when you can’t do plan A (family studies and individual studies as planned for the day). I am just brainstorming ideas for the coming year because this past year has been crazy. There were many days when I wished I could have handed my 2 school-age children their work for the day in a bag while I tended to the emergency situation at hand (as in water damage requiring a complete kitchen renovation, etc.) Hopefully this makes sense. We live in Tennessee and are required to school 4 hours per day for 180 days each year. As far as school goes, I want my children to do at least Bible, math, reading and copywork each of those 180 days. My children are young and working towards independent learning…ds8 and dd6…so I am trying to gather about 10 days of work per child for them to do that can be handed to them and they can do the work on their own. Basically, they might use this work one day in a month or for 5 days in a row depending on the situation that arose. I am thinking that this work could be either go along with current studies or be a “just for fun” topic. What do you do? What do you suggest? Do you have special books, DVDs, or other materials that you save for times like these? Thanks in advance for any ideas.
We rarely miss our morning readings, because they take less than an hour and are how we start our day. For those days when things aren’t coming together, though (due to illness or something else), some things I use to keep a educational focus are:
-Literature or history selections on audio; Librivox.org is a great resource
-XtraMath.com for math facts
-copywork can be done independently
-silent reading, if the child is old enough to do so
As a last resort, we take out some videos:
-Liberty’s Kids for American History
-Magic School Bus for science
-History shows/documentaries that are free to watch on Amazon Prime. (Believe it or not my 13YO watched a 4 1/2 hour show about Lewis and Clark the last time he was sick with the flu.)
-this summer, Discovery Education is free at Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op. My 9YO has been learning about the black hole, tsunamis, earthquakes, and comets. (Morbid, I know. He loves that stuff).
-DS9 likes the Learn to Draw Animals series by Mark Crilley on YouTube. I can set him up with a video, a pencil, and a sketch pad and he’ll keep busy for quite a while.
Hmm, this is a great question. We’ve had tons of Plan B time needed since Mason was born 3 years ago (medical needs), plus the usual emergencies and things that come up in a family of 10 with a not so new house. One of your challenges is simply your kids’ ages!
What has helped us is having a routine where the kids are used to working independently in some areas on a daily basis – and are self-directed, they follow the checklist and do their subjects in any order, but they do them. And example from my 7 year old since he’s right in the middle of your two kids ages:
On a day when I can’t be there to help him he could still do:
Copywork
Math practice page (we do Math U See, there is only 1 new lesson per week, the rest of the week he can work without me)
independent reading book (this is literature)
scripture study
Read a history book – we keep a shelf full of titles related to the month’s time period/theme. They pull from them often to browse (so lots of nonfiction books or shorter books, with a few chapter books available too).
Science – he does this with older and younger siblings so somebody can read the day’s lesson aloud
Work on a writing project – we do 1 per month, so he can brainstorm, add to a story, edit, illustrate, research, etc.
Nature study – get outside and explore or pull down things like our rock collection to look at and practice identifying.
You could always have an audio book or history or science dvd available for these days. Wild Kratts, Magic School Bus, a documentary, etc. Then ask them to narrate to you. Or keep a selection of art projects that are simple enough to do without you in bags and pass those out. Or math games. Board games. A letter writing station to write letters to family/missionaries/friends. There are lots of possibilities!
I’m adding in student planners this year so they can take over some of their subjects. Piano practice, math, some of their LAs, Spanish, independent reading assignments, etc. will go here.
For sick days…days where we aren’t feeling great, but okay enough for school, I often add in some videos. This year we watched lots of Moody Science and Drive Through History (Holy Land series). Books on CD are handy too. They also love semi-educational shows like Mysteries at the Museum and Mythbusters.
I also often have them play outside when I’m super busy…They are getting nature (because they always seem to find some animal/plant/bug), PE, and some fresh air. Geopuzzles are another fun activity that keeps them busy.
My kids also like computer time. The younger ones play lots of games, but the older ones (ages 12 and 10) have gotten into computer programming. My 10 yo has been making his own games! Typing programs are another great independent assignment. BBC Dance Mat Typing is great for the younger grades.
Arts and Crafts are another great time-spender. Their favorites are Sculpey clay, latch-hooking, and sewing with felt. They also love just sketching or painting.
Thank you for your ideas. These were exactly what I was needing.
HollyS, what student planner will you be using? I want to encourage my children’s independence and would love for them to have their own planners. My ds8 would be thrilled to be able to know what to do and get started on it because he is an early riser.
My oldest isn’t really an early riser, but she often likes to get started earlier in the morning. I’m usually too busy with breakfast, laundry, etc. to help her get going, so this should be a big help.