I have been a home school mom for over 10 years and love it! I am always looking for ideas to make home schooling fun for my children. Since I have a 5 year old that I officially began home schooling, thought I’d share some fun tips. I have been teaching him all along but he thinks he’s a ‘Big Boy’ now since he now has his own books.
I have 5 children so organization is extremely important. We have a room that is a our designated ‘classroom’ which has book shelves, computer area and table for reading and writing. I also purchased some plastic drawers to house their everyday books and art supplies. Each child has their own drawer and it helps keep things very organized.
With my little guy – I was looking to incorporate fun with learning, to keep his attention. Everyone knows that 5 year-old’s do not have long attention spans, so I decided to break the day up. But, with the plan to ultimately be learning all day long. Tricky, I know.
We started with Letters:
- We identify letters in our food, like cereal or macaroni
- Cut out letters from magazines (helps with coordination and letter skills)
- String letters – using shoelaces, string or yarn have your child make letters
- Sand letters – our favorite using sand in a sandbox and with his finger or stick write letters
- Water letters – perfect for hot days, using a spray bottle write letters on the side walk
- Magnetic letters – we like to use a fishing pole with magnet attached and have him fish the letters and identify
- Letter bingo- great family game, write letters on card stock and use markers to cover the letters when they are called
- Egg carton letters – our favorite, write a different letter in each cup and have your child pitch a button or coin into the carton and have him identify the letter
For Numbers we have similar games:
- Rote counting – counting everything in the house
- Number pictures – cut out pictures with numbers on them from magazines, make a number book
- Number bingo – make bingo cards with numbers and mark when number is called
- Trace numbers – we like using shaving cream and have the child use their finger or stick to trace or write numbers
- Number toss – using sidewalk chalk we write numbers and have them toss a bean bag or hop on the numbers ( just like hopscotch)
- Magnetic numbers – same concept as magnetic letters, using a fishing pole with magnet attached, fish out numbers or we place them on the refrigerator door and practice daily
- Finger painting – another favorite for little ones and a great way to practice writing numbers
We do some of the same games for shapes and colors. Remember to make it fun. Learning is much easier if they think of it as a game. We also use songs to learn and my kiddos enjoy those, although they will never be singing stars they have learned a lot through song.