Recommend some educational activities that span the curriculum?

Question

My wife home schools our boys based on "The Well Trained Mind" - basically, classical education. However, she finds herself fighting with them more than teaching them, and I was wondering if anyone had found some resource(s) that offers some different learning activities. Presently covering approx 2nd-3rd grade material. My hope is that we might engage the boys interests so that they want to learn as opposed to viewing it as a chore to get Mommy off their case!

Answer 1

All i can share is what we do in our house.
We look at our boys school work Monday - Friday as their work. No TV, computer time, movies, games, outside play, sweet treats, nothing until thieir work is done for the day. This includes, spelling words Mon-Thur Vocabulary on Tue and Wed and Sentences on Thur. and a test on Friday. Math each day right now it is double digit subtraction. 15 Minutes of reading aloud each day. Once these tasks are met then the the first 30 min. on the computer are on supportive materials.
In addition to this we cover subjects that are of interest to the boys, we have been studying the weather and tornados. We collectively search online and read the textbooks from the library together. As long as reading, writing and arithmatic is covered daily, all other information is just viewed as exposure. Their should be no stress, and mom should not have to be a drill sargent.
My husband also takes the first 15 minutes home to follow up on the progress of each of our boys and what they learned for the day. This allows us to see what was retained from the day.
Here is a list of the sites we use to ingage and reward the boys for their work each day.
livescience.com ( has great hands on experiments)
learn4good.com
starfall.com ( Great for rules of spelling, and reading)
paulyusplayhouse.com
awesome.i12.com
iknowthat.com
asmarteru.com
prongo.com
schoolexpress.com
wunderground.com (great to follow the weather)
primarygames.com
funschool.com
familyeducation.com
addictinggames.tv
readinglesson.com
freeworldgroup.com
classic-consoles.com
boowakwala.com
bensguide.gpo.gov
yahooligans.yahoo.com
funschool.kaboose.com
aaamath.com
storylineonline.net
sparktop.org
brainpop.com
kids.discovery.com
dltk-kids.com (great for projects and printables)
Then their our these
nick.com
cartoonnetwork.com
disney.go.com
freeworldgroup.com
looneytunes.warnerbros.com
dragongamez.com
Enjoy exploring these sites, i hope this is the information you and your wife were looking for and Good Luck on the Homeschooling, and first and formost have fun, the world is a wonderful and new experience and even as adults we learn something new each day, how wonderful is that.

Answer 2

In homeschooling circles, the "topical" studies that people are talking about is called "unit studies'. You can find a lot about it if you do a search for "homeschool unit studies".

The Well Trained Mind is a VERY difficult system to do. Nobody that I know has successfully followed it. But, I do know a lot of people who use the method as a guideline, and as inspiration. And really like it.

What I would suggest is to "deschool" a bit and take a break. Just enjoy the kids for a while and get to know their learning styles. While you are taking your break, do some reading up on other forms of educational philosophies. Get into a family rhythm, then work things into your already established family pattern - do NOT try to fit your family to someone else's schedule - even if it's an expert. Instead, know your family and then introduce things into your family practice little by little until you find a balance that feels right.

You can still get the benefit of the classical approach without forcing your kids into something that might kill their thirst for learning.

My general rule is this - if you have to force your children to learn, and you have to fight with them to do their work, it's not the right work. Immediately stop that activity and come back to it later. There is nothing that has to be learned RIGHT now, that is so important, that it's worth forcing a child into submission.

If you are working at his level, according to his abilities and learning styles, with an approach of love and encouragement, he won't struggle.

Now, for some ideas on exactly what to do, I suggest reading "Games for Learning" and "The Ultimate Book of Homeschooling Ideas" which contains 500 ideas on how to teach lots of different subjects at the same time.

Also, is your wife in a support group? It's essential to have other homeschoolers to bounce ideas off of. Even if you have an established social network, having a diverse group homeschoolers to talk to will help her get out of her rut.

Burnout is a serious problem in the homeschooling community. And often it's due to 1) expecting far too much from the children and from one's self 2) trying to bend to someone else's educational philosophy 3) not having a support network.

Check out yahoo groups and join an e-list, an inclusive one, and let the ideas flow!

Good luck!

Answer 3

The Well-Trained Mind program, as described in the book, was never intended to be followed 100%. It's supposed to be somewhat the ideal of what you could do, with you adapting it to your family and their needs. It's a very demanding program if followed as is and I don't know a single family using it completely, although I know several using it as a guideline, moreso for specific subject areas rather than all subject areas.

At the grades 2 and 3 level, especially with boys, maybe see if she's willing to shift out of WTM for science and try to go for experiments and science areas that interest them most. This can even end up covering a lot of language arts work because it's easy to integrate spelling and everything. You could also take the topics covered in the WTM materials, but expand what you might do with them (and don't try to do so much as quickly): get going with 3D models for history, make puppet shows and video tape them (if you have that capability), have the kids perform little skits in character...

I like WTM for inspiration, but I find their language arts program too fragmented and uninspiring. Is that where the boys are having the bulk of their resistance? I frankly wouldn't blame them. There are other ways to work on language arts than having different workbooks/programs for every single strand. My dd (9) is basically allowed to read whatever she wants (within reason) and composes lots of stories, poems and has begun project work. We work on grammar and spelling and all that through what she's writing rather than giving isolated lessons that aren't connected to anything.

Answer 4

Go 'topical'...

In our school we have just changed the entire curriculum for the 5-7 year olds becase the old one just wasnt engaging them. We have gone back to doing topics. For instance we have just finished one on 'Nature' - we did art with natural collage, read and wrote non fiction about animals and plants, wrote poems about different types of weather, conducted a science/geography surve about different sypes of weather, rainfall etc, RE looked at festivals in different religions to do with food and PE was dance based around different weathers and the seasons.

Next one is Fantasy/Adventure. The kids are responding really well to it and have no trouble 'getting into it' rather than just doing it for the sake of doing it.

Doing stuff through ICT is also a bonus. If looking at non fiction, do some research on the net or something.

As a last thing, we have just begun implementing the 'if they cant say it, they cant write it' theory which focuses heavily on speaking and listening as in input for their writing. have only been doing it for 3 weeks and my kids writing at the end of it was amazing - 100% better than if every lesson had been written.

Hope you get something useful out of that. Good luck. x x

Answer 5

I worked in Flagstaff Public Schools for a short time, in an ESL-inclusion classroom, primary level, grades 1-3.
One of the things I did with the class as a whole, and then also did some special things with different groups, was a reading of a lot of Chris Van Allsburg's books, ending with Polar Express at Christmas, when the whole class participated in a reading of the book (language arts), making hot chocolate (cooking---science), and making a wall-sized bulletin board version of the book---train, mountains, trees,etc (art project)

I also did a series of stories with several versions of the Mouse Bride, ---cross-cultural learning, comparing and contrasting the stories, then my 2nd grade reading group creating their own play, loosely based on the stories...they made it "the whale bride"

I also did a "Stone Soup" series, with similar stories, and ended the series by the group making "stone soup" and we had a great lunch we made ourselves, and everyone else was envious!!

Answer 6

Topical curriculum is what you need ;

Do a unit on Space Travel, or "What is inside the Earth"

Rivers and lakes OR Water in all its glory

Foods and who eats what? (include animals' needs too maybe)

Weapons through the Ages

Oh, there are lots of things to interest boys. . .
Be blessed <>< Love the Well Trained Mind

Answer 7

cooking is an educational activity that can span the subjects reading/language skills, math, art, chemistry, social studies and even history, as well as being a practical life skill that's both universally applicable as well as a potential career.