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Tag: homeschool activities

  • 8 Ways to Say No to Pointless Busy Work in Your Homeschool

    8 Ways to Say No to Pointless Busy Work in Your Homeschool

    If you’ve ever doubted yourself as a homeschooler, you’re not alone. No matter how many years we homeschool, doubt can get loud. Seeds of doubt plant germinate and sprout when our kids struggle, when we’re tired, when our kids say they are bored, or when learning stagnates. When worry rears its head, our inclination might be to turn to a quick fix or busy work to quiet our fears.

    What is busy work? Busy work is anything we tell ourselves is good for our child knowing full well deep inside it’s a way to keep kids occupied or put a bandaid on whatever is going on.

    Busy work often appears in the form of

    • worksheets you’ll never look at or use
    • excessive practice and problems
    • crafts
    • online learning games
    • educational television
    • flashcards, and workbooks

    While all of these things can be wonderful learning tools if used as such, they can also be pointless. They can be busy work.

    Busy work in education is like the fillers in our food. We can pretend something labeled natural is automatically nutritious. But when we analyze the ingredients label, we see the truth. And at times (especially when we are stressed or exhausted), we tell ourselves our children are learning when children are merely doing something school-like.

    I’m not here to judge. When I was a new teacher, I gave my students busy work. Again, there are a variety of reasons good teachers and homeschoolers use busy work to keep kids occupied. Busy work keeps kids quiet and basically content when other children are learning at different paces, when children are struggling to learn, when a teacher is tired or overwhelmed, and when there isn’t time to plan a more meaningful or hands-on lesson.

    Good teachers and homeschoolers don’t turn to busy work because we’re lazy. We turn to it because we feel something is amiss. When we have that feeling, we need to answer the deeper questions:

    • Is my child struggling or challenged by something we are learning?
    • Is my child complaining about being bored or miserable?
    • Am I comparing my child to someone else?
    • Am I tired or in need of a break?
    • Is my child tired or in need of a break?
    • Are my expectations realistic?
    • Am I looking for reassurance?

    All of these questions point to something other than the need for busy work. And in fact, offering worksheets or mundane practice on something a child already knows, finds boring, or they don’t understand is only going to make the situation worse.

    There are alternatives to busy work, even when we’re tired or feel overwhelmed. Here are eight ways to say no to busy work.

    1. Play

    Children learn through play! Play is just as important, if not more so than anything we are teaching our kids. Rest assured, they are learning! If you need to work one on one with a child, have toys or activities the others can play with independently. Maybe set up an art station, reading corner, or building center. These areas do not have to be complicated or time-consuming to set up. Pull out beads and strings, watercolor pencils and paper, put books in a basket, or grab a bin of LEGO blocks.

    2. Games

    There are countless games that offer practice in reading, writing, math, geography, etc. Children will learn the skills at a faster rate if they are playing. Bonus: playing a game can be the perfect way to both take a break and learn at the same time.

    3. Quiet Times

    If we want our children to learn, our children need rest. A study out of the University of Edinburgh and the University of Missouri looked at the best ways to improve memory. “The participants were asked to listen to some stories and answer questions an hour later. Without the chance to rest, they could recall just 7% of the facts in the story; with the rest, this jumped to 79% – an astronomical 11-fold increase in the information they retained.”

    When our kids aren’t used to resting or playing quietly by themselves, it can take time to help them adjust. Start out with ten minutes of quiet play and work your way up.

    4. Use Group Work or Pair/Share

    We can learn by watching others. If there are skills you want your children to practice, find a friend or sibling they can practice with. The other child may explain the concepts in a new way that helps it stick.

    5. Read

    As long as you’re reading high quality books, reading is never busy work. Read with your child, to your child, listen to an audiobook together, or have a child read silently. 

    6. Focus on What is Going Well

    We all need reassurance, but as homeschoolers, we may have to offer it to ourselves. Keep lists, charts, or bullet journals to remind yourself you are all doing great! Keep track of and encourage yourself by focusing on all the things your child accomplishes during a school day. 

    7. Take a Break

    Give yourself and your child time to process everything you’re doing. Take time to plan, to talk together about what your child wants to learn or needs to learn.

    8. Go Outside

    There are a number of reasons to get kids outside. The outdoors offers places to learn, explore, and exercise. Nature is good for our brains and our well being. Take a walk or head to the creek, the fresh air will reset everyone’s mood and your kids will find all sorts of learning threads to follow.

    As homeschoolers, we have the opportunity to offer our children a quality education over quantity. Our kids do not have to sit in chairs all day, stand in lines, or wait for twenty other children to finish their work. We can set deadlines or not. Our kids can learn inside or out, in the morning or afternoon, and while that doesn’t mean our job as a homeschooler is easy, it does mean we can focus on what our children need and avoid keeping them busy with pointless busy work.

    If after reading this article, you wonder if your entire curriculum may be based on busy work, take a look at BookShark. Meaningful discussions about great books are the heart of a BookShark education. No fluff. No busy work. Request a catalog here. 

    About the Author

    Kelly left teaching middle and high school English to homeschool her children and reclaim how she and her family spent their time. Followers of interest-led learning, her family’s days rarely look the same, but they tend to include a lot of books, art supplies, and time outside.

    Kelly facilitates local writing circles for women and children and blogs about nurturing the love of learning on her blog, Curiosity Encouraged. She loves to journal, read memoirs, hike, and travel. She seeks quiet mornings and good coffee daily.

  • Using Project-based Assessment for Reading with History

    Using Project-based Assessment for Reading with History

    Are you trying to figure out how to assess your child’s learning with Bookshark’s Reading with History? When using this wonderful curriculum, you may feel a little unsure when you reach the end of a topic or when you try to document your child’s learning. But don’t despair. There are many creative ways you can document and assess your child’s learning. And the best part? No tests required. 

    Assessments of learning need not include tests and book reports, yet this is often the default for measuring history knowledge.

    When I was growing up, we generally followed the same schedule for each chapter in our history textbook: Read, take notes, answer end-of-chapter questions, end with a unit test. There was nothing of substance and it led many children, myself included, to dismiss history as boring and irrelevant. 

    Wrong! History is an incredibly interesting topic, serving as the map of how we got where we are today. It’s a blueprint to remind us not to repeat some aspects of our history as well.

    BookShark’s Reading with History offers the unique opportunity to get creative when assessing learning.

    While these changes may be totally unlike your view of traditional education, a curriculum free of textbooks and tests makes room for authentic project-based assessments instead. 

    My favorite way to choose projects is to chat with my child to see what she might like to do for the project. Here are five standbys for project-based assessments that we turn to often.

    1. Keepsake Book

    Reading with History is categorized by age range, with literature chosen to cover various topics within certain times in history. Children can read each book and then create their own keepsake history book by making an illustration or writing a piece that represents a memorable moment from that time in history. Continue adding pages with each new topic covered. Let them create and decorate a cover, a title page, and voila! 

    2. Digital Presentation

    Since children typically enjoy using computers, a digital presentation is a wonderful way to present what they learned. Children can include images, text, and even music within this program to create a presentation that displays memorable moments from history. 

    3. Dioramas

    Dioramas are 3-dimensional models, created in miniature, or in large-scale, as you would see in a museum. Children can use shoeboxes and decorate them to represent a scene from a moment in history. For older children, you might want to also include a written component where they describe in more detail what the diorama represents and why it is important. 

    4. BookShark Lap Books

    Lap Book Kits are amazing for compiling the important information covered in the curriculum. I love the simplicity of the papercrafts because it makes learning the focus, which can sometimes get lost in the details of more complicated projects. 

    5. How Might It Have Been Different? 

    Imagine if one important component of the time period were missing. How might the world look today?

    • If, for example, the Egyptians never learned to embalm the dead, how might things be different in that area?
    • If the Europeans had never made it to the Indies, how might America look today?

    Have older children explore this based on what they are learning in history and have them write an informative piece to cover this. 

    How to Create a Rubric to Evaluate the Project

    One of the keys to success with project-based projects is getting your children involved in the evaluation process, for example with a rubric. A rubric is a tool that shows your child what is expected for the project and the corresponding grade for each level of fulfillment. 

    A clear rubric that you both agree on ahead of time eliminates the arbitrary feeling of subjective grading. Again, it is a great idea to get children involved in this as well, even letting older children make the entire rubric themselves prior to starting the project. 

    What do you expect to see in the final project? Note, this will look unique based on the project that is chosen. Give points value for this.

    • A narrowed topic
    • A certain number of examples to support the topic
    • A bibliography (for older children) 
    • A certain number of reliable sources
    • Will you count appearance as part of the grade? If so, give points value for this. 
    • Was the project completed on time? If you follow a more structured schedule this might be included on your rubric. Give points value for this. 

    Making history fun and relevant is important for helping children make connections and build a solid foundation of knowledge that they can carry forward in their education. Project-based assessments give children the opportunity to get their hands busy and their creative ideas flowing. 

    About the Author

    Resa Brandenburg is a former teacher who is now passionate about unschooling her daughter. She lives with her husband in an old farmhouse by the river in Kentucky. Her favorite thing to do is spend the afternoon with her family, including her grown sons and two grandchildren. Her hobbies include traveling, reading, and quilting.

  • Sidewalk Chalk Ideas for Homeschool Learning

    Sidewalk Chalk Ideas for Homeschool Learning

    If you’re looking for an inexpensive way to liven up your school day, grab a bucket of sidewalk chalk and head outside. While it’s easy enough to let kids go wild and create whatever they want, consider adding some structure and hands-on education to your outdoor chalk time.

    Below you’ll find activities focusing on a variety of subjects —math, science, language arts— that have one element in common; they can all be done outside with sidewalk chalk. These activities are adaptable, so feel free to use these directions as a springboard for your own fun! Modify the ideas below depending on your child’s age and ability.

    Engage Your Kids with These Chalk Activities and Games

    1. Chalk Sundial

    In an area of full sun, draw a large circle with chalk. Mark off the center of the circle. Early in the day, at the top of the hour, have someone stand on the center mark. Then, have someone else draw the shadow that is created. At the shadow’s edge, write down the time. Throughout the day, repeat the process. You’ll see the shadow moving across the circle.

    Questions to ask:

    • How does the sundial work to tell time?
    • How accurate is a sundial?

    2. Math Path

    Draw a large hopscotch board; feel free to extend it by adding extra boxes. Place a different number inside each box. Give your child a specific math function to solve in order to move into each box. For example let’s say you have the number 63 in the first box. Say, “Use division to get to 63.”

    Make it harder:

    • Instead of having them solve one math equation, make them answer many to move into a box. Using the above example, ask them to use addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division to get to 63.
    • As they move along the boxes, have kids determine whether a number is a prime number or not.

    3. Spelling Circles

    Draw many circles across a large area of your driveway. Write one letter into each circle. Give your child a word to spell and have them move among the circles, spelling it out.

    Variations:

    • Instead of having kids move from letter to letter, give them a specific movement. For example, “For this word, skip through the letters.”
    • Let your student create words from the letters in the circles. If you want to make it more challenging, have them stick to different word lengths each round, for example six letter words.

    Additional Outdoor Chalk Projects

    Build a Story

    Write a list of random words using chalk, and have your child jump from word to word, making up a creative story as they move along. You can also do this with two people by letting them take turns choosing words but contributing to the same story.

    History Timeline

    Choose a period a historical figure from your history lessons and create a timeline. Include both dates and pictures. Stick figures are welcome!

    Recreate a Masterpiece

    Have your child choose a piece of art they love and then let them make it with chalk. Discuss the pros and cons of using chalk as an art medium.

    Solar System

    Kids won’t be able to draw a life sized solar system, but they can chalk one using proper ratios. Have your student do some math and measure out each planet to make an impressive solar system.

    Whatever you decide to do, the main thing is to have fun while you’re learning! There are all kinds of chalk available, including neon colors, glow in the dark, and glitter. Hunt around for special chalks to make this outdoor learning activity extra special.