Today's Works for Me Wednesday is a Backwards Edition which means I get to ask you a question and you can give me all your advise. See more Works for Me Wednesday participants here.
My question is:
What is your favorite homeschool resource? What really gets your kids fired up and wanting to do school? Is there anything that you do that makes your kids ask, "Can we do school now?"
6 comments:
My kids are not always fired up about doing schoolwork, but I have found that when I chill out (not always easy for me!)and we follow up on something they are interested in, they really get excited. Recently, they have been really interested in flags and so I just let them look up and design flags from other countries and they probably did about 20 of them! I also made them look up two important facts about the country and write it on the back of the flag (which they surprised me by NOT minding, since they were doing the flag thing too!).
Apologia Exploring Creation through Astonomy. I've actually walked in on them reading their Science book for fun in their spare time. Awesome book!
The only thing that J ever looks forward to schoolwise is Art. Everything else she tolerates, but art she loves.
My kids love school and are always asking if they can do school now. I don't think I had anything to do with that, so I can't share a sure-fire everyday excitement generator.
I do think my best resource isn't a unit or anything you can buy. It's ideas that I get from other blogs. I found/came up with a fabulous *free* idea to get us over a season of the blahs. I posted about it here: http://valerie.thestranathans.com/2008/01/homeschooling-treasure-hunt.html
(I hope that link posts in its entirety.)
It was definitely a "shiny distraction" that can be used anytime.
I think the library is my favorite resource. We live in a large city with a big library system. I can have things sent from all over town to our local branch. It is awesome.
And I think temperament is what gets my kids excited or not about school. My son had never wanted to do school at all. My daughter loves it and would do it any time I ask for as long as I ask. Go figure.
we don't homeschool but over winter break i went to the library about twice a week and brought home "surprise" books which were a big hit in the reading out loud department (i have a kindergartener) and he especially liked the BOB books. i enjoyed the "homeschool" feel of doing it over break. also, i set some goals for him -- 4 journal entries and 4 pages of math, and he could check off the boxes as we finished. i didn't even discuss a prize, he just liked checking off all the boxes. funny -- if it were my "homework" i would want to alternate between math and writing but he wanted to finish each row of boxes separately. interesting.
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