Homeschooling: What to do When Summer Break Drains the Brain? Sneak in Fun Learning Opportunities

Does Summer Break Drain the Brain? Try Sneaking in Educational Experiences Kids Enjoy

School is coming to a close, but learning shouldn't come to an end. We are just finishing up our first year of homeschooling.  After all the hard work, I'd hate to see it slip away this summer.  We've got plans to supplement with summer learning field trips, outdoor nature journaling, riding and music lessons, and 4H club. I'll also offer Friday day camps for friends of The Play Connection, Inc.

Outdoor Games for Summer Camp

The beginning of every school year is filled with review from the previous year.  Summer heat shouldn't melt our kids brains.  Summer Camp programs are great for socialization, pe activities, and becoming one with nature.  Opportunities to improve reading are everywhere. Playing the Alphabet Game on a long trip encourages billboard and street sign reading. Library trips offer a sneaky way to cool off, relax, and enjoy a new book. Do you read bedtime stories? Here's a fun summer reading list. 

Busy summers lend themselves to lazy days near the poolside or under a favorite tree curled up with a good book. Funny, kids never seem to curl up with a good math problem.  

Don't forget to practice math this summer.  
Leap ahead of the pack with daily lessons.

Do you practice math in the summer?  Keeping track of allowances, shopping for items at the Dollar Tree, or having your child watch the clock for break time, chore time, and lunchtime are easy ways to implement mathematics into your lazy summer days.  If you are worried about summer brain drain and the summer learning slide, you might like a more structured math program. 

Summer Brain Drain? Try this.

LeapAhead! is an easy, affordable, and flexible summer online math program. Keep your child engaged with math worksheets aligned with the common core standards. The program offers a fun math worksheet creator for members. I love the Challenge Math for gifted and talented students. The online summer math program is great for kids who need a little extra help too. This program works for both homeschoolers and brick and mortar students. 

PE GAMES

Let your computer act as a summer tutor while you enhance the online learning with fun math games and activities. You can make math a fun, summer activity too!



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Homeschool Curriculum Resources

Supplemental Resources for Educators

Thanks to Oriental Trading for these curriculum resources.

Whether you're a homeschool parent or a classroom teacher, these curriculum resources from Oriental Trading are a great way to supplement learning. From the hundreds of items in the Oriental Trading catalog, we chose these items to supplement our homeschool curriculum. If you're looking for supplemental homeschool curriculum resources, be sure to check them out.

This post contains affiliate links.

Airbrush Marker Set, Money and Time Flashcards, Fraction Spinners, Ruler Tape, and World Map.

Last year, both kids attended Indiana Connections Academy online. We started our homeschool journey with them and after a few years of homeschooling on our own, decided to enroll again. It allowed both kids to take assessment tests. We discovered they both had jumped another grade level. However, Mayhem had some math learning disabilities and special needs.

Homeschool Curriculum Resources 

Connections Academy was great about testing her and getting her the help she needed, but this year we decided it would be better to once again go it on our own. This way, we can better address her mathematics learning gaps.

So, Jake will attend INCA as a 9th grader... Did you get that? He's officially in high school this year. Yikes! Mayhem is officially a 7th grader. By age, they should be in 5th and 7th. Which makes me skeptical about that assessed math disability.

There's certainly an issue, but she works very well at 4th & 5th grade level math. Her language arts assessment was college level and science and social studies were all above grade level, which is why they placed her in the 6th grade last year.

Homeschooling on our own allows us to tailor the curriculum to her specific grade level needs. We are using MobyMax to help with that. MobyMax finds and corrects learning gaps.

Tri-Facta math game for multiplication and division memory.

We ordered this educational math game, Tri-Facta, from OT. It's sort of like Scrabble for numbers. Even though Jake is a math whiz, he enjoyed the game.

It's a nice alternative to flashcards. We also got Time and Money flashcards, cool ruler tape, and fraction spinners. Everything You Need to Ace Math in one Big Fat Notebook is an awesome math book for reluctant mathematicians. It's written in note taking form and explains math concepts in a fun, easy to understand manner. Click here to find the resources at Oriental Trading.

If your kids like to color, this World Chart map (pictured below) is a great supplemental activity for geography and social studies. It comes with a booklet of facts. The idea is to find the fact's map location and then color it. We also got an airbrush set for future art lessons.

Social Studies Lesson: Color Chart the World Map.

Social Studies Resource from MindWare, Color Chart Map.

Just for fun, Teacher a.k.a. Mom, drug the kiddos out of bed for a 'I just woke up' shot to share on social media. Everyone always shares their back to school first day of school pictures and we didn't want to be left out.

For us, the first day of school means getting up a little earlier- okay, a lot earlier, but not as early as a traditional school day. No new haircuts, no new backpacks, no new shoes, no new school clothes. Just old pajamas. Well, really, old comfy clothes for sleeping. No matching necessary. We'll get dressed if we run out of food and need to make a trip to the grocery store. A trip to a fast food restaurant doesn't require getting dressed...

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Learn Multiplication Tables Online Free Homeschooling

Need to Learn your Multiplication Tables Fast Online?

Learn Multiplication Tables Online Free Homeschooling.

If you need to learn multiplication tables fast, you've come to the right place! In this edition of our interactive, free online homeschooling lessons, we explore math and the multiplication tables from 0-12. We share our daily homeschool activities with you each week for FREE! This week, we focused on multiplication. Scroll down for the fun math videos, games, and curriculum.

Suggested for Elementary Mathematics: Grades 2-5

Multiplication Tables

Teacher Resources:

Multiplication Lesson Ideas from Brainpop.com

Free Printable Number line Math Worksheet.

Free Printable Multiplication Table Chart and awesome worksheets.

Student Lesson:

Start with the Schoolhouse Rock Multiplication Videos from 0-12. These catchy tunes will stick in your memory... FOREVER!

If you don't have Multiplication Flash Cards, grab some index cards. While you watch the multiplication videos, make flashcards for each set of numbers from 1 to 12. On the front of your flash card, write the problem and on the back write the answer.

Front of Card: 1 x 3 = ?  Back of Card: 3

Zero Multiplication Table Video




One Multiplication Table Video

You know the one's tables. One times anything is the number.
For example, 1 x 1 = 1 and 1 x 6 = 6


Two Multiplication Table Video





Two Times Table Rap Video





Three Multiplication Table Video





Four Multiplication Table Video





Five Multiplication Table Video





Six Multiplication Table Video






Seven Multiplication Table Video





Eight Multiplication Table Video





Nine Multiplication Table Video





Ten Multiplication Table Video





Eleven Multiplication Table Video





Twelve Multiplication Table Video





Cool Math Times Table Trick Video

You can do this with your hands, go ahead get your marker and write on your fingers like the picture below. Then, watch it and practice!






Take this Multiplication Tables Quiz Online to see how much you remember from the videos.

Now, watch Tim and Moby from Brainpop.com, (for Brainpop subscribers only) explain all about learning the multiplication tables.

The video comes with this helpful multiplication question and answer session, make sure you read each question and click on it to uncover the answer. Did you know the answer? Did you guess correctly?

Do this, you can type your answers online and right click to save them for your teacher or parent:

Free Printable Activity Worksheet (Downloadable)

After all that studying you should be able to fill in this multiplication table chart.

Multiplication Review Quiz for Brainpop Subscribers.

Mathematics: Multiplication Games

Online Game for Multiplication

Gate Math Game: Math Game for Gamers

Math Blocks: Factors Game

Language Arts Component

Grab your Daily Journal or open a Google Doc and define these math words:  

Product, Multiple, Factor, Memorize, Shortcut.

Recommended Reading:

Math with M and M's Chocolate*

Famous Explorers Online Lesson

Math Counting Game for Tens and Ones

         

Copyright 2014 by Lora Langston, Kids Creative Chaos.

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Free Educational Games and Videos for Kids

Online Educational Games and Videos

We've all seen those kids with their faces glued to the tablet in their lap. What are they doing? Generally, they're watching some silly and possibly inappropriate video on YouTube. Even if it's just a cartoon, kids' time could be better spent doing something educational. Playing an online educational game, a game that sharpens hand eye coordination, or watching educational videos, keeps kids entertained while they're learning. If you or your kids enjoy learning online, read on for some fun, free ways to add to your classroom curriculum.

Math and English educational games tend to be the most fun when it comes to educational online gaming, These games are more fast paced, but there are also history, science, and foreign language games too. I prefer to watch educational videos to learn about history and science but you can pair educational videos with online games for a lesson students will enjoy.

Our favorite history videos  are from the  Crash Course in U.S. History series on YouTube. Now, they offer Crash Course Science videos too.  Below, I've shared a few science videos that I think your students will enjoy. 

Educational Science Videos From Crash Course

What's a Species?

 

Organic Chemistry

 

Here are 10 more educational videos for teens

Plays.org is a site full of all kinds of games. You don't have to load apps on your phone or tablet and take up extra space. All of these games are played right in your browser, just add it to your favorites for easy access.

To navigate this free gaming site, scroll down to the bottom page footer where you'll find all of the categories of their free online game collection. As you scroll through the alphabetical list, you'll see the education tab.

Here are my picks for fun educational games from plays.org. 

Defense Math

This site has detailed instructions and tips on game play. Here's a sample description:

Defense Math starts out easy, but gets more difficult as you play. This is a fast and challenging addition, subtraction, multiplication and division math solving game for kids and students. Players must answer an infinite amount of questions to send projectiles to the enemy horde. Players must prevent them from reaching their defense tower. Get the highest score you can get. 

Freaky Math is a fast paced game that works like flash cards. I think this game is great for all ages and it's a great game to play to keep your brain sharp.  You'll be surprised how long it takes to solve some of the problems. Think fast!

Younger children will enjoy this grocery store cashier game from plays.org. The items come across the conveyor belt and you add them all  together, press total and choose the correct amount of cash to pay.

If you need worksheets and other printable curriculum to pair with these free online educational games videos, check out my store on TeachersPayTeachers.

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Science Games from PBS

Physics Games from Plays.org

More Free Educational Online Games from Adventures of Kids Creative Chaos

Need to Get Out of Debt? Make it a Math Lesson!

Homeschool Math: Steps to Get out of Debt 

If you're a busy family trying to make ends meet, you've probably struggled with debt at one time or another. A plan to get out of debt makes a excellent homeschool math lesson for your kids. Don't hide the struggle from them, but don't frighten them with all of the gory details either. If you need to get out of debt, you need a plan. The steps to get out of debt look different for everyone. Everyone has different debt, different income, and a different set of life issues. Talk about a family budget with your kids and then follow the steps below to get out of debt. Everyone working together toward the same goal is the first step on your debt free journey.

Debt to Income Ratio Calculator

You may want to take the steps to get out of debt if you are in the market for a new home. In this case, you'll want to start with a debt to income ratio calculator. Seeing it all laid out before you eyes puts it all in perspective. Where can you save, how can you improve your credit score, and how much money you will need to save. These questions can be overwhelming because the often contradict each other. To buy a new house, you'll want to pay down your debt, but you'll also want to save for a down payment for your home. Which should you do first? How long will it all take? This makes for a relevant and useful homeschool MATH LESSON. Wells Fargo offers instructions on how to figure your debt to income ratio and a free debt to income ratio calculator to check your work. Here's another debt free calculator from CNN.

Credit Score

Start with a credit app like Credit Karma. These aren't completely accurate, but they give you good idea of where you stand in the world of credit scores. You'll also see any negative marks against you. The big credit reporting agencies, Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax, allow you to check your scores and dispute anything that you find in error. Sometimes, you might find duplicates or items assigned to you that really belong to someone else. In this case, you'll want to speak to a legal firm that can quickly help you sort it all out. You can do it yourself, but it's much easier to pay for a service to do it for you. Lexington Law is inexpensive and gets the job done quickly and efficiently. You'll want to give yourself at least 3 months of the service (depending on how much work needs done.) They tend to work on one credit reporting agency at a time. It's fun and rewarding to watch your credit score improve. You'll also see weekly dips that will let you know where you need to cut back or do better.

Debt Consolidation

Another option is debt consolidation. This is a great option for people who are overwhelmed by debt collectors calling, sending letters, and generally harassing you for payments. This can make anyone crazy. If you use a service to consolidate your debt, they'll set up a monthly payment and take care of notifying debtors and paying your debts each month. Many people feel overwhelmed at the amount of bills they have to pay and can't keep on top of it all without getting late fees. Rather than paying the debt collectors, some people put their head in the sand and do nothing. This, of course, ruins your credit and your chance for a car or a home in you future. So, if you have difficulty keeping organized letting the professionals deal with your debtors may be the best option for you. You also might want to check into these debt relief services.

Budget

It's better to come up with a long term plan that you can manage than to declare bankruptcy or ignore your obligations. A budget is a great way to stay on top of things. Teaching your kids how you budget the bills is a fun way to teach them about finances. Young adults are often surprised at the cost of utilities and groceries and don't plan for these things when they go to rent or buy a new home. Keep a worksheet of your weekly and monthly expenses on the fridge and let your kids see how that new video games fits into the bigger picture. Get a free printable household budget worksheet pdf.

You can open a child's bank account and connect it to your own. Our bank, sent the kids their own ATM cards for their accounts. I can easily move money from my account to theirs or vice versa if they've earned enough to buy the latest video game. If you aren't comfortable with that, there's nothing like a good old fashioned piggy bank or giant glass bottle to see your pennies adding up while saving for that big item.

So, make it a family affair. There's no better homeschool math lesson than the life lessons based on real life events. The more kids know about the real world, the better they will be able to navigate it as young adults.

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More Homeschool Math Lessons

10 Top-Notch Ways to Motivate Students to Study and Learn

10 Ways to Motivate Students to Study and Learn

Students who are inattentive or put little effort into their school work are unlikely to benefit from better instruction or school curriculum. So, how can teachers help students become motivated? From putting students in control to offering rewards, motivation can be both encouraged and provided. Here’s an in-depth look at ten ways to motivate students to study and learn more effectively.

This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

An in-depth look at ten ways to motivate you students  

1. Put Students in Control of Their Learning Experience  

Education makes some kids feel like they’re being controlled. When a student feels that lack of control, they generally withdrawal from learning. It’s important that students are given control over their learning experience. 

A good way to do this is to give students options. For example, when assigning math questions, allow students to complete either the evens or the odds. That way, they can choose which one they want to complete. 

Students that are given more control and can have direct input in respect to their learning experiences, activities, and environment, become more engaged and even want to learn.  

2. Develop an Atmosphere for Reading  

It’s known that students who develop a love for reading also love learning. The two are interconnected. Reading, not only helps students develop a wide vocabulary, but it allows their brains to learn how to process formal communication. 


Enrich your classroom by providing students with a variety of quality outside information. You can find reading materials from sources like the New York Times, Forbes, or Science stage.

You can also assign students a book report related to one of your key objectives. That way, students can learn more about an essential topic from an expert in a field. 

3. Focus on Student Interests 

To engage students, focus on topics that they find interesting. Not every objective is interesting to every student, however, you can relate lessons to current trends to reach more students. For example, when coming up with a math question, you can ask students about the latest internet challenge. For the ice bucket challenge, you might pose a question regarding the volume of the bucket.

4. Make Learning Entertaining Through Game-Based Learning  

Game-based learning has been around for a long time. In fact, game-based learning has many beneficial qualities. It not only provides opportunities for extensive learning and development of non-cognitive abilities, but it helps students want to play the game which, in turn, teaches them a new skill or some other aspect of your lesson plans.

When a child is actively playing a game, their mind experiences the joy of learning something new. This is true whether the game is considered entertainment, like a video game or it has a more serious tone like a military simulator. Games that are entertaining have an added benefit of being engaging, thus motivating students to learn more. 

Game-based learning is a successful motivation tool for team-based learning. Since students generally become more competitive in order to win, they may perform better in the learning portions of the game to earn more points. 

Game-based learning is a perfect way for teachers to introduce new concepts or ideas into the classroom. Start with a fun game like classroom jeopardy, or allow students to visit an interactive website and compete online with other students at their grade level.

5. Encourage Communication  

Students should feel encouraged to express their opinions about what’s going on with their education. They should feel comfortable to express their likes or dislikes. Often, when students feel like they can’t speak up, they withdrawal from the learning process.  

It’s best to create an open atmosphere where all students know that their opinion matters. Students should know they won’t be judged, ignored, put down, or discouraged. Instead, students should know you're paying attention and listening to their concerns. That way, students will communicate better if any issue arises. 

 6. Allow Students to Learn Outside of the Classroom  

While book work is important, students sometimes become frustrated at the amount of book work that is required. It’s essential to provide students with fun activities that they can do outside of the classroom. 

Provide students with a list of educational activities they can complete outside of the classroom with friends or family. Activities like baking and shopping allow students to relate what they've learned in school to the real world. Homeschoolers can include these activities in their daily instruction. Measuring and finance are great future skills. Kids find these real world ways of learning math more enjoyable. Math makes more sense when we see the applications as useful.

7. Set Attainable Goals   

It’s important that you set attainable goals for all students. Most students like to feel challenged. Stimulating students helps them to want to set and achieve goals. When they find the expectations attainable, they're more likely to strive to reach the goal.

8. Use Positive Competition 

Competition isn’t always a bad thing, sometimes it motivates students to work harder to achieve a 100% score. One of the best ways to use positive competition is to allow students to take part in a friendly math competition. That way, students get to work together to show off their knowledge and help others that might not understand higher math concepts. Teachers can add math concepts that are relevant to their lesson plans. 

9. Track Students Progress  

It's sometimes difficult for students to understand just how far they’ve come in a particular subject, especially when they find the subject hard to comprehend. Tracking a student’s progress, motivates students, allowing them to visualize how much they've achieved as the year progresses. This is especially important for homeschool learners. Keep track of their progress with programs like, MobyMax, which tracks progression by finding and fixing gaps in learning through relevant grade level, online lessons.

10. Offer Rewards   

Rewards are an excellent source of motivation. Everyone likes to earn rewards. Students will study hard and aim for success in hopes of winning the top prize. Rewards can be large or small, depending on the grade level of the class or age of the students. Older students may not find a lollipop reward very motivating.

For example, choose rewards like a pizza party, ice cream party, or even a donut party or extra credit points for older students. With younger students, simple rewards like a piece of candy, a sticker, or a small toy will provide motivation.

Have you tried any of these ways to motivate students to study and learn more efficiently? 

Student motivation is essential in every stage of education. Focus on student interests, encourage communication, track a student’s progress and offer rewards at every stage. Since every student is motivated differently, make sure to customize your motivation strategies for individual students. 

Check out the recommended reading below for additional ways to motivate students to learn and study. 



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Free Online Homeschool Curriculum Recommendations

Curriculum Recommendations for Online Homeschooling

Whether you're new to homeschooling or you've been doing it for years, you're probably on the hunt for new, exciting, and engaging curriculum ideas. We get bored with the daily grind and change it up from year to year or even season to season. Here's a list of mostly free online homeschool curriculum recommendations that we've used and enjoyed. We've tried MANY other options, but these are our favorites.

This post contains affiliate links.

Free Online Homeschool Curriculum Recommendations.

Brainpop Jr. is my favorite program for younger elementary and preschool. The videos are fun to watch, and the kids always looked forward to using Brainpop Jr. for Homeschooling. 

Brainpop has a an online homeschool for middle school and high school, but we often found topics we wanted only on Brainpop Jr. The upper grade version is nice for supplementing classroom curriculum. If you use the paid version, you have access to more functions and all lessons.

MobyMax is a great online homeschool app to find out where your kids are in their homeschool learning experience. They can take placement tests in all subjects and then the program finds learning gaps and helps kids focus and build on the areas where they may be struggling. The content isn't as fun and engaging as Brainpop. It is a more definitive tool for classroom use, helping teachers to keep all students on track. MobyMax can be used as a supplement or as full homeschool curriculum up to eighth grade.

Khan Academy is (or should be) a household name for homeschoolers. In the beginning, Khan Academy targeted older students and even offered SAT prep. Now, they also offer more curriculum for elementary school. It keeps track of their lessons and lets you know when students are struggling or when they are ready to move to the next level.

The kids prefer Khan Academy math to any other online homeschool math program, but homeschool mom always liked to supplement with free Brainpop math videos to make sure the kids understood the talking points. Khan Academy can get monotonous for day to day homeschooling. Sal does a great job, but it can get a little boring after awhile. We also supplement our Khan Academy math with Life of Fred textbooks. These books are easy to read and tell a fun story while sneaking in practical math lessons.

Now, there are new instructors and new curriculum on KA. My daughter enjoys studying high school and college level psychology and art history through Khan Academy.

My son does well with virtual homeschool. So, for online high school homeschooling, we are sticking with Connections Academy. In Indiana, it is a free online public school. Connections Academy offers group gatherings and field trips. He gets through the assignments quickly (though, I'm told many homeschoolers struggle to get their lessons done on time) so we supplement with weekly enrichment including museum homeschool programs and educational YouTube videos like John and Hank Green's Crash Course in American History.

Sometimes, when he's struggling on a particular topic, (for high school all text books are online) we find a compatible Life of Fred homeschooling book to fll in any gaps. It's nice to have a good, old book that you can hold in your hand and flip through the pages. He enjoys reading them outside while enjoying his hammock.

Sure, Connections Academy has teachers and attendance to keep, but when it's all done, he'll have official transcripts for college. 

I prefer Connections High School to their Elementary program. The elementary program seemed a little too intense. Especially, when you want the freedom of homeschooling. They're still working out the bugs and it gets better every year, in the past, we had to have weekly check ups with the elementary teachers. For high school, signing in and doing your work suffices. As it should...

In 2017, this homeschool mom broke her leg. That made planning homeschool curriculum and doing enrichment activities difficult. So, my daughter was pretty much on her own. She did great with MobyMax (so I could keep up with her learning) and supplementing with YouTube videos of her choosing. But, homeschool mom felt like maybe she was failing her daughter by not being as involved. So, this fall, we are trying something new! Acellus. I stumbled upon Acellus last year when I was laid up in bed. Many other homeschoolers told me it was expensive, but I was sure I found a free or nearly free version. 

But whenever, I looked it up, I found the paid online homeschool version, which seems to be set up like Connections academy, but with a private school fee. That's not for us! I gave up for a while, and recently tried again. It seems they also have a homeschool app which is found on a separate website, PowerHomeschool. The homeschool app differs from the online homeschool version, because the videos are canned - meaning they are pre-recorded 

That's just what we wanted! We like working at our own pace. These videos are similar to videos my daughter finds on YouTube, but these organized by grade level. We'll choose math, science, language arts, foreign language, and music this year. At the time of this posting, the app is $9.99 per month, basically the same as the paid homeschool version of Brainpop. We're looking forward to starting her in the homeschool middle school program this fall. 

The PowerHomemschool website describe the homeschool curriculum like this: "Students proceed through the course in a step-by-step fashion watching a video lesson and then completing assessment problems. Students receive reviews and unit, mid-term, and final exams as they proceed through the course. Learning gaps are assessed and filled as students move through the course concept by concept."

Seems like a fair option to give it a test drive before you jump into their online school curriculum. 

We'll also supplement with Life of Fred fractions and beginning algebra. One thing I've missed the last few years, is doing hands-on science experiments. After previewing the Acellus app's science curriculum, I was excited to try it. With a Google search for online homeschool curriculum, the app is hard to find. They have moved it to a new website with a different name. Find it here: PowerHomeschool

Bottom line, don't break the bank to homeschool. We have SO many books, every year, I'd go out and buy new books. We never got through most of them. Find a free online homeschool curriculum, that works for you and stick with it. Then, supplement with fun enrichment activities and family outings.

We also involve the kids in day to day household concerns. We talk about finances, debt, and even recently including them in every step of the home buying process. That included going to a lender, saving for a down payment, creative ways to find extra money like garage sales, selling off items no longer needed, the highs and lows of Craigslist and eBay, getting a water and septic test at the state level, watching our credit scores, budgeting for groceries, finding ways to cut costs to save for the new house, and even going to a county courthouse to pick up documents needed to close. So many lessons here. At the courthouse, we all had to go through the security, empty our pockets, etc. The next steps, include renovating the new house. 

Family struggles and life lessons are often kept from kids. In my opinion, this tends to give the kids an unrealistic view of what it is like to be a grown up. They can't wait to get out of the house and start their own life, but reality gets in the way of their happiness. Keeping kids life lessons and keeping them in the know, helps them better prepare for the future. Isn't that what homeschooling is all about?

So, what do you think of this list of free online homeschool curriculum recommendations? Do you have something you really love? Tell us about it in the comments or find Kids Creative Chaos on Instagram and chat with us there!

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