My Kids Read Too Much!

I couldn’t possibly ask for full book reports on all the books my kids read;  there’s just too many!  But I do know it is important to keep track of what they are reading.  So I like to have them fill out a quickie book report form.  I like the ones at abcteach.com, specifically, the Book Recommendation Form.  It asks for the title, author, why they liked it and there’s a place to draw their favorite part.  This is good for now, but I will eventually make my own form.  I think I want to add a place for illustrator and a lesson or moral learned, and a place to reference scripture that applies.

 

Study Tip: New use for Old devices

There is a down side to living in a house full of techno-nerds;  as technology moves forward at it’s blinding pace, the gadgets start to accumulate.

We took an old Palm out of our gadget graveyard and put a couple of games on it as a treat and also to help the younger children stop wanting to touch the grown-ups’ toys.  Well, today while teaching Language Arts (his least favorite subject) my son brought the Palm to the table where we study.  I had to step away for a moment and when I came back, he was, of course, not doing his work anymore.  However, he was typing his spelling words on the Palm quite enthusiastically.  What a great way to practice his spelling and reuse an old device that would otherwise be sitting in a drawer!

 

Rising above the noise

The more sources of noise you introduce into an environment, the louder each source becomes in competition to be heard.  This is especially trying in a classroom environment, and even more so in a home school environment where there are more noises like telephones, doorbells, washing machines, neighbors, etc.  The main goal is for the speaker to be heard and the listeners to be able to hear.  But all too often, it is an annoyance/avoidance tactic by younger children to make random noise and distract from the task at hand.  This can be as obvious as a loud Indian whoop or as subtle as a tapping finger.  My thoughts on this are to get the child in a mental place where they direct that energy toward a different outlet  – namely, learning.

Tips to try to help avoid :

Clean, tidy, work area free of distractions

Perseverance and patience

Change subject matter at a pace that will not “bore”

Study least favorite  topics after physical activity like recess

Sometimes a rigid schedule works for some children

Tips for interrupting unwanted behavior:

Physical task like jumping jacks or bunny-hopping across the room and back

Visualization (eyes closed, focusing on image in the mind.  I like a bouncing ball that they make slow down until it is just resting.)

Tap on the head (sometimes children don’t realize when they are being distracting)

 

The child that won’t sit still

I think everyone knows one of those children that can’t sit still.  I have one of those.  It makes getting studies done a challenge because they are always fidgeting in their chair or standing up, which leads to walking around.  I am going to try using a balance ball as a chair – I hear this helps children sit with better posture and also for longer periods of time more comfortably, if they are restless.  I hope this works out, even if just a little.  Will report back on it.  If you have tried this, I would be very interested in your experiences!

 

Home School Record Keeping – Written Method

I know some folks out there don’t like to keep records in the computer – for whatever reason that I cannot fathom.  It makes me think back to long ago in another age, when I used to keep hand written assignment records.  This form, which spans over two pages, has boxes to write the days activities in. I also printed out forms for keeping track of test scores that I averaged manually with a calculator.  I shudder just thinking about it.  I found hand writing my records to be messy and bulky.

Here are my tips for minimizing the chaos of hand written records when home schooling:

1. Have a binder with only the weeks you need in it.  Remove all completed weeks to an expandable file folder.
2. Use a mechanical pencil with a fine lead.
3. Try not to make many marks in the margins.  If there isn’t a space for the info, then your form is inadequate and you should redo the form to make it more functional.
4. If your printer does not auto-duplex (print on both sides of the paper)  then learn to do it manually.
5. Have a form that you keep only test scores on and keep it with your lesson plan binder.  Digging through a stack of old records to find scores is a pain.
6. Keep your records in a different location than the rest of the school work.  I found that lumping all the home school stuff together by grade resulted in not being able to find anything I was looking for.  Now I keep the teacher’s guides, test booklets, my notes,  answer keys, etc.  in a separate location and have a far easier time finding things.
7. Write out an assignment sheet for each child and teach them to use it.  I find that for younger children , going day by day works best.  For older children, a week’s worth of assignments is manageable.  I try to teach my children to work independently after instruction, so this can free up time to grade and do all those little things that need to be done.
8. Keep a small calendar with your lesson binder.  I like those little ones that are on the back of  business cards, then I use clear packing tape to adhere it to the binder.
9. Use a Pace Sheet and keep it with your binder.  Nothing was quite as disruptive to my recording keeping than forgetting a holiday and scheduling assignments on that day, then having to erase and rewrite the assignments on the correct days.

Most of all, don’t panic!