FUN School for Home school
About 8 months ago, or so, I
implemented a concept into our homeschooling that I called ‘Fun School’. This was to be what filled our days after we
got through the ‘formal instruction’ part of our day. I’ll be honest with you, this project wasn’t
a success. Not because it wasn’t a good
idea, didn’t work, or that Punky didn’t enjoy it. It failed because of me. I still couldn’t let go of all the ‘Have To’
in order to truly enjoy - or let us even
get to – the Fun School
stuff. The resources I gathered I still
have and the format is still there so 2013 will see a return to Fun School.
Here’s
how it works:
Fun School
MONDAY
Mathematical Monday- all things
mathematical: games, puzzles, activities
Make Something Monday- arts/crafts, cooking,
inventions/experiments, building/designing,
Meet the Press Monday- Oral Presentation on
topic of your choice from previous learning
TUESDAY
Travel Tuesday- pick a country/state/city/regions/landmarks
to do a research projects
Technology Tuesday- typing, videos, websites
Take a Tour - virtual tours
WEDNESDAY
Working with Words
Wednesday- writing activities and games
Wonder Wednesday- Notebook on any topic
of interest (include maps, timelines, drawings, etc)
Well-Played Wednesday- learning through games
and hands-on activities
THURSDAY
Terrific Treasures
Thursday– Studying
the “Greats”: Art, Literature, Invention, Exploration, etc
Think It Through Thursday
– Critical
Thinking activities and games
Turn the Page Thursday- Reading! Any book, any
genre!
FRIDAY
Finish Up Friday- all
uncompleted work due
Have Fun – field trips,
fun activities, free pick!
The
different categories are completed on a four week rotating basis, with the
fourth week being a free learning week (after instructional time). To demonstrate, here is a sample schedule:
Week One Week
Two
Monday Monday
Instructional
learning – 1to ½ hours Instructional learning – 1 to
½ hours
Mathematical
Monday Making
Something
Tuesday Tuesday
Instructional
learning- 1 to ½ hours Instructional
learning- 1 to ½ hours
Travel
Tuesday Technology
Tuesday
Wednesday Wednesay
Instructional
learning- 1 to ½ hours Instructional
learning- 1 to ½ hours
Working
with Words Wonder Wednesday
Thursday Thursday
Instructional
learning- 1 to ½ hours Instructional
learning- 1 to ½ hours
Terrific
Treasures Thursday Think
It Through
Friday
Each Friday is the time to finish any uncompleted
instructional work, if necessary then have a Fun day!
The
fourth week there is no Fun schedule and after instructional time, it’s a free
learning week! This could include
educational shows, computer time, games, projects, arts & crafts, field
trips….anything goes!
Now
as to the resources for Fun
School:
Mathematical Monday
This
day is devoted to all things mathematical, but fun!
These
are merely a few of what all we use:
Yahtzee
50
or Bust
Pyramid
Math Card Games:
School
House Rocks videos on youtube
Dice
Games:
Online
Games:
Makes Something Monday
This could be anything - an item we
cook/bake, an art project, a science experiment, anything!
Here’s
just a few sources for ideas we use:
Meet the Press
This
is where Punky does an oral presentation on a topic from the previous week’s
learning. I’ve either collected or made
forms that help her plan and execute her presentation. She will also add to it with visuals and anything else she
desires.
Travel Tuesday
Punky
gets her choice of a country, state, city, region, landmark, or locael she
wishes to learn more about. For example, we did Easter Island. We gather
resources and she notebooks about the place.
We include pictures as well and she often enjoys making a travel
brochure for the location. Several times
we will come across a fun craft or cooking project to go along with the
location and we complete that as well!
We also do virtual tours on line!
I have hundreds of online resources for those.
Here
are just a few:
Technology Tuesday
This
is Punky’s day to practice her typing skills, which she does at the resource I
listed in last Monday’s blog post. In
fact, all those websites I listed last week are ones that she makes sure to hit
up on this day!
Working with Words
We
use Rory’s Story Cubes on this day as well as games I took from the Games
for Writing book I mentioned in last week’s blog post. Other resources have included:
Wonder Wednesday
Punky
has a lot of things she wonders about, as I’m sure all children do as they are
born inquisitive and seeking to make sense of their world. We decided to turn her “I wonder” into a
school subject, of sorts. Through the
natural course of our lives an “I wonder” comes up and we run with it – turning
it into an investigation of sorts – never knowing what it will lead to. This topic is usually what Punky uses for
her Meet the Press Monday presentation as well.
Some
resources, or “I wonders” we’ve had led us to these resources:
Well Played Wedneday
This
is the day that Punky gets to pick what she wants to play and we play, play,
play! Most, but not all, games played on this day are educational games.
Think It Through Thursday
We take this time to do critical
thinking activities, games, and exercises!
Sometimes it’s as simple as doing a jigsaw puzzle or playing Chess or Blokus. Other times it is
more complex.
Here
are a few online resources we use:
Turn the Page Thursday
This
is the day that is devoted to reading, reading, and more reading! After the instructional period is over,
Punky’s task to is read, read, read! She
chooses what to read and can spend the entire afternoon with one book, or
browse through the stacks of non-fiction we have in the school room on various
topics. Her favorite form of reading is reading for information. I have collected a vast resource of 'Miscellany' books full of interesting facts and tidbits. She also enjoys reading her Kids National Geographic and Kids Discover magazines.
Notebooking/Lapbooking
We use a lot of notebooking resources
and games that I have in the schoolroom!
For
an excellent resource of free notebooking/lapbooking pages (which is what we
use most of the time for our reports and such) I recommend these websites:
http://lapbooklessons.com/FreeLapbooks.html
http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/
http://www.thatresourcesite.com/notebooking_resources_for_homeschoolers.htm#
**Secular Note: These
websites are run by women of faith, for the most part, but that hasn’t
prevented me from finding awesome notebooking pages that I can use. I even bought the upgraded membership to
Notebookingpages.com.
Well,
that’s it for this round of ideas and resources!
Happy Schooling!
~Mari B.
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