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Active Child Ideas

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Active Child Ideas Table of Contents lessons short & to the point turning a deaf ear     physical activity learning style     examples basic ideas to remember     quiet time hero development     motivation

Keep the lessons short and to the point.
Remember the attention span of a young child, especially boys!  You may want to set a timer for 15 minutes and have your child work on a lesson for that length of time.  If s/he appears to be dawdling or daydreaming over the lessons, take that lesson away and give him another subject to work on for 15 minutes.  Have your scholar work where you can keep an eye on him for awhile.  Intersperse physical activity if your scholar's eyes are glazing over.  Having your young scholar attend an hour long church service is excellent training to be able to sit still and concentrate for an hour.  Gradually, you will witness your young scholar being able to tolerate longer periods of study time.

Turning a Deaf Ear.
Turning a deaf ear or ignoring inappropriate behavior also provides amazing results at times.  Frequently, inappropriate complaining, mumbling and nonverbal resistance will stop if it is not given an audience.  (You may require an aspirin when using this approach.)

Physical Activity.
The point of the physical exercise is to stop the glazed look immediately without having the young scholar become frustrated or feel badly about him/herself.  It is important to recognize that glazed look and respond to it immediately.  Generally, what will happen is the length of the attention span of your young scholar will gradually lengthen.  Be sure to immediately give verbal praise for paying attention for longer periods of time.  It is also important to let the child's father know at the dinner table that your scholar is vastly improving with attention span so that Dad can be apart of giving positive reinforcement.  Children absolutely LOVE attention from their parents!  Moreover, you are teaching your young scholar how to gain appropriate attention rather than seeking attention with negative or inappropriate behaviors.

1)  Calisthenics.  With your young scholar, do 5-10 jumping jacks, or 5-10 toe touches, or run in place, or see how many times your young scholar can twirl in one place on the floor, etc.

2)  Play Military.  With the War on Terror, children are much more aware of the military and the great sacrifices they are making to keep our country safe from harm.  Many of these children are praying daily and nightly for the safety of their troops.  Therefore, playing military might just be an option these children will enjoy and will enter into playing military wholeheartedly.

3)  Middle Ages Quest.  Start talking in middle ages lingo and secretly looking around you saying something like, "Pssssssssssstttt ... Master Darren, thou must maintain quiet!  Secrecy is of the utmost importance!  I wouldst ask that thou goest on a quest !  Whist !  I needest thou to take this important package to the King's loyal courtier."  What is the package?   Anything handy, we usually used a pack of frozen vegetables because it is very cold to hang on to and the quest would be done quickly.  What was the quest?  When it was warm I would have the young knight or damsel do two laps around the outside of the house (gradually, I used the term perimeter).  When the weather was inclement, the quest might be to run upstairs to a certain bedroom, yell "Huzzah" three times, and return to the kitchen.  (whist = silence!)

Searching out Your Scholar's Learning Style.

A basic thing to do, for example, is to briefly examine how you, your husband, and all your children process information.  It is of the utmost importance that you understand how you and your husband learn since all your children will be some sort of combination between the two of you.

Do you and your husband learn by ...
— hands on or doing?
— thinking a problem through?
— talking a problem through?
— seeing a new skill being demonstrated?
— reading?
— or a combination of all of the above?

One parent, for example, may learn best if s/he can hear something, see something and, then, do it.  Learning by the age-old adage, "see one, do one, teach one" kind of concept.  However, the other parent may learn best by seeing and hearing.  Subsequently, the children in that family may have some sort of a combination on the two parents plus their own preference!  Individualizing academics to learning style is one of the greatest benefits to home schooling.

The idea here is to continue building on the learning style your young scholar prefers while incorporating those other learning areas s/he is not strong in.  For example, does your scholar have a difficult time following verbal cues or problems processing information via hearing?  Then, do audiobooks for Saturday Night Snack Tray.  All too often many avoid those learning styles their young scholar is uncomfortable with; however, what is most important for your scholar is to incorporate those learning styles briefly and throughout the school day.  Teach them that they DO have the ability to conquer that subject for Christ!  Do not teach your child to retreat, but to advance for Christ!  Help him/her develop a "can do" attitude singing Onward Christian Soldiers!  

In other words, for those subjects that your young scholar is good at, say science, try a learning method your young child seems to have difficulty with.  Why?  To increase mastery of that type of learning style.  Be sure to give a great deal of praise for the work done with a difficult learning style for your child.  Moreover, be sure Daddy and grandparents give verbal praise to the tenacity of the child thereby giving positive reinforcement for trying!   

It is important to re-think how to get your active young scholar where s/he needs to go with mastery for certain subjects.  Remember, Mrs. Edison pulled her young son, Thomas Edison, out of the community school and homeschooled him simply because the community school was trying to have her son conform to what the Prussians said was the way to learn (i.e., assembly line fashion).  We would still be using candles and kerosene lamps today if Mrs. Edison did not pull her son out of community school to homeschool him having the foresight to help Thomas achieve academic excellence.

Examples.

History
History is especially easy to teach for an active young scholar as you may opt to ...

I taught the beginnings of World War I by having my daughters listen to Irving Berlin's Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Mornings each morning !  What a hoot !  However, what was really funny was teaching the beginnings of World War II with the song Der Fuhrer by Spike Jones.  This song came out about two days or so after Pearl Harbor Day (7 December 1941).  The song is absolutely hysterical and fits in GREAT with little ones!  Then, right afterward I would play Beethoven's Fifth.  Why?  The Nazis did not want to claim Beethoven since he lost his hearing and was not perfect.  However, God's providential care saved Beethoven's Fifth for the Allies in World War II as the beginning of it (you know the da, da, da, da) spells out

in Morse code!  Young scholars will love this kind of information!  Then, it becomes quite simple of explaining Yankee Doodle Dandy and why Christians tend to fight with their minds AND their bodies!

Science
Teaching the basics of science is fairly simple as well.  Here is a way to concretely teach the five senses while having fun and YOUR scholar will not only KNOW this information but have MASTERY of it!

Grammar
Grammar may simply and painlessly be taught by grammar games like the Noun Field Trip, the Verb Game, etc.  These concrete games work especially well with kidlets in the concrete thinking stage.

Literature
Does your young child have a difficult time listening and following a directive without several prompts?  What about working on listening skills in a fun-filled, family environment?  Our family adopted using abridged audiobooks when our daughters were very young.  It was not even considered a part of school.  My husband and daughters would go to the store early on Saturday morning for what they wanted on the Saturday Night Snack Tray.  Then, around 5:00 or 6:00 in the evening, my daughters and husband made the "snack tray".  You determine what you would like on your snack tray — grapes, peaches, blueberries, strawberries, sausages, etc.  We had our snack tray in the living room.  A huge discussion would then follow of what abridged audiobook we would like to listen to as a family while munching on our snack tray.  Would it be a PrestonSpeed Publications audiobook, Ivanhoe, an Agatha Christie mystery ?  This was always a family decision.  By having this be a family event, not only are memories being built, but your child is learning how to listen closely and distinctly as the reward is so huge — family attention time and the snack tray.

Music
In our home we have a rule that a variety of music must be experienced.  No more than two to three songs of the same type of music may be heard at any one time.  What that translates out to is you may hear 2-3 pieces from ...

See:  Music for more help

— classical (Brahms, Chopin, Mozart, Sergovia, etc.), — Dixieland (Pete Fountain, etc.), — psalms (CDs of church choirs singing from a Psalter are hard     to find but worth it) — folk music (Welsh, Scottish, English, German, Scandinavian, Spanish, etc.), — Swing (Glenn Miller, the Dorseys, Andrew Sisters, etc.) — country (Dennis Worley, Toby Keith, Shania Twain, Statler Brothers, etc.) — Jazz (Ella Fitzgerald, Sara Vaughn, Duke Ellington) — hymns — Latin (Marc Anthony, Gloria Estaban, Estafan) — turn of the century (Al Jolson, etc.) — Steven Foster music — bluegrass (Ricky Skaggs, etc.) — patriotic (John Philip Sousa) — rag time (Jelly Roll Morton, "Perfessor" Bill Edwards, etc.) — 1920s-1930s music (Fats Waller, Bing Crosby, etc.) — Broadway (Cole Porter, George M. Cohan, etc.)

Basic Ideas to Remember

Remember, you have actually been home schooling your scholar since birth!  home schooling isn't a sprint — it is a marathon!!  So please be sure to pace yourself!  The hardest thing for many to remember while home schooling is to NOT let your ego get in the way of academic achievements, but to assess your scholar's strengths, weaknesses, and talents while encouraging your scholar's God-given talents.  Gently lead your scholar in strengthening and stretching their abilities like a personal trainer would an athlete.  Instill in your scholar a love of learning for learning's sake.

Slow down, and enjoy the journey!!  This is NOT the Indies 500 Raceway!

It is not really necessary for a young scholar to do a great deal of paperwork at a young age.  As is evident, a great deal of work may be done orally.  Nevertheless, if your young scholar learns best by workbooks and paperwork, by all means do not hinder your child even if you may be opposed to or prejudiced to it as this is your young scholar's preferred method of learning.   Remember, math concepts may be reinforced via games.  Baking cookies is a great way to practice fractions, learning multiplication and even division concepts.  Counting real money will definitely teach your young scholar about money.  Then, if you still opt to use a workbook dealing with money, your young scholar will feel so confident that s/he already knows the information and will fly through the workbook pages giving even more confidence to your scholar.

If you are bored, chances are your young scholar is bored too.  It is unnecessary nor even desirable for all of home schooling to be fun and games; however, if something that you are using is boring you dreadfully, then, chances are the material is being presented poorly or in a way that will not meet the academic needs of yourself or your scholar.  Change whatever it is you are using.  If you think that text has good ideas, then incorporate those ideas without using the text.

Dictation
Dictation is a wonderful tool in teaching the nuances of our language.  How a pause is made determines if the punctuation is a coma, semi-colon, period, question mark, or exclamation point.  Dictation practice will help your young scholars when they are ready to do oration.  Moreover, it teaches your scholar how to dictate him/herself.

Oration
Oral narration is a wonderful tool in teaching the nuances of our language.  How a pause is made determines if the punctuation is a coma, semi-colon, period, question mark, or exclamation point.  It is a great tool to assess what your young scholar has mastered and aids him/her in learning how to composing orally.  Consider having your young scholar(s) orally narrate about two to three times per week.  Do not have the be a long drawn out process, but quick and to the point.  Take down your scholar's narration and type it up on the computer.  Print the oration out using colorful paper, inks and pretty fonts.  Be sure daddy and grandparents have the opportunity to remark over the wonderful work your young scholar has composed.

Copywork
Copywork is also a great tool for teaching grammar and writing.  Poetry, scripture, pieces from historical documents are all wonderful items to use for copywork.

Curriculum
A curriculum is not your master, but a tool.  If something in the curriculum is not working, modify it.  If you want to continue to use the curriculum you have, "tweak" it by modifying the concepts in the textbook to fit the learning style of your scholar(s).  Remember, government school style textbooks tend to incorporate too much "busywork" in it for a homeschool environment.  If the curriculum is not working for your young scholar over all, you can always resell what you have purchasing something else that might work better.

Enjoyment
Learning for enjoyment!  Now that is a concept!  What are some of the things your scholar enjoys?  Does s/he enjoy dogs, toys, cats, pets, science, sports, dance, etc.?  Try to incorporate those things s/he really enjoy into your academic subjects!

Quiet Time
Do not fail to teach your young scholars the importance and benefits of times of quiet reflection.  Encourage quiet "thinking" times on a daily basis.

Hero Development
Encourage your young scholar to develop strong Christian heroes.  Read short stories on Alfred the Great, Patrick Henry, George Mason, and a whole variety of heroes.  Re-enact some of the things they did.  Encourage your scholar by taking on some of those toughie academic subjects and begin to consider HOW his/her Christian hero would deal with this situation.

Sing rousing choruses of Onward Christian Soldiers.  Pray with your young scholar about conquering various subjects for our King and Commander.  Perhaps you may want to review, in a paraphrased manner, what Oliver Cromwell prayed before going into battle ...

Lord, I do not mean to forget You this day in battle. Please, dear Lord do not forget me!

Talk about how Daniel handled being in a hostile land and, yet, remained steadfast, true and loyal to the Lord.  What does your young scholar think Daniel would say about conquering cursive?

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