Category: Homeschool

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Homeschool

I’ve Unexpectedly Fallen in Love with Homeschooling

I've Unexpectedly Fallen in Love with HomeschoolingI never thought I would, but I absolutely love to homeschool my kids. Even more than that, I love to roadschool my kids. True, there are very frustrating moments (more than I’d care to admit) but mostly it has been the most amazing learning experience for all of us.

I’ve had many people ask HOW we do it. How I (we) spend all day with our children, how I figure out what to teach them, how I get time for myself. The truth is, we just do. There’s no magic secret, mostly just good old fashioned, shoulder to wheel… work.

In complete honesty, however, I’m not sure I could homeschool in a house. The easy part about roadschooling is that our surroundings are always changing. Each week we have a new city. New science centers, new hikes, new museums, new beaches, new playgrounds, new National Parks. We are not visiting the same ones over, and over, and that definitely makes the same type of activity more interesting.

At the same time, roadschooling does make other aspects more difficult. I would LOVE to be part of a group. I know there are plenty of families out there that homeschool and do music groups, PE groups, or group lessons. That would definitely alleviate the pressure of doing everything myself. However, that also comes with the price of a schedule.

More and more I realize how grateful I am to be currently homeschooling my children. My favorite aspect is the FREEDOM. Its like I can suddenly breath again. We are not tied to anyone else’s schedule. I get to see my kids ALL day (and yes, I consider that a perk. Most days.). My kids can PLAY. Kids learn best when they play, so why don’t we let them? As I sit in science center after science center in city after city, watching them explore, fiddle, and experiment, I wonder if they really are learning anything. Then my kids will surprise me with an observation and I’m just floored. They DO learn. While discussing California with Rachel today for Geography, I mentioned that its nickname is the Golden State and did she know why? Andrew, sitting across the table, pipes up with all sorts of information about the gold rush, why it was important, and what people were hoping to accomplish by coming to California. What the? I asked him where he learned that, and he simply said, “My Tag Reader Puzzle”. He picked all of that information up while playing a game.

Is homeschooling right for everyone? No. I don’t think so. Will it always be right for our family? I don’t know that either. Is it hard? Incredibly. Do I always have the answers? Definitely not. I figure we just take it one step at time, we pay attention to what our kids need, and we go from there. For now though, I’m just going to enjoy it.

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Homeschool

Our Top 10 Favorite {Kid Friendly} Board & Card Games

Looking for simple board or card games to play with your kids? Check out this list of our 10 favorites!

We are not nearly the intense gaming family I once envisioned. Growing up holidays were spent with cousins playing game after game while munching on ridiculously yummy food. Sam grew up pouring concrete on holidays (or some other such work project) and thought holidays playing games were a trifle…boring. As a family, we’ve settled somewhere nicely balanced in between.

A good portion of our cupboard space in the Airstream is filled with card and board games – many of them intentionally purchased for homeschooling purposes. In no particular order here are our current favorites:

Ages of Kids: Rachel (8), Andrew (6), Cara (3.5)

Robot Turtles: We already blogged about this one and it definitely makes our list. Teach kids the basics of programming while they navigate their turtles through a maze to find their jewel. All 3 of our kids love this one and can play simultaneously at different levels (although that requires some seriously thinking on Sam’s part to set up the maze).

Sleeping Queens: We pretty much love any game by Gamewright. They do such a great job. Use a King to wake up a Queen, a Knight to steal one, or a sleeping potion to put an opponent’s Queen back to sleep. Easy to play, and the older 2 love it. Cara usually plays on a team.

Mermaid Beach: Cara has started playing her own cards on this one recently. A mix between Go Fish, Old Maid, and something else entirely. Super fun, quick, and easy to play.

Yahtzee Jr Toy Story: With a Buzz Lightyear lover, how could we not own this game? I love that its super easy to play – you just roll the dice and try to collect 5 of a specific character. It also plays fast. Cara can play this one by herself as long as I prod her to choose someone other than Buzz every turn.

Sequence Letters: This game was really great for Andrew about a year ago when he was learning his letters and sounds. Now its easier for him to play, but both Rachel & Andrew still love it. Too advanced for Cara to play on her own, but now that she’s learning her letters it won’t be long.

Spot It Jr Animals: This game is sweeping the nation. We were introduced by friends in Philadelphia, and given the game from Aunt Chelsea in Utah, while we had Christmas in Texas. Follow that? We bought the Jr. version thinking it would be a little easier for Cara. She normally doesn’t play, but I think we could start her pretty soon.

Tell Tale, Fairy Tales: Created by the same people as Spot It! this is a similar round card design. We play the version where each person adds a card to the collective story, that way all 3 kids can play. Great for writing practice!

The Scrambled States of America Game: Bought this one for Geography. Each player has a pile of states and has to find one that is “East of Missouri” or “Starts with the letter A, B, or C” or “Has a Capital with 7 Letters”. The person with the most states at the end wins.

Rush Hour Jr: Homeschool purchase designed to make my kids think. You have to navigate the ice cream truck out of the maze.

Qwirkle: We throw out the figurative scoring pad on this one and just play to see how many Qwirkles we can get. We help each other find the best places to put tiles and don’t keep score. Cara even enjoys pulling new tiles out and helping me match the colors and shapes.

ARGH!: I just HAD to add this one in. I LOVE this game. Its fast, fairly brainless, and super cute. More of a “I can’t stop drawing for jewels” and then “Crap! I just lost all my jewels to the pirate” kind of fun. Great for entertaining my kids while we wait at the laundromat. All 3 kids play this one.

Here are two bonus games played mostly by Sam & I:

Tantrix: We bought this game almost 10 years ago in New Zealand, and its actually a game we will play with the two of us. Create the longest line to win the game. Loops earn double points.

Monopoly Deal: I HATE the real version of Monopoly. This one I’ll play anytime, anywhere. Super fast, fun to play, and sometimes there’s just nothing you can do to win. (I just looked this up on Amazon and its been discontinued. 🙁 Apparently we’d better not lose it).


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Homeschool

How We Turned Our Kids Into Awesome Readers

How We Turned Our Kids into Great Readers

Back at the brick & mortar “Lehi House” I would take weekly trips to the library with the kids. We’d listen to story time, check out a handful of new books, maybe read one or two while we were there and be one our way. I’m pretty sure I didn’t look at those books until the next time we went to the library and repeated our routine. The kids read them at night while they were winding down for sleep, but I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I actually sat down with them to read. I think it took Andrew & I at least six weeks to go through one Secrets of Droon book, and there were a few we never actually finished.

Somehow, somewhere along this most recent journey of ours, a light bulb turned on in their little brains and now I can’t get books fast enough for them. There are three  factors I contribute to the voraciousness with which our kids now devour books. Whether it was purely by accident, or some genius, subconscious parenting move on our part, we are definitely happy with the outcome. Here they are in no particular order:

1. Reading with Our Kids
When we made the trip out East and settled in the “Virginia House” (as we now call it) Sam decided that in order for him & Rachel to reach their goal of finishing the Book of Mormon before her baptism they really needed to start reading. A lot. So, every evening after Cara was in bed, the two of them would sit down and read for about 30 minutes. After about a week, Andrew started getting jealous and asked if WE could read something together instead of me just putting him to be early. “Oh,” I thought. “Why not?” Best decision I ever made.

Andrew & I started consuming books together. It helps that his reading skills have vastly improved over the last 6 months. He’s definitely reading on at least a 1st grade if not 2nd grade level at age 6. We plowed through at least a dozen Secrets of Droon books and we both looked forward to the evenings when we would read together.

Fast forward to life in the Airstream. Cara goes to bed at 7:30pm and the other two at 8:30pm, but they all share the same room. Naturally, we need to be semi-quiet after Cara’s gone to bed so she’ll fall asleep before the other two climb back there about an hour later. What do you do with 2 kids in 188 sq feet when you need to be fairly quiet? You read! This time we switched kids. I started reading books like Ella Enchanted, Wizard of Oz, and Chronicles of Narnia with Rachel, while Sam got a turn reading Secrets of Droon & Harry Potter with Andrew. We love it. Where before it seemed like a chore to sit down and read with my kids, now it is something we all look forward too. Do we ready EVERY night without fail? Of course not. Sometimes we’ll play a game, or the kids will all stay up late watching a movie, but I’d say at least 5 nights a week we read.

2. The Kindle
The second factor I credit with helping our kids become great readers is the Kindle. Its fascinating to an 8 and 6 year old. They would read just to be reading on the Kindle because it was THAT cool. I have an older one we purchased years ago, and Santa brought me a new Kindle Paperwhite for Christmas so now we have two. If I’m not particularly engrossed in a book, I’ll let them both pick a book and use their own device. Otherwise they just have to take turns.

How do we get new books? Most public libraries have subscribed to some sort of Overdrive system where you can borrow digital library books. Amazon Prime also lets you borrow 1 book for free each month (Harry Potter is our current on-loan book). Having lived in two different states, we have library cards for both Utah and Virginia which is convenient because each library limits the number of borrowed books to 5.  We also have a collection of physical Roald Dahl books (Christmas present from Grandma), some Secrets of Droon, and other Princess or Marvel stories we’ve collected. Most of the time, however,  I can’t get new books on the Kindle fast enough. They’ll easily go through some of the shorter chapter books in a few hours.
Young Girl Reading Kindle PaperWhite

3. Sheer Boredom
This is the best one. When our kids have nothing else to do and I won’t let them play the tablet or watch a movie, I casually suggest they read. Most of the time they’ll take me up on it. They will also bring books in the car and read as we drive (thankfully they don’t get car sick). The sheer lack of anything else interesting to do often motivates them to turn to a book. Perfect.

Young Boy Reading Kindle

Reading with our kids has turned them into great readers. Whether the books are digital or physical, done out of sheer boredom or because they love whatever book they’re reading I’m grateful for it.

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Homeschool Musings of Sam Video

I Introduce My Kids to Programming Using Robot Turtles

I introduce my kids to programming using Robot Turtles

Months ago, I backed a KickStarter project called Robot Turtles, a board game designed to teach kids fundamental concepts of programming. I had been thinking about using programming as part of our home school curriculum, and this was a great place to start. We received Robot Turtles just before Christmas, and it was one of the gifts opened during our Airstream Christmas.

At the request of the kids, we pulled out the game and figured out how to play. I recorded one of our games to share.

The game is played with an adult acting as the Turtle Mover and the other players acting as Turtle Masters. Turtle Masters cannot directly move their turtles, and must use the instruction cards to instruct the Turtle Mover as they move pieces on the board game. The game action cards include Right, Left, and Forward, as well as Laser, Bug and the Function Frog. The Function frog teaches code reuse. The Bug is for when they incorrectly instruct their Turtle and want the Turtle Mover to reset their game piece. The game does not include loops or conditionals, but otherwise does a great job teaching the basics to kids.

When I say kids, I mean all of them. Rachel and Andrew play very well, but even little 3 year old Cara understands the concepts and plays well. She is more easily distracted, and frequently directs her turtle  out of the way to ‘laser blast’ an ice wall. Despite her shenanigans, it is very clear that she understands the basic ideas.

Jess took the kids to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas this week, and the kids rocked the ‘program a robot’ exhibit. I didn’t get to see it happen, but Jess was ridiculously excited about how well our kids were able to program the robot to navigate the maze.

Today for #roadschool my kids programmed robots to navigate a maze. #soproud #currentlywandering #astc #Dallas #texas #PerotMuseum

There will be more Robot Turtles (and related teaching tools) in our future.

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Homeschool

Our Homeschool (Roadschool) Lightbulb Moment

Now that we are officially on the road full time, I thought an update about our current homeschool activities was appropriate. If you recall, our beginning was a little rocky, but I feel like the kids have now gotten into a routine. Some days Andrew will wake up and be done with his workbooks before breakfast, other days they are both still stumbling along well after lunch. For the most part though, we get through their workbooks and assignments fairly quickly and move on to the more exciting aspect of schooling while on the road; the field trips. Remember how as kid you had maybe 1-3 field trips per year? Field trip days were the most exciting, the most anticipated days of the year (for most I suppose, I’m sure there was the student in every class that would rather stay at a desk all day. That was definitely not me). We probably do 1-3 field trips per WEEK. I love it. I feel like my kids get so much more hands on experience, and while I feel sometimes that I’m not doing enough, or that I’m not doing the right things, we have moments where I feel like this, this is exactly perfect for them.

For instance, we were at the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina and I had a moment with Andrew. We desperately wanted to get to the butterfly hall in order to see the release of new butterflies (occurs at set times once or twice daily) so we raced past an old train caboose that you could go inside and explore. It was bright red and looked really old. Andrew turned to me and said, “Mom? I really want to come back and go in there.”

“Why?” I said.

“Because the kids that are coming out of there are smiling. So it must be fun and I want to go inside and check it out.”

I about died of happiness right there. My cute little 6 year old had made the cognitive link between smiling children exiting a play structure and that because they were smiling it was probably a really cool place. Not only had he made the link in his brain, but he verbally expressed it to me quite clearly.

Maybe these types of moments happen all the time in public school? I’m not sure, because I’m not there to see them. It makes me happy to see my kids make connections between various places we visited or talked about in books. I feel in a small way, maybe we are doing okay. Our learning opportunities are different from what a regular school provides, but I  feel like it better fits what my kids need.

Magic Wings Butterfly House - Durham Museum of Life and Science