OT:Homeschoolers--What do your kids do all day?

[disneymom3]

We seem to have hit a rut and I need some suggestions to get out of it. We are pretty much done with school by noon. We have lots of educational toys and games as well as the basics like Lego, Fisher Price etc. The kids go outside everyday but sometimes that is only half an hour. We choose one or two learning movies--How Do they Grow, Liberty's Kids, The Works, etc-and watch those. Sometimes they do what we call learning games on computer. We have a co-op that we go to once a week and gymnastics class another day. Once a month we have clay camp. We go to the library every other week.

However, we are all bored! I feel like our creativity has been zapped the last several weeks and we are not doing much productive. The kids are sniping at each other and whining and asking for snacks all day. (Boredom!! They are not really hungry.

I need some ideas to keep their minds busy and their bodies active. I don't want to spend a lot of money. They are 10, almost 7 and 5.

 

[CindyBella]

My kids are not homeschooled but I admire anyone that has the dedication to homeschool their children.

The only thing it sounds like they are missing is more social interaction with their peers. That way they will be entertained and no longer bored. If school is not an option for your family, maybe you should try and join a group for homeschoolers and arrange play dates.

 

[MommaPooh]

My kids are a bit older (11 & 13) so I am not sure if what we do will be of much help, but here is how we spend most days:
*2 1/2 hours of strickly book learning. It is divided into five rotating classes of thirty minutes each. DD (13) has lessons in World History, English Literatature, Algebra/Math, Physical Science, Political Science/Current Events, Bible. DS (11) has lessons in Language Arts, Reading, Reading Comprehension, Spelling, Math, Basic Science, Penmanship, Bible. They choose which five classes they do each day, as long as they equally rotate them out.
*Atleast once a week I drop them off at the library for a half hour to an hour.
*Everyday they are required to spend between one to two hours outside playing with the dog, jumping on the trampoline, cleaning up the yard. They can also do their lessons outside if they like.
*Household chores - DS's daily duties include taking out the trash, feeding and watering the rabbit, two cats and one of the dogs. DD is responsible for doing all dishes and feeding/watering the other dog. In addition they have rotating jobs everyday like laundry (I do not do any laundry), sweeping, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, etc...
*One day a week we have basketball practice and about five days a week there is baseball practice, unless it is fall then baseball is reduced to three days a week and football is added in 3 days a week. (BIG costs - Approx $5k per year)
*DD goes to a co-op one day a week ($40 a month but it counts as a class credit towards graduation)
*Trips to the zoo about once every two weeks (annual membership $40 for entire family unlimited visits)
*Local park - monthly visits(FREE)
*Homeschool rollerskate day the third Wed of every month ($10)
*Homeschool bowling league every Friday ($7 a week)
*We live in our state capitol so there are many historical sites and other points of interest. Capitol building, Archives and History Museum, Rosa Parks Museum, Civil Rights Memorial, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Museum of Fine Arts, Planetarium, First White House of the Confederacy, Hank Williams Museum, Hank Williams Grave Site, (minimal fee to free on these)
*Many cities will allow you to schedule a tour of your local police department or fire station and these are almost always free.
*Vets are great about letting homeschoolers tour their offices. Television and radio stations are sometimes good about this as well.
*Another fun thing is visitng the "U Pick" farms. Like the one where you pick your own fruits. Not only do you get some great homegrown fruit, but a lesson in how they are grown, farming, etc...
*Arcades can be good, too. As long as the vidoe games are ones you approve, they can develop hand eye coordination, thinking skills, decision making. Plus the games like Dance Dance Revolution get them moving.
When mine were little and confined inside for whatever reason, bathroom paints were great. In the tub, painting the tub/shower walls, making bubbles. If they did not want it to be a "bath", I would put them in their swimsuits in the tub.
*Do they like to help in the kitchen? There are some great kid friendly cookbooks. Lots of things like healthy snacks they can make themselves.

 

[dijid]

I'm home with a 5yo and 3yo, so they're a bit younger than your kids. We also usually finish school by noon, and I don't allow TV M-F, so it can be a challenge to fill in the time. I require a half hour or more of quiet reading time in the afternoon (aka "Mom's Break). I also try to schedule some sort of weekly field trip. Two weeks ago we went to the zoo (we have a membership) and last week we went to the art museum (it's free!). I scour the paper looking for free/inexpensive trips and are on several homeschool email lists for my area which often give us good ideas. Our parks and rec department have a free nature center, there's an indoor playground ($1.50/kid), and we've even gone to a pet store when the weather is just too yucky for the zoo. We also go to the library 2x/week. My kids just love the library and 5yoDS is a voracious reader. DS is in the YMCA's homeschool swim & gym program (2hours/week) and I get to work out during this time. Other things we do to fill in time that might apply to your kids:

Try new games
Bake/cook
I let 5yo DS use the digital camera
Legos
Go for a mall walk/make it a scavenger hunt or game of "I spy"
Go to the apple computer store and use their computers/software
Listen to music
Write to penpals (relatives for my kids)
Mad Libs
Paint/Fingerpaint/Play with Clay or Play doh

Good luck getting out of your rut!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Have you tried things like making homemade playdoh? You can scent it any way you want and it lasts a long time. I also do the bathtub playtime sometimes. Another thing I do is put a tablecloth on the floor and make a bunch of finger food and we play "camp out". We tell stories and sing songs etc. We even make tents in the living room sometimes! We also turn up the music and dance our bums off and sing loudly. I don't homeschool, but my kids are young so I feel your pain about running out of things to do. Collect leaves, acorns etc. from outside and make a craft. Birdfeeder made from a pincecone (or bagel) w/peanut butter and birdseed to hang outside, or you can cut open a milk carton and put some seed in it. Then you can watch and see what kind of birds it attracts. Hide and seek. Check and see if your library has free classes or storytimes. You can make puppets out of old socks or brown paper lunch bags and then put on a puppet show. Start teaching them a second language, there are plenty of online resources as well as books/videos at the library. It's not as hard as it seems, kids pick up so much. Go for a drive and look around the neigborhood for things like construction sites- you can watch the trucks, or if you live by the water you can go look at the boats. As a treat once in a while take them to the diner for lunch. My kids always love this. I let them order for themselves and they really have a good time (and so do I!) Some days I too feel like they are bored out of their mind and I am too. It's hard to always find something to do. I am looking foward to seeing what everyone else comes up with.

 

[Adam321]

I don't know much about home schooling, and I don't mean to start anything, but my DD goes to school AND does all the things you've listed as her normal play or family time. Is this really all home schooling is?

 

[meandtheguys2]

I don't know much about home schooling, and I don't mean to start anything, but my DD goes to school AND does all the things you've listed as her normal play or family time. Is this really all home schooling is?

Free time is free time. YKWIM? After we are done with lessons, our time is spent cooking, cleaning, playing games, taking walks, grocery shopping, going to see friends who also HS, playing with the neighborhood kids after they get home, taking baths, reading books, working in the garden, pin trading , training the dog, watching movies, working on the SS class I teach, and they help with, writing letters, playing computer games, visiting the nursing home, doing 4-H projects...yeah...probably the same stuff your kid does.

Julie, I've been insisting on an afternoon walk, no matter what the weather this last year. It seems to help the doldrums, and they will oftentimes spend hours outside playing, after. Even in the crappy cold weather. I'm big on outdoor time! I don't think kids get nearly enough of it!

We also took up knitting and soap making this year. They knit for a couple of different charity organizations, and feel really good about helping. Soap is easy if it is glyceren (sp?).

I do hate winter, though. I can't wait for summer and the life of a pool mom!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

* In addition they have rotating jobs everyday like laundry (I do not do any laundry), sweeping, vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, etc...
.

Wow! Send them over to my house!

 

[wendy46001]

I dont home school but take the god daughter out on educational trips....we like to go visit the local paper and watch it run, even the local pizza hut will give you a tour (watch them make pizza), most area business will let you see its workings....Also we have a park by us that has all these sheets on different Plants and bug in the area and we try to locate them....

I love things that get us out of the house and are educational

 

[disneymom3]

Thank you all for your responses! I think I have identified our basic problem--we are not getting out of the house enough. We are in a co-op/field trip/get together group but it gets hard in MN in the winter because of not being able to be outside for long. Add to that that while it has been cold we have also had rain and very little snow. During the summers we get together at parks a lot and my kids play in our own backyard for hours on end. Many of the other kids in the neighborhood my own kids age have moved away this last year or so, one of them her mom started to work so she is only around Saturdays, etc. My kids generally do the things like play dough, making forts etc but nothing seems to really intrigue them lately. I think I will up library time to once a week.

We also have "jobs" that everyone does. DD makes dinner about once a week and does her own laundry and the boys are learning. They, oddly love to clean the bathtub, but how often can you do that?

I have been trying to keep costs down as we are really watching the budget right now, but I did find out that our library has museum passes you can check out for free admission. Your responses have inspired me that I need to get out there and use them!

Adam--I think you have a great question that a lot of people wonder about. On a normal basis, one of the things I love about homeschooling is that my kids are inspired to be creative and to seek out lots of learning experiences that they would not have time for if they were in school, AND they seek these out on their own which makes it more meaningful to them. I also did not do a good job of explaining our day. While our "three Rs" so to speak are always done in the mornings and are generally done by noon, things like science, art and history, which take more time are usually done in the afternoons. We have a very hands on approach to those which tends to take more time, but somehow life just gets stale sometimes. When you take out the time that is spent in school on things like, lining up, changing classes, re-explaining material, waiting for everyone to be done, and other things you end up with a lot of free time. I don't however like to fill up the evenings --or even the days with a ton of activities. That is my personal thing and just not something we are comfortable with.

Keep the ideas coming! These have been great!

 

[abookworm]

Cardboard boxes-nuff said LOL
Ok, I'm only half serious. But you know a few cardboard boxes can get any kids creative juices flowing and next thing you know you have at least a few days of designing, coloring, etc. Just visit the local appliance store or call ahead to have them hold some for you.

I'm in a similar boat with my kids in that my youngest is 2 and not old enough to go to some of the field trips and activities our homeschool group does. So we tend to be home alot in the winter too. Luckily another parent often volunteers to take my son with her kids but I have to make a real effort to plan at least 1 playdate a week in the winter other than our co-op class on Fridays and karate classes 2x a week.
Basically my kids "socialize" (homeschooler's inside joke) everyday with other kids but it's not always to just play-which is why I always try to plan at least 1 strictly play activtity.
It also helps that my son is a Lego freak so he's happy to design lego stuff for hours in the afternoons in the winter.....
Spring and summer lucklily are much different and we're at the park or beach almost daily

 

[graygables]

Most people don't understand the amount of time taken up in a traditional school day with the mundane, non-educational stuff. Roll-call, telling Billy to sit down for the hundredth time, and the trek up and down the hall to music class/PE/etc eats up a lot of time in the day.

Our "lunchroom" and "playground" are just through a door and there isn't anyone to tell to line up, walk quietly, stay in line ad nauseum. Because of that, the actual time spent with school/texts is a LOT less for homeschooled kids.

That said, mine (10 & 8) play computer games (LOVE VMK for social interaction, spelling, and more), watch TV, go outside, scrapbook, color, play together w/ Playmobil/Littlest Pet Shop/Stuffies, help around the house with meal prep/clean up, laundry, etc, help some with various jobs that they are paid for (packaging items for my business, helping FIL in his gardens when we are home and in the summer). We go to the zoo, the park, the mall, the grocery store, the scrapbook store when we want to crop "out", skating lessons, dance lessons, music lessons, Wed night church program, outings planned by DDs' e-school and various co-ops.

Paint, markers, playdough, bath crayons (nothing like a long bubble bath with bath crayons on a cold winter day!), scissors, punches, anything crafty and creative, plus anything that involves creative, PARENT-LESS play (they need to learn to cope without me and I need a break, thanks). We also play board games (Clue is great) and card games (Phase 10)

My goal is to NOT entertain my kids. When they say, "I'm bored", I say, "Great! Now you have a chance to think of something creative to UN-bore yourself!" Think about road trips 30 years ago, no DVD players, no Gameboys, no iPods. The horror. You had to keep yourself entertained. You looked out the window and imagined you were racing a runaway train. You imagined who lived in that old, run-down house, you INVENTED games (where do you think the cow-counting/lose 'em at a cemetary game came from? some BORED kid! ) I want my kids to entertain themselves and not expect to sit back and be amused all the time. BTW, if they persist with an "I'm bored" all I have to say is, "Well, there's always the next math lesson..."

 

[pperfectmom]

Free time is free time. YKWIM? After we are done with lessons, our time is spent cooking, cleaning, playing games, taking walks, grocery shopping, going to see friends who also HS, playing with the neighborhood kids after they get home, taking baths, reading books, working in the garden, pin trading , training the dog, watching movies, working on the SS class I teach, and they help with, writing letters, playing computer games, visiting the nursing home, doing 4-H projects...yeah...probably the same stuff your kid does.

Julie, I've been insisting on an afternoon walk, no matter what the weather this last year. It seems to help the doldrums, and they will oftentimes spend hours outside playing, after. Even in the crappy cold weather. I'm big on outdoor time! I don't think kids get nearly enough of it!

We also took up knitting and soap making this year. They knit for a couple of different charity organizations, and feel really good about helping. Soap is easy if it is glyceren (sp?).

I do hate winter, though. I can't wait for summer and the life of a pool mom!

Are you in Kentucky, by any chance? I need to find homeschoolers for advice and interaction. My kids are just almost 2 and almost 4, but I really feel like I need to be working with the older one already.

 

[meandtheguys2]

pperfectmom, I wish...is it warm there? Check your library for a homeschool group (that was how we found the two we've been involved with). I learned so much from the people who had been there already! And those mom's are my salvation!

One of the things I learned, is that little kids need to play, and learn while they are playing, though!

Good luck! I love homeschooling!

Rereading my post, I wanted to say that I hadn't meant it to be sarcastic, but to emphasize that kiddos done with the school day are usually involved in the same sort of activities. Kids are kids the world around!

 

[pperfectmom]

meandtheguys2, If you have snow I don't want to hear about it. I am so jealous of anyone with white stuff on the ground. It seems like the last couple of years we haven't got any. Last year poor DD had one pathetic snowman that I like to call the "Mud/Stick/small amounts of snow"man.

 

[meandtheguys2]

meandtheguys2, If you have snow I don't want to hear about it. I am so jealous of anyone with white stuff on the ground. It seems like the last couple of years we haven't got any. Last year poor DD had one pathetic snowman that I like to call the "Mud/Stick/small amounts of snow"man.

Poor thing!!! Although that was the best laugh of the day!

 

[disneymom3]

meandtheguys2, If you have snow I don't want to hear about it. I am so jealous of anyone with white stuff on the ground. It seems like the last couple of years we haven't got any. Last year poor DD had one pathetic snowman that I like to call the "Mud/Stick/small amounts of snow"man.

I thought I heard the other day about a big snowstorm in Kentucky? We have barely enough snow to cover the ground here which is WEIRD!! People think MN is some horrible frozen tundra but really the last several years we have nothing to complain about.

You all want to talk about irony?? So, yesterday I was just feeling so blah--the kids were bickering and whining and the ol' I'm bored was coming out--and I feel the same way as you about that, graygables--and I was at a loss of what to do. Now today they are back to their normal antics. DD and DS spent at least an hour earlier today writing and illustrating books for each other to read. This is awesome for both of them--DD has to practice her legible writing because otherwise her brother won't recognize the unfamiliar scrawl--and DS gets to practice his reading and writing out of words. Then this afternoon, the two boys are playing Farmer Boy. They are taking turns being Almanzo or the calves that he had to train. They're using a sleeping bag as the yoke(Which I am not getting! ) and trying to remember if "gee" means right or left. (We had to look it up!)

I am going to employ the bath during the middle of the day on Friday(we have music lessons tomorrow afternoon) and Thursday we are going to go to whatever museum we can pick up a free pass for at the library tomorrow.

I am off to find a homemade bath crayon recipe. We can make those tomorrow too, I bet!

 

[emma'smom]

I don't know much about home schooling, and I don't mean to start anything, but my DD goes to school AND does all the things you've listed as her normal play or family time. Is this really all home schooling is?

Hate to stir this up...but I just have to say that I was thinking the same thing! We go to museums, library, zoo, outdoor activities, soccer, gymnastics, do computer games (limited), educational videos, chores at home, etc.....and she goes to school all day- a small Montessori school where she learns her academic subjects, music, art, PE, spanish, etc. I spend time in her classroom frequently, the are working on their independent work...not much time is wasted in lining up, discipline, hallway walking, etc. They eat lunch in their classroom and solve their problems amongst themselves at the peace table. This doesn't seem to interfere with the learning of other students. Yet, they have a full-day of quality class time (including lunch/recess/special classes). How do you know "when the lessons are done"? Isn't there always more to learn to challenge the student (at home or school)? I understand parents who choose to homeschool because of religious concerns....but, and honestly I want to understand since we have a lot of homeschool families in our area, I don't get it?

 

[abookworm]

Hate to stir this up...but I just have to say that I was thinking the same thing! We go to museums, library, zoo, outdoor activities, soccer, gymnastics, do computer games (limited), educational videos, chores at home, etc.....and she goes to school all day- a small Montessori school where she learns her academic subjects, music, art, PE, spanish, etc. I spend time in her classroom frequently, the are working on their independent work...not much time is wasted in lining up, discipline, hallway walking, etc. They eat lunch in their classroom and solve their problems amongst themselves at the peace table. This doesn't seem to interfere with the learning of other students. Yet, they have a full-day of quality class time (including lunch/recess/special classes). How do you know "when the lessons are done"? Isn't there always more to learn to challenge the student (at home or school)? I understand parents who choose to homeschool because of religious concerns....but, and honestly I want to understand since we have a lot of homeschool families in our area, I don't get it?

If you look at your post then you can see that your school situation is unique and not really the norm. Many do not have alternative education choices like Montessori or they are too expensive. You are very lucky to have a wonderful option for your child.
Some choose to homeschool because they don't have these options and they can provide a better education themselves. Or their schools may be dangerous, run down, overcrowded, etc. Or they've had bad experiences with teachers that will not change.
But even with alternative ed choices some people choose to homeschool because they want to impart not only their values on their children but they also want to guide their education in a way that meets their needs best.
Many children are not at 'grade level" for all subjects yet most schools are set up to teach only that way. So kids are told to stop reading ahead or labeled a troublemaker because they are bored since work is too easy for them. Homeschooling eliminates these issues since the child can work at their level and learn about things that interest them for as long as they want-not just a semester or 50 min school period.

There's an excellent book called "Dumbing us Down" by a teacher, John Taylor Gatto, that also explains in depth how the average student is taught to basically be a "cog in the wheel of society." Many homeschoolers want to fight against that and teach their child to be independent and critical thinkers. The realities outlined in this book are really some of the primary reasons I homeschool.

I'm not trying to get into a debate with anyone why homeschooling is better or worse than public/private schools. It's all relative to the individuals. Parents do what they think is best for their child.
This is just one homeschooler's perspective.

 

[4boysrus]

abookworm..

i think you summed it up nicely. i've been wanting to respond to the thread, but couldn't put something together that wouldn't stir the pot even more.

thanks!