1. Read the Book
Language Arts/Story Interest
Together with your child, read the book or watch the storybook video.
2. Start a Personal Diary
Story Interest/Arts and Crafts/Fine Motor Skills/Language ArtsStart with a blank composition book or notebook and pictures that will be interesting and relevant to your child, like pictures of him- or herself, family members, animals, and special interests. Tape or glue a picture of your child to the cover. (Or let your child do this.)
For your younger child, write a heading on top of each page. Categories that work well are Family, Animals, Numbers, Letters, Dinosaurs, Colors, Shapes, and character pages for your child's favorite book and TV characters.
For a baby or toddler: Paste pictures and photographs of each category under the appropriate heading. Allow your toddler to color on pages.
For a preschooler: Paste one or two pictures and photographs in each category, leaving plenty of room on each page. Draw a few writing guidelines at the bottom of the page so your child can write something about the page. Ask your child to draw pictures from the category on each page and then write something about it at the bottom. You may need to write for them, but do ask what they want to say about the page.
For an older child: If necessary, show your child how diary entries can start with the date that they are written. Have them write what they want about their day and allow them to use pictures and photographs to illustrate.
Alternative 1:
If your child is into photography, allow him or her to make a photojournal on a topic of his or her choice. If it would be easier, use a blog or other online format for your child to post digital pictures. Make sure it is a secure site so it can be kept private if appropriate and so that you and your child can monitor what information is available to strangers.Alternative 2:
Organized Christmas has a great idea for a frugal gift that can be used in this activity: a Journal Jar. The gift idea includes a journal and a jar of journal prompts to get someone writing. I've included the link to the Child's Journal Jar but there is also one for adults. 3. Spiders vs. Insects
Science/Arts and CraftsLearn about arachnids. You may have a favorite science book or encyclopedia at home that describes arachnids, or you can use this great fact page from BioKIDS. Talk about the differences between arachnids and insects.
Next, do a fun spider craft together. This is a good one posted at Children's Learning Activities.
4. Babysteps Flash Cards
Story Interest/OrganizationTogether, choose something your child wants to learn to do. Help him or her break it down into three steps to practice. Have an older child write down each step on a separate index card. For younger children, write it for them. A picture of each step would be helpful and interesting as well.
Show your child how to practice each step, one at a time. Let him or her keep the flash cards to practice at other times.
5. Differences
Appreciation of Diversity/Emotional AwarenessHave your child choose one of his or her friends to talk about. Talk about the things your child likes about the friend. Ask if there are any things about the friend that are different from your child. You can help with ideas if your child can't think of any (hair color, skin color, eye color, length of hair, where the child lives, family, what the child likes to do, the child's favorite color, the child's favorite TV show, etc.) List two or three of these differences that your child likes about his or her friend.
Now think of someone else who is different from your child. This could be another child, a neighbor, a classmate, or a character from a book, game, or show. Think of their differences. Again list two or three differences that your child likes or thinks is interesting.
You may want to ask a few follow-up questions, but this topic probably doesn't need to be belabored. Some examples are:
"Can people who are different be friends?"
"Do you like to learn new and different things?"
"Do you like to meet new and different people?"
"How does it feel to notice something different about another person?"
"How does it feel to be different from someone else?"
This is a great unit study! And you are so right, Kristy -- parents homeschool even if they send their kids to school during the day. Jody and I are actually the traditional homeschoolers (the kind that don't send our kids to school in the daytime), and whenever people say, "Oh, I could never homeschool," I often respond, "But you already do!"
ReplyDeleteTeaching your kids that the cat says, "Meow" and the cow says, "Moo" are no different than teaching them what the letters say.
I pray you will touch the hearts of parents around the world because if everyone embraced a lifestyle of learning together (in the evenings and on the weekends), I think we'd see a great decline in many of the problems that plague our society.
Jenni, thank you for this. I often think of the ways parents teach their children unintentionally, by example. Children are certainly always learning!
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