The miracle that brought me home is one I don’t share a ton, but is one of the most amazing things that’s ever happened to me.
Hello, Motherhood
The moment they laid my baby in my arms, I was toast.
How could I leave this little miracle?
How could I have ever said that teaching would be what I wanted to do after he was born?
I had no idea how I would feel, and I was officially stuck.
My husband sadly said there was no way we could swing my being a stay-at-home-mom.
Financially we’d solidly built our life to be a two-income home.
I Prayed
I knew I could trust the LORD to bring me home.
I’m not even going to pretend for a second that I didn’t have doubts, but I prayed.
A lot.
The years kept passing by.
The Deal
I asked my husband if he thought I could come home again.
I asked every year since my oldest was born.
Fast forward five years later.
I asked again.
He said there was no way, and that he really needed me to stop asking.
This just wasn’t going to happen for us.
And, he admitted, every time I asked, it hurt him to say no.
So, I promised that I wouldn’t ask him ever again.
Halfway through Year 6
I sat at the end of my driveway about to pull away from my home for yet another time.
To look back at their dark bedroom windows knowing all I’d miss again.
I couldn’t bring myself to push the gas pedal.
I went to pray like I always did, but this time I was mad.
“God! You know this hurts me! God, you can fix this. You can stop this pain. Please, God. Stop this pain. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t do it without you, and I cannot keep living like this. It’s breaking me, LORD. You made me like this. I wanted to teach. You made me this mother; God! Please bring me home! I’m out. I’m sick of trying to fix our budget and make extra on the side and do everything I can to provide for myself. I clearly can’t do it, so it’s Yours. I give it to You. I’m out!”
All the way to school I cried my eyes out, which was nothing new.
I dried up my tears, and taught until I finally came home for Christmas break.
I couldn’t even get too excited for Christmas because I knew after two weeks I’d be ripped away from my home again.
Where my heart belonged.
Where I belonged.
My Own Christmas Miracle
For some reason, as we sat in the basement wrapping Christmas gifts, I felt an inward nudge. A push to ask if I could come home.
No. I’d promised.
I felt that it again.
“Baaaabe?”
So I told him I didn’t really want to ask, but for some reason felt like I had to.
I apologized profusely, but said I just have this weird feeling I need to ask one more time.
“Can I come home after this school year?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“Yes.”
“You know this isn’t funny to me. Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you saying this?”
“I don’t know. I just know we can do it. You can come home. Yes.”
Home With My Babies
I don’t know why the Lord kept me teaching six years, and I don’t need to know.
What I do know is that every day with these boys is a dream.
Every single day we learn and laugh and play.
I even fold every tiny little inside out piece of clothing with a big fat smile on my face.
Sometimes I just break down with tears of joy over how my Father works.
Would I be as grateful if I’d gotten all I wanted six years before?
I wish I could say yes, but maybe not.
So, I’ll stop writing now.
My seven-year-old is snuggled up next to me reading a book, and I’d like to praise God for His perfect ways and see what this little bug is doing.
This book cracks me up. My kids, too. Even my husband, who prefers to read about his Ohio State Buckeye solely can get into this one. Heads up: your reluctant readers may start calling you a fuzzy little butt. You’ve been warned.
The silliness of this one gave us inside jokes about “tummy troubles,” and I never knew if, during a dinner of tacos, one kid would bite into a spicy taco and set the house ablaze.
There’s also a sequel to this one, which builds excitement for reading, a key to lifelong love of stories!
If your family likes these books, you’ll also like the other books by Adam Rubin like Those Darn Squirrels (and sequels) and Robosauce!
A smaller read aloud with pictures every few pages will be a great step up from the graphic novels.
Please don’t discredit pictures in books.
Until our children can solidify their visualization skills, books with pictures are so helpful to keep interest .
How to Use the Pictures
Use these pictures to your benefit!
Let them look over the picture. Notice things about them alongside your child. Show them you like pictures, too and add in how they’re helping you understand the story.
Fantastic Mr. Fox is a great one because it’s got lots of twists and turns and your child will also be able to feel emotion for a main character.
I got the idea of a book trail from my friend years ago, and it’s been a hit ever since!
A book trail is a line of books going from your child’s bedroom leading them to the tree Christmas morning.
Why do One?
Building your home’s library is key to your child’s education.
The journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility stated that, “Growing up in a home with 500 books would propel a child 3.2 years further in education, on average, than would growing up in a similar home with few or no books.”
The excitement of Christmas morning puts books in a fun light.
Where reading can quickly grow to be a chore with the frustration that can tag along with homework and learning to read, these books are special and chosen especially for your child.
What Books Should You Get?
Books of high interest.
Too often when I taught, I had sad conversations with my 8th graders’ parents about how they once loved reading but lost it somehow.
Then they’d tell me that not only did their child hate reading, but he also refused to read books at “his level.”
Let’s look at these Christmas books a little differently.
These tree trail picks are the fun books.
The who cares what “level” I’m at choices.
They’ll get there, friend, but first we have to draw them in.
Open their eyes to the wonderful world they can find between the pages of a book that speaks to them.
In fact, I’d even argue we can nudge your child toward his or her “level” while keeping interest high!
Where to Get Good Quality Books
We like Usborne books because they’re easy to browse for the kinds of books we like.
Our boys are really into adventure, dogs, and inventing right now, and Usborne has it all!
I especially love this for the tree’s trail of books because I can find SO MANY for around $5 that have been super popular with our kids!
Let’s end the craziest year with some ideas for under the tree. These are the top 10 Christmas gifts our kids have loved 2020 style!
Electric Scooter
This Mongoose Electric Scooteris only $85, which was great for kids at an age where they don’t always take the best care of their outdoor toys.
LEGO Minecraft
I don’t know about your kids, but mine are obsessed with Minecraft, so this LEGO set was perfect for a Christmas morning build! $32
Chinese YoYo
Have you seen what these things can do?! Our kids are excited to learn how to play withthis Chinese YoYo. $12.99
Unicorn Pillow Kit
After seeing my niece’s reaction to this Unicorn Pillow Kit, I’ve got to suggest it for this Christmas! $24.95
Pogo Stick
The one toy my kids played with at friends’ homes this year over and again was a pogo stick. Thankfully I found this one for a reasonable price! $52.99
Throw Throw Burrito Dodgeball Game
I could just imagine us throwing these at each other and the laughter and fun memories we’ll make, so I scooped up Throw Throw Burrito for under the tree. $24.99
Balance Board
I’ve got one wiggly homeschooler, and another who is a kinesthetic learner. I figured this balance boardcould be especially useful in our home and even double as a workout for Mama! $21.99
Mini Retro Arcade
This mini retro arcade has been the kids’ favorite this past year! It has made long car rides a cinch! $28.88
Our kids think this thing is the BEST! I would’ve never thought a trike like the Green Machinewould be so popular with kids this age, but here we are! $200
Merry Christmas!
I hope this roundup will be useful to you!
What did you get for your kids that you’re really excited for them to receive?
With this download, you’ll get number practice, a fun game, coloring options, printing practice, graphing practice, measuring, story telling, life cycle, and compare/contrast!
You can scroll through what’s all included on Instagram @homeschoolforhigher first if you’d like a preview!
Extensions
There are many mini-lessons you can choose to do as you read this anchor text.
Choose one at a time, and don’t be afraid to read and re-read again and again seeing the book from different angles.
2nd and 3rd Grade Extension
You can add in your own mini-lesson on alliteration if you’d like, since the anchor text is full of it!
Here’s all you need to know:
Alliteration is repeating the same consonant sound to create a certain sound in writing.
This can be to provoke feeling, help the reader imagine the story (imagery), or just to be fun and sound cool!
The examples of alliteration in Peter Spit a Seed at Sue are as follows:
spit a seed at Sue
Susie spit
pepper Pete
splatter Sue
zippin’ zingin’
buzzed….like bees
steely stare
Alliteration game: We play this little game, my boys love, and it would be so fun with your child’s new alliteration knowledge.
We tell a story that always starts with, “Once upon a time…” however we only get to say one word each back and forth so we never know where the story will go.
Try to mix it up with your alliteration mini-lesson trying to fit in as many pieces of this literary device that you can.
This game has gotten us so tickled before, and we love it!
PreK-1 Extension
This book is amazing for teaching rhyme!
Why?
It rhymes all the time!
As you walk through the read aloud part of the book, explain what rhyming is.
Let your child know it’s a part of an author’s super powers to help the reader enjoy this book.
It gives this story a certain sound that’s unlike books without rhyme. Not better or worse. Just different.
Give your child a few examples of the rhyme you see in the book then have them make a silly sound or raise their hands when they hear another rhyme.
We like to play a little game called, “I love you more than…” to learn rhyme in our homeschool.
It’s so silly and fun, your child will love it!
We’ve put it to a little tune and sing, “I love you more than pie!”
Then the child says, “I love you more than flies!”
Then mama says, “I love you more than eyes!”
And the game continues until you are cracking up and just can’t think of anything else or you change the word to keep on rhyming!
My youngest especially like to do this before bed as he snuggles me in his patented headlock.
Enjoy AND SHARE!!
I hope this bundle gets you outside in the fresh air zippin’ and zingin’ watermelon seeds and making memories that last a lifetime!
Please tag @homeschoolforhigher as you document your memories on Instagram!
One struggle parents had every year I taught was where to get a book list for their teen.
They’re at such a different and unique age.
This age range needs more in-depth books than elementary offered.
They need less mature books than high school requires.
So where do you start?
For these reasons, this was such a joy for me to put together for you!
I loved teaching 8th grade Language Arts.
The kids were amazing, and the stack of great reads on my desk were always an ever-expanding tower each year.
Some of the best books I’ve ever read only fell into my possession because a middle school student put it on my desk with a note: read me.
FREEBIE!!
Enjoy this free download!
I was careful to put in a good mixture of books based on what my students chose to conference with me about each year.
These are the books that flew off the shelves and the ones they spoke to each other about naturally.
They’re also the books that didn’t dip into the immature/childish feel.
Both boys and girls will enjoy this list.
Take a second to click on the links for the books that sound interesting.
Some of the books deal with some more serious topics my students found themselves facing.
Some share challenges of being a teen coming of age during a difficult time in history.
Whatever the topic, it’s always best for you to be able to dig in and choose what’s best for your teen with such a wide range of emotions, maturity levels, and understanding in this grade range.
Print copies of words your child is struggling to memorize. Create your board with sidewalk chalk, on a chalkboard, or with painter’s tape on the floor. You can also have your child trace over the word with his/her finger to help.
Target Practice
Print a few words your child is working on, and draw out or tape out a target somewhere safe. Let them shoot at the target with a Nerf gun or even water balloons!
Hopscotch
Print the words your child is working on, and lay them inside a drawn hopscotch board or a mat like this one. Roll a rock. Wherever the rock lands, they have to pick up the sight word and say it before finishing the board.
Charades
Hold the card up in front of you where you can’t see but the child can. Have him/her act out or draw what’s on the card for you to guess. If you want to add a challenge, put a two minute timer on and add up the points you get with each card you’re able to guess. These mini-white boards can be helpful with this game as well as many other times as you school.
Memory
Print doubles of the words your child is working toward mastering. Flip them over and play a game of memory with them. Make sure anyone playing says the words aloud when flipping them over.
Slap the Fly
Get a new flyswatter. This one that looks like a hand is super fun and comes in different colors! You can use this flyswatter game for lots of things, so they’ll come in “handy!”
Tape the sight words your child is working on in a location where he/she will have room to slap with the flyswatter.
Want to work in a pair of dice and have your child do addition to make it cross-curricular? Or one single die to work on counting the dots?
They can get as many points as the die shows for getting the word right. If they’re a little competitive like my boys, they’ll also enjoy if you hang a few up a little higher so they have to jump to swat the “flies!”
Giant Floor Game
Print and laminate as many sight words as you’d like. Lay them out in an open space in swirls, with toys they have to jump over, towels pretending to be lava or instruments they have to play in addition to it.
Be as creative as you can be while co-creating the game board with your child to add to the fun of playing it.
Then, roll the dice. These giant foam dice are super fun for this game and many others! Each space you land on, do that activity or say the sight word. The sillier the better!
Red Light/ Green Light
Play your normal game of red light/green light, but when they hit a red light, they read the sight word at each “stop.”
Sight Word, Sight Word, GOOSE!
If you have multiple children to play, this is a fun game. Each child holds a sight word on top of his/her head. The one who goes around tapping the words when he/she reads them. He/she shouts, “GOOSE!” when he’s ready to choose the child who’ll run toward grabbing his seat before getting tagged.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Each time we add fun and movement to school, our children win.
As you see, it doesn’t even have to be expensive or complicated to add in a little adventure and laughter into your school day.
It provides information on how to notify your state, how to advance grade levels, and other groups to join in your area.
It’s also a place to connect and ask questions, which can be wonderful, especially when you’re just getting your feet wet.
I just started an Instagram account @homeschoolforhigher if you’d like to follow our family’s journey, have read alouds for your kids, mini-lessons, and more free resources.
Curriculum can seem overwhelming, but it can actually be quite simple.Â
How to easily add Bible Study to your school day is super important!
I’d love to share with you how we build it into our daily routine.
Morning Meeting
When the boys (8 and 6) are ready for the day, we sit in our little corner of the play/school room together.
We open our meeting (and school day) with prayer.
The following is our Morning Meeting agenda.
1.Prayer
One of us picks the opening, another the middle, and finally who will close us.
And we pray.
We pray for others, for our day, and we give heaps of thanks.
2. Store Scripture in Our Heart
We have the app “Fighter Verses,” which our church uses to memorize scripture.
I put the verse on a whiteboard we have hanging in the school room.
We listen to the song a few times, reading along with the whiteboard each day until we memorize it.
3. Bible Study
A simple study that’s doable and keeps your kids’ attention helps.
Right now we are using two different studies.
13 Very Cool Stories and Why Jesus Told Them : We like this because it has great explanations for the adult, a short Bible story for the kids, and multiple fun options for activities.
As a former public school teacher and now homeschool mom, I’d love to share some free family resources for sanity during COVID-19.
I believe these will be super helpful in breaking up your day as well as helping you all enjoy this time together.
1.Your Home Won’t Be a Mini-Public School
It can’t be.
So, when your kids are done with their packets hours before the normal 7 hours they’d typically spend at school, don’t panic.
You’d be shocked at how much time is lost in a school day to transitions, waiting for other kids to finish, lecture, questions, bathroom breaks, lunch, recess, interruptions, packing up for classes/ end of the day, and more.
You don’t have to worry they’ll backslide as long as you’re reading, writing, and practicing math every day (like you’re used to in summer and on breaks in small bits).
However, those seven hours can feel long, especially with siblings who aren’t used to being together all day.
To break up the day and enhance their learning experience, here are some links you can use for free:
2.A Quick Morning Meeting will Save Your Day
Our boys get ready for the day and make their beds then have breakfast as their morning routine.
It’s that first sense of accomplishment that prepares us for the day.
We then have a “morning meeting,” to do Bible study, pray, and have a quick briefing on how the day will go.
Here they can know when they can expect screen time.
They can also ask any questions they might have.
Please don’t make the same mistake I did when I began homeschool and do a hard and fast schedule.
It likely won’t stick, especially with littles.
Then you’ll be left feeling frustrated, they’ll be defeated, and it just doesn’t have to be that hard.
It’s okay if they learn without a strict structure because each kid’s work is different and requires different timing.
Roll with it. I promise. You’ll be glad you did.
3.Breaks will Keep You Sane
Remember…in school they get breaks.
Taking some time to play, take a walk, or even setting a timer to let them do whatever they want for 20-30 minutes every hour will keep everyone happier!
4.When it’s NOON and They’re Done
When school is over before noon, and you’re wondering how to keep the kids (and you) from losing it, here are some things that don’t exactly look like learning but are actually really working your kids’ brains a TON:
This means he and his older brother can learn together easier, and it’s more fun for them.
The 3rd grade book also comes with lab ideas that my six-year-old will do to expand upon the Kindergarten book that I just couldn’t find in any other curriculum out there.
It’s such an amazing book series to continually practice handwriting just a few minutes at at time.
Spelling
We don’t have a traditional curriculum for Spelling, but he learns a ton of spelling words with our Words Their Way book.
I happened to find the one we’re using in an antique store where homeschool moms drop off all of their old stuff they didn’t use, so I linked the one my former first-grade teacher friend suggested I get for Kindergarten. It’s the more updated version.
I believe with my whole heart that reading often throughout every day with your child is the best way to teach him/her a multitude of things about life, language, and how to read.
All in an effort to continue Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop since I have a strong belief that this way of teaching is huge in developing lifelong writers and readers.
The boys love this Bible Study because it’s set up to have fun activities, a story from the Bible, and a practical application piece.
We highly recommend it.
Outside Play!
Can I just add this in because it’s a huge part of my belief system as an educator?
Play matters!
Especially when they’re little.
Never feel bad about their little developing brains taking lots of breaks to play, climb, run, and imagine.
We don’t let them have tablets or phones, but we do let them play Minecraft at 3:00 for a half hour if all their schoolwork is finished, and they do, of course watch TV and movies from time to time.
They especially love their slow mornings where they get to groggily chill in front of PBS Kids’ Molly of Denali or Wild Kratts before heading upstairs to make beds, brush teeth, and get dressed for the day.
Other than that, we’re just such believers in outdoor play, and goodness isn’t it great when they’re bored?!
What a great skill for them to learn to overcome.
An amazing opportunity for them to have to think outside the box (or inside a box, which is one boredom buster in our home!).
Music
We listen to every genre I can think of.
Watch videos of BB King and Eric Clapton playing live.
Have sing-a-longs and dance parties most every single day.
And we’re going to try this book next. Doesn’t it just seem like something my ole barefoot mama self would love?!
Art
If you’ve ever seen me draw, you’ll realize I’m barely even functioning in the art department.
I think it’s things like this that make non-homeschoolers wonder how in the world I think I can teach my children everything forever.
And they’re right.
I don’t plan to.
That would be straight crazy, y’all, and if you saw me cry every day in Junior year Math (Functions, Statistics, and Trigonometry….shiver), you’d know I have a healthy understanding of my limitations.
So, we have found different art classes locally like pottery and glass mosaic plate making.
There’s an amazing class at the local Hobby Lobby that runs for six weeks and covers famous artists while the children study and create masks, impressionistic paintings, and more.
He’s so laid back and his teaching is thorough and slow-paced.
The boys have made some seriously fantastic art following him!
Physical Education
My boys play sports. Baseball, basketball, swimming. Pretty much anything with a ball or some sort of physical activity, and they’re on it.
However, we also get outside and play. A ton.
It’s so important for them to be physical and taking care of their bodies.
With all of our time hiking, canoeing, biking, running, taking family walks, bouncing on the hippity hop all over the house, having water balloon fights, or even just jumping on the trampoline out back, we’ve more than got Phys. Ed. covered!
Kindergarten is FUN!
Between reading aloud, running around like crazy, random wrestling matches in the kitchen, and working our way through this curriculum, our homeschool is full of life that has become the heartbeat of our home.
I can’t think of a better way to spend this time in our lives together.
While I know it may not be the popular homeschool mom thing to say, the state standards can actually be of use to you.
I’m not implying you should drop what you’re doing and follow these “rules.”
However, I do think it’s important to take a look at them, and here’s why:
One day your child will enter the work force with people who have this as their base minimum.
In my opinion, it only makes sense that my children, while under my homeschool teaching, would get this as a minimum as well so they can be even more of a contender for a job one day.
What You May Not Know About State Standards
Here are some helpful tips I came to learn after eleven years teaching in a public school:
They’re fairly minimal and not overly challenging
They’re super repetitive from year to year
At times, they focus on small pieces of information (i.e. nouns). It’s up to the educator to make sure they’re learning how to actually utilize them in real life and not simply memorize what they are.
They are somewhat difficult to read. Google is your friend here.
They’re available online
Looking at earlier and later years will help you get the scope of where the standards are going
You’re likely doing these in your homeschool anyway
How I Use Them
I print them at the beginning of each school year.
Cross out any that I know my child has mastered.
Highlight any I’ve seen him almost master in one color.
Then, I’ll highlight any I know he hasn’t learned in another color.
Teaching those highlighted areas in organic ways where it’s easy to see real world application, is where we keep kids engaged and learning.
Final Thoughts
My case for standards is simply for knowing the whole picture of what’s happening in the world of education.
I’d never endorse sticking to these state standards and making them your end-all-be-all.
As a former educator, I saw my students bored out of their mind with them by the 8th grade.
They’d seen the same ole narrative seven times before, and they get it, already (insert teen eye roll). And they did.
What they didn’t get was how to write.
And this is why I take state standards lightly.
As a frame of reference.
If my child can’t form coherent sentences, who cares if he can spot an abstract noun from a mile away?
I wholeheartedly support organic learning where these standards of education happen naturally.
Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop is more complex and involved than what I’ll outline here, but it is a way of teaching Language Arts that is more natural.
Essentially, you’ll read great literature and teach quick lessons to join reading and writing while building upon your child’s skills.
If you’d like to dig into this concept more, here are some great resources:
A mentor author can be any published author that is an example of the lesson you’re wanting to teach.
This allows your children to see how real writers use the skill you’re teaching .
For example, when I pull Ezra Jack Keats The Snowy Day, my plan might be to teach words that make sound and how we put them in our writing.
With words like, “Crunch, crunch, crunch, his feet sank into the snow,” and “Then he dragged his feet s-l-o-w-l-y to make tracks,” and “-a stick that was just right for smacking a snow-covered tree,” and “Down fell the snow-plop!” I know I’ve got lots of great examples to teach from.
Choosing a mentor is powerful.
It lets your child zoom in on one learning point, making him or her feel successful as a writer because it’s easy to see how to perform that certain skill.
Reading Mini-Lesson
There will be one small reading teaching point and one small writing teaching point.
The beauty in Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop is that you’ll be able to teach your children based on what their specific needs are.
You can pull from the state standards if you’d like, and as a former public school teacher, I have some thoughts on how this can fit into your homeschool without taking over here.
Here’s the key to your mini-lesson: keep it short and break them up!
First, let’s teach our reading lesson.
For example, let’s say I want to teach children how to make a text-to-self connection.
I’d tell them what a text-to-self connection is and then have places in the mentor text that I’ve prepared to show them examples of this as we read.
Read it Aloud
While we read our mentor text aloud (depending on your child’s ability perhaps they read it aloud or their sight words to encourage beginning readers), show them where your mini-lesson comes to life as a reader.
After reading about Peter waking in the morning to fresh fallen snow, I can say, “I have a text-to-self connection! I love waking up to find it snowed while I was asleep just like Peter. I can tell he was excited because right after breakfast, he put on his snowsuit and ran outside.“
Writing Mini-Lesson
After teaching the reading mini-lesson and reading the book aloud, I’ll share something I noticed that the author did to keep us loving his book and reading more.
For example, I’ll point out how Keats used sound words also called Onomatopoeia.
I’ll ask the children to look back in the text to see if they can hunt them down.
We can write them on post-it notes and stick them in our Writer’s Notebook to use as reference for the next part: writing.
Put the Lessons into Action
We keep both a Reader’s and Writer’s Notebook.
If you’d like to learn more about them, this book as well as this book are both great resources.
The Reader’s Notebook is for all our good thinking we do about the books we read.
The Writer’s Notebook is for exploration and growth in our writing.
The only rules for our Writer’s notebook is that we all understand this is a place for trying new things and being brave as writers.
Whether your child is writing a longer or shorter piece, prompted or free write doesn’t matter.
What does matter is that they’re writing and trying out your lesson.
What matters in your Reader’s notebook is that they’re writing what they’re thinking.
Your Role in Notebooks
Here’s what you can get from your children’s notebooks:
Their thought process and what gaps they have in their comprehension
What they need to learn next
Writing goals (we usually set one or two per session–see our homeschool schedule here).
Spelling needs
A conversation starter about what they’re reading to conference (talk) with your child about what they’re thinking/learning/wondering.
Apply to Self-Selected Texts
Choice is key to life-long readers and writers.
The mentor text time will be more heavy-handed in examples and your own thinking aloud/writing example alongside them, so they can see what it’s like to read and write well.
Afterward, they should be given an assignment to read from their choice book applying the lessons to their Reader’s and Writer’s notebooks from that text.
For example, if I taught sound words for Writing and text-to-self connections for Reading, I would assign the child to make a couple of text-to-self connections to what they choose to read and write about it in their Reader’s Notebook.
They’d create a story (either prompted or free write) to add in sound words like you picked out in The Snowy Day story.
Final Thoughts
Take your time incorporating this idea into your homeschool setting.
It can feel overwhelming if you’ve never taught like this before, but I think like me, you’ll find that over time you’ll love it.
You’ll likely see what I did: students growing in their reading and writing, enjoying the process, and feeling like as their teacher you have a really great grip on what they know and where they need to go next.
Our boys, 8 and 6-year-old enjoy the family time, and we’re so glad to have my husband home from work that it’s a great time to laugh and enjoy each other before bedtime.
Here are our top 20 favorite games in no particular order.
Ticket to Ride First Journey
This was a great one to start around age 6. It’s a little involved, but takes between 45 minutes to an hour to finish.
Who doesn’t love shouting, “You sunk my battleship!”? Our six-year-old still struggles with the grid on this one, but the eight-year-old is amazing at it. We typically team up for this since it’s only a two player game, anyway.
Numbers, colors, and a great one to play with the whole family or in teams depending on your family’s needs. Sometimes the amount in the boys’ tiny hands can get to be a bit much, so we’ll let them lay them down or put some back.
We also really love this Harry Potter version here!
Tapple
This game is fun to play faster with bigger kids, but will need to be slowed way down for the younger ones. What kid doesn’t love to push a button and shout words? Super fun and easily adaptable to any age.
Okay…real talk… I just don’t like the new version! The 1986 version is where it’s at! We definitely have to pair the six-year-old up with one of the adults, but our oldest gets along just fine.
Oh, goodness do our boys love this game! It’s simple, quick moving, and like a more fun version of checkers with all the jumping everywhere.
The trick is to avoid the tin version. Those marbles slide all over the place, and the tin gets warped over time. The link below is for the best-priced wooden one we like best.
Truth be told, the boys like this one everyday, and Steve and I like it most days.
It’s a bit time consuming, but it really lets our oldest one work with bigger numbers with such high currency (he always calls banker).
The spinner is our youngest’s favorite thing ever, and he loves it when more babies are added to his car. It takes a bit of parental help, but it’s a good weekend day game.
I loved this game as a child, and playing it with our boys is the most fun! I like this game as a simple way for little hands to learn moving and counting. Of course, the popping bubble is the kids’ favorite, though!
For some reason this game gives our family the giggles! We like how simple and quick-paced it is. The boys crack up when they let all the checkers fly out of the bottom!
This game was something I picked up thinking my eight-year-old little code breaker would love the sound of, but it turned out to be one of our all-time favorites!
This game is so fun and simple. We also like the flexibility of time since you can choose to go as many times as you’d like through the calendar. If it’s a night after not a lot of sleep the night before, we’ll choose this game, so we can run through the calendar once and head right up to bed.
Truth be told, we ditched the headbands themselves because it was a bit too intense for tiny fingers to stick the cards into the slot attached to their head all while trying to beat out the clock.
Instead, we opted for holding the card up in front of us and letting the person on our team shout clues at us. This was all it took for our kids to fall in love with this game!
I like how we can change up Scrabble to fit both a kid who devours books and one who’s just learning to read. It’s fun to play, and as a homeschool mama, it tips me off on any spelling words we need to add to our school day!
My husband grew up loving this game and couldn’t wait for us to play after the boys got it for Christmas this year.
It’s surprisingly easy enough for both boys to understand, even if the strategy of the six-year-old doesn’t quite outmatch the eight-year-old just yet.
I will never forget how exciting it was when my now eight-year-old could finally read his own Sorry! cards. He felt like such a big kid, and I know our six-year-old is on his way!
We love this quick and simple game. For some reason our boys get such a kick out of sending Daddy back to home but feel so bad if they have to do it to me. But I don’t mind. Not one bit.
We have to slow down a bit for our six-year-old to take a look at the pieces and grab them, but the eight-year-old is out to win now that his reflexes are much sharper!
This game is one that comes with past stories they tell others about.
We laugh so hard when we play Pie Face, and the boys are always begging to play it! If you haven’t played Pie Face yet and are okay with some mess on the table, your face, and table, this is the game for you!
How to teach multiple ages writing, grammar, and punctuation in one simple text.
Multi-Age Writing
In homeschool or during the summer for public and private school kids, we’re faced with multiple ages learning and writing around one table.
How do we make it fit without making a new lesson for every kid?
One of the most successful writing times in our home is when use one text and stretch it to fit the ages and learning levels of both boys (ages 6 -kindergarten and 8-third grade).
Showcase the Text
The first step is to write out the text on something big.
I chose the lead of a book for this particular lesson.
Just the first few sentences of a book my son loved called A Cricket in Times Square worked well to analyze some basic reading points and start a new story in our own Writer’s Notebooks.
Read the Text Multiple Times
The oldest read the text aloud, so I could get a sample of where he was at in his fluency.
I then read it aloud again as he followed along, so he could hear how it should sound.
We can talk about how his voice should sound both in his mind and aloud as he reads when we do this.
For my emerging reader, I put my finger under each word as I read, so he could be immersed in words new and already known.
Stopping to let him read the words he’s already memorized to help me out makes him feel like a big helper, too.
Find What’s Right, Not What’s Wrong!
In Everyday Editing by Jeff Anderson, he teaches that the old idea of fixing up broken sentences like we experienced in school is the backward way of learning.
I found this to be a much better way to teach my 8th graders years ago, and I still find it to be true with my boys in homeschool.
Just like how every major leaguer once watched his favorite MLB star swing a bat over and again, we watch our authors.
What do they do that’s amazing?
How can we create that in our own writing?
I asked each boy specific questions.
For my oldest I asked about possessive nouns. Why is this apostrophe different than a contraction? Why did Seldon need it here?
What do words like, “Times Square, abandoned drain pipe, and subway” give the reader in the beginning of the book?
For my youngest, I asked questions like, “What did Seldon do at the start of every sentence?”
What did he do when he was finishing his sentence?
Why didn’t he use an exclamation point or question mark instead?”
Link it to a Writing Piece
For my youngest, I grabbed one of his blank books.
If you don’t have these stock-piled somewhere in your learning space, grab them fast! Your kids will LOVE becoming authors in their own bound books to put on the shelf!
His mission was to draw the cat and mouse he visualized in his mind’s eye as we read.
He told me what they were doing, and we worked together to write simple sentences to help tell his own version of the story.
It was fun to see how his mind saw the words we just read.
While my six-year-old started drawing, my eight-year-old and I looked at the key pieces of the text we were examining.
“Let’s play a game to decide. I’ll name a kind of character, and you name a kind of character on the count of three. No matter what kind they are, you’ll make them both a part of your story. Even if they don’t seem to go together. We’ll make it fun! Got it? One…two…three!”
He said inventor. I said troll.
“What words did we say were giving us setting?”
He answered the words he saw on the board from the text. I circled them.
“Okay, let’s choose your own setting. You pick the specific kind of place, and I’ll choose the big location. One…two…three!”
He chose an underground laboratory. I chose Alaska. He changed it to an underground Alaskan ice lab where an inventor creates a troll that helps him make his creations.
At this point, he was excited and ready to go!
Keep It Small
One way to keep your writers loving the art of writing, is keeping your lessons and the amount they write small.
Realizing it didn’t all have to happen today (and shouldn’t) was one of the best things that happened to me as a teacher.
Just write this starting point.
Just get going.
Tomorrow you can look at how an author crafts his characters. Then later in the week, his plot, another day his problems, next week his solutions, and even later his conclusions.
We can slowly investigate writing with our author’s eye looking for the genius behind our favorite authors.
But what’s best…we can be successful because they showed us how.
We have played the math card game Rubbish approximately one billion times, and I’ll play it 1 billion and one if it means our boys practice the skills this game sharpens.
My five-year-old loves it, my three-year-old wants in, and we all enjoy the time together.
It’s quick, and super simple, too!
The Rules
1.) Lay out two rows of five cards, horizontally for each player. The rest of the cards are for the draw pile.
2.) Choose the first player. We rock-paper-scissors for it. 🙂
3.) The first player chooses a card. Each of the cards you laid face down represent a number (left-to-right) Ace-5 in the top row; 6-10 on the bottom row.
4.) If the card drawn is Ace-10, pick up the face-down card in the corresponding spot, and replace it with the card drawn (lay it facing up).
5.) The face-down card you pulled to replace with the drawn card is now the next card you play. If it fits in to what’s left, you pick that spot’s card up and lay the one in your hand down in its place. Your turn continues until you don’t have any more spots available for the switch out.
Example: I draw a 5. I pick up the card face down that’s in the 5 spot (top row last card on the right) and lay the 5 I just drew where it was. The card that was face down was an Ace. I pick up the first card on the top row and lay the Ace down in its place…keep going until you run out of spots to fill.
The first to fill all his or her spots is the winner!
Other Handy Rules:
1.) If you pick up a Jack or Queen, you automatically discard into a discard pile next to the Rubbish draw pile.
2.) If you pick up a number you already have face up, discard.
3.) If you pick up a King, it’s wild and can be used as any number Ace-10!
4.) When you run through the entire deck of draw cards, shuffle the discard into a new draw pile and keep going until you get a winner.
The Best Part
The best part about Rubbish is that it looks exactly like the ten-frames my oldest is learning in Kindergarten math!
He works with numbers, placement, and I was really surprised by how quickly he learned the numbers associated with the face-down cards.
For our three-year-old, this has been great to help drive home learning his numbers.
Final Thoughts
I love this silly game called Rubbish and how it helped the boys’ skills grow so quickly, how it’s teaching and reteaching number sense, and most of all how it always brings us together.
A bowl of popcorn, a game of Rubbish, and our two boys makes for a great time in our homeschool day!
