November Update
So last week L7 told me at one point that he hates homeschool and he doesn’t want to do it. When I asked him if he’d rather go back to school after the year is up, he wouldn’t answer me. I realized in the moment he was frustrated, and may have said what he did out of frustration, but it’s hard to get him to talk about his feelings on things sometimes so I’m not sure where he stands at this point about homeschooling. I did manage to bring up how maybe he was frustrated with how long and drawn out our homeschool days seemed to be going. I suggested we really focus on getting what needs to be done, done straight away so that by lunch he can eat, play and do whatever else he’d like for the day.
This translated into us doing some math, reading and history on Friday. Then I saw that L7 was getting antsy and frustrated that he wasn’t done with schooling for the day, so I backed off and let him have more free play time. The more I learn about homeschooling, the more I am trying to let go of following the curriculum so strictly, and instead letting our learning go where our interests do. Here’s an example of how that worked out today:
We just got a metal detector, so we read the instructions and got a few different types of metals and tried figuring out how to detect different metals. Then we finished reading The 21 Balloons this morning. I then googled the island of Krakatoa which was the main setting for most of the story. In reading about Krakatoa, I found out that the volcanic eruption that was described in the book really did happen, and on the same date as was used in the book. So we talked about how the author took a real event and incorporated it into a fictional story.
We then read more about the eruption itself. L7 went to the globe on his own and tried to find Krakatoa on the map, but it’s too small, so we went to Google Earth and found it. We also found a documentary on the eruption of Krakatoa which went into detail about the geology and history of the eruption. Truthfully we didn’t make it all the way through the documentary yet. They took a break and worked on some math (L7 did prodigy and then we got out a toy analog clock and I taught him how to tell time down to the minute, and C10 reviewed his 2’s times table), then they both did a bit of copy work.
It was fun how naturally our questions and interests guided us through quite a bit of the learning we did on this day. Both boys have been frustrated with the online math curriculum they’ve been using so I backed off of it and found other ways for us to cover math today. They both love using Prodigy game online to practice their math skills.
I have found that as far as their math curriculum online goes, they both need more practice instead of just diving into the questions they have to do, so I make a point of getting a white board, making sure they’re really following what I’m saying, and going over the problems step by step. Then leaving a completed problem on the board for them to look at for review as they work through the other problems. This works better some days and doesn’t help too much on other days.
C10 in particular struggles to memorize his multiplication facts. This slows down any advanced multiplication problems we are doing together. Someone online suggested getting an abacus and letting him do multiplication with that. So I ordered an abacus and will attempt to teach myself how to use it and then teach him as well, in the hopes that this can be used by him to complete the 3-9 multiplication facts that he can’t recall.
Lastly, both boys very much dislike copywork or writing of any kind. So I took a note from another homeschool mom who suggested writing down the copywork and letting them trace over what I wrote. This they both very happily do and I’m hoping it helps them build strength in their fine motor muscles so that writing is less of a chore and more enjoyable for them over time.
Are you a homeschooler that has found work around to make your homeschool more enjoyable? I’d love to hear what works for your family in the comments!
This translated into us doing some math, reading and history on Friday. Then I saw that L7 was getting antsy and frustrated that he wasn’t done with schooling for the day, so I backed off and let him have more free play time. The more I learn about homeschooling, the more I am trying to let go of following the curriculum so strictly, and instead letting our learning go where our interests do. Here’s an example of how that worked out today:
We just got a metal detector, so we read the instructions and got a few different types of metals and tried figuring out how to detect different metals. Then we finished reading The 21 Balloons this morning. I then googled the island of Krakatoa which was the main setting for most of the story. In reading about Krakatoa, I found out that the volcanic eruption that was described in the book really did happen, and on the same date as was used in the book. So we talked about how the author took a real event and incorporated it into a fictional story.
We then read more about the eruption itself. L7 went to the globe on his own and tried to find Krakatoa on the map, but it’s too small, so we went to Google Earth and found it. We also found a documentary on the eruption of Krakatoa which went into detail about the geology and history of the eruption. Truthfully we didn’t make it all the way through the documentary yet. They took a break and worked on some math (L7 did prodigy and then we got out a toy analog clock and I taught him how to tell time down to the minute, and C10 reviewed his 2’s times table), then they both did a bit of copy work.
It was fun how naturally our questions and interests guided us through quite a bit of the learning we did on this day. Both boys have been frustrated with the online math curriculum they’ve been using so I backed off of it and found other ways for us to cover math today. They both love using Prodigy game online to practice their math skills.
I have found that as far as their math curriculum online goes, they both need more practice instead of just diving into the questions they have to do, so I make a point of getting a white board, making sure they’re really following what I’m saying, and going over the problems step by step. Then leaving a completed problem on the board for them to look at for review as they work through the other problems. This works better some days and doesn’t help too much on other days.
C10 in particular struggles to memorize his multiplication facts. This slows down any advanced multiplication problems we are doing together. Someone online suggested getting an abacus and letting him do multiplication with that. So I ordered an abacus and will attempt to teach myself how to use it and then teach him as well, in the hopes that this can be used by him to complete the 3-9 multiplication facts that he can’t recall.
Lastly, both boys very much dislike copywork or writing of any kind. So I took a note from another homeschool mom who suggested writing down the copywork and letting them trace over what I wrote. This they both very happily do and I’m hoping it helps them build strength in their fine motor muscles so that writing is less of a chore and more enjoyable for them over time.
Are you a homeschooler that has found work around to make your homeschool more enjoyable? I’d love to hear what works for your family in the comments!
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