Sorry, I must have posted at the same time and it didn’t show up.
@4 my boys…. I have a hanging file folder with 3 non-hanging folders in them. One for each child. Each their color. I color code my kids. I print off my main weekly schedule from– old fashioned education.com They have it done out by weeks. I keep this in the front of my weekly folder. You could do it by days and put 5 file folders in the hanging one. You could even put one in each childs file folder if they are old enough to read and figure out their own. My kids pull out their own homework sometimes when they are going with their dad and want to go bad enough to get it ready ahead of time. (Incentive! ) 🙂 I have the week on the hanging file folder.. Ex. week1, week2, ect… up to 17weeks. I strive for 15 but left myself a couple of weeks just incase something in the curriculm takes longer.
I put their work in their folders. The math lessons are numbered. I put them in their ahead of time. I make all of my copies and put 4 in one folder for that week. If it isn’t finished by Friday they must do them before they can go with me to the Library… 🙂 (Incentive!) 🙂
I do a workbox system type of homeschool. You can look it up at Sue Patrick’s workboxes or just google Workbox and you will get several peoples ideas… Some are really great. Anyway, I just take their work that they work on their own and put it in these boxes randomly. For ex. box 1-Math worksheet, Box 2-Spelling Words, Box-3-art center, Box 4-read history story, Box 5- post it note that says,” Go to science center” Box 6 -Writing cneter- Write a paragraph about the story you read. Box 7- ” Go to History poster….. Ect….
The Learning centers are about educational material, made kid friendly so they want to learn. Ex. You want your kids to learn their skeletal systems. You can buy a poster cover the answers with velcro. They have to match the posters body parts to the correct spot. If you want to do more you can order the skeletal system cards from Hot Dots. They have a variety of cards. If you touch the pen to the dot it will tell you if you got it right or wrong. It lights up and tells you several different way if you are wrong or right. Kids love to play with it. They will sit their for hours playing with the answers trying to listen to it buzz and tell them they are wrong. 🙂 You can make up your own cards and buy the dots. If you laminate your cards you can sometimes reuse the dots if you are careful when you take them off with an exacto knife. You can use these for your posters or centers to make learning more fun. It works great for worksheets.
You can set up a Microscope and some slides and some worksheets with some questions. This would be a Science Center. If you find worksheets you like you can just put them in a sheet protector. They can write the answers with dry erase marker and you can just rub it off and use it over and over. You can change it around and months later bring it back for reveiw.
This would also work with an Art Center. Have an small poster with info about the artist. You could velcro the answers on it. Do a picture study and have them list all the things they see. This would be after they have done one with you but you want reinforce what they know.
Music Center– you could have a tape player and some music going. They can have questions you ask with Hot Dots or a book about the musician. They can write their own peice of music. Tell where everyone sits in an orchestra. Learn their notes. Play notes on a little piano keyboard that plays it back to them. Writing their own songs on paper…. Endless possiabilities.. 🙂
History Center- This year we are doing 2. One will be Presidents. I am going to do the states the pres. came from at the same time. I am also going to do the state birds, flowers, ect… We also are doing a States song to learn them. I am going to purchase the Hot Dots Pres. Info. We have a book about strange things the pres. have done ect.. this will be part of that even though they have already read the book. I may put a puzzle for my younger daughter to do at this center. So many ideas that I may switch them out during the week to get them thinking and keep their attention. I will also have other books, writings, ect…
Geography. There are a few good Geo. sites that you can pull up on the computer to have them beat their highest score. The computer is also a tool in a center. You can also use games and puzzles and a Globe or map. Along with the Hot Dots and ask questions about the places you want them to learn.
Grammar Center, Latin Center, Spanish Center, Phonics Center, What ever you want them to learn can be a center. My son created his own for us to learn. We learned the Japanese numbers. He wanted to learn them and came up with the material so we had fun matching them up with the numbers. Talk about challenging! 🙂 It was fun to see who would get it write before mom did. 🙂
If you have anymore questions let me know. It makes learning more fun. Blessings!
