Homeschool Activities for June: Slow and Relaxed

SLOW and RELAXED are two words that I would use to mainly describe our homeschool for the month of June. Since I was just feeling better after being on bed rest, I slowly introduced activities to the kids again aside from READING ALOUD to them a number of times throughout the day. My husband and I also tell them stories before bed and we test their comprehension by asking them questions. Sometimes, we ask them to retell the story in their own words.

 



The boys' cash register and some of their
plastic food toys with price tags.

As usual, PLAY is a vital part of our homeschool. They had lot of unstructured play (running, basketball, biking, hide and seek, building forts, building blocks, etc.) and pretend play. The boys like pretending that they have a grocery store (they take turns being cashier/owner and customer), a restaurant (where they are chefs), and that they own a parking lot and a building. I bought them a toy cash register last Christmas as an addition to the toys they can use in their pretend play. They also like pretending that they are travelling and selling their goods to different places/countries. Sometimes, they play doctor -- alternating on who is doctor and who is the patient. Sometimes, I or our maid ends up being the patient. We also played new board games this month. Among these are snakes and ladders, tic-tac-toe, monopoly junior. We also played Letter Dice which helps improve my eldest son's spelling skills and quick thinking. He also played with his Fun Thinkers again for a number of days. (You may read my review of this educational toy here.)

 

MUSIC was also a big part of it. My younger son spent almost each morning after his breakfast and morning prayers, listening, singing and dancing to the tune of nursery rhymes. My eldest son, sings and dances with his younger brother when he wakes up early, also leads in teaching his younger brother worship songs and songs in the Mass. He practices piano/keyboards every now and then (when he's in the mood). So far, he has mastered the Amen and Alleluia versions sang at our parish during daily Masses. Tito Ed (our friend who serves in the church daily) was the one who taught him a few minutes after Masses. Then, he would practice at home. Currently, he is learning Mary had a Little Lamb, Happy Birthday and Doe, a Deer (from the Sound of Music). I postponed his formal voice coaching lessons for a few months since I noticed he has not been singing in the Mass lately. Maybe because we have not attended daily Mass while I was on bed rest. I hope to go to daily Mass again and bring the boys like before and hopefully this would encourage my eldest son to participate by singing again.

 

We resumed practicing my eldest son's handwriting and spelling skills again. He writes his full name and writes a few words in lower case. So far, we have finished letters A-D. We also reviewed addition of single digits this month through the use of his fingers and other toys he can manipulate and help him add. I have also introduced fractions to him.

 

One time, my eldest was in the mood to cut paper.
I saw him come up with these shapes after.
He said that he cut a sail boat and the letter M
aside from the triangle, oval and rectangle.

Yanthy said that this is a mountain and a crescent moon.

 

Since we celebrated our country's independence, we bought our son a map of the Philippines and a map of Asia. He has shown interest in these maps. He has been looking at the maps often, looking at different seas and flags. He also found a way to play with them, which he taught to his younger brother. He would make paper airplanes and place one map on one side o the room and the other on another side. Then, he would fly his airplane from one map to another imagining he is travelling to another country. Sometimes, he would ask help to make a paper boat then use it to travel through the places in the map.
 

One of Yanthy's drawings this month.

We also had a few art activities. Most of them were drawing and coloring. The younger boy doodled while his older brother drew. So far, Mateo has learned how to write the letter A through this relaxed activity in developing fine motor skills. When he is awake while his older brother is practicing his handwriting skills, he also doodles. Since, June is the month of the Sacred Heart also, we had an art activity for it which was inspired by this blog.



The boys painted and glued these hearts.

We also watched videos like that of St. John the Baptist (whose Feast Day we celebrated this month), St. Matthew and Noah's Ark. We watched St. John the Baptist's video on his Feast Day and went to Mass. My boys like watching the videos of St. John the Baptist and St. Matthew because they know that they were named after these Saints. They like Noah's Ark because it involves animals.

 

Although, we didn't have a lot of organized or planned homeschool activities this month, I'm confident that the kids learned a lot as we spent time together. A lot of learning is also passed on to them through our daily conversations and routines. My kids are also naturally curious and inquisitive so they come up to me with questions daily which are usually related to their daily experiences. They learn through observation and exploration as well. Aside from these, they like to be involved in the things that we do in the house whether these are chores (like sorting the clean clothes and putting them in the closets, putting away the grocery, preparing the books that we pack and ship to my customers/readers or leafleting in the neighborhood).

Yanthy answered the word find activity after reading this earlier.

 

Yanthy read this earlier and
answered questions afterwards.

I have yet to plan our homeschool schedule and activities for the year. I plan to do this after I receive the comprehensive report from an assessment that was done by an expert from Headway School for Giftedness last weekend. (If you have a potentially gifted child, I suggest that you bring him/her to a developmental pediatrician or to Headway School for Giftedness for assessment.) I don't plan to put too much structure though because I like the interest-led approach in homeschooling. We also tend to unschool a lot of days. I also don't want to rush my kids in mastering academic subjects since our main priority in our homeschool is character and values formation. I will just organize our schedule and activities more so that we could meet our main goals for the year while at the same time making sure our activities are aligned with our family mission statement.

 

That's all for now. I wish you and your family a fun and fruitful school year whether you homeschool or not.