Homeschool Memoirs: Games

This week's theme asks us to share our favorite games used for learning in our home. Here are some of our favorites.

• BINGO! We use bingo for just about everything around here. Language arts especially. We also use it for math facts and number ID for preschoolers.
• Concentration/Memory- along the same lines as bingo. We don't use it quite as much, but we have a store bought memory game and plus homemade version for upper/lower case letters, number/word matching, and our math fact flash cards- I lay them out and they choose 2 facts that equal the same answer- flipping will reveal if they are right or not.
• Knock Out! I am not sure if that is the official name, but it's what we call it. For addition we wrie the numbers 2-12 on a 2 sides of a white board and start rolling 2 dice. As each sum is rolled erase the numbers, first one to get them all wins. My oldest and I used to play this every night when he was in K...it really helped him learn his addtion facts.

As far as store bought games: we have a lot of the standard childhood games: Monopoly, UNO, Candyland, Mouse Trap, Yatzee, Scrabble, Battleship, Clue, Cootie, Trouble, Life, Rummy-o, Sorry... some we still waiting to grow into. We probably don't play quite as much as I'd like....probably since the 2 youngers are limited to Candyland and Cootie and can play with Paul or me when we play the ones that require a little more (like Great States! Guess Who, Sorry...etc) I am sure as they get older our game playing will be a little more frequent.

Homeschool Memoirs: Study Spot

This week's Homeschool Memoirs asks for your favorite study spot.

When we learned we were expecting Lakin we made the decision to add a room on to our home. The boys' toys and our school supplies were taking over the house and adding another body would put us in cramped quarters and make me a little more stressed in general. So we knocked out a set of double windows in our living room, put in French doors and built a 16' x 16 ft room. It is our playroom and our classroom. It is where the majority of our studying takes place.

My biggest purchase for this room was our table. I am not a fan of desks. And I wanted a table that we could all fit at, and would grow as they grow. The legs on our table will adjust to be a foot or more higher than it is now. So all I will need is bigger chairs when they don't fit the little ones anymore. The table is where almost all of our book work, experiments and art projects take place.

Then we have our book corner. This picture was taken a few months ago. It looks a little different now, more boxed in and another pillow added.

They boys do their read aloud here. And Cohen and Lakin like to lounge around looking at books here too. And as you can see there is almost always one of our cats there as well.

But not all the studying takes place in those 2 places. A lot of times they spread out to places like the door:

Or the floor:

But almost always we are in the school room. I am not sure we ever use our dining room table for school. Other than for cooking or the occasional math assignment that isn't getting done in a room full of other people. We do spread out though: read on the living room floor or couches, cooking in the kitchen, and outside on the decks or in the yard. But for the most part our schoolroom is very well used.

Homeschool Memoirs: Routines

Over the years I've tried a number of routines. First I tried 30 min-hour blocks of time. That was left behind in no time. We are incapable of following a routine based on time. So other than starting school at 8:30, lunch at 11:30, snack at 2:30 and dinner at 5:30 we are timeless. This year I have started "school time". I was a little tired of the "are we done yet?" and the getting too involved in some sort of game or fantasy play during a 5 min break. So for this year- and it is going quite well- we have school time from 8:30-11:00 am. My oldest, Rylan, has his assignments/subjects he must cover that day written as a checklist on the whiteboard. He can choose the order, with my input to put things like our sceince/history last since it is a family affair. Cale, my Kindergartener, has the books he must work from set out on the table for him and then I will verbally tell him anything else he must complete. When he wants a break from the more intense he will take a break and pull something off the approved shelves. Some easy, some harder, but all requiring the use of his mind, small motor control or other beneficial skill.

Since all the school is done in the mornings, our afternoons are fairly free. Lunch at 11:30, an hour of quiet time for everyone to be/play on their own from 12:12-1:15. Then any out-of-the-house activities: errands, outside, visiting friends, etc...Other than assigned chores they are free to think of whatever they want to fill their time.

So far, I am really liking the new schedule. It has taken a lot of the problems out of our day. Especially getting them back into a school frame of mind after lunch and quiet time.