Last year was my very first one homeschooling. As I explained in my “Homeschooling Exposed” post 🙂 overall the year was a success. HOWEVER, the one thing I wanted most to change was the afternoons.
I wanted to incorporate more fun, special elective activities into our afternoons.
Instead of just hoping this will happen or throwing it in here or there, I have made a detailed plan for this coming year that I’m really excited about.
Here it is:
- Monday : Piano lessons. I was thrilled to find these free online piano lessons for kids! I haven’t tried them yet, but a friend recommended them and said her kids all love them! You can purchase theory worksheets to print off for the kids, which I think I will do. The lessons are free so might as well!
- Tuesday : Co-op afternoon. If you don’t have a co-op, just find one other family! With my two sisters who are also homeschooling, we are doing each of these activities once a month.
- Field Trip (I have nine scheduled ahead of time for interesting centers and museums in the area)
- Show and Tell
- Outdoor Adventure Club (this is something my mom actually plans and runs for all of the grandkids, but you could also do a “park adventure day”)
- Service Projects – These are things like packing Operation Christmas Child boxes, writing to (and praying for, together) our Compassion children, baking cookies to host a bake sale at church to raise money for worthwhile organizations, raking leaves to earn money to buy canned foods for the shelter, etc.)
- Wednesday:
- P.E. – our local YMCA does a Homeschool P.E. class that is $30 a semester. They do the best little games and even swim once a month. The kids love it.
- After P.E, we’re going to try out these Kids Guitar Zone free lessons. There are only a few lessons on here, but a friend said she liked this website because many of the other introductory guitar lessons had some objectionable ads, and this one is thoroughly safe for kids. I imagine you could do these lessons each a few times, too, to practice!
- Thursday
- We will do my FAVORITE homeschool art class – Ms. Volin’s Home Art Studio. It comes in grades Kindergarten-Grade 5. This DVD is worth every penny! I reviewed it here.
- Friday – Typing class. I think we will do Typing Instructor For Kids software. There seem to be a few various options, very reasonably priced, for kids typing lessons.
I’m also in the hunt for some beginning Spanish lessons for kids. Any suggestions?
What extra-curricular activities do your kids do?
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I am looking into this for Spanish this year http://www.gettingstartedwithspanish.com/ (kindle version is half the price of the actual book and I believe there are free MP3s on the site to help with pronunciation.)…seems very simple and the daily lessons are short. Also, check the library for dvds and cds for kids that teach Spanish (gotta love free!). A few years ago, I found books with cds at the Dollar Tree to learn colors, numbers, ABCs and words (gotta love cheap!).
Thanks for the reminder about the homeschool P.E at the Y, I keep forgetting to check it out!
I always admire people who are so much more organized than I am. It’s what I aspire to be like 😉 We are starting our first year of homeschool (my oldest is 5). Typically, we do a variety of activities in a week but not based on a certain routine. My kids help me cook, we paint together, love getting outdoors, and have a lot of free play to exercise and such. I like all the resources you listed, especially the PE idea at the YMCA. That would be so much fun!
Great ideas! I really love your blog(maybe it’s the fact that we share the same first name, have the same initials, and are catnappers….) Have you heard of Petralingua for Spanish? I just started looking into it, but it looks like it’s 7.99/month for Spanish lessons, which seems like a pretty good deal. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your ideas!
I meant to leave you the link too. Sorry! https://www.petralingua.com/subscription/subs_buy.php
I love your ideas! I am excited to think about what we could add to our afternoon as extra curricular activities.
I’ve used duolingo, but only on my phone. It’s free, and covers at least three high school years of the language (I use French and German, not Spanish). There’s also an option to have it email you their progress, or to create a “classroom”. It doesn’t teach through rules and memorization, instead you learn and use the words and it corrects you when you use the wrong verb tense or article. The voice detection doesn’t work though.