Lately: Homeschool Fun

Time is such a thief and I'd like about 4 extra hours in my day, but still get 7 hours of sleep.  If only it'd be possible.  I find myself staying up way too late enjoying 'me' time because I'm trying to stay off my phone or computer from 9 am till 9 pm.  I should state that I'm not aimlessly surfing social media/blogs all day long.  I'll still make a phone call or two, but I just make sure I don't take the time away from the kids.  So, at 9 pm, I find myself trying to catch up.  And it takes forever.  But I can't stop.  Ugh.

We've started our new year strong in school.  We didn't switch any new curriculum's, but did go back to some of our old routines.  In November, we started doing writing prompts I bought off Teachers Pay Teachers.  But, I had one child who loved them and one who fought me every day.  So, we went back to our journal books and I've come up with some prompts.  So far, there hasn't been any complaining.  In November and December we kind of stopped doing "fun" science and art for the sake of time.  But, we've brought science back in after dinner and cleanup and it's been working out great.  Who says school has to all be done in one 5 hour stretch!?  #benefitsofhomeschool

The kids loved this experiment of dancing waters.  It was so cool watching the reaction to different temperatures of water.

This experiment of changing colors and bubbling wasn't our favorite.  It didn't bubble much, but the colors did change.  We're going to try this one again but with warm water because according to our first experiment, warm water helps the water move fast.

In art, we're working on abstract art.  So much fun!  It's so fun watching the kids talk about what they are doing and why.  Sterling's art is awesome to me.  I see a dog on the left and a profile on the right.  So neat what your eyes can see.  

Xander's piece

I'm even doing art with them.  One day we drew circles, the next day we drew squares and rectangles, then triangles, and finally lines and curves.  Yesterday we traced our lines in black and started coloring in our spaces.  We'll try to finish the coloring in tomorrows class.

Worksheets are the worst, but we have a rule that we won't do more than four in one day for all subjects.  So that helps make it a little more fun.

It's a good thing I can put things on a board and it makes learning so much more exciting.

Let's talk about this boy.  He's flipping awesome!  At the beginning of the year we were struggling with math.  Struggling bad!  It was bad and frustrating for both of us.  He was having the most difficult time adding anything that equaled above 13.  For example, trying to get him to add 9+4 would cause such a meltdown.  In October or November I switched his program and now he's a whiz kid.  He's adding up to the hundreds place, up to four sets at a time.  Example, 104+205+112+389. And, he's getting them!  Two months ago he couldn't add 9+4 without going crazy and now he's excited to work on math.

I'll take a coffee anytime 😉

I'm on a mission to find a way to make history more fun.  Right now it's been books and movies.  Not something they enjoy too much.  I think if I can find something crafty, but still history oriented I'd have their attention to stick with it longer than 10 minutes.

Thanks for reading how we're making homeschool fun lately.

Have a great day!