unit study

10 Tips for Homeschooling around Holidays

December 20, 2017 By Valerie Mcclintick Leave a Comment

Life can get hectic at any point during the year, but this is especially true during the holidays. While most of these tips are written with Christmas in mind, they can apply anytime your school year gets busy.

1) Learn to say NO.

Volunteer opportunities abound during the Holidays, particularly at church. Homeschooling takes as much time as a fulltime job. Be very cognizant of not putting too much extra on your plate during this busy time. It’s okay to just say no.

2) Plan for The Time Off That You Will Need

It’s best if you plan for time off during the Holidays before you even begin the school year. Working a vacation into your lesson schedule will be a major sanity saver. Try your best to make it happen if you can. Read tips on Homeschool Scheduling Here.

3) Work on Your Kid’s Favorite Subjects

When kids are dreaming of Santa and sugar plums it will be harder for them to concentrate on their lessons. Getting ahead in favorite subjects can be a fantastic way to make this distractible time work for everyone. Better yet, try out our Holiday SMART Packs. They provide you with fun, thematic, educational content for an entire week.

4) Extra Reading Time

Even when your kids aren’t in classes, independent reading time is a great way to keep them in learning mode. Take a trip to the local library and pack in some holiday themed books! I know my children love to learn about the origination of each holiday or holidays in other countries for example.

5) Play Math and Reading Games

There are plenty of ideas online with learning games for every grade. Put some prep work in the night before and get your kids playing games that will teach them at the same time. ABCya and MathPlayground are two of our favorites.

6) Eliminate Non-Essential Chores

If there are any chores you feel comfortable eliminating for a few weeks, do it. There are plenty of nonessential things that can wait until the holidays blow over.

7) Swap sitting or hire a sitter.

Between parties, and Christmas gifts sometimes you just need extra help. If a sitter isn’t in your budget consider swapping sitting time with another family.

8) Shop Online

I love getting out of the house and shopping for presents, but let’s be honest online shopping can be a huge time saver. When you’re trying to homeschool through the holidays Amazon Prime is worth the price. Try Amazon Prime Free for 30 days Here.

9) Let Someone Else Host the Party

Logistically, sometimes it’s easiest to have the family with the biggest family, or smallest baby host the Christmas party. Consider however the amount of time and deep cleaning that will go into hosting your event. If someone else is willing to host, consider letting them.

10) Relax, and Enjoy.

Don’t let life get too hectic. Take time to sing, bake cookies, read books, make art project and absorb the season. Get plenty of pictures, and try to remember the smiles for years to come.

BONUS TIP: Try out our Holiday S.M.A.R.T. Packs for an entire week’s worth of engaging holiday learning!

Tiger Eyes Oil Pastel

The tiger is India’s national animal. It’s strikenly beautiful with the contrasting markings of black, white and orange. This oil pastel project is just right for your studies on India. Children will be amazed with the work they can do when given small amounts of instruction.The peacock is the National bird of India. It’s certainly one of God’s most beautiful creatures, and even young children can make these wonderful pictures. We provide you with step by step drawing tutorials, as well as instruction on using oil pastels to bring your peacock to color.

This tutorial is split into two parts:

Materials:

Cardstock or Pastel Paper
Oil Pastels
Pencil and Eraser
Black Line Marker
(Sharpie is fine)

Suggested Resources for a Unit Study:

Art Project Tutorial:

Step 1

For this art project you'll need to cut your paper in half lengthwise. NOTE: I'm using a sharpie so you can see my drawing, but you should use a pencil and eraser. You will go over your pencil with your marker at the end.

Step 2

Starting about one inch down on the left side make this backwards J shape.

Step 3

Add a curved line, stopping before you meet the bottom of your J.

Step 4

Continue the J into the top part of a circle, (which will be the eye) then bring the curvy line down to the bottom of the page.

Step 5

Create the bottom half of the eye as shown. Repeat this process on the other side of your paper in a mirror image. Don't worry if they are not exactly the same, mine aren't, just try to get the eyes level....use a ruler across as a guide if needed.

Step 6

Add curvy triangles under each of the eyes. Remember you are doing a mirror image on the other side.

Step 7

A sideways flying bird.

Step 8

Two upside down mountain peaks. Note the curvy lines being used, not straight mountains. Turn your paper over if it helps.

Step 9

Vertical elongagted diamond shape

Step 10

Make the eye shape by drawing a flattened circle shape. See how it is slightly flattened at the top

Step 11

Repeat all your markings for the other side of your paper. Remember it's a mirror image, but doesn't have to be exact.

Step 12

Your tiger nose is framed by black markings. Draw three diamond shapes as seen above. Your diamonds are curving diagonally..see next photo:

Step 13

See how your diamonds have a curve to them. They aren't exactly the same either, but you do want to try to get a similar amount of curve to them...... this is good!

Step 14

We're going to draw mountains up the middle of the nose....start small, with each one getting just a tad larger.

Step 15

As you draw the larger mountains, leave aren't perfect mountains!

Step 16

The top mountain is quite a bit thicker and more squiggly. We will come fill it in later, but try to get some squiggles in there for now.

Step 17

Use your Black Sharpie to go back and color in all your markings. Leave some blank white space around the eye area as shown.

Step 18

When you get to your mountains, color them in with a shaky hand :) You don't want them looking like perfect mountains. Thicken them up a bit, add some blob to your top mountain, and draw random blobs on the sides.

Step 19

Add some details to your other markings. You can draw in some extra blobs, and connect your bird/mountain to the top of your paper.

Step 20

Here is how my tiger looks all filled in and with it's extra markings.

Part 2: Coloring with Oil Pastel

Now that you've drawn your tiger eyes, come see how to color them with oil pastels in the second part of our tutorial.

View Resource

Australia Crafts: Cave Drawings

This is a fantastic project to follow up learning about all the amazing and beautiful cave drawings found in Australia. I love crafts that showcase children’s original work and this is a great way to add a little flair to your classroom walls!

Materials:

Butcher Paper
Pastels or Chalk
Examples of Cave Drawings

Suggest Resources for a Unit Study:

Art Project Tutorial:

Step 1

First of course you'll want to show your children examples of Aboriginal art work.

Step 2

Unroll a large sheet of butcher paper and tape it to your table. (Or better yet, outside to the sidewalk!)

Step 3

Provide children with colored chalk or pastels. We used the charcoal and crayons above but it was SUPER powdery and messy so be warned :)

Step 4

Illustrate some figures and shapes for children to copy. Encourage them to try to find symbols and other ways to represent people, animals or objects.

Step 5

Let children experiment with the qualities of the chalk, and make drawings representing what they've seen.

Step 6

Show children ways to outline and add dimension to their drawings

Step 7

When your cave drawing is complete, hang it up in your classroom for the duration of your unit study. (Hair Spray keeps the chalk from dusting)

Science Activities: The Brain!!

October 9, 2011 By Valerie Mcclintick 6 Comments

We’re continuing on with our Human Anatomy science lessons.
If you haven’t already seen our activities for SKIN you can check out this post here.

These past couple of weeks we’ve been learning about THE BRAIN!

We made these amazing brain hats from EllenjMcHenry.com

We made our own brain puzzle to learn about the different lobes of the brain.

We made our own Electric Neurons

And I made the kids an Egg Carton Spinal Cord to use as a visual,
As well as a variety of printable games and activities and charts:

I even ordered a Brain Mold so we can make our own Jello brain!!

How fun will that be!

As usual I’ve posted all the files and photo tutorials for these activities on our main site,
You can find all our Brain/Nervous System crafts here.

And if you want to follow along with our Human Anatomy studies,
I’ll be posting links to each unit from this main page here.

UP Next: The EYE!!!

Pssst: Did you see that Maureen from Spell Outloud is also teaching on Human Anatomy…..Lots of amazing science resources over there too, be sure to follow along!