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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*
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