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Best Games to Teach Elementary Students Geography

June 18, 2020 | Leave a Comment

For many of us, we learned geography in school through memorization. We memorized capitals, populations, physical geography. Oh, the tedium. While I liked geography, learning it in school took all of the joy out of it. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can bring geography to life for your student by cooking food eaten in that country and playing games.

Best Games to Teach Elementary Students Geography

There are so many fun games to teach kids about geography!

The Professor Noggins Series

If you’re looking for a quick and educational game, try the various Professor Noggins games. Popular geography titles include Wonders of the World, Countries of the World, Countries of the World II, and Geography of the United States.

These games are good for ages 7+. To play the game, roll the dice. Then, the next player will read you the question. You can choose between student or scholar. A student question might read, “The peninsula of Cape Cod juts into which ocean?”, while a scholar question will ask a more difficult question like, “Guadalupe Mountains National Park is located in which state?” When you’ve gone through the entire deck, whoever has the most cards (correct answers) wins. Because of the two different levels, this game is great for multiple ages. I enjoy playing these games with my kids, especially because I usually learn something, too!

The Scrambled States of America

In this fun game, each player is given a U.S. map and five state cards. Then, you read a playing card such as, “Capital starts with A or B.” The player then looks at their five-state cards to see if they have a card that fits the criteria. If they have one, they put that card aside and pick a new one. The winner is the person who has the most state cards when the pile runs out.

I enjoy The Scrambled States of America because there are two options to play. You can either race (the first person to answer correctly wins the round), or each player can answer and all the players that have it right win that round. The latter version is perfect for younger kids or kids who have dyslexia and take more time to read. The former is perfect for competitive older kids.

Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride is often a long game. Plan on playing for an hour or so, but it also makes a fun family game. Players choose three cards that represent trips across America. They can choose to keep all of the cards, only two, or only one. If they complete the trip, they get the number of points on the card. If they don’t complete the trip, the points on the card are deducted from their score. The winner is the person who has the most points at the end.

Players learn where the states are as well as what the major cities are through regular play. Our family really enjoys this game.

Final Thoughts

These are just three of the best games to teach elementary students geography. There are many others available. With so many fun resources, why settle for boring lessons? Make learning geography fun instead!

What You Need to Know to Homeschool Your Child in the Age of COVID-19

May 28, 2020 | Leave a Comment

Since the CDC recently released their guidelines for schools to reopen in the fall, many parents are considering homeschooling their children. This may be because they fear their child getting COVID-19 or they feel the guidelines are too restrictive. If you are keeping your options open, here’s what you need to know to homeschool your child in the age of COVID-19.

Check Your State’s Requirements

Every state has different requirements for homeschoolers. Some states such as Illinois do not even require that you report to your state that you’ve begun homeschooling. Other states like Pennsylvania have strict oversight. In that state, each year you must keep a portfolio of learning and have a designated person approve it at the end of the year. Some states are in between and require that you just send in an affidavit that you are currently homeschooling.

Consider Online School

Especially if you have older children, you may want to consider enrolling them in an online accredited program. If you are homeschooling simply because of COVID-19, you may find that next year the virus (and all of the restrictive guidelines) have diminished and you’re ready to send your kids back to school. You can do this seamlessly if you’ve had your child in an accredited online school.

Plus, if you’re also working from home, you can be less involved with an online school.

Homeschooling Takes Less Time

What You Need to Know to Homeschool in the Age of COVID-19

Photo by Kyle Gregory Devaras on Unsplash

How quickly children can complete their work when homeschooling is astonishing to many parents. When a child goes to a brick and mortar school, there is a lot of waiting. Waiting for other kids to finish an assignment before the teacher moves on. Waiting for kids to quiet down for instructions or to go to lunch, etc. When you eliminate all of the waiting time and children are allowed to do their work at their own pace, school can be completed surprisingly quickly.

You shouldn’t be surprised if your lower elementary kids finish all of their school work in an hour or two. Middle school kids will likely take three to four hours. High schoolers will need five to six hours. As long as the work is getting done, there’s no need to take eight hours a day like brick and mortar schools do.

Don’t Recreate School at Home

Many first time homeschoolers try to recreate brick and mortar school at home. These parents try to develop a strict schedule and use the same materials schools do.

Please realize that children will thrive in homeschooling when you relax the rules a bit. You can let kids work at their own pace as long as they get their work done for the day. Take the time to find curriculum your kids will love now that you have the freedom to pick and choose. My daughter loves Legos. So, we bought a Lego science curriculum that is STEM-based. You have the freedom to make those types of decisions.

Final Thoughts

These are the basics of what you need to know to homeschool your child in the age of COVID-19. I know the decision to homeschool can be scary, but many, many parents homeschool. Their children go on to become successful adults. If you chose, you can do this.

How to Work from Home When the Kids Are Home

April 30, 2020 | 1 Comment

Working from home can be difficult for some people. It’s easy to get distracted and make a phone call or do the laundry instead of working. However, if you have a situation like we have now where kids are home from school every day all day, working can seem impossible. Luckily, you can learn how to work from home when the kids are home. Doing so might not be your favorite way to work, but for now, you can get done what you need to get done.

How to Work from Home When the Kids Are Home

There are several strategies you can use to try to get work done when the kids are home.

Work Early in the Morning or Late at Night

How to Work from Home When the Kids Are Home

Photo by Paige Cody on Unsplash

I work from home part-time, and my favorite time to get work done is early in the morning. My kids generally wake up by 6:30 a.m., so I get up at 4 a.m. and work for two hours (after allotting myself 30 minutes to wake up!). Night owls may prefer to do the reverse and work late at night. The nice part of working early for me is that there are very few distractions, so I get a lot done during that time.

Hire Your Teen

If you have a teenager at home, you may ask if the teen would be willing to watch the younger kids while you work. If you could pay the teen, that would be extra incentive, but if not, just find a way to reward your teen for helping such as treating them to a movie or letting them use the car for a special event.

Give Your Kids Your Time First

You may feel like you need to get to your work right away, but that isn’t always the best decision. Often, if you give your kids your time before you begin to work, they’re happy to let you work uninterrupted afterwards. That’s because you’ve filled them up emotionally, and then they can play on their own. If you don’t spend the time doing this, they may pester you because they want your attention.

Utilize Down Time

Photo by Blake Meyer on Unsplash

While you’re probably spending part of your day making sure your kids are doing their school work, there are also times of the day when they are otherwise occupied. This might be when they’re playing outdoors, on a Zoom meeting for school or tutoring, or watching TV. Use that time to do your work. I save lighter work that doesn’t require as much concentration for these times. Then it doesn’t matter as much if I get interrupted.

Trade Off With Your Spouse

If you have another adult at home, trade off watching the kids. My husband is also working from home right now, so he works his traditional 8 to 5 hours during the weekdays. I let him work and don’t interrupt him or let the kids interrupt him. Then, on the weekends, he gives me time to work and complete anything I couldn’t finish in the early mornings.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to work from home when the kids are home is definitely a learning process. However, it can be done. As you adapt to this new situation, you will likely find working from home gets easier.

Single Parenthood and Home Schooling

May 23, 2011 | 1 Comment

Single parenting is hard. If you are a couple with kids, think of how tough it is to lose weight and double this. Single parenthood has its pro’s and con’s.

The upside to being single parent

Its pro’s include absolute autonomy. You do not need to confer with anyone when it comes to decisions making about the kids. You can impart the values you think they should have, teach them what you know, and basically arm them how you think is best. You are not limited by another person’s thoughts or opinions when it comes to work hours, kids of work, how much you get done or not done around the house. You are completely free to think of the best possible path for yourself and your kids.

The downside to being a single parent

The con’s include the fact that you have to do all this on your own and this means it is on you to mold these precious beings into happy, healthy, and productive people when they grown older. It is on you to make sure that they eat at least three square, healthy meals, are schooled properly, are taught what they need to know to function and be independent. You have no help when it comes to keeping house and home, paying bills, or acquiring assets.

Can a single parent home-school?

All this said, it is hard to imagine how to fit home schooling into a single parents plan. I guess it would all depend on what kind of support system the single parent has. I have heard that in other countries, single parents get a lot of discounts and even financial help from the government. For some countries apparently, health care and even schooling is free. I do not know this for sure or as a fact. What I do know is that in my country, single parenthood is hard.

Here, to manage in maintaining food, shelter, health care, and schooling, a single parent needs to either ask for help from better off relatives or have a really good, high paying job, with lots of benefits. Otherwise, single parents work long hours, some with two or more smaller jobs on the side. Some take on night work to make the most of the higher percentages in wages. And almost all who do it on their own have very little time to spend at home. And to think that there is no real day care system in my country so kids left at home are often cared for by extended family or a paid, stay-in nanny.

Home schooling, from what I have seen requires one main element- the parent’s time and presence at home to oversee the educational development of the child or children. How is this to be done when the parent is out of the house? The recommendation here then is to have a guardian, like an aunt or grandparent take over the teaching. Is it as effective as the parent doing it? Home schooling would be a financially lighter and educationally better choice for single parents. It is cheaper to home school and you have control over what your kids learn, how they learn, etc. But can it be done for single moms like me?

In a situation where the parent has little time to spend at home, is home schooling still an option? If so, what is the work-around for the lack of availability?

To Homeschool Or Not…Part 1

May 11, 2011 | 1 Comment

If you are a parent, there is one thing for sure you think about from the moment your precious one/s enter the world…how to educate them. This is certainly one of the thoughts that entered my mind and has taken, it seems, permanent residency there. It is just so important to me that my kids get the right schooling, the best schooling for them.

Now, before anyone jumps on me in anger, this is not a ‘Tiger Mom’ post. Far from it. I have neither the years of experience, the certainty, or the guts to let it all hang out there the way Amy Chua did. This is more a post looking at whether to homeschool my kids or not.

Why am I looking at Homeschooling in particular? Of all the approaches, why this? The answer is simple. I have very good friends who espouse Homeschooling and who swear that it is the best thing to hit education since the advent of the textbook. But what is homeschooling exactly? Let me go through a very simplified and brief approach to Homeschooling.

How to get started homeschooling

I am not sure how it is defined or the processes that go into it in other countries but here in Manila, in a nutshell, Homeschooling is the parent or guardian taking responsibility and control of educating their children at home instead of sending them to an institution like public or private school. Here, the parent or guardian signs up of joins an accredited Homeschooling group first. This group must have the proper licenses and must have a curriculum approved by the Department of Education. The parent or guardian must keep in touch with the head of this group and give updates and reports about the progress of their child. There are two main reasons for this; that the parent is able to go to an authority for help should this be needed; and there is some form of check and balance still existing to make sure that the parent or the guardian is keeping up with the level requirements. After this, the parent is left to look at the level curriculum and create their own school schedule for this kids. This should include the subjects and topics in detail, the way this will be taught, the reinforcement, the activities about the activities, the testing. Main testing will be done at accredited centers and exams to certify that the child has passed from one level to the next should be given by the Department of Education.

Here are some Pro’s and cons to Homeschooling:

Homeschooling Pros

Children are taught according to their learning styles and interests.
Parents have more control over how and what their children are taught.
Children can progress slowly or quickly, according to their abilities.
Schedules are based on what the parents thinks is an important distribution of activities.
Flexible schedules allow time for breaks, field trips, vacations.
The cost of homeschooling for a year is about 1/10 the cost of a year in private school.
Parents can transmit their values to children and shelter them from negative influence.

Homeschooling Cons

Parents must help children improve upon their weaknesses and not just cater to their strengths.
Parents take on sole responsibility for their children’s education.
Family crises, illness and lax supervision by parents can interfere with learning.
Parents must purchase own materials and be in-charge of the teaching styles that will best help their children learn.
Parents must search for activities such as sports and music that can be extra-curricular activities or supplements to learning.
Parents must give children increasing independence and a chance to learn to stand for their values.
Parents must be vigilant about ensuring their children still have socialization with their peers.

I have been thinking about this seriously and have had long talks with my friends about whether homeschooling is the way to go or not. I will post again about my progress on this topic.

What is homeschooling like where you live?