Sticky Note Learning: Miscellaneous Ideas

Here are a few more creative ideas for using sticky notes to enhance learning in your homeschool.

~Create a scavenger hunt. On each sticky note write a clue about where the next sticky note is. Or you could include math problems, trivia questions, or riddles on the sticky notes. Place the notes all over the house. This is a great activity for rainy or snowy days or times when it feel like you need to change things up a bit.

~Practice descriptive writing with famous paintings. Have your children write descriptive sentences about the artwork on individual sticky notes. Post the notes around the painting. Then the notes can be moved around in order to plan a paragraph or a story about the painting. (Photo courtesy of tomsaint11)

~Practice rhythm. Write sixteenth notes, eighth notes, quarter notes, and rests on individual sticky notes, and place them in any order on a wall. Use percussion instruments such as drums, claves, or a xylophone and play the rhythm posted. Mix the notes up and play the new rhythm. (Photo courtesy of calm a llama down)

~Have your child label scientific drawings using flag post-it notes. For example, create a poster with a drawing of a flower on it. Have your children use the flags to label the parts of a flower. The same poster can be used later as a test of that knowledge.

Have fun!

Homeschool Sticky Note Science

Sticky notes can motivate your kinesthetic child to learn science concepts in your homeschool. Try out these ideas.

~Create a Periodic Table using a different color sticky note for each column on the table. Have your child write the symbols for each of the elements on individual sticky notes. You can even expect your child to write the atomic mass of the element on the sticky. Then each of the sticky notes needs to be placed on the wall in order to construct the table. Another time you can scramble up those sticky notes and have your child reconstruct the table based on the color coding and atomic mass of each element. Ask questions and discuss the similarities of the elements in the same columns. “Are they liquids or gases?” “Are they colorless?” Are they reactive or non reactive?”

~Have your child use sticky notes to show the life cycles of different animals. Have your child draw a picture of each stage in the cycle and label it on individual stickies. You can then post different life cycles on the same wall in order to compare them and make conclusions.

~Be a weather tracker! Laminate a map of the US and post it. Use different color flag stickies for the various kinds of weather and write that information on a key on the map. Each day have your child record the weather forecast by placing the correct color flag in the different regions of the country (Midwest, North East, etc.). Your child can even be the meteorologist and give the weather report to you each day. As you collect data, make observations about weather patterns that occur and discuss.

There are many other ways that you can use sticky notes to learn science, too. I hope this gets you started!

Photo courtesy of General Wesc

Other Ways of Using Puppets in Your Homeschool

In the past I have written about the benefits of using puppets in your homeschool to encourage literacy. Here are a few other ideas for how you can use puppets to motivate your children and encourage learning in your homeschool.

~A puppet can help your younger child to develop language skills. Young children love puppets and are often willing to open up to them. Take advantage of this and have your child and tell the puppet stories. Ask your child probing questions to encourage more developed ideas.

~Your child can teach a puppet something you’ve recently learned about. For example, have your child explain a process in math or science to the puppet. The puppet can ask questions in order to encourage your child to add details to the explanation. This is a great way to assess your child’s understanding.

~If you are studying a particular historical time period, have your child make puppets that reflect the dress of the time. Then have your child create and perform a puppet show that includes historically accurate details. Music and art can be woven into the the performance as appropriate. Or your child could make puppets of a certain historical figure and have that puppet engage with the audience in character.

Try using puppets in your homeschool.

Photos courtesy of Wendy Piersall (@eMom)

Fun Homeschool Math Fact Mastery

Learning math facts is necessary to help your child solve more complicated math problems efficiently. In the past I have posted some ideas to make learning math facts fun. Here are more ways of mastering them in your homeschool without the drudgery.

~While reciting the facts, do a hand clapping game. Girls especially love these kinds of games.

~Play card games:

• Cribbage is a great one to play with children who are slightly older. You have to make sums of 21 & 15. You also have to multiply when you get the same score multiple times. You can find the rules of the game here.
• Black Jack is another game helpful in teaching addition facts. (I had a teacher who called it “21″ instead.). While playing the game, you have to find sums up to 21 quickly.

~Make flashcards, one set with the product/sum and one with the equation.

• Play “Go Fish” by matching the equation to the product/sum.
• Play “Concentration” by matching the equation to the product/sum.

~Play Soduku. You can play online here.

~Learn the doubles - 2+2, 3+3, 4+4, etc. Also focus on the the trickier facts – 5+6, 5+7, 5+8, 5+9, 6+7, 7+8, 7+9, & 8+9. You can make up songs to help remember them.

Photo courtesy of peiqianlong

I Need to Temper My Temper

Patience is required for parenting and definitely necessary when you homeschool your kids. How is that I don’t have ANY patience these days? I have to find a way to change that. My fuse blows often enough that I think that the kids are getting suspicious about whether I truly am sorry for yelling yet again. I don’t know why I do it because it really is the least effective method of motivating the children to do anything.

I have a plan, though.

1. I will take the advice that I read in a devotion from Proverbs 31 Ministries today. It helped me to think about what is behind my anger, and maybe it will help you, too.
2. I will go to bed earlier so I get enough rest.
3. I will have my quiet time in the morning. I have been spending time with God at night, but I think I need to start the day with God.
4. As I learned at Mom to Mom, I will distinguish between childhood irresponsibility and willful disobedience. They are not the same and should not be treated the same way.
5. I will find a more effective way of transitioning my children from one thing to another. That is when they fall apart most often.
6. I will pray in the moment and take time to listen to what God has to say.

How do you get through the day without losing your temper?

Photo courtesy of hampdenarchy

Success for the Beginning Reader in Your Homeschool

Photo by pingu1963

Has your child just started to read in your homeschool? Here are a few tips for the beginning reader.

~Have your child practice rereading that first book as much as possible. Start an autograph book for anyone who listens to your child read. Doing this builds excitement for reading since everyone will affirm your child’s efforts.

~Record yourself reading the book, and have your child follow along with that recording pointing to the words. This adds more opportunities to practice independently.

~Remind your child to point to each word while reading. This helps beginning readers to read the words instead of saying the words from memory.

~Create flashcards with the words in the book. Make doubles so you can play “concentration” and “go fish”. This allows your child to practice reading these words in a playful way.

~Cue your child to use different strategies if s/he gets stuck. For example, use the picture clues to figure out tricky words. This allows your child to word solve independently and builds confidence.

~Remind your child to look at all of the letters in the word. Sometimes beginning readers guess the word based on the first letter or two.

~Have fun with your child and be positive!

Provide many opportunities for your child to be successful with reading because that will help your child to learn to love reading in the end.

Engage Younger Children While Homeschooling

Photo by Avolore

It can be really tough to homeschool when you have a little one in tow. How can you get through anything when you have to stop all of the time to redirect your little one? Here are a couple of tips to help you out.

To Engage the Little One

• Plan a related “project” for the little one, so she can sit at the table with you while you work. If you are working with math manipulatives, let your little one have a few of them. Give him/her an assignment such as matching the blocks.
• Invest in Color Wonder® markers and paper (or some other similar brand). Then you won’t have to watch as closely while s/he colors.
• Use a timer to help you. Set the timer for a certain amount of time. Tell your little one that you will check in with him/her when the timer goes off. This will help you and the little one make sure that you do actually take a break to check in.
• Use books on tape. I know that my little one loves wearing the head phones. Listening to the tapes is exciting since the readers use fun voices and there is music. You might have to practice with the recorder a bit before you expect your child to use it with less supervision.
• Create a “Work Center” for your little one. Find a special bag or suitcase that looks like a briefcase. Put lots of interesting and inexpensive things in the bag. Include your junk mail that does not have any personal information on it, sticky notes, and old greeting cards. Recycle letter size cardboard inserts. You can even include old monthly calendars – the advertisement ones or ones you aren’t using anymore. Add a package of washable crayons to the bag, too. Little children love using everyday things adults use.

I hope these ideas help your little one to stay busy doing age appropriate “work” during your school time.

“Moving” a Homeschooled Kinesthetic Learner

If you are homeschooling an active child who finds it difficult to sit still, I have a few tips to help you out. Hopefully, these ideas will help you and your child feel a little less frustrated with learning.

Kinesthetic children sometimes need to move before they start doing fine motor work like writing and cutting. If you have a project planned that will include a lot of concentration and that may require an extended period of sitting, try some movement activities before starting. Here are a couple of things you can try out:

• Use an exercise ball. Your child can roll on it, sit on it, bounce on it, or even roll up and down the wall with it.
• Do calisthenics, like jumping jacks, together.
• Go for a jog together first thing in the morning.
• Try out a few yoga poses like “downward dog” and “proud warrior”.
• Play a game of tag in the back yard.
• Play balloon volleyball in the living room.

Sometimes being able to fidget while doing an activity or listening helps a child to focus better. Have you ever seen Akeela and the Bee? She used movement, jumping rope, to help her remember how to spell words. There a few things similar to what Akeela did that you can do to incorporate movement during a learning activity.

• Let your child squeeze a “koosh ball”, a “hacky sac”, or a stress ball.
• Let your child chew gum like “Bazooka” because it offers a lot of resistance.
• Have your child sit in a rocking chair or on an exercise ball while doing work or listening, or let your child stand up while doing work.
• Let your child doodle while you read aloud.
• Try to incorporate some kind of movement task into the work. For example,

1. Toss a ball back and forth while reciting math facts or something that needs to be memorized.
2. Make cookies in the shape of the different states and construct a map of the United States with them.
3. Have your child act out a story or use puppets before trying to write it down.
4. Have a scavenger hunt to find examples of things that are the same color, shape, length, start with the same sound, etc.

Sometimes, even though you have tried these other strategies, a kid still needs to move. This child needs the work to be broken into smaller chunks of time. Work for a short period and reward your child with a movement break. Your child could go check the mail, go get a snack, or maybe let the dog out. Then get back on track with your project.

I hope you and your kinesthetic child can learn together more harmoniously with these tips. Happy learning!

Encouraging Reading Comprehension Strategies

The other day our family was in the car listening to Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey for the millionth time this month. (I really do love the book, but I am ready to put it to bed for at least another year!) We have been finishing up our lapbook on this title, and now we are just rereading the book for (the kids’) enjoyment. During the story, my kiddo made some interesting comments that showed great inferencing and questioning skills. This kiddo is on the verge of reading right now, so we have been working hard on decoding this summer, but as I reflect on this particular moment, I see some great comprehension strategies at work that some kids who are already reading do not use. Why is this so significant?

There are many children who can “word call”, or recognize words, who cannot understand what they are reading. As a reading teacher, I often worked with struggling readers who needed to develop their comprehension skills. Even proficient readers don’t always use all of the reading strategies that they could when they read, and I taught many lessons on how to apply those reading strategies. Some kids do not even realize that they are supposed to think while they are reading, so they simply “read” the words from the page to get through it. (This one of the reasons that some kids hate reading.) Comprehension is the reason that we read, though. You read to find out or as an escape from the real world. You need to understand what you read.

I am impressed by my kiddo’s ability to make inferences and ask great questions about books. How have I encouraged this?

1. Read aloud to your children – no matter how old they are. It is crucial that you model good reading (and comprehension skills) for your children.
2. Read the selection to yourself before you read it to your children. This only applies if you are planning on explicitly teaching particular reading strategies with the title. It helps to think about the text and about your own reactions and questions before you read with the children.
3. Tell your children what you are thinking about when you read aloud. (aka think aloud) Here is another example of modeling for your children. You might also bring up a point about the text that your child hadn’t thought of.
4. Ask your child questions while you read. These questions can be used to check basic comprehension like “What did Sal do with the blueberries?” Or ask for a prediction like “What do you think Sal’s mother will do when she realizes that Little Bear is following her and not Sal?”
5. Have your child find the answers to your questions in the text. Showing you what in the text made yoru child think of something can be very enlightening, especially if there is a misunderstanding. It also shows you that your child is using the information in the text and not just experiences to understand the book.
6. Ask follow-up questions to help your child take that extra step. You can deepen your child’s comprehension and general knowledge if you push them beyond the basic comprehension questions.
7. Make inferences and ask inference questions. Again, this is a way of modeling comprehension strategies. Ask, “Why would Sal’s mother be afraid to have a baby bear following her?” inferencing is a difficult comprehension skill, so try to model it often.
8. Make connections. When you read, you think about how the book relates to your life, other books, and the world at large. Start thinking about how you do this and try modeling it for your children.
9. Point it out when your child is actually using a comprehension strategy. This is really encouraging and labels the skill for your child. Chances are your child will use that strategy more in the future.
10. Have a genuine conversation about the text. Respond to what you are reading. Talk about what you like about the characters or what you don’t like about the writing style. Ponder about the story line.

Remember that reading is supposed to be fun, but it is only fun if you understand the text. Teach your children a few reading strategies in order to make reading a pleasurable experience. Happy reading!

Home School Handwriting without Worksheets

The beauty of home education is flexibility. You are free to try different teaching strategies to meet your children’s particular learning needs. I prefer to limit worksheets. They do have a place, and we do use them, but I want to engage my children in more active learning that is fun. It is also hard to motivate me and the kids to do repetitive practice that can be very boring. If you have an unmotivated, kinesthetic, or tactile learner, it can be particularly difficult to get him/her to do all of the practice that will help achieve mastery of skills.

This summer we have been practicing  handwriting and have tried to practice without using worksheets. These strategies are quite useful and fun. Most of these ideas are great for unmotivated, kinesthetic, and tactile learners.

• Use several pieces of string to form a letter. Trace over the string as you say the name of the letter. Sometimes I talk about the direction that your finger goes as we are moving along the letter. You could do the same thing with spelling.
• We use tub crayons to write all of the letters that we know. We write both capital and lower case letters. We try writing the letters in different colors and sizes.
• We form letters with play dough. All of the rolling, smoothing, a movement helps my kinesthetic and tacticle kids stay engaged in the work. (Try making numbers, too.)
• Write letters in the sandbox using your finger or a stick. It is less intimidating because you can easily smooth the sand if you make a mistake. This is a great strategy for kids who are perfectionists.
• We have a “magic wand” to write letters in the sky. Ours is filled with colorful sand and sparkly stars that float in some liquid. I think that watching the floating things is good for developing eye tracking skills and adds visual interest. Any kind of pointer that looks magical and fancy will do, though. Girls in particular like the magic wand.
• Finger paint is another way of getting tactile learners involved in handwriting. You can mix colors and make the letters any size you like. It also works for the artist in your family.
• We use sidewalk chalk for handwriting practice. If you are like me and can’t find a place for all of the practice the kids do, the rain washes away the work. I think that the resistance also helps build certain muscles.
• Make the shape of a letter with your body. It highlights all of the parts of the letter so on paper the kids include all of the parts. This is particularly good for kinesthetic learners.
• We have a foam alphabet floor puzzle that has different textures on it. We trace those letters while laying on the puzzle. This position also helps build arm muscles and helps with motor control. The colors and the textures add interest and helps the kids remember the work.

Have fun with handwriting!