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Show Notes

It’s important to understand your child’s learning style and preferences. We talk about this in episode 004 homeschool styles and philosophies. Some children enjoy hands-on activities while others enjoy quiet, focused work. Others may need more visual cues or physical movement for concepts to stick. Take time to understand what works best for them so that lessons remain interesting and engaging. This will help ensure that the material is being fully absorbed rather than memorized and quickly forgotten.

People often have the mindset of replicating public school at home but you have to remember that children are learning all the time. On episode 018. Homeschooling lifestyle, I talked about, sir, Ken Robinson. He made a huge impact on the way many people view education. His powerful TED Talk is still one of the most viewed TED Talks ever. If you haven’t seen that video discussing the importance of creativity  challenges educators to radically rethink education. It’s a fantastic video every homeschooler should watch.

Sir Ken Robinson TED TALK

Be sure that your child has a say in what they learn. Everyone is more engaged and remember when they are interested in the content. We want to create lifelong learners. My kids know that I don’t know everything. They will see me reading from the guide or when they ask a question, I don’t know the answer to and I say, “let’s look that up together”. I think that’s beautiful and healthy and they’re seeing an example of a lifelong learner and always being curious. You don’t always have to know the answer, but you want to ignite that curiosity inside of them. A lot of parents when asked a question will just tell their kids to look something up.

My child hates writing so how do I make that fun? (5:18)

The first thing we need to find out before attempting to answer this question is- what do you mean when you say “writing”?  Are you talking about the physical act of pencil to paper handwriting or are you referring to actual foundational writing, sentence structure, detailing thoughts, etc?  Because these are two very different things.

Penmanship

Also, how old is your child?  We see a lot of people struggling with both handwriting and composition and then they will tell us that they are talking about their 6-year-old boy.  It is very normal for a 6-year-old (especially boys) to be resistant or struggle with the act of handwriting, and it’s also not really age appropriate to expect a lot of writing out of a 6-year-old. I, personally, don’t do a ton of writing work outside of handwriting with under 10s.  This can be a really frustrating subject to force when a little time and maturity will often make this a much easier endeavor.

You also want to make sure you rule out an actual physical limitation to writing.  Visual tracking and other learning disabilities can also be a factor.  We talked about that in episode 021. and homeschooling a child with a learning disability. I did take my son to an occupational therapist when he was little because he complained about how much writing hurt his hands.  She gave us some exercises and different kinds of pencil holders and grips.  We will link to some fun ones in the show notes. 

So let’s start with handwriting. When you have a child that hates writing, it’s important to think about the goal of a writing assignment. Is the goal of the assignment to see handwritten symbols (letters) on a page? Then we’re talking about the physical act of handwriting or penmanship. There are so many ways to work on the small motor skills that are going to aid in handwriting.  You can use tracing paper, you can form letters with clay or dough, you can write in sand or shaving cream or another medium.  Get some fancy paper.  You can also experiment with different kinds of pens or pencils or markers. My son for a while insisted on a quill and ink.  Whatever helps!

Postcrossing

Drawing is also a great thing to do.  Some hesitant writers could draw all day long. Keep in mind that drawing and handwriting require many of the same skills. One program we really liked was Draw Write Now.  It’s a set of books that include drawing lessons with handwriting skills.  They are super cute, themed and colorful books. They are great for young beginners and those who need to work on those fine motor skills.

Top Math Games

Grab these FREE Draw and Write worksheets printable to accompany the Draw Write Now drawing series.

For teaching handwriting, we liked Handwriting Without Tears.  This program uses fun, engaging, and developmentally appropriate instructional methods to enable children to master handwriting as an automatic and comfortable skill.  They teach about grip, letter recognition and formation.  There are several books in this series by grade level and it moves on to cursive.

Some homeschooling methods teach cursive first.  This is a Montessori technique and taught because the fluid movement involved in writing cursive letters is easier for children to master.  I did this with my own children, and it was a hit! My little guy felt like a secret detective because he knew a special handwriting code that often his friends didn’t know. Schools have supposedly edged away from teaching cursive at all.  

We do teach it in our homeschool- I joke that it might become a marketable skill during a zombie apocalypse.  You can also try learning calligraphy or italics.  One of my kids was interested in this after learning about other homeschoolers that had their own business handwriting wedding invitations.

Sometimes we still see people agonizing over handwriting with their high schoolers.  This is a pick your battle moment.  Let’s face it, when your high schooler says he doesn’t really need to write legibly because everything is typed, he’s right.  They aren’t going to do a lot of actual writing in life. This is one of the reasons it was important for me to teach typing. So, while there is definitely a want for clear, neat handwriting (especially as a reflection to homeschool mom), it’s not totally necessary.  And the thing is, your high schooler does know how to write at this point.  If they want to write neater, they can teach themselves how.  If they want to be better at cursive, there are a million resources to practice at any age.  Don’t waste your time with this.

Foundational writing

Writing is a complex process that requires the integration of multiple skills, many of which are executive functioning skills. Writing involves having to visualize ideas in your mind, so that you can manipulate your thoughts into structured sentences that make sense.  You need to search your brain for the proper sounds that make up letters and words and ideas.  And then transpose those letters on paper by hand.

This is actually a lot and it makes sense that handing a kid a piece of paper and saying “write a paragraph” about X can be totally overwhelming.  You can ease into this by starting with things like asking questions that don’t allow a yes or no answer and getting into various dialogs that can inspire writing.

Encourage narration- have your child tell you a story or answer a question in their own words.  We did this all the time! Narration is an important skill. 

One thing I did from a really early age when they were toddlers 2-3 years old… They would tell me these elaborate stories; they were so creative as most children are at that age. I happened to type really fast so I would sit down at the computer and have them tell me the story and I would type it up for them and we made these little books that I printed, and they loved to cuddle on the couch, while I read their story back to them over and over again. You can even write this down and let them practice handwriting from their own words.

We’ve talked about programs like Story Starters before.  This is a book with a series of story beginnings with illustrations and the student then finishes the story. Writing Prompts/Journaling can be great practice for this as well.  We’ve found some really great writing prompt books at Five Below that I just have in a morning basket.

Night Zookeeper is an online learning program that helps teach reading/writing skills.  Kids are tasked with raising and caring for mythical animals in a zoo, and have a variety of challenges and activities in the form of writing prompts to advance in the game.

So, whether you are working on penmanship or crafting stories and paragraphs, it’s important to remember that your relationship comes first. We are lucky that we are in the unique position that we are with our children daily and have the ability to influence our children. The words we choose with our kids can make or break their spirits. When we encourage our kids and give them our undivided attention, their confidence is going to grow.

What are the best learning games? (14:17)

When I am out with my hiking group and I end up with all of the little kids up front with me, but I really want to jump into the adult conversation happening in the back, I have a great little trick that I use.  I simply ask, “Does anyone here play Minecraft?”  They all do, and they all have a million things to say about it, so I let them talk to each other and then I can fade away!

My kids got involved with a group called “Minecraft Homeschool” years ago.  I believe it was a mom who set up a server for her kids and eventually opened it up to her whole co-op and then started making classes that could then have built assignments and other activities through the game.  It was quite brilliant.  She had a whole host of teens that helped as moderators and architects, and she built some awesome history and geography classes around the game.  It eventually morphed into a fully functioning curriculum platform with classes in all kinds of subjects- math, cooking, history, science.  It’s now called GamEd Academy.

If you have kids who are into coding or learning how to code Minecraft can also help with that. If you have a Raspberry Pi, your family can learn how to use Python code to program interactions with the Minecraft world. If you don’t have a Raspberry Pi, there are also all kinds of posts and instructions out there on how to learn Python with Minecraft.  There are also books on that: Learn to Program with Minecraft: Transform Your World with the Power of Python 

CodeSpark Academy is an app that teaches kids coding in a fun and interesting manner. There are also so many Outschool classes that teach coding and other aspects of computer programming.

Reading Eggs and Starfall are two computer based programs that can help kids learn to read and increase phonics skills.

Explode the Code is another phonics program- it comes in a book form and now also has an online version.  We only did the book form.  They are quirky and funny and the kids enjoyed them.

015. How Do You Teach Your Child To Read?

Bedtime Math is a program that sends parents a math challenges every day.  It will have a tale, then 3 problems- the stories and challenges are like a game. The idea is to include it into your bedtime routine as a way of building and reinforcing math skills.

Board Games– Classic games like Scrabble, Yahtzee, Life, Scattergories, Ticket to Ride, Apples to Apples.  These are all great ways to incorporate learning while having a lot of fun.  We recently put together a long list of math games, too, which we will link in the show notes.

Cards can also be great learning games: Professor Noggins series, Timeline, Bananagrams, Uno, Catan.  

 Download your 14 FREE Board Game templates below. Have your kids create their own board game. You can also create your own boardgames incorporating concepts your kids are working on: Math, Reading, Social Studies, Science, and more! 

Professor Noggin’s History of The United States Trivia Card Game and all the other Professor Noggin games are so much fun!

Timeline Inventions Card Game Fun Educational Trivia Game for Adults and Kids Ages 8+

Mudpuppy Map of the United States of America Puzzle, 70 Pieces, 23”x16.5″, Ideal for Kids Age 5+, Learn all 50 States by Name & Capital, Double-Sided Geography Puzzle with Pieces Shaped like the State

Apps like the Jeopardy app,  Wordle, crosswords, the geography “Worldle” are all great learning games that are quick and simple.

Wordle

Puzzles are classic and fun.  We still have so many puzzles in our house of all types- I always like to have a puzzle table up at Christmas time.

How do you break up the monotony mid semester? (21:47)

Discovering Geography and Culture Through Food

1. Use your boredom to start planning next year.  This is a great time to really review and figure out what worked, what didn’t, and get hyped about what’s next.  Nothing get me through the remaining lit books we need to tackle, like a cart full of next year’s books waiting to be ordered (I like to sell my used ones first)

2. Set small goals with an incentive at the end.  If we can get through this, this, and this this week, we can hit the skatepark on Friday.

3. Take a field trip.  We just did an awesome episode on field trips and created a field trip blog post with 100 ideas as well as some super awesome printables to go with it.  Check it out if you haven’t already.  It was one of our favorite episodes to do.  

4. Move schoolwork outside.  It’s hard to struggle through work inside when it’s a beautiful day out! Move your workout outdoors.  Let kids play while you read, do your writing in the dirt.

5. Remember that schools actually only complete 75% of curriculum. Figure out what you *need* to finish and what you *want* to finish.  Have a lot of reading to get through soon?  Take an opportunity to watch a play or the movie version of that book.

6. Take a break- if you school all year, it’s easy to get swept into the traditional school end of year wrapping up crazy while you can actually take a break.

7. Change up what’s not working- Don’t feel like you need to finish something that has been totally excruciating just for the sake of finishing it.  The beauty of homeschooling is that we decide our materials, we decide what’s a passing grade, we decide when our kids are ready to progress.

8. Invite friends over to do a fun project- some subjects like art or geography/culture study, science experiments, are way more fun with friends.  You can also consider putting together a science fair, or show and tell time, current events club or homeroom, a living wax museum or country/culture presentations with a group.

9. Change your scenery- library study room, coffee shop, college campus, hotel lobby- all of these are great alternative locations where you can get your work done without the distractions of home

10. Find a creative way to get an assignment done.  Need kids to do a written summary of a book?  Let them do it with puppets, or put on a play with siblings or friends, let them make a lego stop motion video, or design a movie poster.  Take chalk outside and do your math in the driveway.  

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Field Trip Bundle with 100 ideas (pdf)

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Show Notes

Take learning to the next level by incorporating a lot of field trips in your homeschool. Field trips are the perfect example of hands-on, real-life learning.  Field Trips are one of the best ways to enjoy learning in a fun way with a homeschool group or just with your own family and the opportunities are endless! It’s great to use a field trip as a nice break after a busy week or use it as a way to complement a lesson you are already doing.  

We were lucky to live in certain parts of the country that were relevant to the history we were learning at the time- how fun is it to actually get to put your hands on history?  Or other things you may be learning about. You can go to the local art museum just to find pieces by an artist that you have been reading about.

One of the biggest benefits of homeschooling is that we are the keepers of our time, and that means we are not at all limited to schooling during the week and only having afternoons and weekends for exploring.  We discuss how to create an entire homeschool lifestyle in episode 018. One of my favorite things is to hit a museum on a Monday morning or Thursday afternoon and have it all to myself.  I always joke with people that I homeschool so that I never have to go to the zoo or mall on a Saturday!  

Are field trips expensive for homeschoolers?

The short answer is that they don’t have to be!  Obviously there are going to be places that charge an entry fee or admission but there will also be places you can visit for free.  You could also consider planning your own field trip in order to get a free or discounted rate.

One of the things I would like to share are two organizations that offer reciprocal programs.  Basically, if you have a membership in your town to one of these participating museums or facilities or to the program itself, you can often use the benefits in other places. These programs are: 

ASTC Passport Program

If you are a member of a science center or museum participating in the, you are eligible for benefits such as free general admission when you travel outside of your local area. Learn more about ASTC memberships.

American Horticultural Society 

A current membership card from here or from a garden participating in the Reciprocal Admissions Program (RAP) entitles you to special admission privileges and discounts* at 345+ gardens throughout North America! 

How do you find unique field trips?

Can you include transportation as an element of your trip?  Does your area have a train or bus or trolley or boat or other alternate transportation that you might not typically take?  Include it in your trip. For littler kids, just that transportation ride can be a field trip in itself.  

I coach a Future City Engineering Team and have found some really cool field trips to go along with our topic for the year- we have toured a Wetland filtration facility and last year, I reached out to a commercial landfill for a tour (we were doing a project on garbage).  This ended up being the coolest tour- we drove all over their facility, climbed on huge equipment and trucks, and learned so much- I came home excited, myself, for a future in waste management.  The funny thing was, after that tour, I asked how many students came there and we were the only group that they had ever hosted!  So don’t be afraid to call and just ask if someone would be interested in showing you their workplace.

We also have a friend who coaches a local Model United Nations group.  Every year her team represents a country, and she immerses them in learning all kinds of things about that country.  She finds the coolest events and activities- one year when all of our kids were representing Italy, she took us to an Italian Car Show, a Latin Vespers Mass at a monastery, an Italian restaurant and an Italian cooking lesson for a holiday meal, and many other things.  We’ve been to Asian Art talks when we were representing China and Budhan, a mosque as Kuwait, and the Greek Festival as Greece.

Ask around to other parents in your group- what kind of jobs do your friend’s spouses have?  Neighbors?  Your uncle?  Through the years we’ve toured my dad’s Air Traffic Control Radar Facility and my husband’s hotel’s commercial laundry.  You were able to get us into your kids’ dad’s company once to see the giant pendulum (Foucault pendulum) in the Hunt building downtown Dallas.

Interesting community field trips (16:16)

How do you organize a field trip? (44:39)

Organizing a field trip is not difficult.  It will require a bit of organization and a lot of patience though. Be creative and plan things you know your family will enjoy. Plan ahead and contact a business to see if they offer free tours or discounted rates for groups. I have often booked field trips for places that I want to go but maybe have a high entrance price that we can get a group discount on.  Sometimes, the organizer gets a free ticket- that is great motivation for booking, as well. 

One thing I consider before planning any kind of field trip or event is, will I be ok with doing this if we were the only ones to show up?  Especially if there is an early morning and or long drive involved.  Obviously there are things like sports style activities and some classes that are not going to be fun with just one family.  But generally, if we are ok going with just us, then anyone else attending alongside us is just pure fun friend bonus to me.

Second, is there a cost that needs to be paid upfront, or a minimum number needed for an event to happen at a certain price.  If so, you really need a firm commitment from your attendees and I would caution you from putting up your personal dollars if you aren’t sure you can recoup those costs.  It is totally fine for you to put out info about the event and request that dollar amount up front.  You can say something like, you are not confirmed until I have both your RSVP and program fee.  Also, determine and state if your event is refundable or not.  I have booked groups in the past where I will say no refunds but they can try and resell their spots to someone else in the group.  Do what is simplest for you.  Feel free to make strict rules about it, too.

Third, I will be honest, homeschoolers can sometimes be a flakey bunch.  Especially if an event does not have a cost to it.  It is super embarrassing to have 40 people confirm yes to an event and then that day 6 people show up.  I handle this in a couple ways.  One, in one of my groups I let people know that my yes-es must be firm.  If you’re not going or change your mind last minute, you must change your rsvp.  Likewise, I don’t count “maybes.”  People can “maybe” all day to keep the event in their calendar feed (like on facebook).  That is fine.  I don’t want to spend a ton of time at the location, figuring out who all is showing up or not, because someone decided to ditch at the last minute. The other thing I do sometimes is charge a small fee to hold their space that I will refund on arrival.  This was easier when we all wrote checks, but you can do it now with venmo/paypal/zelle, too.  People are more likely to show up to something that they have paid for, even if it is a nominal fee.  Any money that you get from no-shows can go in your pocket or you can make a donation to the place that you are going to.

Obviously, you want to put out detailed information as far as address, parking information, hours, age related info, if it is a trip that has restrictions, arrival time.  I always fudge arrival time.  Set a meet up time that will guarantee most people are there well ahead of the program start time so you don’t hold up the group.  Include info about lunch/snacks, or maybe a picnic spot nearby for after or for parents with littles not attending. I typically include a rule about what ages need a chaperone if parents want to drop off.  And any information from the facility about their rules. Have your contact information available- you may even want to tell people to only contact by text day of because you will be driving and might not see their message on another post or messaging forum.

I typically organize group events on Facebook.  I start with my immediate friend group or if it’s a field trip I am organizing from a specific group, I’ll start with them.  If I still need to fill spots, I’ll open up to like groups, or bigger groups in my area.  Some people may just need numbers and so they set it as a public group that anyone can join. Make sure you keep a detailed second list for yourself with payments collected for your references.  If individuals are paying their own way, make sure to include information for that. Confirm with the location 3 days prior.  Let them know final numbers and see if there is any additional information or details you need to pass on to your group.  Send your group a reminder. On the day of an event, get there early so that you have time to deal with any last minute communications from your attendees.   

There really are two kinds of homeschoolers- people who like to plan and organize and people who show up to things and do not ever want to plan something themselves.  If you build it, they will come! Field trips can be more than just extras in your homeschool. They are one of the best tools you have in your homeschooling toolbox. Adding field trips to your homeschool will make learning come alive for your children and create lifelong memories!

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