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Creative Fun Home School

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When my homeschool got "boring" to my kids, it was time to rethink WHY I wanted to homeschool.  One of the main reasons was that I wanted my boys to love learning as much as I do.  Well, how can they love something that they can't enjoy or have fun with?  So, I set out on a mission to add the "fun" back into "school".  I set aside special things to do each day of the week, Monday is Mystery folder day, Tuesday is pick your assignments day, Wednesday is game day, Thursday is librarary day, and Friday is movie day!  Well, that adds quite a bit of fun, excitement, and even "surprise" to school.  But, I wanted more.  I wanted fun ways to teach art, history, and basic skills.  I wanted more "bonding" time with my boys while they are little, and I wanted to make memories of their childhood that would last a lifetime.

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Mystery Folders

What is a mystery folder?  Well, it is an inexpensive folder that each child picks out from the store for the school year.  It can be plain and decorated by them, or whatever they like.  Each week some "fun" assignments are placed inside the folder.  These can include: brain teasers, creative writing, story editing, critical thinking, what ever...as long as it TEACHES or reinforces something educational.  Make sure that all assignments are completed that week, and new assignments are added for the following week.  Below, you will find some links to things that work for "Mystery Folder" work.

Emergency Homeschool

We all have to handle "emergencies", but some "emergencies" or "natural disasters" can put a serious kink into things for those of us who homeschool.  I talked about Mystery folders above, and provided links to get things from.  Now, I'm going to tell you how to turn Mystery Folders into "Emergency Homeschool".  I shared this idea with a homeschool group I belong to a few months ago, now I'm going to share it with everyone who visits this page.
 
 
Keep 1 empty large 3 ring binder for each of your kids.  Punch holes in your folders if they are the file folder type, or better yet, let the kiddos pick out some inexpensive pocket folders at Wal-Mart (this is what I do).  Keep things in the mystery folders for the children to work on as usual. Place the folders into the binders.   In each of their binders place some writing paper, printer/drawing paper, box of Rose Art crayons (they come in a plastic box that can be placed on one ring of the binder, ruler,and mechanical pencils.   Just about everything the child will need is in their binder. Now...here's is what I call "Emergency Homeschool".  Keep those binders in a place where you can get to them quickly and easily in a hurry on your way out the door.  After we were hit with a tornado, our house was not safe enough for me or anyone else to go to my room to get ALL the HS materials off my shelves, or into the kiddos room to get their favorite reading books.  However, straight in front of the front door sat...my enterainment center...with each child's "work binder", my bible story book, and my 20th century children's book treasury.  These were in a stable enough location that I COULD get them.  And...they are how I did homeschool for almost a month.  I've also used them with hurricane evacuations, family emergencies, etc.  I put all sorts of stuff into them.  Left over worksheets I had from the previous year, pages from inexpensive activity books, reading samples printed off the internet, etc. 
*smile*--Ali

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Games That Teach

 
Parts of Speech Practice:
Many kids think grammar is boring.  Well, spice things up and change their minds while practicing the parts of speech.  How? Play a game of Mad Libs!

Money Math Reinforcement
Have young children that are learning about money?  Let them set up a store!  Get a calculator, toy cash register, or an old adding machine.  Purchase some inexpensive "trinket" toys (or use what the kids arleady have that are no longer played with) and some play money.  Assign a monetary value to each "trinket".  Place all these things in a box that can easily be retrieved for "special play time".  Allow the child/children to set up their own store.  Give each "player" some play money to use to make their purchases.  One person is the cashier, all the other people have to purchase items and pay for them with the money.  After a while, let the children take turns over who is the cashier.--Ali

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Creative Assignments
 

Kids hate book reports?  Try this!
Have the students read a book that interests them. After finishing the book, provide the student with a blank sheet of paper, art supplies, stencils, magizines to clip pictures from, coloring books, etc. Tell them to use the materials provided to design a T-shirt about a part of the book that they liked, and to be sure to include the book title. After any glue, paint, etc. has dried, run the pictures through a scanner and print out onto iron on transfer paper. Attach the transfer to a plain T shirt!

Do your kids hate writing?  How about History or Literature?
Well, if they enjoy art, or working at the computer make their assignments "creative".  Allow them to make their very own newspaper!  They become the reporter.  And using the computer, they can type up a summary of the events they learned about, story they read about, etc.  Have them leave some space above their "article".  In this space, they can draw or paste a picture to go with their article.  Once it's all finished, scan the entire layout into the computer.  Edit it if desired with a photo editing software to give the finished project a unique look and then print it to fit on a regular sized piece of printing paper.  Have more than one student studying the same thing?  Make this a combined project.  The ideas with this are limitless, and creativity abounds.--Ali

Need a Creative Art Assignment for the School Year? 
Have the student make their own year books!  This is done very similar to scrapbooking, but includes creative writing assignments as well.  They decide what goes in their year book, but it should include a cover page ,their name and grade, pictures of them, events they attended, etc.  Each page is called a "layout".  Assign a "layout" a week, month, whatever. At the end of the year, photo copy all the "layouts" on a color copier or scanner.  Print them on acid free paper.  They have a lasting memory of that school year.   You can even include blank pages and acid free pens with the books so that their friends, family, etc. can autograph the book (you know, funny sayings, signatures, etc.) *This same idea also works for making a slide show if you have a photo editing software that will allow you to create slide shows**--Ali

History Idea
The assingment: Create a scrapbook of what history is, historical events in the world, state, county, school, and with yourself. I learned this from one of my high school history teachers. When she first mentioned it, I think the whole class laughed.  But, as she began explaining the assingment she asked us one strategic question, "What is history?".    She proceeded to tell us that for the first part of our scrapbook, she wanted us to find things that explained what history was, it could be quotes, cartoons, pictures, etc.  For the next part, we had to document what was going on in world news, national news, state news, county, and school news.  And for the last part of the assingment we had to document things about ourselves...our interests, activities, clubs, etc.   When she gave us back our books  after grading them and putting them on display, she asked "do you remember the question I asked you at the beginning of this assingment?"   She then told us, look in your hands, you are holding history.  **Thank you Ms. Motley**

Custom Dictionaries?
Each child is unique, and each one will have unique difficulties with such things as spelling and vocabulary.  One learning tool that I came across and elaborated on was what is known as "Custom Dictionaries". 
 
The principle is simple, the child builds their own dictionary.  But, I decided to throw a twist into it by making it a "Growing Custom Dictionary".  To do this, each child will need one large 3 ring binder with a cover that they can decorate, plenty of lined paper, 26 sheets of construction paper for dividers, and 26 book tabs to mark the ABC's on their dividers, pencils, and art supplies.
 
First have them decorate the binder and the dividers.  Then add paper to each section of the "notebook".  Now, the rest is up to you and the child.  You can use this book for words they are having problems with, new words they learn, or a combination of both.  Have the child write the word and its definition on a page under the appropriate letter of the alphabet.  They could also include a picture of the word, the word used in a sentence, etc.  This is where it becomes "theirs".  As long as they are learning the word, its spelling, etc. and ever increasing their vocabulary, then exactly HOW they create their dictionary is up to them!
 
Try this out and have fun learning words, spelling, and definitions!  Oh, and each year, the dictionary just keeps growing *smile*

All content on this page that reads --Ali after it is my own personal content and ideas.  If you want to use them on your site, please do give me credit.