3 Ways to Shake Up Your School Day

We all get into ruts don't you think?  It happens when your groove gets a little too deep and instead of rocking this homeschool thing... you end up enduring it.

 Here are 3 things I've done recently to shake up our school days:

1. Change Locations

Grab a sketch pad or even your math books and get out of the house.  On Monday we headed out to The Art We Are... a local coffee shop with the most interesting arts and crafts for sale.  I took the time to do some writing exercises with a friend and my big kids did some sketching, browsed the shop and snacked on a vegan gluten free brownie.  *note: I would not recommend preschool at the local artsy cafe... just sayin'

2. Dreambox

The Scott kids are seriously gaga over Dreambox.  It's a math adventure game that is a great way to break up the monotony of workbooks.  *note: I have no affiliation with Dreambox  just sharing what works for us.

3. Play

The same writing friend that I met up with on Monday introduced me to Story Cubes.  I had so much fun playing it I left the coffee shop and headed to the toy store to buy it.  My kids don't exactly love to write, but I am hoping that having fun telling a story will be a step in the direction of writing one.  Plus I am going to enjoy the possibility that this game is forging new creative pathways in their heads (how's that for sounding like I know what I'm talking about?).

How about you?  Leave me a comment with your favorite way to shake up a school day and chase away boredom.

Chiming in about Writing...

Meadows Journal

Writing is something I want my children to love...  there is nothing quite like the perfectly written message in a card... or creating an outrageous and adventurous new land in a story.

Alas it is rare that my fantasy life and my real life actually line up... in our home writing was one of those subjects that was met with groans and occasionally tears... but it has gotten better... Here's how:

1. We stopped using a writing/ spelling program...

2. We started daily journaling with prompts (I hope to phase out the need for prompts in the future).
Here are a few ideas:

Write about a book character you would like to meet.	What is something you love about yourself?	Write about something that drives you crazy.	If you could be in a cartoon which cartoon would you be in?	Choose one of your toys and pretend it can talk. What would it say?
Do you think a monkey would make a good pet? Why?	Write about a dream you remember?	Write about the best birthday you've ever had.	If you made supper what would you make?	Write about how to be a good friend.

3. I only allow myself to correct 2 things in a writing piece... usually a misplaced capital or period.

4. We do Mad Libs which is a super fun way to practice parts of speech.

5. I am choosing to believe that an avid reader will become a capable speller.

6. Hudson has a pen pal and that has been a super fun non threatening way to get him to write.

7. We play classical music... it's calming and it gets the creative juices flowing.

As the weather warms up I hope to take our writing outdoors and introduce more poetry...

What do you do to encourage your children to love writing?




 

What We Sent Our Compassion Kids... February

My kiddos are so excited about our Compassion Kids writing day and this is only our second scheduled one! So quick recap on what's going on... the 6th of each month we have set aside to write to the children we have sponsored through Compassion International.

This month we are sending off a package about where  live... We included a map of Canada and a couple of postcards:

Each of the older children did a drawing of their favorite place in our town:

And a letter written on beautiful free printable stationary.

What are your favorite places in your town?  What are your letter writing ideas? 

 

Tell Me a Story- Big Party

I gave Hudson a flannel board and some felt cut outs and asked him to use them to tell me a story.  Here is the story he created:

Big Party

Once upon a time a lot of animals came to a party where it was Halloween.  Some bunnies brought a cake. And they had wine. They had pumpkin seeds.  They went to the apple trees and ate some apples and the fish ate flowers.

The End.

What tactics do you have to help your child explore creative writing?

Button Tales

Today we started our Bone Button Borscht by Aubrey Davis unit study.  I love this book.  It's a take on Stone Soup and very well written.

Hudson and I sat with a big pile of buttons in front of us and I chose a button and made up a story about it.  I did this twice then turned to Hudson and said your turn... This is the story he told me:

This button belonged to a man named Shred. And it was on his coat. And when he was walking the button fell off the coat and was in a high tree. And it was covered by leaves. And someone found it. And that is the story of this button.


After I wrote down his story Hudson drew a tree at the top of the page and then glued the button into it. 
I  loved this!  I can't wait to explore more story telling with Hudson. 

Draw as I'm Drawing

Hudson and I played a fun little game last week during quiet time.  I would draw a part of a picture and Hudson would attempt to copy it... (example draw a brow rectange in the midle of your page)

Hudson's picture is on the left and mine is on the right.  I will for sure be pulling this super simple activity out of my bag of tricks again.

What's In a Name?

Do you ever feel like umm duh why didn't I teach my kid that? That's sorta how I feel about Hudson and writing his name... I mean there are 3 year olds out there who can spell their name.
Now maybe those three year olds only have names with 3 letters... I haven't paid close enough attention due to the fact that I am beating myself up over my own lack of teaching in this area.
Never the less enough with the guilt trip. It's time to remedy the situation.
So I made (err I mean I begged my computer savvy husband to make) this practice sheet.

Then (same said husband who also used to work in a sign shop) laminated it so Hudson can use dry erase pens on it.  So far so good.

Also a dear friend of  mine suggested turning name spelling into a song. (I must appologize to said friend as i poo pooed her idea in a moment of hormonal crankiness). 

So anyone have a great name song out there?