What do you do for outside activity and getting the children around other children?
I have already found a homeschooling group through our church which meets once a week, in the evening, but I am looking for more options during the day.
* When I started to homeschool, I realized I wouldn't be able to duplicate everything that a classroom provided. That includes access to 30 kids everyday. My kids have a handful of very close friends. They probably have fewer aquantances than their classroom peers. We have a few other families who also homeschool who we hang out with a lot. Play dates, etc.
* Right now, with our special needs and all, we don't mix learning and other kids too much.
* Since I have 3 kids, they are constantly interacting with each other. I figure if they can get along with each other all day every day....they are probably ready for relating to the rest of the world. I say that kidding a bit, but really, I honestly think we don't give enough credit to the skill of being able to get along with your own family.
* They take weekly classes in science, chess, humanities. They all take karate 3 or 4 times a week. They are in small group with the same kids at church each week too. They each used to take gymnastics at Little Gym.
i love it when you post your art projects/lessons for the kids. do you build that into what you are studying or just carve time out for 'art' as a stand alone subject?
* My kids have lots of free time so they can pursure creative things on their own. I count building with legos as creative.
* I tell my kids smart children don't get bored. Don't tell me you are bored.
* I have a craft space where craft stuff like pipe cleaners, paper, boxes, tubes and other random "build a fort out of it" items are down low where they can get to it. Markers and paper live on the kitchen table....and sometimes on the wall. Ahem, Max.
* I do add in creative stuff in history and literature or math...anything I can to make learning more visual. I'm about making the item we are learning clear. If it take a craft to do that, super.
* Max does cutting and pasting, etc. for the fine motor skills.
* I started with the a book about learning to draw what you see: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
* I do like to teach them about different artists and let them immitate their styles. For 2 years we talked about a new artist each Fri. and then make something inspired by them.
* However, I find that crafts sometimes really hurt me because I am SO easily distracted by doing them from the basics of reading,writing, math.
Do you have a school room?
*I do. A craft/classroom space. We don't use it much now. When we did use it, I pushed 2 tables together and set up little work stations around them. The kids each had a rolling chair and rolled from one spot to another. It included a dry erase boad on the wall with math problems (they would do like 3 pages of math on the board without complaining...but tell them to do 3 pages in the book....sheesh!). A computer station was set up too. I helped them at the reading and writing station. It worked great for a while.
*Then they got so focused on the room itself...they just wanted to know what they had to do to get out of there. We now do most of school at the kitchen table. I can really focus on working with them and unload a dishwasher when they are in the middle of working on their own. The being right next to them helps them to concentrate. When they concentrate better, we all get through the learning happier and more efficiently.
Happy Thurs!
kellicrowe
