Instant Lesson: Story Starters and Writing Prompts

 My young friend, Meg, used to get up at 6:30 to be able to finish all of her school work before her neighborhood friends even got on the bus to go to public school.  She enjoyed running out to the bus stop to announce she had finished!  Now what?  You need instant lessons occasionally for enrichment.  Some of my favorite instant lessons are for writing.  

Kiddos: Free Creative Writing Story Prompts are written for home-schoolers!  Here, here, and here are more story starters.  Print a list or two for your emergency files.  You could also have your kiddos print a list my hand to practice handwriting.

Teens: I keep a set of grab and go writing prompts for days I just blank.  I used several from San José State: Descriptive Writing, Pruning Your Prose, Snowball, etc.  (Nope.  I can’t find the source for the exercises unless they are buried in Homegrown Handouts.)  Teens need to write!  Practice with SAT Writing Prompts or these prompts.  

There are any number of reasons you need an extra activity or an instant lesson.  Let’s create a stack of files for fall!

Instant Lessons

 When I taught professionally, I had emergency lessons.  You should, too!  Create files marked Emergency.  Some large families also have an emergency snack box when mom just can’t face cooking another meal.  Put the emergency files there. There will be days when your three year old decides to have a two hour melt-down or the baby is vomiting with a fever.  While your older kiddos are delighted to build with LEGOs or bake, consider emergency lessons—at least to keep you from feeling guilty about missing the regular lessons.  

Money: Currency, coins, and money combines several subjects. Let’s start with coins.  Watch Money and Magnets before you read The Captivating Chemistry of Coins.  Here are the student questions.  Younger kiddos might enjoy the NCW issue, Marvelous Metals, which has articles, a game, activities, and terms.  Assign the terms to the kiddos.  They can copy the vocabulary and definitions.  In fact have them research the definition and record any unfamiliar word.   Tell the children they can clean copper pennies (older than 1981) with vinegar and salt or Ketchup; however, they need to find the pennies by themselves and do the experiment in the kitchen. Here is the U.S. Mint’s Coin Classroom, with videos. Ask the younger kiddos to hunt for change and count it.  Here are counting money worksheets to print.

Currency is another interesting topic.  Here is the currency academy.  Cash, Currency, and Counterfeit (guide) and Counterfeiting Countermeasures, are fascinating.  Here are U.S. currency videos.  HST has a Counterfeit Money Project kids can do independently if they have a magnifier.  Ask the kiddos to hunt for yours when they are searching for coins.  If you have a hand-held microscope, paper currency is fascinating under the microscope.  

Science NCW and ACS Issues: Celebrating Chemistry (scroll down) has annual issues full of articles, activities, vocabulary, etc.  Look at The Sweet Side of Chemistry: Candy.  Print the articles and save the experiments for another day.  Kiddos can summarize articles or just write a few facts, depending on their ages. Do you want dire emergency science lessons?  Use Bill Nye Movie Sheets and Bill Nye Episodes.  My emergency lessons were Chemmatters articles and teacher’s guides, such as Crochet Chemistry, which dovetails well with Fabulous Fibers.  The teacher’s guide is on the same page as the article. Students should write the answers in complete sentences.  Voila! An instant lesson!

English and Math: Pick a writing prompt. The kiddo is practicing  handwriting.  Have Editor in Chief and Easy Grammar on hand.  Pull out any sheet.  By all means read a book!  Ask your kiddo to add the title in her reading log.  Similarly, print math drill worksheets.  Try to train your kiddo to pull out math of his own and work on the next lesson.  3-Act Tasks have videos, such as The Candyman, with questions.  Kids can estimate the number of pieces of gum from the gum ball machine and see the answer in the link or video below.

Geography and History: I like Daily Geography.  Pull any lesson.  For high school teens I’ve used Land and People: Finding a Balance.  The focus question provides a guide.  For example, have the teen start with the poster, review the Teacher’s Guide, and read the lesson.  I’ve used this as a research project.  What is the current state of water quality in Cape Cod?  How is Cape Cod addressing the water quality issues?  For History, try Five Minute History Lessons or pick a Sesquicentennial Lesson!  What does freedom mean to you?  Try Dissecting the Revolution and worksheet from the Museum of the American Revolution.  Save these crafts for a rainy day.

VeggieTales Connections

 Good Will has a listing for Veggietales Connections.  eBay does, too!  This looks like a year-long Bible Study for kiddos.  What fun!

Portfolios

It’s that time of year: portfolios!  Each year I review several for home-school families.  I’ve been on the other side, preparing portfolios, too.  They are a lot of work! Let’s examine both aspects, reviewing and creating portfolios.  This may help you assemble materials for your own portfolio to submit.

Let’s talk reviews.  When I review portfolios, I prefer to interview the family—kiddos included!  The first time I work with a family, the interview takes hours.  What is their home-school philosophy?  What is the family’s style?  Is there a dedicated space?  Do the children work on their lessons daily?  Is school year-round?  There are many ways to home-school successfully.  Once I have a better idea about the family, I look at the program of study.  Does the family use a defined curriculum?  Are they enrolled in an on-line school?  How many hours and weeks do they teach?  Which courses did the children take?  Then it’s on to specifics.  I like to see work samples, reading logs, textbooks, essays, tests, certifications, and photos.  The kiddos tell me about their work, their interests, their favorite books.  Moms share anecdotes.  During the interview I take pages and pages of notes.  Once the interview concludes, I review my notes and draft a letter.  Sometimes, I contact the mom with more questions.  Next I craft a letter.

In Virginia and West Virginia, the school districts require a letter. Here is an example from last year’s review.  (BTW I taught Jacob in Bio and Comp.  I sat with him in Algebra 1, and tutored him in Latin.  I had plenty of material.)  

My reviews are positive.  I might make suggestions to the family; however I do NOT write negative comments in a letter to the school board.  Home-school families are sharply scrutinized.  I don’t invite more.  Once I get acquainted with the family, I can rely on work samples.  Although, several families prefer an interview at their homes.  My friend, Michelle, pulls out all the books, samples, and syllabi.  Another mom of eleven, Mrs. S sends me digital files in pdf and png format with photos, work samples, test scores, essay, etc.  I’ve reviewed her children’s portfolios for many years, initially in her home, occasionally from her van!  Mrs.S’s family is also enrolled in an on-line school.  I trust these submissions.  

How do you create your own portfolio?  Here is one I assembled and submitted to Kolbe Academy quarterly.  I like to include photos of the textbooks in Google Slides, with the subjects as titles. It is helpful to include work samples, tests, essays, etc from each quarter.  I just took photos and added them to the slide deck.

 Mrs. S creates one, annual portfolio for each child.  In each portfolio is a copy of Seton’s curriculum, work samples for each subject, a reading log (at my request years ago), tests, and transcripts for on-line classes, such as Rosetta Stone Spanish.  Mrs. S’s younger children have many more work samples; the teens have more essays and course transcripts with test grades because they take more of their classes on-line.  Every year, she includes over 50 photos and a summary for each child, with his or her strengths and weaknesses.  Why?  Mrs. S is documenting field trips, service projects, sports, and milestones.  The letters for her children’s portfolios are a breeze!

What about a child with learning differences or special needs?  Mrs. S has a child with Down’s and was very concerned about her portfolio.  This child, L, has a host of medical needs, too.  L. receives a myriad of therapies, all part of her education.  Remember you are home-schooling to address your child’s unique needs.  With L I’m looking at her development.  Has she learned new words?  Can she sing?  Tie shoes?  Copy letters?  What exactly can she do this year she wasn’t able to do last year?  L has had a number of surgeries which delay development.  All of that type of information goes into my portfolio, review letter.  Mrs. S and her family use every tool available to help L grow and learn.  

If your child has learning differences, emphasize his or her progress.  Reading is one of those areas where kiddos can make a big jump after several, very frustrating years.  If your kiddo is still struggling to read, explain your strategies.  Are you reading aloud as a family?  Taking turns with each page in a book?  Listening to audio books?  The same can be true of math facts.  Do you practice them anyway?  Use manipulatives?  Model strategies?  Some kiddos need devices to write because their hand-writing is illegible.  Do you practice handwriting, too? (Okay, maybe printing, not cursive.)  Is the child making adequate progress, not necessarily blazing new trails?

Now assemble work samples.  Scan math tests, essays, spelling lists, etc with your cell phone.  Scour your phone for photos of things your family has done.  Do you keep chickens?  Did you visit a museum?  Did you take a Co-op field trip to the park with a ranger as a docent?  Does your family garden?  Think of all of the ways you educate your child, which includes piano lessons, Latin, soccer, and tutoring.  

Organize your thoughts.  Are you working with a teacher, who will write a letter of evaluation?  What would you like the teacher to tell the school board?  I think it’s important to emphasize all of the ways the kiddo is making progress and developing rather than focusing on his deficits.  Put your thoughts on paper for the teacher to paraphrase in her letter.  Guess what?  After all of this exhausting work you are going to be even more resolved to help your kiddo learn next year!

Homemade PE Equipment

 I was looking for sports and science when I ran across this ERIC document, Homemade PE equipment.  The article has plans to build a net, use a magazine to make a baton, parallel bars, and milk jug bowling pins.  It’s summer!  What a good time to collect recycled materials for a backyard playground—complete with homemade equipment!

Montessori

 Did you know Good Will has Montessori materials?  It does!  Take a look!

Food and Nutrition Curriculum for Kiddos!

 I’m on the hunt for meaningful summer projects.  How about nutrition?  It’s a great elective.  Super Snacking is easy to follow.  I like 4-H projects; they just seem a bit more balanced: My Plate, 4-H Cooking 101, Food and Fun, and Food and Nutrition.  Each program has a different emphasis.  Look at Get Fit, That’s It!

Nutrition has a plethora of resources, including Nutrition and Food Safety Education.  Food Hero has a bingo game and scavenger hunt. Surprise!  SNAP has a good curriculum.  University of Wisconsin has loads and loads of links: Got Veggies?, Cooking with Kids, to name a few.  Some links are broken.  I love Got Milk, especially some of the site’s nutrition information.  

The Homeschool Mom has suggestions for creating a nutrition program.  Start at the library!  Get a stack of cooking and nutrition books from the children’s stacks.  Decide your approach.  Will you explore cooking?  Are you more interested in vitamins and minerals?  Healthy lifestyle?  Balanced diet?  Basics?  The School House has reviews of some commercial curricula.  I’m an Apologia fan.  This summer, let’s do practical lessons with the kiddos!