Garbage Day Craft Creations
Ever have one of those days when you are not sure what to teach? You are tired or not feeling well, have nothing prepared? Well why not have a Garbage Craft Day.
For this activity you need glue, tape, crayons and a recycling bin full of plastics, boxboard and paper. (avoid any dangerous items like metal cans). Make a pile of these recyclables in the middle of the room and give the kids a theme like - space ships or insects - then let them at it. Kids will spend hours sifting, creating and having fun building a garbage day creation. They will be learning engineering concepts as well as stretching their creativity. You can also follow up with lesson on recycling.
Smaller kids would love to use a cardboard box and turn it into a car, or rocket by adding wheels (pie plates, margarine tub lids etc), antenna, steering wheels and more!!
It is great to allow students to have self-directed activities, and very helpful on days when you need something to fill-in to your lesson!
The environment and the issues surrounding it is a common topic today. It is important to teach children about the environment, about the threats to it and about how they can help.
Simply reducing, reusing and recycling can be the first steps to helping the environment. Lead by example: recycle used paper (make sure you use both sides), seperate your trash into recyclable, compostable and reusable (great sorting lesson for kids). Donate out-grown clothing to a thrift store or charity, pay attention to packaging when buying products. Getting your children involved in the choices and the actions will help them learn how important it is to do.
Use downloadable resources so you only need to print the pages you need. Use household items meant for the recycling bin for crafts and science experiments. Melt down old crayons to make new ones, use a blackboard to write notes rather than paper. Adopt some wildlife as a gift for someone or as part of your school lesson plan. We adopted a sea turtle, then learned all about it and tracked his movements in the ocean!
Just the effort of thinking about it, and making good choices can make a world of difference.
To help pass the lesson on read The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, underneath all the rhyme and silliness there is a strong message!
Today is Peanut Butter lovers day! They seem to have a day for everything, but that is good, it creates ideas for some fun lesson plans.
Discover how peanut butter (or any nut butter) is made, a good science lesson plan. Use peanut butter in a recipe to make something, a great math lesson plan. Make a craft using peanut butter, fill a pine cone with the nut butter and roll it in bird seed, this is a great bird feeder and can inspire a nature lesson plan. The peanut itself can be used as a manipulative (you can fake ones or even ones that are erasers if there are allergies). Or talk about elephants, do they really eat peanuts? The peanut is protected by a shell, what other plants have protectors around them, why?
So many ideas can be spawned from one special, albeit strange, day!
Our goal as homeschoolers is to help our children grow to have accomplished lives. The best way to do this is to show them how to live!
Book work in school is something everyone recognizes as education. But books don’t always teach what is important. Make sure your lessons include life lessons. Take a trip to the grocery store to understand nutritional food choices, price comparisons, recipe needs and budgeting. Follow recipes and do cooking and baking at home with your children or show them how to sew ( fixing a button or darning a sock can be a helpful lesson). Have them create goals, schedules, menus and budgets for themselves or for the family. Plan a family vacation together, use maps, travel brochures and such to learn about the place you are visiting. Have them follow a map on the travels, keep a travel diary about their trip so that they can record differences in the area compared to their own. Pretend and play such things as careers and parents to help them understand the responsibilities that go with a job, and a family.
Even discussions can be meaningful and educational. Talk about where garbage goes as you carry it out to the curb, discuss the importance of hygiene as you run a bath, even economics can be taught when negotiating an allowance.
Remember that what ever you do in life, be it housecleaning, grocery shopping, vacationing or a day at the beach, learning can be involved. And learning about life can be the best education a child can receive.
Children who can’t sit still for long periods of time won’t learn any better if they are made to. The advantage of homeschooling is to be able to teach to the child in the best way possible. For an active child this may mean a creative lesson plan.
School is more than books and worksheets so if you have a student who is active, don’t rely on just those resources. Some desk work needs to be done but if you alternate desk work with an active learning activity, the child will have a chance to move in between you will find that they will learn better. Manipulatives make great active learning activities. Math lessons can involve stacking blocks, measuring furniture, racing cars and all sorts of other active learning ideas. Spelling can be made active too if you hang letters around the house and ask the child to run around and find the letters to spell a certain word. Bring puppets into English class to help act out stories or create a craft associated with the story or chapter just read so that the child can be rewarded with an active lesson following a sit-down reading assignment. Music can be a great active learning activity too. Rhythm, rhyming, sound science and more can all be taught through music.
Allowing an active child a chance to be active in “class” can help them learn and make your teaching day less frustrating!
The Winter Olympics offers a great opportunity to bring current events into the lesson plan. From the history of the Olympics, to modern day sports there are many great topics to teach about!
This is a great time for a geography lesson on world countries since children will be able to link the countries with the athletes. Math lessons can also be incorporated because each event deals with speed times, first, second, third and percentages. How much faster was the first place winner, what percentage of the athletes for that country competed in that event and more. Obviously sports lessons would work with this theme as well. The rules of the sports, the safety involved, the history of the sport - plenty of lessons could apply. For older students even a lesson on drug awareness can be brought in by discussing steroids and other enhancing drugs, why they are banned, what they would do to an athlete’s body and what has happened to athletes that have been caught using them.
By bringing current events into the lesson plan, children can associate what they are learning with the world in general, and can understand better when they see the event on television or in the paper.
For some great downloadable resources on the Winter Olympics click here.
Most homeschoolers will have been asked the same questions over and over about homeschooling. Is that legal? What about socialization? How can you teach them with your education? and much more.
Here are a few answers to those frequently asked questions to help those not so familiar with homeschooling understand and to help those just starting field those ever present questions.
Homeschooling is legal. The law states that children must receive adequate education - we provide more than adequate education for our children. Each area will have different rules and regulations for those who homeschool so make sure you check those and follow them so that no issues are raised.
Socialization is not really taught in public school, but as homeschoolers we can offer a chance for our children to socialize with other children of various ages. Many areas have homeschool groups that can provide chances for socialization, chances for field trips and more. Also, there are groups like 4H, Scouting, Guiding and more that can offer more socialization experiences for homeschooled children.
You don’t need a teaching degree to homeschool your children. You need to be able to read ahead, understand the lesson and acknowledge your child’s learning style so that you can better teach to them. What is nice about homeschooling is that you can often learn along with the child on topics they may not have taught in public school.
Don’t be afraid of questions about homeschooling - be proud of your choice and answer them truthfully!
Downloadable ebooks are a great way to have instant lessons! Find the book, add it to your cart, download and print!
Downloading workbooks is time-saving, money-saving and paper-saving because you need only to print the pages you want. It gives you a great opportunity to fill in lessons with ready-made worksheets, templates and more. Even novels can be downloaded which can be great when there is a hard to find or popular book to be read for that lesson. Sometimes it is worth downloading a book to see if it is worth buying it for keeps. Audiobooks can also be downloaded to a computer or MP3 player, allowing for stories on the go, or to help the audio learner. Downloadable ebooks make quick and easy lesson plans with just a couple of clicks of the mouse!
It is hard not to hear the news about the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti and although the pictures and stories are heart-wrenching some good can come out of the devastation. This would be a great time for a lesson based on helping others.
A geography lesson could be first, acknowledging where Haiti is on a map, understanding its culture and socio-economic status. A science lesson about how earthquakes are formed could be next. It would also be good to have a lesson about the Red Cross, how and why it was founded. A discussion about the word humanitarianism could then be followed by what we can do to help.
Obviously, depending on the age of the child, the lessons will only cover what their age group could handle. The important part of the lesson is to help them learn that they can get involved in helping others. Money can be saved whenever a certain task is done, or not done. For example, everytime you get a glass of water put a penny in the jar. This money can then be donated to the cause. A child could create a poster about a bottle drive or some other fundraising activity that will help them earn money to donate. They could even write a letter to relief workers who are involved in helping the country in crisis. An encouraging letter, or a letter of thanks could be a great comfort to all those volunteers!
It is good for children to learn about disasters although they don’t need to know all the horrible details. They should understand that things like this do happen, they should have an emergency disaster plan and they should understand that even the smallest of help can be a great comfort for those suffering.
The children of today can be the future leaders of tomorrow
In this world of technology there is more instance of children playing video games than board games. And although endless hours of gaming is not a good practice there are some learning advantages to video games.
Obviously, many subjects at different grade levels are offered through computer games but regular video games can teach too. The new technology of the Wii system allows for fun, fitness and learning as well as developing hand-eye coordination. Some games require strategy and logic to advance, keeping the mind at work. Many “Sim” type games offer chances of social interaction, worldly knowledge etc. from the safety of your own home. You can learn about finances, schedules and more through a simulated character. Even games that have a child looking after a pet can help to develop responsibility. And some games offer a chance for kids to join together in teamwork in order to win the game.
Although video games can be overpowering for many children, when played in moderation, they can provide a form of education as well.