today's homeschool burn-out buster is... driving. pack a snack or lunch, a clipboard for note-taking and perhaps a digital camera or two. i promise you, public and parochial schools cannot teach this way. and guess what? we're getting our unsocialized homeschooled children "out into the real world," you know, so they can function? smile, wink, nod. okay here's what i mean:

-you can learn obtuse, acute and right angles by looking at pitches on buildings and houses.

-you can also locate the vertices.

-for younger ones they can learn square, triangles, etc., this way! just look at all the street signs and their shapes... include color learning, too.

-parallel, intersecting lines, etc, can be learned at a 4 way traffic stop or any crossroads.

-learn decimal reading each time you pump gas... just look at the gallons.

-you might want to pull off and watch a building being erected. we watched the first wall go up at our new walgreen store. parked in the bank parking lot and had front row seats!

-don't forget to note your millage before and after the trip-- subtract to see how far you went!

-discover old buildings in your town! we have an old fire department which is being used for offices, an old post office, court house and an old high school, all of which have the dates embedded into the brick walls. figure out how old they are! (subtraction).

-where does the mayor work? what does he do? who is he?

-our town used to have an old opera house... we discussed and pointed it out.

-you can stop at a park and have your kids run around the perimeter of the baseball field. "perimeter learning."

-does your car need washing? run through the car wash... discuss how and where the water comes from: in our case detroit. and all city water is paid for by the owners.

-we have an old vineyard in our town... point it out.

-get out and have your children figure the radius and diameter of your tire. and the rim.

-watch for birds and identify them.

-point out turrets, different weathervanes and cupulo's.

-find a pole barn and discuss the structure difference from a regular barn.

-my favorite... noticing the brick work on different buildings!

-point out flora and fauna.

most of all, make good memories and don't forget to belly-laugh!

the list can go on and on... i would love to hear some of your ideas for car-learning! leave it in my comments and we'll give it a try!

here's an idea for real life learning... you know-to prepare them for the real world! so, they know how to function and not just turn 18 and wander around in circles... like so many nay-sayers warn us against!

how about this...

use a grocery store sale flyer for the day! here's what i did on several occasions:

-add up any 10 items on the sale flyer

-alphabetize the items

-if a loaf of bread is buy 2 get 1 free and the price is $3.25 over all... how much is each individual loaf?

what if you had a coupon for .50 cents off and the store doubled your coupon? what would the final price be on the bread?

look on the bag of bread... where was it made?

look on the bag of bread... read the ingredients.

find a vitamin and research it.

find a mineral and research it.

plan a meal using the flyer. include the basic food groups. how much would this cost you overall? what if four people were eating your dinner... how much a person would this cost you?

make a grocery list.

alphabetize the spices in the cupboard.

when finished... mix up some glue and water (decoupage) and for art, your children could try their hand at decoupaging -using the sale flyer! they could cover a manila file folder, to hold coupons, a tin can with holes poked in it as a quirky candle holder or pencil holder, cover a clipboard, or small notebook for grocery lists!

the list of ideas could go on forever, depending the ages of your children. the really great thing is, multiple ages could work on this together! you just need to sit down and type out your "grocery store flyer scavenger hunt!" be sure to read my comments below... because i've been getting really nice ideas from viewers... which by the way, thank-you!

cooking has always been a big part of our homeschooling. thanks to six years with five in a row curriculum. there' is just so much learning that can take place in your kitchen. how about vocabulary? sautee', make-a-well, mince, par boil, or frothy? and no, you don't need to have a black-lined, fill-in the blank vocabulary worksheet and test, to master these new words. you just do it. you just talk about it. and you just use the word a lot. and, you get your hands deep down and dirty and make a memory with your children! that is one of our homeschool perks. memories.

cooking also provides math skills and reading comp. which needs no explanation.

once in a while, i pull a cookbook off the shelf and require tommie to double or triple or quadruple the recipe. in his best handwriting.

of course, you could always have a computer lab lesson, and have your child type a recipe of aunt hilda's and send it off to a friend or family member.

i subbed in a cooking-around-the-world co-op class last week, and the teacher was using Emerill's Cooking Around the World recipe book. now, that was interesting! lots of very unique recipes... you could also include geography in this. perhaps, you could google: recipes around the world and find your own. better yet, have your children find a recipe, or two.

so go-ahead.... find your apron, pre-heat that oven (better yet-show your kids how-to) and find a recipe to homeschool with. fill your house with good smells and memories!

i thought i'd share a handful of homemade games,

that we've used in our homeschool. for the past several

years, i've made learning wrap-ups (above). depending on

what needs to be learned and/or age level... i make them accordingly.

to give you an idea, i made: abbreviations, presidents in order, multiplication, addition, subtraction, division, state capitals and states, and now, exponents.

another huge hit, was this clothes pin game. a problem is written on a clothes pin and the answers are on a piece of recycled cardboard i had. i remove all the clothes pins and require tommie to clip the problem to the right answer. we used this for all of our multiplication and division... with much success. and it sure beats the heck out of drill and kill workbook pages!

(upside down example of the problem written on a clothespin.)

*note clothespins available at dollar tree. cheap.

speaking of dollar tree... you just can't beat their heavy poster board! the thick kind. for a home-school class i taught, i had all the students design a board game about theodore roosevelt. beforehand, i printed out a stack of facts for them to write on their boards. the kids were over-the-moon, designing and learning. i promise you, if you play this game a few times, you can't help but know a couple of dozen facts about someone or something famous. don't limit yourself... you could cover the dust bowl, industrial revolution, or any other historical event.


i gathered a bunch of odds and ends up.... like the picture below. you can do so much with them! if you're teaching adjectives... have your student select 5 props and describe them. or have your student write a short story using any 5 props. how about teaching similes or metaphors in this way?

and lastly, not pictured... but something that worked out wonderfully in our homeschool was... i bought paper cups at dollar tree... my how i love dollar tree for supplies! on the bottom of the cups, i made words using a-z. apple, bat, etc. then, when my son was learning how to alphabetize, i just set the stack of cups on the floor and let him put them in order. you could use this hand's-on approach for a bazillion different lessons. months, days of the week, phone numbers and even in higher grades.

Homeschool Burn-out day 2.... tip of the day!

how about having a board game day?

ya know, all those educational

games you've picked up at curriculum sales?

you were thinking YES! yes or course...

we'll use these for learning in our homeschool!

let's be honest.

have you played them?

have you played them more then once?

do you feel sort of ....

ummm... guilty because you think you should be

pushing workbooks, instead? or trudging through a dry textbook

that makes you yawn and your kids eyes glaze over?

well... here's the green light... permission if you will...

get out of the box...

gather up those games and shout out to your kids...

"let the games begin!"

games we enjoy:

life

monopoly

scrabble

boggle

solitaire

uno

apples to apples

scrabble slam

scrabble sentences

manacala

erie canal

some body

mind your manners

bird memory game

sequence

rummy q

card games

so... tell me, what games does your family play?

leave a comment.

smile, wink, nod!

this just in.... my friend lisa (a homeschool mom who's nails are painted red!) at cornerstone home learning just shared a couple of fantastic math links on her site! long division on-line! plus, multiplication links! all free, too! click here: cornerstone home learning! long division on-line? sounds like a fun challenge! don't you think?

breaking news!

a freebie for your homeschool! you know.... to go along with your artist/composer study or listen to it during math! just click on the picture to get started via amazon!

i'll be back this afternoon with my letter B tip!

p.s. need a good muffin recipe? click here: good muffin recipe!

how about shaking things up in your homeschooling with an artist study? way back when... when i was a newbie, i thought definitely for-sure i would incorporate artist and composer studies into our homeschool day. oh my... it would be fun, fulfilling and easy, too! my son would be blindly obedient, soaking up beethoven's classics and be able to hold his own in any and all conversations regarding 19th century artists.
truth is... i've only done artist studies twice, in our history of homeschooling. and we've never even touched on composers.

but, studying two artists... is better then none at all. each artist was studied in different years. monet and van gogh. each artist study was a week long. filled with history, geography, art work and report writing.

now you know, you don't necessarily need to re-create or study van gogh's famous haystacks or sunflowers (although, both are fascinating- my son enjoyed learning about the haystacks)... you and your kids could design your own bathtub, which van gogh used in his mental institution... go to the institution today... and the tub stands outside filled with french flowers.... while you're at it... how about researching french flora? see how one thing can lead to another?

adopt nike's slogan and just do it! here's a good resource to get you started: artist study

happy homeschooling!

shaking things up!

(hence, the salt and pepper snap, above!)

last night, i had the privilege of being

the guest speaker at our homeschool support group meeting.

the topic? avoiding homeschool burnout and

how to add a little zest into your homeschool days.

first though, let me admit... i am by far no expert. and, it's

difficult for me to suggest to others

what "they" can do, should try or could be doing .

that said, for the next 26 days... i'll be giving you

daily tips from A-Z on ideas of what you could try,

skip altogether or just have a good laugh about!

so... let's get ready to shake things up, this winter!

i'll be back this afternoon, with the first tip!

see you then!

you just have to check out:

friday's hardwired homeschool tips!

i'll see you over there!

unschooling and the freedom to guide the interests of your child.

since my son has always been passionate about mechanics

and knowing that's probably what God has in mind for him.... i've

decided to go ahead and embrace diesel mechanics. everyday this week, he has

labeled parts of the inside of a diesel engine (this cut away snap above) you see, the freedom of homeschooling for me-the-teacher is... "I KNOW that it takes more then one fill in blank worksheet to RETAIN something this important." for our home... it's not study the diagram label the parts and move on... uh-uh... no... a good 5 or 6 days of labeling should give him a good idea of what's what. make sense?

we also learned about the original diesel engines and mr. rudolf diesel very interesting life. copywork has been about intake, compression, ignition and exhaust. THIS IS SO, SO BORING FOR ME! you have no idea!

let me back up....another freedom of homeschooling? my sixth grader really struggled with cursive. we skipped doing it altogether in 5th grade... since the fight wasn't worth it. this year,

i've weaved it back in with copywork and a lower grade workbook. he is now writing cursive beautifully, and without any problems whatsoever. i know he was terribly behind on this... but when he teams it up with copywork about the operation of a four stroke engine... it works.

that said... what is your child's passion? God-given talent? find it and roll with it!