C is for Creativity

One thing I just love about Homeschooling is the freedom to be creative. And by creative, I don’t specifically mean art supplies.

Though, we do love art at my house. Paint, markers, glitter, scissors, paper, boxes, clay, etc. We have so many art supplies! And we go through them so quickly. I’m always requesting art supplies as birthday and holiday gifts because it’s impossible to keep up otherwise. Right now, I have poster paint and plaster of paris on my shopping list. Of course, I need thread for a sewing project so I’ll be going to the hobby store sometime this next week and the’ll get their paint and plaster of paris while I’m there.

BTW, plaster of paris is worse than glitter. The dust gets everywhere! And because it heats up right after mixing it, it’s always a project that I have to be heavily involved in. We have these princess doll molds for plaster of paris and they’ve sadly broken most of them. So sometime while they’re sleeping, I need to make some new ones and then they’ll spend the next week painting and decorating them.

Back to creativity in homeschooling… For example, history doesn’t just have to be from a book. You can go to a museum, watch a movie, or read a fun biography. We’ve even done a themed meal or other project to help the kids learn about the historical period we’re currently discussing. History is so much fun!

Science, trip to the zoo, growing your own garden (my 7yr old has be begging for years to have her own garden, this spring I’m going to let her have her own), experiments, museums, and anything fun that helps kids learn about the world around them.

Reading, I strongly believe in finding things for kids to read that they want to read. I have grade level readers, but I always have those a backups for if we don’t have anything else to read. Right now, my 2nd grader wants to read Childhood of Famous Americans: Andrew Jackson. It’s a bit above a 2nd grade reading level and she’s all into it. I’m getting reading AND history in one easy swoop! She’d rather read this than her grade level reader, so that’s what we read. It’s all about getting them reading.

English, or Language & Grammar, whichever you prefer to call it. Now that we’re to 2nd grade I combine this a lot with handwriting since it’s pretty difficult to accomplish one subject without the other. I do have a curriculum for this but I’ll take breaks for fun projects like writing thank you notes, addressing Christmas cards, writing a story, etc. It’s important to learn the rules, but you also want there to be room for some fun.

Math, no surprises here, with a girl, math is our toughest subject. Here’s the interesting part, physical math skills like telling time, measurements, temperatures, etc. are not a problem. It’s the more abstract skills like addition and subtraction problems, counting sequences, and I’m not sure how she’ll do with multiplication in a month. I encourage her to use her math through the day on things like cooking (since she loves to cook and you can’t cook without basic math), art (think of all those shapes you can measure and create),  daily calendar, etc. Maybe this is why her physical math is easy? And think of all the fun math we’ll use this spring when we plant her garden!

What are some fun things you do with your kids to help them learn?