2- Weeks
3.- Mornings
4.- Kidschool
5.- The Bean Counter Game
What the Demille's suggest to do, is to plan your life a week at a time. They say it can get overwhelming when we plan too far in advance. There are some things that we need to plan ahead, but I think generally this is true. Also, we try to hold a weekly meeting with the kids to see what they are working on, and what else they need to work on. This way we can fix things one week at a time. It is a great tool.
The Demille's say that mornings are the ideal time to plant the seeds of learning in your kids, and so we try to use our mornings effectively.
Kidschool: This is my favorite. The Demille's call this Kidschool, because when kids are about 12 years old, they begin to transition into "The Scholar Phase". So, they no longer have to participate in "Kidschool", because they have their own things that they need to work on for their own personal studies and mission. I already see this in Dallin, So, I tell him he can read or work on his goals during kidschool, but he's not in full Scholar Phase, so he usually loves to participate in Kidschool or "Family School" As we call it.
This is where you share what is yours with your kids, through inspiration. As they see what inspires you to learn and grow and you share it with them, they want to do the same. This is a great tool in learning together as a family. I also use this time to give them ideas and suggestions on things that they can work on throughout the day for writing. We are still working on this, but my goal is to use kidschool each day to inspire them in writing and math as well as other topics that I am interested in sharing with them.
The Bean Counter Game, is a great tool that we use. We have a jar that we fill each time we do kidschool and kids are listening, and when the jar is filled, we have a fun family day. Right now they want to go to Funquest, a game place for kids. It works great, and helps the family work together towards a common Goal.
I'm going to share with you what I am using for Kidschool this year. In our family, we call in "Family School". I will share with you in a later post how I plan this, but, The Demille's say to plan 6 months at a time, because 1 year is too long. So, that is what I do.
We kind of take a Summer break, and during this time we just read random books around the house and from the library. During this time I take mental note, of what I am interested in and what my kids are interested in and I try to find resources for our kidschool for the next 6 months. Then I take a day or 2 and have Justin take the kids so that I can plan, and I pray and brainstorm and figure out what it is I need to share with my kids over the next 6 months. We don't always stick to a rigid plan, but I feel that if I have a plan, I feel more secure.
"If you fail to plan, You Plan to Fail"
So, here goes my list of what I am going to share with my kids over the next 6 months (I have my plans divided into days, because I like to organize my thoughts this way):
Mondays:
My Gospel Standards
Copywork:
Scripture of the Week
I have read and studied extensively about Charlotte Mason. She was an amazing educator that a lot of homeschoolers use her approach. I love her ideas, and so I try to use these ideas for "Family School". One of her ideas was copywork. Copywork, you take a scripture or a poem and have the kids learn to copy it. This teaches them grammar, spelling and handwriting. It is a great tool. We have a scripture of the week that goes with a gospel standard.
I read an article in the Ensign and was inspired to study one gospel standard with my kids each week. So, this is what we do on Mondays.
Tuesdays:
History/ Grammar Rule of The Day
I love "The Story of the World" by Susan Wise Bauer. This is a book that you can just pick up and read and have great discussions about history. This year my kids all seemed to be interested in the middle ages. So, I am excited to learn more about them with the kids. We follow a loose classical schedule as outlined in "The Family School" from Latter-Day Learning.
I also, use a whole lot of books from the library. However, I also have some great resources on hand to dig deeper into the middle ages like:
For Grammar, I have some fun ideas from Pinterest as well as we love doing madlibs as a family.
Wednesdays:
Math/ Science Day
This Summer my kids got super interested in the human body. I found some great resources to study the human body with them, and we have really enjoyed them so far. I really want a microscope, so we'll see if we can get one. So far, we have this little one, and it is fun.
For Math inspirations, we use Life of Fred as well as a ton of Games off of pinterest. They are awesome.
Thursdays:
Family History/ Geography/ Spanish Day
I saw these Family History Mysteries in "The Friend" magazine and thought, we need to do these this year. I am excited to do them with the kids this year. I just printed them off from www.lds.org and put them in a binder, I have the kids work on one every Thursday. They are fun.
I thought since we are learning about the middle ages it would be fun to learn about Europe this year. I just get books from the library about a country in Europe and we read the book and make a dish from the country and maybe watch a movie or documentary from that country. So far, we have done France and it has been fun. Also, I have the older kids each choose a country in Europe that they can research and report to the family about. I think this should be pretty fun.
I have a Spanish Bingo game that I picked up from the Dollar Store. During lunch on Thursdays we play this game to learn a little Spanish. The kids have really liked it.
Fridays:
Fact Fridays/ Game Day/ Dictation and Art or Nature Day
http://www.math-drills.com/
Charlotte Mason taught that dictation is a great way to reinforce copywork. So, on Fridays I dictate the Scripture of the week to the kids and see how well they remember to spell it and grammatical features.
We practice our math facts on Fridays with worksheets as well as games.
Games are the best way to reinforce math facts and spelling, better than any worksheet and a lot more fun.
Charlotte Mason also taught that nature is the "best teacher". We try to spend time on walks or bike rides or going into the mountains on Fridays. This is all part of learning.
So, here you have it. My plan for the next 6 months. It doesn't always go smooth, but I love having a plan.
Literature:
We read at night with the kids or any chance we get during the day. These are the books I'm planning on reading to the kids over the next couple of months:
As you can tell I love "The Childhood of Famous American Series".
Finally, this is how I organize everything. It works great.
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