Okay parents! Last week Barbara Postma shared some great tips about how to spend this time well with your kids at home. 

Surely now that the kids have been home for two full weeks, you're looking for some practical tips and tricks. So here we go! 

If nothing else, read aloud to the children!! All ages, all kinds of books. Make it fun and family friendly. Cuddle in bed or on the couch. Do the voices and sounds effects. Pick a chapter book and read one chapter each day. Have some snacks. Make reading fun!!!!

Chore charts help to track accomplishments. Set small rewards to so many done at a time. 

Science can be simply a nature hike with a journal/sketchbook in hand. Draw what you see and then write a sentence about it. 

 

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From Judy Korten:

So here is my two cents worth for homeschooling advice. I wanted to try to to capture a variety of age categories. 

I can’t stress enough that if you have very young children (ie: SK - Grade 1 or 2) please don’t get stressed out. They will survive and thrive even though they might be missing out some formal education. As a homeschool mom, when first starting out, I thought they had to sit behind a desk and take all day for a typical school day … it was stressful for me and stressful for my kids. What I quickly discovered was that when there are few distractions kids can learn a lot at a much faster rate. They don’t need a full day to cover all school subjects nor do they need to do every subject every day … you can be creative with your time. Learning is a life long process … it’s not just about books.

SK and Grade 1

• Review colours and numbers, cutting skills and colouring skills
• Sit with your child and read aloud a favourite childrens story. Kids usually love to have someone read to them.
• Get them involved in helping you bake … that would be teaching them fractions.
• Teach them some work skills … ie. some simple cleaning tasks. This is part of learning!
• Playing the game of memory sharpens their skills as well.
• Get creative and help them make simple crafts.

Grades 1 - 5

The internet has so much to offer these days it’s really incredible.

• You can print off handwriting practice pages.
• Get your child to make a lapbook on a topic that he/she is interested in. (plants, animals, music, famous person, history, a favourite book) These are great fun. There are many ideas and templates that are available online. Start with a simple file folder and add in different pockets and diagrams. Use YouTube to watch some videos (ie:How to make a lapbook tutorial) that give amazing tips and ideas. Your kids will love them!
• Again read aloud with your child. Have them pick a favourite book to read for themselves.
• If you don’t feel like reading get your kids listening to the Adventure in Odyssey Series from Focus on the Family. Our kids (and my husband and I) loved listening to these high-quality stories that teach your children about living life as a Christian, or re-enacting a well-known Bible story or history story.
• Allow your child to help with baking or cooking … again this is using math skills ... and really incorporates science as well.
• There are websites available that help to teach math skills and drills … get them practicing their multiplication/addition either online or get them to make cue cards.
• Practice money skills using money … set up a pretend store using household items … allow the child to make “purchases” … have them give the right amount of money to pay or figure out how much change they should get.
• Use this time to teach them another language. www.duolingo.com has many options to offer, and they can work on this independently.
• If you would rather use textbooks Costco does offer books which cover everything from English to math to science in their book area. Each is catered to the appropriate grade level.

Dads - this is a great opportunity to do some kind of study with your son on how to be a man of God and a man of integrity. Or if you have some mechanical or carpentry skills allow your son to help you out with some minor car repairs or build something out of wood together that is age appropriate.

Moms - this is a great time to do some kind of age appropriate book study with your girls.

Let your kids be creative … drawing, painting, clay art, journaling, or making a creative photo album. This is learning.

Grades 6-8

• Let them pick a book of their choosing to read. I found that my kids still loved to be read a favourite book. Or maybe they have a specific area of interest … let them gather as much info on the subject as they can.

Get dad involved if possible again. Father/Son study or build something together.

Moms, a great book you could do with your daughters would be Lies Girls Believe by Nancy Leigh Demoss.

Again go to the internet … there is so much available in all areas of learning.

Let them do some simple science experiments.

Highschool - Even a high school student does not need all day to get their work done if they work at it diligently - my kids were usually done by early afternoon.

You may need to have a talk with your student about the importance of continuing to learn even though they aren’t behind a desk.

• Get them reading some of the classic literature or other books of interest whether that is in the sciences or history.
• Do a book study together … you both read the book and discuss the chapter together. This can be done with any literature or with one that is more biblically based.
• If you do your own taxes, teach your high-schooler how to use the tax program that you use.  This is a simple form of math and accounting.
• Car repairs/ woodworking
• Cooking/sewing