like:
- BBC Earth Channel
- Illustra Media Channel
- Shaggylock's Channel - This channel features a lot of those old films from the 50s and such. Some of them are silly & outdated, but some are still useful today, like this one:
5. Get out your map or globe. You can learn a lot just by looking at these. You can discuss capitals, topography, and map reading skills. You can talk about places you have been or want to visit. You can discuss the animals, religions, races, languages, and foods from different areas.Do you have more ideas?
No comments:
Post a Comment