Home schooling may be one of the greatest challenges I have taken on as a parent.  

One of my biggest struggles is making learning fun. If the boys spend all day doing seat work, writing, and listening to me teach them, they start to become unmanageable. A house of unmanageable children will wreck your day in a hurry. I figure if it is hard for me to find ways to make it fun, it must be hard for other parents too.

Of course, I occasionally run into those parents who seem to have it all together. They LOVE home schooling, and their children seem to know everything. Then I think, “Oh, huh, look at that. Actually home schooling is quite easy for some.”

It’s amazing the difference that experience, preparedness, organization, and a toolbox of good ideas can make!

We’re growing in this. S-l-o-w-l-y but surely I’m figuring out how to manage home schooling.

I have one ace up my sleeve that is a big help. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law are fully experienced teachers. Nonna taught in the public schools, mostly middle school, for twenty years. Amy also taught middle school for over ten years. They have both sent me great supplies this year, and I have used as much of it as I could work in and saved the rest for later.

When Nonna was here this last time, she helped me set up a FANTASTIC filing system. I’ll talk more about that on a future post.

Then she introduced us to……..Brain Pop, Jr.

This can be used whether you are home schooling or not. I just joined as a parent. First, I want to tell you upfront that this is not a free site, nor are they paying me to talk about them. Man, I wish they were! This site offers:

-A huge selection of cute and funny teaching videos, divided by topics and subtopics in math, science, reading and writing, health, social studies, and arts and technology.

-Each sub topic offers a game, printable activity, hard quiz, easy quiz, and more!

-For science, the print-outs are often easy-to-do and fun science experiments!!  I am loving this!

I have tech-savvy kids who are hard to impress, and they actually enjoy these videos and activities.

It is the very first educational “computer center” that I’ve found this year that my second and third graders enjoy!

Brain Pop does have a few free videos and games, and you can download all of that on their app as well. This site is computer friendly as well as app friendly.  They have a new “free movie” every week.

I warn you. The theme song is so catchy. It WILL get stuck in your head.

If you’d like a free preview of what Brain Pop Jr. videos are like, see this free one on local and state governments on their YouTube channel.

There is currently a two week free trial you can start out with.

I chose the parent option. It was $119.00 for the year. If you want to also get Brain Pop (grades 3-8th), you can get both for a total of $159/year.

Oh! And you want to be careful which Brain Pop version you get.

We use Brain Pop Jr. because it’s for Kindergarten through 3rd grade. The only thing they were missing that I’ve needed so far was Evolution and Natural Selection information, to go with our current science unit in Classical Conversations.

Regular Brain Pop has the same hilarious robot videos, but on the more advanced material. Nonna said that her middle schoolers loved it.

(Side note on the evolution bit: Yes, I teach them about both evolution and creation. Obviously, I’m a firm believer that the Earth was created by God. The boys are too. )

Using Brain Pop Jr. with Classical Conversations

So far, we have barely scraped the surface of what all you can do with this technology. You can bet I will be sharing more details on this in the future. For now, I’ll share what we have done so far, and my Brain Pop Jr. CC Cycle 3 Science Lesson plans for weeks 21-24.

-Composers and Musical Instruments! Brain Pop Jr. made learning woodwinds vs. brass, etc. a lot more fun!

This will take you to the whole music section: Music

There are so many options there!

I also used Brain Pop Jr. to help my third grader with division.

I used it to help my first grader with Reading and Spelling Skills.

But more than anything, we are using it for Science:

CC, Cycle 3, Week 21:

Uniformitarianism.

Brain Pop, Jr. didn’t define uniformitarianism, but it did have a whole video, game, quiz, and activity section on gradual land change and fast land change.

There is an erosion experiment to download, as well as fossil activities, and a Grand Canyon puzzle!

CC Cycle 3, Week 22

Catastrophism

Again, they didn’t use the word catastrophism, but they had all the bells and whistles for a fun lesson on “Fast Land Changes”, complete with science experiment and a sequence game.

CC Cycle 3, Week 23

Natural Selection– I couldn’t find it on Brain Pop Jr. either, but I guarantee you they would have it on the not-Junior version.

However, I did find a great video, somewhat related, on Extinct and Endangered Species.

CC Cycle 3, Week 24

Good Science

I found a great lesson on the Scientific Method.

For a complete list for Cycle 1, click here.

Thanks again to Nonna for introducing me to Brain Pop Jr.!

The post Ways to Use Brain Pop Jr. at Home School appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

We have so much more fun when company comes!!! This was the train ride through the redwood forrest.

This past week had the potential to be a total nightmare. This is “Finals Week” of the 3rd quarter for Alan, and I’m the kind of person that can only handle all four of my own children, by myself, for so long.

Enter the in-laws. Their timing was perfect. Well, for me it was anyway. They probably would have liked to have spent more time with their son, sure, but I really just needed someone to take my mind off of the nights that Alan had to work late and the cabin fever.

Caleb, soaking in the sights and smells of the forests– and searching for banana slugs. We love banana slugs.

Big shout out to DaddyO and Nonna for helping out this week and for allowing us to drag you around northern California. We had a great time.

Oh! And best of all, Caleb has two whole front teeth again!!! That’s right! Alan and I both got to be there for the oral surgery. DaddyO and Nonna kept the preschoolers and the home schooler. Caleb handled it all really well, and as of today, he can’t even remember it. It’s amazing what good drugs can do.

As I mentioned before, my phone bit the dust, so I have no beautiful Caleb photo to share. 🙁

I don’t think Nonna and DaddyO were quite aware of just how stressed out Alan and I were when they arrived, just 8 days ago, but I think that by the time they left, they were thankful they never had to home school their children.

Bahahahahaha

Okay, so really I’M the one that lives seriously stressed out. I think Alan is fine.

DaddyO and Nonna

Nonna gave me some great organizing tips for home schooling. She was a teacher for 20 years, so I’m always happy to get ideas from her.

We only have ONE QUARTER of our first year of home schooling left to get through. I remember when I first decided to home school. I didn’t want to tell any of my friends in Virginia. Why? Because I knew that as the people who see me everyday, they knew me well enough to know that it didn’t make much sense. I’m a social person with social children. I have four boys who like to wiggle about and have fun. I have a toddler in the mix that needs a lot of attention, so I was practically attempting the impossible.

And I knew my friends would let me know it, so I tried to keep my home schooling ambitions a secret.

You should have heard my friends at supper club.

“Are you SERIOUSLY going to home school? How in the world are you going to do that?”

*Insert feeling of sheepish embarrassment.* I knew they were right. They knew they were right. This would be hard. This would be a little crazy. This would be way out of my comfort zone.

Several people lately have asked me, “Why do you homeschool?”

I throw out this reason or that, mostly stuff about my children’s education and being a control freak. (Ha!) I wanted to help Caleb with reading and Joshua with math. I didn’t want my children to constantly change schools, creating insecurity. I wanted them to have a Christian education rather than a secular one. I wanted to pull them away from so much materialism and worldliness. I just wanted to try it, and Alan was in agreement with me about all of this.

But really there was one big reason. I prayed about it, and God said, “Home school your kids.”

I prayed that four years ago, when Joshua started Kindergarten, and God said, “Send them to school.” Different season, different circumstances. God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit, which he has given to all who have accepted Him. He lives in our hearts.

“Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant which I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”

Hebrews 10:15-17

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”             John 16:12-15

So sweet! Alan still found plenty of time to have fun with us. 🙂

Home schoolers do take the coolest field trips.

I’m just following where the Lord leads. Yes, He gave me more than I can handle. From that, I have learned to rely on Him more and to talk to Him more. I may not always home school, but I hope that I will always simply follow where the Lord leads our family.

The post How in the world are you going to home school? appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.