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Saturday, August 24, 2024

Candy Land: Preschool Gymnastics Lesson Plans & Homeschool P.E. Inspiration

 


It has been a while since I have taught gymnastics in an actual gymnasium, but as a homeschool mom I am always looking for ways to incorporate some Physical Education and Fun into our homeschool day! So today's P.E. Inspiration comes from a Candy Land unit I had put together. I'll include the original lesson plans for those of you looking for lesson plans for you gym, as well as notes and ways that you can include some fitness in your homeschool day.

Warm Ups and Stretch: 10 minutes

Keep the balloons up – don’t let them touch the ground

Sit in pike and pretend to bake a cake… As you stretch forward you can pretend to mix the batter, put it in the oven, and decorate it with topping. You could even use different colored dots as "sprinkles" they will put on their cake. Have them identify the colors. 

Play King Kandy says (similar to Simon says) and practice donkey kicks, jumping jacks, levers, lunges, walking on tippy toes (releve), and SLP

 All of these warm ups are great brain breaks in the homeschool day. A quick game of keep up the balloon or King Kandy can help get the wiggles out and tune in those listening ears.



Vault Circuit: 10 minutes

Run, Run, as fast as you can (Gingerbread House)

Jump off springboard, land two feet SLP (Safe Landing Position - knees slightly bent, arms straight in front)

Climb on ladder to trapezoid, jump off to SLP (Peppermint Pass)

1 foot, 2 feet (hopscotch) on mat - this one from Amazon is super cute

 A trampoline is one of my favorite fitness tools for the home! There are major benefits of rebounding for growing healthy minds and bodies. Hopscotch is known for propelling gross motor skills, improving bilateral coordination, and developing a good sense of body rhythm. 



Bar Circuit: 10 minutes

Single Bar: Swing and kick suspended balloons (Peppermint Forest)

P-Bars: Crawl through Candy Castle

Rings: Swing over Molasses Swamp

Low Bar: Hang with toes on in straddle position

High Bar: Hang and walk hands across bar (Lollipop Woods)

 We have a geometric dome climber in our backyard, which is perfect for open ended play, grip strength, coordination, and more! Most of the bar exercises can be done on this climber. Hang some balloons from the dome climber or cover it with a parachute hours of fun (and exercise!). We also have a Ninja Slack line with rings and bars, which is another good alternative for home (or anywhere) use!


Beam and Floor Circuit: 10 minutes

Walk on high beam over Cupcake Commons. Pick up one of the balls from the cupcakes

While walking on low beam, roll ball along Gumdrop Mountain

Cross Gumball Pass (sensory discs)

Roll down Ice Cream Slopes (forward, backward, log roll… mix it up each week)

Cartwheel over panel mat (strong arms on mat, jump to the other side)

 Downed trees and curbs make for lots of fun for balance work! I still remember trying to walk the whole way home from the bus stop on the curb without falling off. Painter's tape is your best friend when it comes to balance work inside. Place a line on the ground (or sensory discs if you have some) and some lines on the wall. Challenge your kids to roll a ball along the line without stepping off the line on the ground. BONUS, you can tape flashcards with math facts or sight/spelling words along the way. 




Wishing you all a wonderful year! I hope this post inspired you to be creative and have fun with movement with the kids in your life, whether its students at a gym or a little ones in your home. I'd love to connect with you all on Instagram @ pocketful_of_treasures. For more inspiration check out the Construction Themed Preschool Gymnastics and Movement Lesson Plans and Safari Week Preschool Gymnastics and Movement Lesson Plans

This post does contain affiliate links. Thank you for clicking on them and any ads on this site as they do help support me as a stay at home mom. I love creating content and encouraging other moms. 
***Pocketful of Treasures is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, and affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com***

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

Keeping Little Ones Safe and Happy During the Homeschool Day

In my last post I shared about Homeschooling Multiple Ages. For me, the hard part is not juggling multiple grades at once, but juggling the toddlers and babies! Little ones are fast, busy, and at times can be very loud (although sometimes it is when they are quiet that you have more need to worry)! Unsupervised, they can quickly destroy a room or find themselves in danger. I'll never forget the day I was snuggled on our bed reading aloud to the kiddos. We were fully engaged in the story and I did not notice the toddler sneak away. Our daughter asked for a break to go to the bathroom and came back yelling that a river was flowing through the house. Our toddler had barricaded himself in the bathroom (by pulling out the cabinet drawer we could not open the bathroom door), stopped up the sink, and had the water turned full blast. He was giggling and having the time of his life splish-splashing in all the water. Thankfully, he wasn't harmed, but man what a mess that caused! Since then, we have started assigning "littles" duty. Anytime we are reading or doing school all together, I assign one of the older children to make sure they are keeping an eye out for escapees. 



I'm a pretty frugal person, but I am so thankful I splurged on this playpen. The price is worth my piece of mind and her safety. At 8 months old, our baby is crawling and exploring everything. She's no longer happy contained in a bouncy seat or even the pop-a-tot. She wants to be (and needs to be for development) constantly moving. Because we have a wide range of ages, the floor is not always a safe place. Probably more likely than not, there is a small lego hidden under one of the couches, or some other choking hazard in a little crevice. By having a space of her own, I know she is safe. And because she is right there in the middle of everyone, she is also usually happy. 

The toddler is a little more difficult. He plays very well on his own, but can be LOUD. He also often gets jealous for attention, which can cause him to act out even more. Here are my top tips.

1. Spend time with toddlers FIRST. We have a morning routine where after breakfast, everyone is to tidy up their areas and then watch World Watch. During that time, it can be tempting for me to catch a few minutes to myself to drink my coffee or catch up on whatever housework or school prep needs done. If I do though, I know I'm setting myself up for a miserable homeschool day. I have to use that time to connect with our toddler. Giving him those few minutes in the day fills his cup and sets him up for a day of independent play. Some mornings we can just snuggle. If he has a lot of energy I may take him outside to ride his bike for a few minutes. I may read him a book. Whatever it is, I make it known to him that he has mommy's full attention for the next 10-15 minutes or so, but then I need to go help his brothers and sisters with school.

2. Let them "school" too. It is usually my toddlers that WANT to do school, even though they are not necessarily ready to. If we are reading a book, I hand our toddler a stack of books to look at. If my big kids are doing workbooks at the table, I either hand our toddler a coloring book and crayons or a dry erase board. I love dry erase workbooks and activity mats because they can be used over and over again. 

3. Have lots of SNACKS! A full mouth is a quiet mouth, lol. 

4. Keep Legos, blocks, or other open ended play toys on hand. Before we start, I set a bin of toys in the breakfast nook. It is adjacent to the living room where we do school, so I can still keep an eye on him, but he is just enough out of the way that he's not a huge distraction. If I have a bit more time or know that school may take a little longer than normal, I may set up a car "track" using painters tape or make a fort. 


5. Be patient. Ultimately, it is going to take some child training and a whole lot of patience. Some days go smoother than others. Stay the course and keep fighting the good fight. 

Wishing you all a wonderful homeschool year! I'd love to connect with you on Instagram @pocketful_of_treasures.

***Pocketful of Treasures is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, and affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com***

Sunday, August 11, 2024

Homeschooling Multiple Ages

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Summer has flown by! It is hard to believe that we are already heading back to school, but unlike some I actually love this time of year. Don't get me wrong, I do love the summertime activities, but I crave the structure the homeschool year brings.  I also enjoy the challenge and excitement of planning the upcoming school year. This year we will have two high schoolers, a middle schooler, three elementary students, a preschooler, and a baby! Yes, I may be a little crazy, but I sure love all the ages and stages and spending the days learning and exploring with our crew. 

So how does one plan for homeschooling multiple children? I always start by writing out goals for each individual child, and I like to include my children in the initial discussion. What do they want to learn? What do they want to improve on this year? What did they like about last year's curriculum? What did they struggle with? The older they are the more involvement they have in choosing their curriculum. 

MORNING TIME:
We all start our school day together with Morning Time. While it is not an actual class or subject, Morning Time is what I consider to be the most important part of our homeschool day. After breakfast and morning chores, we all gather to watch World Watch News, a 10 minute program that delivers news and other information from a Biblical worldview. We then move onto a few minutes of family worship. We pray together, read the proverbs of the day, sing a song, and work on memorizing scripture. Our goal for this year is to memorize the book of 1 John. Afterwards, we read a chapter or so from our Read Aloud book, usually a Classic. We then work on a family goal together. Last year, we worked on financial literacy and took Dave Ramsey's Foundation in Personal Finance. This year we are going to work on learning Spanish together. While Morning Time only takes about 45 minutes total, I love it because no matter how the rest of our day goes, I feel like we accomplished the most important tasks.

HISTORY:
History is one subject we continue to do together with all the ages (aside from our Sophomore). Here is what that looks like.

Step 1: Choose a good textbook to use as the backbone. For History, I like using Masterbooks America's Story or World's Story. Typically, a textbook geared towards grades 4-6 is simple enough for the younger students to understand, but still contains enough material for you to build on for your older students. This year we are doing America's Story 2. (See High School Exception below)

Step 2: Choose historical fiction novels and picture books to supplement. I often read these books aloud, but during busy seasons have utilized audiobooks as well.

Step 3: Add daily writing prompts at an age appropriate level. For my younger kids, this may mean more drawing than writing. As they advance through the grades, I expect their responses to get more in depth. Writing prompts are great for helping a student truly digest the material they have read and apply it to their own lives. 

Step 4: Add hands on activities at an age appropriate level. This may be anything from lego reenactments to debates to board games to field trips and more! Children learn and retain so much more when they are having fun! Check out my homeschooling tab for ideas and inspiration.

SCIENCE:
Science is also done together in a similar manner. In the past we have used Exploring Creation by Apologia as the backbone for our curriculum. Last year, we reveled in Paleontology by Masterbooks. This year we are trying out Homestead Science. We are only one week in and loving it! You know you have found a winner when the kids are asking to learn more. But, we may need to buy some more land after this course! Each child will keep their own Science Journal to record their own observations and discoveries in an age appropriate manner. Here is an example I blogged on several years ago, but this method of Journaling continues to work well for us: Journaling - A Homeschool Study on Trees.




MATH:
Several years ago we switched to Math Lessons for a Living Education by Masterbooks and the more I use this curriculum the more I appreciate it. Lessons are short; however, the spiral approach is gentle but effective. After hearing from many other homeschool podcasters about CTC Math, we gave it a try last year, but ultimately the mastery approach (of introduce a topic, learn it, and move on) did not work well for our children and I felt like they were not retaining the information.

LANGUAGE ARTS:
This is where our family is all over the place! Some of our children learned to read very early (as young as 3.5 years old), and some of our other children have dyslexia and are very challenged by reading, spelling, and writing. I have spent a lot of time trying to figure out which curriculum works best for each child. Here are some of the books we are using this year:
If you need help teaching your child to read, check out my post Teaching Your Child to Read for some more ideas.

EXTRACURRICULARS:
We fill out the rest of our homeschool day with music lessons, Trail Life, entrepreneur opportunities, service projects, sports, and more! Our son used some of his money from mowing (thank you We Are Raising Men) to purchase a Hack Pack Subscription. This is by far our favorite STEM resource and will help him take his coding to the next level. 




HIGH SCHOOL EXCEPTIONS: 
Our Sophomore is taking most of her classes through a hybrid homeschool academy again this year. She will go to the academy once a week. There she will receive most of her instruction and assignments to do at home throughout the week. While her teachers at the academy do most of the assignments and grading, I stay highly involved and have had to make some changes to the curriculum, testing, and grading to meet NCAA standards for eligibility. If you have a high schooler that hopes to play sports in college, PLEASE look into these NCAA eligibility requirements. Some classes (like Biology lab) she will take through the academy for enrichment only, meaning I chose which textbook she will use, will be responsible for her weekly assignments, and will administer and grade all quizzes and tests. I will also be providing the format that I want her to write up her lab reports, but she will do the actual labs at the academy. However, for the most part she is doing her own thing apart from the rest of the children.

Our freshman will be joining us for most of the day, however, for history she will also use Exploring America by Notgrass. What attracted me to this particular curriculum is not only its biblical worldview (which is consistent with the Masterbooks text we will be using), but it is also available on audiobook and has suggested activities, quizzes, and tests for the high school level. She is also doing BJU Spanish 1 online and Apologia Biology.


Whatever you choose to do this year, I wish you and your family a wonderful, fulfilling homeschool year. I'd love to connect with you on Instagram @Pocketful_of_Treasures.

***Pocketful of Treasures is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, and affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com***