In my last post, I wrote about a few games my cherubs & I play to help get the jobs of household cleaning done & keep smiles on all our faces.
Here is the post I promassed with the game instructions.
1. Laundry Basketball:
Have children search for any dirty laundry they can find. Set a line where they can stand & toss the clotheing into a hamper or basket. (try searching online or department stores for an Over-the-door basketball hoop hamper)
2. Room Clean Relay:
Set all out of place items in a pile. Have children take turns in relay fassion running each item to it's place. Time them & try to beat their previous record. This teaches team work, & helping others since the mess in each child's room is handled by everyone.
3. The Vacuum Dance:
Have children take turns vacuuming different shapes on the floor. For while they dance behind the vacuum. Toddlars may enjoy a short ride on the fromt of the vacuum while mom vacuums in a few shapes.
4. Mop Hocky & Scrub Skating:
For mop hocky, simply soak a rag in mop solution, place it on the floor & have small children push it with the mop to every corner without it stopping in the middle. TO Scrub Skate, take 2 shop towels or rags, dip them in mop solution, have kids stand with 1 rag under each foot, then skate from 1 end to the other. (the children can take turns or simply take care of another floor)
5. The 15 Fling Boogie:
(I left this for last because its my adaptation of The flyLady's "27 Fling Boogie")
Have children scan the room & pick up 15 things 1 at a time, to put or throw away. Make it even more fun by turning it into a race, or relay.
These are just some ideas that work for us. What Ideas do you keep up your sleeve to make chore time more fun? Please share them with us in the comment section below. I hope you & your family enjoy these as much as we do.
Until Next time;
Take care, God bless, & Make it a great day!
Tuesday, September 6
Our Homeschool Schedule
Summer is winding down & we’re picking up the homeschool pase & getting back in our groove. This year, I’ve made a few adjustments to our schedule, method, & adopted a few dreams to work on through the year.
The 1st change I made was to bring in the “workbox” method. Except that I sort of tweeked it to fit my family’s needs. Here’s how.
While shopping for school supplies, I happened across a Crayola lapboard thingy, (I’m sorry, I don’t know the exact name for it) it’s a storage clipboard for lack of a better explanation. Anyhow, I bought 3 of them. I print off the worksheets for the week & any other materials from our A2 Curriculum CD, an instruction letter (with a touch of love of course), detailing the assignments & put it all in the storage portion with any colored pencils or tools they may need. (Note, the storage portion is thin, so it only fits a few utencils at a time.) This is worked on Agter our morning prayer & announcement circle; during the 3 sections of our morning lesson time; Math, writing, & reading.
After lunch we work on household chores (AKA “living Skills”), which is a time to teach tasks, etiquette, team work, etc. We try to make it as fun as possible by incorporating games like laundry basketball, mop hocky, vacuum dance, Room cleen relay, & who could forget the not-so-old fassion 15fling boogie. Now let’s give credit where credit is due; the 15fling boogie is my modification of The Flylady’s 27fling boogie.
I’ll post a subsequent entry on these games & their rules emmediatly after this one.
The 2nd change was to adapt my Iphone to keep us on track. I’ve used the alarm feature of the world clock app to set alarms for each section of our day with sounds that best correspond to the upcoming activity. This gives my cherubs & I an idea of what to expect instead of just jumping up every time we hear the beep/bell.
While we have time set for paper lessons, I try to structure the day so that we’re always learning something. Whether it's a dinner-table discussion about american history, or a round of brain-teaser questions in the car or taxy cab; I try to keep our brains from turning in to spiderwebs. lol
I love kinesthetic learning techniques since a little fun helps get learning done. But I think our favorite tool of all is the wonderful world of video. A huge thanks to Hubby who did some searching & (over time) purchased some of the best video teaching tools from our own childhood. Anyone remember schoolhouse Rock, or Bill Nye The Science Guy? Ok, how about The Magic School Bus? Those were some of my favorite shows as a kid, & still are.
Homeschooling is a trial & error, have it your way, family fed but most of all _1 _of _a kind experience.
I’ve taken bits from here & pieces from there to create a schedule and method that best fits my family. I’m happy with it. I think the cherubs will really benefit from it (provided we can keep little attitudes in check).
I’ve learned so much from reading ideas that other mom’s have posted on their blogs & I’d really like to thank them all, There are so many of them though, that I’ll have to post my thank you list another time
But, until next time; a huge thank you to all the moms who blog their homeschool, life, & other experiences so that people like me can learn & grow from them.
&
As always:
Take Care, God bles, & Make it a great day!
The 1st change I made was to bring in the “workbox” method. Except that I sort of tweeked it to fit my family’s needs. Here’s how.
While shopping for school supplies, I happened across a Crayola lapboard thingy, (I’m sorry, I don’t know the exact name for it) it’s a storage clipboard for lack of a better explanation. Anyhow, I bought 3 of them. I print off the worksheets for the week & any other materials from our A2 Curriculum CD, an instruction letter (with a touch of love of course), detailing the assignments & put it all in the storage portion with any colored pencils or tools they may need. (Note, the storage portion is thin, so it only fits a few utencils at a time.) This is worked on Agter our morning prayer & announcement circle; during the 3 sections of our morning lesson time; Math, writing, & reading.
After lunch we work on household chores (AKA “living Skills”), which is a time to teach tasks, etiquette, team work, etc. We try to make it as fun as possible by incorporating games like laundry basketball, mop hocky, vacuum dance, Room cleen relay, & who could forget the not-so-old fassion 15fling boogie. Now let’s give credit where credit is due; the 15fling boogie is my modification of The Flylady’s 27fling boogie.
I’ll post a subsequent entry on these games & their rules emmediatly after this one.
The 2nd change was to adapt my Iphone to keep us on track. I’ve used the alarm feature of the world clock app to set alarms for each section of our day with sounds that best correspond to the upcoming activity. This gives my cherubs & I an idea of what to expect instead of just jumping up every time we hear the beep/bell.
While we have time set for paper lessons, I try to structure the day so that we’re always learning something. Whether it's a dinner-table discussion about american history, or a round of brain-teaser questions in the car or taxy cab; I try to keep our brains from turning in to spiderwebs. lol
I love kinesthetic learning techniques since a little fun helps get learning done. But I think our favorite tool of all is the wonderful world of video. A huge thanks to Hubby who did some searching & (over time) purchased some of the best video teaching tools from our own childhood. Anyone remember schoolhouse Rock, or Bill Nye The Science Guy? Ok, how about The Magic School Bus? Those were some of my favorite shows as a kid, & still are.
Homeschooling is a trial & error, have it your way, family fed but most of all _1 _of _a kind experience.
I’ve taken bits from here & pieces from there to create a schedule and method that best fits my family. I’m happy with it. I think the cherubs will really benefit from it (provided we can keep little attitudes in check).
I’ve learned so much from reading ideas that other mom’s have posted on their blogs & I’d really like to thank them all, There are so many of them though, that I’ll have to post my thank you list another time
But, until next time; a huge thank you to all the moms who blog their homeschool, life, & other experiences so that people like me can learn & grow from them.
&
As always:
Take Care, God bles, & Make it a great day!
A Quick Update
Hello Friends,
Here we are at the beginning of September & this summer like much of the 2011 year has flown by.
This summer has had it’s ups & downs for the pineda family. We’ve seen the doctor almost every week, swam to our heart’s content, the boys experienced summr camp for the 1st time, hubby took some much needed time off work, I’ve been swamped in paperwork, & life is good. Lol
We’ve gotten back in touch wit some childhood friends, & ended some long time friendships. But, over all we have much to be thankful for.
The boys really enjoyed their trip to Camp Ronald McDonald For Goodtimes. It’s a camp for children & siblings affected by cancer. They spent a week there & had a wonderful time. I missed them so much it was hard to get through the week but that week was a super busy one which did help some. They’re both looking forward to winter camp now. Daughter didn’t get to go because the age requirement is 9 years & up, but I’m hoping to pull a small event together for her & her Missionette friends in the fall.
Thanks to my awesome Mom, we were able to spend a good portion of the mid-summer swimming; which was a lot of fun for us all. Daughter ditched the life jacket with a little encouragement & gained a bit of self confidence in the process. I’m proud of her.
But the best thing about this summer without a doubt is the growth, experiences, & love that we’ve all shared that helped us through all these ups & downs. I know we can make it through anything as long as we have each other. & that friends is a blessing you can’t buy anywhere. So, as I bring this update to a close, I wish you all the love, & blessings in the world.
As always, Take care, God bless, & Make it a Great day!
Here we are at the beginning of September & this summer like much of the 2011 year has flown by.
This summer has had it’s ups & downs for the pineda family. We’ve seen the doctor almost every week, swam to our heart’s content, the boys experienced summr camp for the 1st time, hubby took some much needed time off work, I’ve been swamped in paperwork, & life is good. Lol
We’ve gotten back in touch wit some childhood friends, & ended some long time friendships. But, over all we have much to be thankful for.
The boys really enjoyed their trip to Camp Ronald McDonald For Goodtimes. It’s a camp for children & siblings affected by cancer. They spent a week there & had a wonderful time. I missed them so much it was hard to get through the week but that week was a super busy one which did help some. They’re both looking forward to winter camp now. Daughter didn’t get to go because the age requirement is 9 years & up, but I’m hoping to pull a small event together for her & her Missionette friends in the fall.
Thanks to my awesome Mom, we were able to spend a good portion of the mid-summer swimming; which was a lot of fun for us all. Daughter ditched the life jacket with a little encouragement & gained a bit of self confidence in the process. I’m proud of her.
But the best thing about this summer without a doubt is the growth, experiences, & love that we’ve all shared that helped us through all these ups & downs. I know we can make it through anything as long as we have each other. & that friends is a blessing you can’t buy anywhere. So, as I bring this update to a close, I wish you all the love, & blessings in the world.
As always, Take care, God bless, & Make it a Great day!
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