Looping

It is amazing to me after 9 years of homeschooling I am still making adjustments. But, some things work and some things don't and I have got to just be flexible.

I think one of the major changes is I will allow more visual learning. At the moment, I have at least one child who really learns better by not just reading something but visualizing it as well. So I guess I will be in search of good historical fiction movies etc.

I have added the iPad to our schooling tools. One of my students takes the iPad when she reads. She can look up any words she doesn't know and actually listen to how they are pronounced. I also will use it when I read with each kid. If there is something I think they might benefit from by seeing an actual picture, we will stop and look it up. Like Abigail Adams' home for instance. Or a particular flower.

The other great thing I added to our day is "looping." We loop chores and extra school subjects. We spend a lot of time reading during the day. We read about science and history on a daily basis but we don't always get to the timelines and the Latin words. So, I have this list of about 8 school related subjects and each day we do one. One day it might be a spelling test. Another day it might be a nature study. Once we have hit all 8 things, I just start at the top and go through the list again. That way I can focus on all the major reading yet still make time for some of the extras.

I do the same for chores. The kids have their morning chores which they do every day. But, in order for us to homeschool and do extra curricular activities I need a little help around the house. The house can get pretty messy considering we are in the house day after day. All day long. Anyway, I made a list of about 6 chores and each day we do one. It may be cleaning bathrooms. The next day might be the 15 minute timer to straighten or go through loose ends or random things that need to be done. Again, once we have gotten through the 6 chores, we just start our list all over again.

The kids have their "work for hire" chores and they can grab a card and do the chore and get paid. The new procedure is if no one picks any of the cards, the chores eventually end up on the looping chore list under the 15 minute timer. I have done paid chores numerous ways and they always end up being way more work for me to keep track of. So this is new for this year.

We have these super cool printable maps I got. The organizer of the maps looked at all the books from a bunch of different curriculum and coordinated the maps that go with each book.  So I print off maps for almost every single book the kids are reading. This way they have a visual of where the story is taking place. And they are learning geography too! There are probably close to 500 maps from ancient Egypt to a current world map. From Jamestowne to Elizabethan England. (The maps are a personal favorite!)

I have said numerous times in the last two weeks we are going to start school. Today we attempted a little bit. Hopefully by the time summer is "officially" over, we will be well on our way to some type of rhythm. At least that is my goal today. I like schooling in July and August when it is super hot so we can take days off when it is cooler. Plus, we take our yearly beach vacation when everyone else goes back to school. And this year we are planning a trip to Wisconsin to see family. So, we need to make up the days somewhere. And summer, when it is brutally hot outside, seems like a good time to me. . .