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When people find out you home school, their response goes usually one of two ways:
1. I could never spend all that time with my own kids, it would make me nuts.
and
2. I wouldn't know what to teach them, it sounds like it will be very hard.
Okay, so sometimes both scenarios take place. You do get an awful lot of togetherness and occasionally lose your mind. And sometimes the subjects we study are difficult.
But for the most part, it's okay. We have a lot more good days than bad days. And some of the methods of study I use with my children, I wish my parents had used with me. So I am going to share two ideas that I believe, any parent can do with their own children, whether that family is participating in home schooling or public schooling.
Flash cards are your friends.
These are great memory devices, and my kids love them. We can sit for 15 or 20 minutes going through different subjects, enhancing their memorization skills. 15 or 20 minute blocks of time per day, a couple times a week can enhance a child's memorization skills and their knowledge on a specific subject significantly. But don't try and make them go longer than that. Respect that a child's attention span is that of a child. If you try to turn this into a marathon, most children will get frustrated and bored and then will not look forward to future flashcard games.
There are also a variety of flashcards available for Phonics, Pre-Reading Skills, Sight Words, the ABCs, and basic Math and Numbers, geography, shapes, animals, insects--you name it and there are probably flashcards for it. Just do some quick searches online.
This is great for drilling your children on the basics. Small children love them too. They love the cards because they are participating directly with *you, the parent. And you have this opportunity to give them immediate, positive feedback which helps build the child's confidence, and inspires them to try more difficult subjects.
And did I mention that flashcards are cheap!
I haven't met many children yet, who don't want to show off for their parents. Especially in the Pre-K to 3rd Grade age range. All that energy you see on the playground, when they yell at you, "Mom! Dad! Watch This! See What I Can Do!" can be utilized in those short blocks of time with flashcards to a very positive end.
And the best part is, you can make your own on any subject. Whether it's a new academic topic, or perhaps they need to work on a weak area in their education, either way, flashcards are a potentially easy answer for improving academic performance.
I am going to repeat myself though:
But don't try and make them go longer than that 15 or 20 minute range, children under 6 might do better with 10 to 15 minute blocks. Respect that a child's attention span is that of a child. If you try to turn this into a marathon, most children will get frustrated and bored, and then will not look forward to future, flashcard games.
It takes time for a child to grow into a longer attention span. So you have to be patient.
I am bringing the flash cards into this post, because many children are starting Summer vacation. And I have read concerns that children do not retain their academic lessons over this 3 month period. Flash cards may be a fun, and easy way to counter some of that.
And now for something outside:
Make a Garden.
This is especially fun if you start when they are really small. Kids love to dig and they love to get into the dirt and get dirty. And I haven't met a toddler or pre-K kid yet, that doesn't like a pretty flower or digging up a worm or a root or tuber of some sort.
This doesn't have to be a big garden or elaborate. If you don't have a yard, you can grow things in pots and jars. A potato that has sprouted in the kitchen, or some sunflower seeds, or morning glories or moon flowers, or marigolds all make for some fun. You can even make a 2 liter bottle or a 5 gallon bucket into a mini-worm farm. Kids love wiggly worms and you get super rich worm castings from this little project for your potted plants or garden.
This is a photo of a night crawler my youngest dug up while digging potatoes. A great sign from Mother Nature that our soil is healthy and rich.
You can buy pre-made kits or you can DYI a worm farm. Whatever works for you. There are lots of websites and webpages on this matter, so these links are only suggestions.
Children love to see things in flux. They love change, they are fascinated by it. So growing plants and worm-farming are something they really love to do. Just make sure you put them in a spot where they can make a horrid mess and then help them a little and let them do their thing.
A fraction of the potatoes the kids grew this year. Purple Potatoes, and Red Russets. They are delicious.
I have noticed that Public Schools have been installing Teaching Gardens. If your child goes to school, find out if that would be a project appropriate for the school.
Sometimes you have to fudge it a little, and if the little person is a bit destructive or loses their seeds, or puts them in the wrong place, it's okay if you go back later when they aren't looking and plant more seeds in the right place or the right pot.
The big thing, when they are small is to keep their interest. You can fix things as you and your child go along with the project.
For the past 6 years, my kids have harvested their own potatoes and onions in the garden. They help with other things, but these are no-brainers, as in super easy. As long as you water the plants, they will grow quite well. And even if you don't water them as often as you should, they usually still produce, but the roots will just be a bit smaller, but no less tasty. This year, they have moved on to pumpkins and sunflowers. We recently harvested their potatoes, and some of their onions, and their sunflowers are now 4 ft tall, and we just put our pumpkin seeds in the ground.
FYI, Kids love funky vegetables. Purple potatoes, purple or red carrots, yellow tomatoes, giant pumpkins or tiny pumpkins- or striped beets-they love that. To them, these things are wonderful and exotic, because those colors do not usually come in a frozen vegetable bag. For container gardens, more and more varieties of dwarf or miniature vegetables are available in some seed catalogs.
Once again, you don't have to have a full size garden. You can choose to grow just one or two things in a pot if need be. Make this do-able. Don't overwhelm you or the child with a big production, that takes the fun all out of it, if you don't have a team of fellow gardeners to help support the project.
You might be surprised to learn about the history of some vegetables and their colors, such as the humble carrot. Kids love trivia and factoids, and food and plants can be a fun segue into some light history.
Expect the kids to kill seedlings. Don't get mad, just start over. It's no big deal. Adults kill a lot of seedlings too. It happens to everyone, even experienced gardeners. If it's an issue of time and you can afford it, replace recently "murdered" seedlings with store bought seedlings from a local nursery.
And at this point, it may be a little late in the season to start many seeds [depending on your zone], but you can still purchase garden plants from nurseries for a garden. So it's not too late to do something right now, if you felt so inclined.
You can also head to the library, and pick out books on gardening in age appropriate ranges. My kids loved the books with cut away photographs of roots and tubers, or those showing the life cycle of plants like tulips or sunflowers.
Teaching a child gardening accomplishes several things.
1. It connects a child with their food. People who grow their own food, even part time, will have a different relationship with the environment and with eating than someone who has never had that unique pleasure of growing something from a seed or seedling and then harvesting the produce and consuming it.
2. It connects a child with nature. You can read about the seasons but with gardening, you are in each season and you experience it so directly that words pale in comparison to the reality of experiencing each of those moments.
3. It connects you with your child. That direct relationship of shared labor and fun is important. It is this kind of sharing that allows you to truly get to know your child as a person, and vice versa.
4. It teaches them patience. They won't get that lesson right off the bat. But over time, they will learn to embrace patience in some form, as a necessity. Plants grow no faster than they grow. Fruit becomes ripe when it's ripe. It allows the child to see that there is a progression in nature, a process that must be respected and cannot, or should not be hurried.
Use straw or compost to suppress weeds and limit the need for weeding. That way all the fun isn't lost in the dog days of summer, yanking grass out of the garden.
When we harvest vegetables, we make a big deal out of making dinner from the harvest, or breakfast for that matter. My kids love sky blue, mashed potatoes that come from purple potatoes that they grow themselves.
These are two, inexpensive, fun ways to engage your child. Academic lessons are important, but so are life lessons. The main thing I have learned, is that one should endeavor to spend time with their child and and gently, help build their confidence and knowledge of the world, in a healthy, productive way.
Additional websites that might be of interest:
Kids Gardening.org
Gardening with Kids.org
These look like commercial sites for schools, but they appear to have some pointers and some projects that might give one ideas.
And I used links to organic heirloom seed venders because that is what I personally purchase. However there are other venders available that carry the varieties mentioned.
Good Luck! And Happy Summer!