Taking a step further towards our mission of helping you – our dear parents – during this lockdown, PlayShifu sought out a few experts’ help, to seamlessly continue your child’s learning.
Read on to understand what these home-schoolers had to say:
Rebecca, mom of a 7-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl,
@thehomeschoolofwonder
1. How much time do you spend with the child, and preparing yourself for the sessions?
At this point, I don’t spend a lot of time planning since I have bought curriculums that help me out. As I figure out their needs and learning styles, there might be more planning involved.
- 3-hour school day + 3 to 4 hours of activities
- 3-hour split into language arts (grammar, and spelling)
20 minutes of reading
15 minutes of handwriting
30 minutes of math
1 – 1.5 hours’ rotation between science and history every day.
- After the session, I give them the independence to choose an activity of their choice. My daughter likes arts, and my son loves to build robots and play with legos.
2. Which tools/apps/books/toys do you use?
I use Google Search to identify the different styles of homeschooling. There are various methods to homeschool – curriculum-based homeschools, online-based homeschools, and sometimes it is decided on the day itself as to what they want to do.
We use some paid curriculum tools, like The Good and the Beautiful for language arts, math, and science, Teaching Textbooks for math, and Apologia for science. Teachers Pay Teachers is a great place for free material.
Both my kids have a lot of fun with PlayShifu’s Plugo set – Count, Letters, and Link are their favorites, and help boost their STEAM cells!
In addition to Netflix and YouTube, one of my secret spots is browsing through museums and zoo websites – a treasure trove for good content.
Lisa, mom of a 7-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, @everyonestoyclub
1. How much time do you spend with the child, and preparing yourself for the sessions, every week?
Teagen is in 4th grade now and spends about 2 to 3 hours every day, whereas Zane spends about 1.5 hours and prefers outdoor activities.
2. Which tools/apps/books/toys do you use?
Teagen loves exploring, so Orboot Mars is one of our go-to toys. She loves the idea of discovering a whole new planet!
We also use paid curriculums like Real Science Odyssey (Panida Press) and Moving Beyond the Page for some of our learning.
Chrissy, Twin boys aged 10, @granola_n_grace
How much time do you spend typically weekly (with the child, and preparing yourself for the sessions with the child)?
We are involved in a homeschool co-op and the teacher comes up with the curriculum herself. I just have to make sure that they complete their homework.
- For math, we are doing an online curriculum which is graded online.
- For writing and grammar, I have to prepare since I have to read the lesson beforehand or watch videos. This takes me an hour to do a week. So I usually just end up preparing for two hours a week. Sometimes, I add in Plugo Letters to bring in some fun.
- For science, they have to read their chapter and then questions to follow up + worksheets. For math, they do Teaching Textbooks – daily chapters + answering questions. It takes 30 minutes to an hour.
- For literature, they read through a book. They have a book a month and they read chapters from that. They also have to do keyword outlines which they have to do with text (3 to 5 paragraph papers). For history, they memorise facts. They also have to memorise vocabulary with flashcards and grammar charts. For example, what a noun is, all forms of a noun, a verb etc
- They also learn a foreign language like Spanish occasionally. I personally also teach the Bible – we have a chapter by chapter book which we go through every day.
Which tools/apps/books/toys do you use?
- Teaching Textbooks for math
- We don’t use a lot of toys, but Orboot Earth for history and geography is one of the few we do use and love!
- Model of the human body for anatomy studies
- Flashcards and hands-on math games like Plugo Count and Number Knockout
- We would love to have an app/ game where they have to do different formulas to knock out the numbers on a board – from 1 to 36
If you’re a home-schooler and think that you can contribute to this small effort, leave an excellent comment, and help the other parents!
Remember to stay safe and stay at home.
HomeSchooling resources to use during school shutdown. We’ve compiled a list of learning resources just for you guys in this PDF!
