Itsy Bitsy Spider, TOTB
The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout. Down came the
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Montessori
Think Outside the Box
Think Outside The Box
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a
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Homeschool Lesson Plans
Homeschool Lesson Plans
The best plans are the ones you never make.
That cringy hippy phrase every public school parent expects a homeschooling parent to say. It’s true, to quote Allen Saunders, “Life is what happens while your busy making plans.” I started out making lesson plans. I coordinated a craft project to go along with letters or words. As my kids progressed we cooked to put our new skills to work. I exhausted myself trying to make worksheets to go with each lesson, a fun activity to cement that lesson and sometimes a field trip or scavenger hunt. Despite all my effort, my kids ask questions, as kids do. My well thought out lesson plans turn into a deep dive into why. Then we jump into a rabbit hole of discovery learning why, because public education didn’t give me the why. I was sent to the principles office to sit in the corner for being disruptive.
The best lesson is the one you and your children learn together.
The title is a little misleading, this is not a lesson plan. It is a fun way to challenge kids to learn and formulate a lesson plan on the fly. Random trips to the library, even if its to use the computer to complete school work breaks up the monotony. However, I did stumble upon a book, Rhinos in Nebraska by Alison Pearce Stevens that peaked all of our interests.
As a native Texan, the only history I learned in school was about Texas. I had no idea rhinos were native to the Americas. I learned something too. Which is really fun for kids and how the rabbit hole lesson plan began.
Activities created from Rhinos in Nebraska
- Geography – Studying The U.S. and Africa
- Science Experiment – Ash and Seed Experiment / Plate Tectonics, Fault Lines and Volcanoes
- Math – Creating a timeline
- History – Comparing the timeline to historical events such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and comets.
- Gardening – Benefits of ash in gardening, cultivating soil with ash for spring planting.
- Group Discussion – Exploring questions from the book reading.
I do use a variety of sites for curriculum. Splash learn has online learning games, live classes and a few worksheets to go along with the coursework. Math 4 Kids is my favorite site. This site has an endless supply of worksheets on all topics. I mainly use it for supplemental pintables to go with lesson plans, but they do have online activities as well. I have had accounts with Twinkl and Adaptedmind on and off. They’re not my favorite, Twinkl’s content similar to fee worksheets available on Pinterest. Adaptedmind has cute monsters teaching, with long winded segments followed by two or three questions. It’s not designed to keep kids interested in my opinion. While structure is great, I use these sites as an aid, not the source. I chose to homeschool because I want my kids to use critical thinking. I don’t want to sit and lecture any more than they want to sit an listen. We learn and we apply what we learn.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Free U.S. Money Counting Activity
Free U.S. Money Counting Activity,
My children don’t want to sit in a chair and get lectured by mom then color a picture afterward. They hate baby activities like coloring pennies, connecting the images to the values and matching. I can’t blame them, its boring! That’s the busy work I hated when I was in school. If the activities and lesson plans are not challenging or entertaining kids are not going to respond.
What’s more fun that an afternoon of playing deli owner? I set up the counter with the kids favorite snacks, a couple of drinks and created a menu on a dry erase board with the prices.
I gave each kid money along with a worksheet with the values of the bills and coins. See the example below.
Use the worksheet to help count the different ways to make $0.25, $0.50, $0.75, and $1.00. The sheet serves as a tool when kids are starting out with values of money. They can compare their change to the worksheet and determine how many dimes nickels etc. they need to make a dollar.
Once they have the hang of counting the change and adding up the coins you can make it fun by playing deli owner, grocery store clerk, etc.
For example: I had banana’s on my menu for $0.25, apples for $0.25, and a sandwich for $5.75. My son wanted apple slices and a sandwich so he had to add the total cost to pay me.
U.S Money Value Chart
It was really cute to watch the light bulb come on when he realized $5.75 + $0.25 = $6. My son quickly switched his four quarters for a dollar and recounted his money before paying me. They enjoyed it so much they asked if we could play it again for dinner.
Dollar Tree sells a play money set that has mini realistic looking bills. The coins however are paper and all the same size. I pulled out the change jar so it wouldn’t be so confusing. Money is basically obsolete, but it’s still a valuable lesson. It helps with quick counting and fractions down the road.
The Hungry Caterpillar Counting Activity
Caterpillar Counting and Matching Activity
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of my children’s favorite books. When my son was a baby I found a plush version of the book with a strawberry teether and a caterpillar baby toy. I must have read the story to him a hundred times a day. I used the books I read to him and my daughter as inspiration when I started teaching them even before school age. I taught them shapes, letters, numbers, colors by making fun themed activities from stories I read to them. It brought their favorite stories to life while providing sensory learning, which is key in child development.
By the end of the day the my pearls of wisdom have escaped me, but you really don’t need a how to on creative sensory activities. Appeal to your child’s interests and they’ll love it. If you have more than one child, like I do. Well then you have your own little critic who is going to ask why you copied the book instead of drawing worms in each circle. This is were that wine glass comes back into play.
No lie, at first I drew hearts in the circles because my daughter loves hearts and the color pink. My eight year old critic thought it was weird, so I had a 16 oz. glass of wine and “copied” the book. I was so damn excited I brushed my hair, put on make-up and changed out of my leggings like I was going on stage to accept The National Medal of Arts. I didn’t care that my son thought I copied a book and my husband thought my pairs looked like moldy guitars. My daughter was so excited she reached octaves that would wreck a ship when she saw it. I got my award and a little tipsy.