My aim today is to get you revved up about starting a new homeschool year, so I will be sharing with you some back to homeschool tips.
One of my top tips to get kids excited about the upcoming homeschool year is to spread out all the hands-on, fun activities you will be doing over the school year on a table or on the floor. Whenever I did this, which was every year near the end of the summer in anticipation for the new school year, my kids would get so excited about what we were about to study. For example, I would collect all kinds of things pertaining to a specific period in history. If it was medieval times, I would have lots of medieval stuff.
In literature, we might be studying Around the World in 80 Days, so I would have some items from different countries from around the world that we would be studying. This way my kids would be excited about world travel, and they couldn’t wait to start the school year.
The same was true for the science concepts we would be studying. One year we studied botany, and we had so many plant-related items! We even got some carnivorous Venus flytraps and other cool plants in a new terrarium, just to spark interest in plants.
Here is a super short video, explaining my favorite back to homeschool tip:
If you want examples of this, watch me spread out lots of hands-on goodies for different time periods:
- Ancient Egypt Unit Study
- Ancient Greece Unit Study
- Ancient Rome Unit Study
- Medieval Unit Study
- Renaissance Unit Study
Another idea for back to school is to make a fun pencil cake:
Make sure you have all your essential homeschool items. Here is a list of all the items that I love to have on hand for homeschooling:
And if you are stressed out about homeschooling, take a look at some ways you can de-compress while having a successful homeschool year:
Have a great new homeschool year!
Tags: Homeschooling, Organization, tips
We did a themed unit study on planes and trains. It took me about six weeks to teach them everything which they had to know. I covered plane and train safety systems, parts of a railway and airport, types of planes and trains, what to do at a airport and railway station and general airport and railway safety advice. I also touched briefly on the kinds of careers that exist within the industry.
I made summary brief notes, prepared timed quizzes and showed them a few different free safety videos. I even mentioned real life train and plane accident stories as part of my efforts in order to raise more awareness. They learned a lot. So did I.
Next up is the topic of cars and boats.
Sounds like you are having a fun time with these themes. It would be super cool to take the kids on a ride in each of these modes of transportation!
It was fun. Sorry for not updating this comment sooner. In early December we went on a ferry to France for two entire weeks in order to visit. We had a great time looking at the foreign shops and eating lots of nice French food in addition. As a part of our entire topic on cars and boats we went to see vintage cars and a old school boat too last year. That happened on a wet Friday afternoon back in mid January. We went to a car shop and also explored a new museum in question that was dedicated to aircraft.
We even made a few brief summary notes as well on the best way of getting a car. We then read out different advertisements and looked at old articles on cars and boats. We prepared a interesting feature on houseboats.
Sounds like a lovely time, and very theme-coordinated.
Heya.
I prefer to see what I can find at the shops in order to teach lessons. For example I tend to buy a few cheap text and useful workbooks. They come from a local bookstore downtown in addition for starters. I also look at donated puzzles and games in the town charity shops. I like to get a entire bunch of old but free exam papers to use too. Best wishes to you. And I love to read your blog. I do take lots of ideas from it.
You can find so many handy resources in so many ways these days. We visit community garden centres to examine the colourful plants in question there. I like to make a set of brief summary notes as well. Even a fun outing to a museum or a art studio is a nice chance to learn new skills. I tell them new facts to hone their knowledge at the same time. A day that is spent in the countryside or lunch on a beach is a opportunity to teach them about nature. Plus it is fun. Nothing beats a picnic on a new beach somewhere or a meal taken in a service station with the whole family. Seriously. I love to pick flowers.