7 Amazing Benefits To Homeschooling In The Summer

Reading Time: 4 min 49 sec

The end of May rolled around and we closed our school books with a bang. I don’t know who was more excited for NO SCHOOLWORK: me or the children. I was more than ready for this school year to be done.

The first couple of days were magical; sleeping in, sticky popsicles, trips to the pool, and hours spent reading books. And then suddenly, like a storm cloud, the restlessness, whining, arguing, and repetitive phrases of, “I’m bored!” started appearing out of nowhere.

When I first heard about homeschooling in the summer, I thought, “Why in the world would anyone want to give up the beauty of summer for year-round school ? Let’s be honest, MAMA NEEDS A BREAK! Kids need to play in mud puddles, build forts, and just be kids.

I did just that for a year or two and learned that for our family we thrive with a little structure in place. We stumbled our way into homeschooling during the summer by necessity and found that what appeared to be soul-sucking was actually very life-giving.

We already view homeschooling as life learning so it wasn’t a big jump to incorporate some intentional learning time throughout the summer. We have a flexible rhythm that builds in time for intentional learning and still leaves plenty of time for soaking up the summer sun.

1. Rhythm to the Day

2. Focus on 1 or 2 Subjects

3. School Year Flexibility

4. Explore New Interests

5. Learn Outside

6. The Answer To “I’m Bored”

7. Intentional Time Together

1. Rhythm To The Day

There is such peace when you follow a daily rhythm. (You can learn more about why we use a rhythm instead of a schedule here) We have a rhythm for the school year and a different rhythm for summer. Our summer rhythm takes advantage of those unique summer opportunities, such as beautiful weather, different sports, etc. by incorporating a lot of outside time.

We always put our priorities first and all of the optional activities or to do’s second. Priorities might be time with Jesus, chores, homeschooling, play and time spent outside. Optional activities: Pool, field trips, time with friends and family, etc.

2. Focus On 1 or 2 Subjects

I love how the slow pace of the summer allows you to focus on one or two challenging subjects. It makes it easier to engage with harder subjects in smaller increments and when it is the only thing you have to do that day. We treat this learning time like icing on the cake, bonus learning, and it becomes way more enjoyable.

To clarify, we are only spending twenty to thirty minutes on a chosen subject each day. But WOW, the end of the summer those small chunks of time produce such growth in our children.

3. School Year Flexibility

When you homeschool during the summer you get greater flexibility during the school year. You can take your time when learning challenging subjects, explore a four-day school week, or take multiple week-long breaks during the school year. It’s amazing how much easier it is to homeschool when you aren’t participating in a race to “get it done” by the end of the school term.

I fell in love with summer learning because one hour a day spent learning makes the world of difference, come fall. You don’t have to fight to get back in a routine. You feel like you have a leg up on the school year because you never stopped.

You also have the joy of knowing that whenever you or your children need a mental break, you can stop and not have to spend the rest of the year scrambling to catch up. Plus, you still have time to lounge by the pool and soak up the summer sun. What could be better than that?!

4. Explore New Interests

If your children are anything like mine, they have endless interests and hobbies. The summer gives them the opportunity to really explore those interests that they might not have time for during the school year. You have the time to dive down rabbit holes without feeling the pressure to move on to cover all of your main subjects for the day.

At the end of each school year, I ask my children what they would like to learn this summer. Their answers have been very eclectic and we have had fun learning new skills and exploring new areas of study. Honestly, I would have never chosen to explore these areas of learning. However, this exercise teaches my children ownership and that they can learn anything they set their mind too.

5. Learn Outside

Your summer learning doesn’t have to happen inside. We wake up early before the summer heat and explore gardens, ponds, woods, and streams. We grab books, art supplies, hiking paraphernalia, a blanket and always tons of snacks and enjoy the beautiful weather. We might study math from a picnic blanket outside, read about the ecosystem, and then wade into a stream, stay up late and study the stars with a telescope.

If you are looking for unusual ideas for outside activities, here are some suggestions.

1. Ask your children what they would like to learn about or discover this summer.

2. Revisit any unit studies you did during the fall. Are there any activities that could reinforce that learning?

3. Check out local nature conservatories, arboretums, and parks for more ideas.

4. Explore your cities parenting website or magazine (check your local grocery store) for fun field trip ideas.

6. The Answer To “I’m Bored”

Have you ever reached that point when the novelty of summer has worn off and your kids just wander around repeating, “I’m bored?” a hundred times a day?

I believe that its healthy for kids to be bored because that is where creativity thrives. When kids are encouraged to use their imaginations, suddenly forts are created, water balloon wars have commenced, and secret worlds are discovered.

However, I have noticed that a lot of questions arise when there are huge chunks of free time without a plan. Kids like to know what’s coming next, even if it’s just lunch. I have found that when you follow a rhythm, kids feel free to create and play knowing what’s (dinner, snacks, pool, etc.) coming up.

7. Time Together

When you get going too fast during the summer, your kids can miss out on some intentional one on one time with you. Spending an hour or two a day engaged in intentional learning is a perfect opportunity to spend focused time with your children.

It could look like snuggling on the couch and reading that stack of library books aloud, or grabbing a bunch of coloring books and listening to your favorite audio stories (these are our favorite). Board games are also a great way to spend time together while participating in some sneaky learning.

Here are my favorite low-prep summer resources:

Are you wondering HOW do you actually get started homeschooling? Join our community of moms who want to invest in the lives of their children through homeschooling. I also created a 10 Tips to Finding Excellent Curriculum form to help you on your journey.

What about you? What are your thoughts on homeschooling during the summer? Leave a comment, and don’t forget to follow Most Important Work on Pinterest!

Amazing And Affordable Curriculum Ideas for First Grade

Reading Time: 10 min 32 sec

I don’t know about you, but I love planning for a new school year. It can feel like a treasure hunt as I comb through various places to find just that right tool to help learning come alive for my child. I have compiled a list of my favorite resources for a Pre-K and 1^stGrade student below.

As interest-led, eclectic homeschoolers, we seem to thrive on borrowing from all the different homeschooling approaches and blending it up into something that fits our family just right. (Yes, it does sound like we are the smoothie of the homeschooling community).

I have found that boxed curriculum doesn’t work for my family. I would find a curriculum that I thought would be a good fit, shell out a couple hundred dollars, only to find to out that I loved the math, was “ehh” about the social studies, and absolutely hated the language arts program.

I came to understand that I know my child, I know their strengths and weaknesses, I know the vision and values of my homeschool, and I have found that I am the best person to hand select curriculum. By choosing your own curriculum, you also get a lot more control over the price tag.

Our goal is to foster a love of learning in our children. We do that by surrounding them with stacks of beautiful books, interest-led unit studies, interesting people, a plethora of games, real-world experiences, and tons of time spent outdoors.

We do use some textbooks, but we don’t feel compelled to finish each one for the sake of completion. We watch carefully for signs of burnout, and might switch to a different tool or resource midway through the semester.

We also try to “teach” most subjects together as a family (with the exception of reading lessons). My children are close enough in age that this really worked well for our family. I say “teach” because a lot of what we do is very interactive, so it also fits our Pre-K child’s attention level. I have never put together a formal teaching plan for Pre-K because I found that they pick up what they need to know just by living life.

Here is an overview of some of our top affordable curriculum resources for a 1^stgrade (and Pre-K) student. I have only listed the resources that we have LOVED!

I hope this serves as some inspiration for your homeschool adventures this fall! Happy Treasure Hunting!

1. Language Arts

2. Mathematics

3. Science

4. Social Studies

5. Bible

6. Art & Music

1. Language Arts

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons

This is such a stress-free, zero prep, way to teach a child to read. This book employs the steady, drip, drip, drip mentality. IT WORKS! I love how this book includes not only reading but writing lessons as well. Worth its weight in gold!

Poetry For Young People

This is an entire series, that we have used as a part of our weekly poetry tea times. Each book is a compilation of age-appropriate poems from famous poets throughout the years. The Emily Dickenson book was our favorite.

Read-Aloud Rhymes For the Very Young

This was a fun book that I would use in addition to the Poetry for Young People series as a part of our poetry tea time. This book really helped to spark an interest in poetry in my children. They found it very engaging and often hilarious.

Cahier d’ecriture-Handwriting

I have always loved the beautiful style of handwriting from France. This book is all in French (you don’t need to know French to use it) and it teaches the fundamentals of great handwriting. My children have used it a little bit each day and it has so improved their handwriting skills.

Story Cubes

This is a fun game that uses visual prompts to help foster the imagination and inner storyteller in your child. There are nine cubes with six images on each cube. Each person rolls the cubes and creates a story based on the images. My children have laughed their way through this game.

Reading

We read literally hundreds of books, so it would be impossible to list them all. Here are a couple of our top favorites from this past year.

A World Full of Animal Stories

This is a beautiful book full of folk stories from different countries around the world. This book not only sparked great discussions but also introduced the children to different cultures and ways of thought. One of my children literally couldn’t get enough of this book. Win!

Favorite Audio Books

Audiobooks are my favorite way of not only expanding my children’s vocabulary but introducing them to great literature. Children can comprehend far above their own current reading level when they don’t have to take the time to sound out the words. Start small with Curious George, Madeline, or Amelia Bedelia, and transition into longer books like A Bear Called Paddington. I have found that Audiobooks (when you have young children) work really well in the car when you have a captive audience.

Foreign Language

YouTube was our friend this year. We loved utilizing a Year of French with Tonton videos.

2. Math

Logic Lollipop Series

I knew I wanted a supplement to our many logic games. WOW, these books are image-based, fun and perfect for young children. We actually went through the entire series in one year (there are three books) because my children were obsessed with it. LOVE!

Math Workbooks

We used several math workbooks that I grabbed from our local Dollar store. The workbooks were not necessary (we teach math many different ways) but my kids asked for them, so why not! They were short, fun and covered the basics of simple math. You can’t beat $1.00 for a math workbook!

Life of Fred Series

Is an amazing alternative to a traditional math book. Written in story form, it follows the adventures of a 5-year-old prodigy named Fred who shows children how math applies to real life. At the end of every chapter, there are several math questions that pertain to the lesson for your child to answer. My children love this series and beg for more “Fred, Please”!

Games

Here is a list of our favorite math games from this year.

Math Picture Books

(Check out this article for a list of our favorite Math Picturebooks)

Science

The Periodic Table: Elements With Style

My children wanted to learn more about the Periodic Table thanks to a Magic School Bus Episode on Chemistry. This is a fun book that has one-page profiles for each of the elements. My children loved finding the elements on the Periodic Table each day. Great Resource!

Magic School Bus Chemistry

This kit sparks a love of chemistry. It includes 51 experiment cards and tools, and an observation notebook to record results. You do have to provide some of the supplies. My kids had so much fun conducting experiments. This is a great way to encourage a love of science.

Games

Wildcraft

Wildcraft is a group game where players learn how to identify wild herbs. This is a cooperative game where everyone works together to travel to the top of the mountain to collect Huckleberries for Grandma.

Throughout the game, players run into various first aid crisis, and they learn how to identify 27 different wild plants and how they can be used to treat various medical issues. This a great game that my children have played again and again.

Here are some more of our favorite STEM games.

DVDs

Here are our favorite shows that spark a love of Science. Animated Hero classics has dvds for a number of different scientists.

4. Social Studies

Around the World Stories

We LOVE AWS! This 30-minute audio story series focuses on a new country and culture every four weeks. It combines geography, social studies, history and language arts in an engaging format that sticks with your children.

This has been one of the best resources I have ever purchased for homeschooling. My children ask MULTIPLE times a day to listen to their favorite stories. You can choose from three different packages (Europe, Asia and Artist series). It also includes a parent guide for additional resources. LOVE!!

Give Your Child the World: Raising Globally Minded Kids One Book At A Time

This book is a must-have resource for every homeschooling family. It is an amazing time saving tool that helps you gather the best children’s literature from around the world. It is full of curated book lists that are based on age range (4-12) and organized by country.

Draw Europe

This is a wonderful (and FUN) step by step tool to not only memorizing but learning how to draw Europe. We used this book over a semester and would draw a couple of countries a day. It has been amazing to see how much my child has become familiar with European geography. This is only one book in an entire series on different countries and continents

Games

DVDS

Travel With Kids

We LOVE this series. In Travel with Kids, you follow a family with two little boys who travel all over the world. Children are exposed to different cultures all from the comfort of home. My children want to travel the world due to this series.

4. Bible

My First Hands-On Bible

I appreciated this children’s version of the Bible because instead of paraphrasing it actually uses Biblical text. This was a well-loved Bible for many years.

Praying In Color Kids Edition

Have you ever heard, “But I don’t want to pray? I don’t know what to say? I’m embarrassed to pray out loud?” This is a revolutionary resource for children who want another try another way to spend time with God.

The author Sybil Macbeth gently leads children in understanding what prayer is, common prayer problems, how to pray, and step by step of how to pray using art. Love it!

DVDS

What’s In the Bible Series

These videos are part of a 13-part series that helps kids big picture look at the Bible as a whole. Phil Vischer (the creator of Veggie Tales) pulls out all the stops as he invites kids to wonder, explore and discover the Bible in a whole new way. It is full of fun characters, interesting questions, great animation, and of course fun music.

Nest Bible Animated Classics

We have really enjoyed the Animated Bible Classics. These videos are a great complement to devotional time as they allow children to see Bible stories happen right before their eyes. There are thirty-six different stories and they are geared towards ages kindergarten-third grade.

Picture Books

The Boy And The Ocean

Oh, my word, hands down, probably my favorite Christian picture book. The illustrations are beautiful, the words are life-changing, and what an amazing book to pull out at bedtime. The story draws parallels between Gods creation and his vast love for his children.

God’s Great Love for You

This book is all about Gods overwhelming love for his kids told in such an imaginative way. Written by Rick Warren, the book shows a young girl on different adventures discovering God lavish love. The illustrations are adorable and though the book can be read to girls and boys, the book is specifically geared towards young girls.

Shh… God Is In the Silence

This book is a great introductory book to one of the ways that we hear God’s voice in the silence. In a time where we value filling up every available moment with something, this counter-cultural book reminds us that God was in “a gentle, quiet whisper”. (1 Kings 19:11-12).

Art-Music

The Amazing Musical Instruments

This book is very comprehensive and is a wonderful foundation for understanding the history and sounds of major instruments.

This resource really breaks down the parts of a classical orchestra into bite-size pieces and allows you to really appreciate the contribution of each instrument. This is an interactive book that comes with a CD-ROM so you can hear different sounds and songs from different instruments.

Impressionism By Linda Bolton

This is a great behind the scenes look at Impressionism. Each artist has one or two pages full of background info, and samples of their most famous works of art. We would focus on one or two artists a day and then supplement with more hands-on activities. Great resource!

Games

Van Gogh and Friends Art Game

This is a fun memory game that focuses on Post-Impressionists. We use this as a memory game, although it is designed to be played like Go Fish or Concentration. It really helps the kids learn the names and works of art of the different artists. It covers Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, Seurat, Rousseau, and Toulouse-Lautrec.

CDS

Classical Kids Series

This is a phenomenal series! You get to know different classical composers, through a captivating story set to that composers’ music. This series has helped spark curiosity, and a love of classical music in the hearts of my children. We listen to this series, again, and again!

Beethoven’s Wig

This is a great sing-along series set to classical music. The lyrics are filled with facts about the composers and are hilarious. My children can now identify classical music because of this amazing series.

Kids Meet Composers

This cd covers twenty different songwriters and their most famous pieces. Each song starts with a dialogue between the narrator and children, where you learn some history and fun facts about the composer. This is an amazing resource if you are studying various composers.

Picture Books

Anholt’s Artists-Laurence Anholt

This author through fun stories brings to life famous artists throughout history. We have learned so much about art and history from this series. I love this series because the author does an amazing job of sparking curiosity, and a love of art in children.

Katie and Ella Bella Series By James Mayhew

James Mayhew is another great author/illustrator that makes classical art, and ballet accessible for kids. They will never see art as boring after growing up reading his stories about the adventures of Katie and Ella Bella. The illustrations from the Ella Bella Ballerina series are stunning. An amazing resource for helping children engage in and love art history.

Drawing Books

DVD

What about you? What are your favorite ways to foster a love of learning at home? If you try any of these resources, let us know! Leave a comment, and don’t forget to follow Most Important Workon Pinterest!

$How to Stop the Tears with 50 Out of the Box Math Resources$

How to Stop the Tears with 50 Out of the Box Math Resources

Reading Time: 4 min 40 sec

I hated math after second grade. Math in K through 2nd-grade was full of fun pictures, simple problems, and little challenges that grabbed my interest. 3rd-grade hit and so did purely text-based learning, and my joy of problem-solving DIED!

If your child is anything like me, math can feel overwhelming, and it can be a struggle to draw connections between solving difficult math problems and how that info will be used in real life. It’s frustrating to teach a child who obviously would rather be doing anything else (even visiting the dentist) than spend time learning math.

My overriding goal is for my kids to fall in love with learning. No matter their strengths and weaknesses I want to encourage them to wrestle with all aspects of education. I do that by not sticking to one way (a math textbook) of communicating concepts but by taking a multi-tool approach. Imagine teaching your child math concepts through playing a game, reading a story, listening to music, beating levels on an app, mastering brain teasers, or by solving a problem in a real life application?

There is a self-motivation that arises when kids make direct connections between what I am learning today, and if it can be applied directly to my life. Who doesn’t want to practice logical thinking, if they know it can be used to win at a game or to make purchases with their money?

Creating an atmosphere of fun, family relationships and multi-tool approaches allow you, as the parent to foster a love of learning at home.

In this article, we will be talking about:

How to Make Math Fun
How to Make Math Practical
How to Make Math a Treat
How to Make Math Unforgettable
How to Make Math an Adventure

Make Math Fun

Forget math drills and grab a board game. As your child practices their math skills, your family builds lifelong memories, and connections are drawn between math and FUN! I have seen a significant improvement in my children’s math skills and abilities to think logically after playing these board games!Here are a couple of math board game suggestions to get you started:

Quoridor(pronounced like Corridor) blew me away, with its modern, well made, wooden set. You want to leave this game out as a decorative piece, it’s that impressive. This game is a little on the higher end of the price tag, but WELL WORTH IT (I have already bought it to give away as gifts)! It takes anywhere from ten-twenty minutes to play the game so it is easy to use when you only have a short window of available time. I have seen a significant improvement in my children’s ability to think logically after playing this game!

Quoridor Logic
Math Dice Jr. Math
Rush Hour Logic
Brain Builders Logic
Sum Swamp Addition
Money Bags Money
Sequence Logic
Clumsy Thief Addition-Money

Make Math Practical

What seems to be the biggest hang-up with Math curriculum is the question, “How does this apply in real life?” This issue seems to grow throughout upper elementary years and beyond. Here are some amazing alternatives to traditional textbooks. What I appreciate is that children get to see immediately a direct correlation between math concepts and real-life application.

9. Life of Fred Series

Is an amazing alternative to a traditional math book. Written in story form, it follows the adventures of a 5-year-old prodigy named Fred who shows children how math applies to real life. At the end of every chapter, there are several math questions that pertain to the lesson for your child to answer. My children love this series and beg for more “Fred, please”! There is an elementary, middle school, high school series, and college.

10. Bedtime Math Series

Bedtime math is a three-part book series aimed at Pre-K- 2nd-grade students. This book is full of funny questions designed to make math fun for kids. I love that each question only takes about 5 minutes to answer so it’s easy to add to any part of your day. The genius of this series is that it offers three difficulty levels for each problem so the whole family can participate together.

11. Logic Lollipop Series

I started Logic Lollipop in 1st grade and Pre-K for my kids, and they fell in love with the books. What makes Logic Lollipop unique is that it is picture based book instead of text-based. This makes this series perfect for pre/beginning readers. I appreciated the program because it helped my children develop their critical thinking skills at young ages. There are three books in the series and are targeted to K-2 grade students. Love it!

12. Logic Safari Series

Is the next series following Logic Lollipop. It is text-based and builds upon the skills in the Logic Lollipop series. I would read aloud the problem aloud and have my children give a verbal response. There are three books in the series and they are targeted to 2-6 grade students. It is definitely challenging but my children have enjoyed working their way through the problems. These books teach kids to look at life logically and have helped my children understand math in a whole new way.

13. Math Skills Workbooks

If you worry that your child isn’t getting enough “real” practice, grab a workbook. These workbooks are affordable and they offer a great overview of the math skills per grade without a lot of unnecessary busy work.

Make Math A Treat

Math Seeds is by far our favorite math app. It is so engaging and fun that my kids beg to play “just one more game”. Math Seeds has really transformed my children’s math aptitude. Using challenges, games, songs, and tests, it teaches core math skills to kids ages 3-9.

We bought the program for my oldest, but my youngest who was in Pre-K at the time, got a hold of it, and after playing for several months ended up skipping K and most of 1st-grade math due to using this program.

Love it! What’s also great is that you can use it for two weeks for free and find out if it’s a good fit for your family! Win!

14. Math Seeds

Make Math Unforgettable

You know when a song gets stuck in your head and you just CAN’T GET IT OUT?! We have found these CDs to be a great way to memorize the multiplication tables. They are so much so that our kindergartener couldn’t help memorize them without even realizing it (she will thank me later). Each cd has a fun beat and perfect for taking advantage of time spent running errands in the car (we all have had those last-minute milk runs).

15. Multiplication “rock”

16. Multiplication Songs

Make Math an Adventure

Who knew math could be so fun? What I love about the power of picture books is that kids connect the warm feelings of snuggling on the couch, experiencing the magic of adventure with math! These are some of our favorite math picture books. Bon Voyage!

Math Books by Cindy Neuschwander

17. Sir Cumference series

18. Amanda Bean Amazing Dream

General & Logic Math Books

19. A Math Book You Can Count On – Dan Green 20. The Rabbit Problem – Emily Gravett 21. Math-terpieces the Art of Problem Solving – Greg Tang 22. The King’ Chessboard – David Birch

Famous People in Math

23. Counting on Katherine Helaine Becker

24. The Boy Who Loved Math Deborah Erdos

Addition

25. The Grapes of Math Greg Tang

26. If you Were a Plus Sign Trisha Speed Shaskan

27. The Doorbell Rang Pat Hutchins

28. Each Orange Has Eight Slices Paul Giganti Jr.

29. Mission Addition Loreen Leedy

30. How Much is a Million? David M. Schwartz

31. Beyond a Million-An Amazing Math Journey David M. Schwartz

32. Infinity and Me Kate Hosford

33. Place Value David A. Alder

34. Two of Everything Lily Toy Hong

35.Six Dinner Sid Igna Moore

Subtraction

36. Subtraction Action Loreen Leady

37. If You Were a Minus Sign Trisha Speed Shaskan

Telling Time

38. The Clock Struck One- A Time Telling Tale Trudy Harris

39.Bats Around the Clock Kathi Appeit

40. A Second is a Hiccup-A Childs book of Time Hazel Hutchins

41. Telling Time Jules Older

Measuring and Shapes

42. Measuring Penny Loreen Leedy

43. The Greedy Triangle Marilyn Burns

44. If You Were a Quadrilateral Molly Blaisdell

Multiplying and Dividing

45. Minnie’s Diner- A Multiplying Menu Dayle Ann Dodds

46. Divide and Ride Stuart J. Murphy

47. One Hundred Hungry Ants Elinor J. Pinczes

Fractions

48. Lions Share Matthew McElligott

49.Full House: An Invitation to Fractions Dayle Ann Dodds

50. Apple Fractions Donna Townsend

What about you? What are your favorite ways to foster a love of math at home? Please feel free to leave me a Comment and don’t forget to follow Most Important Work on Pinterest!

Want to Dive in Deeper? Check out these 2 Bonus Resources:

Give Your Child the World Jamie C. Martin
Read A-Loud Family Sarah Mackenzie

Short on Time? 40 Ways to Homeschool on the Run

Reading Time: 3 min 14 sec

Have you ever felt like you spend way too much time in the car running the kids from activity to activity? There are seasons throughout the year where no matter how you slice it, time in the car seems to grow exponentially. Doctors’ visits, milk runs, trips to the library, vacations, soccer practice, church, field trips, swim practice, Starbucks runs (just being real), you get the point. There is A LOT of driving.

I am a big proponent of allowing space for great conversations and even silence on road trips. However, there are times when you need to pull a Mary Poppins and grab an activity out of the bag. What I love about car schooling, is that pretty much any subject can be learned in the car. Chemistry? Memorize the Periodic Table. Math? Memorize the Multiplication Tables.

What I love about car schooling is that you have limited distractions, and you get to spend concentrated time fostering your child’s imagination. You get the opportunity of exposing them to a wide variety of literature, music, history, science; all from the comfort of your own car. In this article, we are going to talk about our top 40 resources for homeschooling on the run.

The top resources are broken into four categories:

Individual Games
Music
Art
Audio Books

So let’s dive in…

Car Games & Activities

Here are six individual and group games that are great for family road trips! Ages 4 & Up

Geoboard Math
Rory’s Story Cubes Language Arts
Math Dice Jr. Math
Rush Hour Logic
Brain Builders Logic
Magna-Tiles STEM

* Story Cubes is an amazing game that encourages children to tell a story using the story prompts on the dice. This is a game, that even the driver can play. Just have one designated person to roll the dice and call out the results.

Music

Music is great for those times when you are running errands and the constant stops prevent you from really engaging in an audiobook.

My children have learned SO MUCH from listening to great music into their time in the car. We have not only listened to a variety of styles (classical, jazz, big band, country etc.) but we have also memorized multiplication facts, state capitols, and the periodic table.

The Classical Kids collection is AMAZING! Each cd tells the story of a famous composer set to music. We have listened to these CDs hundreds of times for years. They have really fostered a love of classical music in my children. LOVE!

I would encourage you to browse your local library’s audio collection (or Spotify) but in the meantime, here are some of our favorite audio CDs. Ages Three & Up

7. Kids Meet Composers

8. Classical Kids-Mozart’s Magnificent Voyage

9. Classical Kids-Mozart’s Magic Fantasy

10. Classical Kids-Tchaikovsky Discovers America

11. Classical Kids-Beethoven Lives Upstairs

12. Classical Kids-Mr. Bach Comes to Call

13. Classical Kid’s Christmas Beethoven’s Wig Series 1

14. Beethoven’s Wig 2, More Sing Along Symphonies

15. Brain Beats 16. Brain Beats #2

17. Multiplication Rock

18. Beth Manner’s Fun French for Kids

19. Beth Manner’s Magic French for Kids

Art

We love these activity/art books! It is amazing to watch your children learn about STEM, Geography, Art, Math, History, and Language Arts on the way to grandmas just from an activity book! Ages 4 & Up

Optional: You might want to think of finding a lap desk for your child, depending on how much they enjoy doing art in the car.

Here are some of my FAVORITE resources:

20. Extreme Dot to Dot Around the World 8+

21. Rosie Revere’s Big Project Book for Engineers Andrea Beaty

Impressionist Coloring Book Patience Coster
Draw Europe Kristin Draeger
Draw the USA Kristin Draeger
Draw. Write. Now. Series Marie Hablitzel and Kim Stitzer
Paint By Sticker Kids: Zoo Animals
Etch A Sketch
Silly Putty

Audio Books

Audiobooks are an amazing way to expose your children to great literary content while saving your voice. Woohoo!

Helpful tip: When choosing titles, take your child’s personality and the books recommended ages into consideration. When you remove the task of deciphering the words, children can comprehend more advanced forms of writing.

Ages 4 & Up

29. Amelia Bedelia Series Peggy Parish 30. Madeline Series Ludwig Bemelmans 31. The Paddington Bear Series Michael Bond

32. Mercy Watson Series Kate DiCamillo 33. The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame

34. Betsy and Tacy Maud Hart Lovelace

35. Henry Huggins Series Beverly Cleary

36. The Melendy Series Elizabeth Enright

37. The Boxcar Children series Gertrude Chandler Warner

38. Pollyanna Eleanor H. Porter

39. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM Robert C. O’Brien

40. Little Men Louisa May Alcott

What about you? What are your favorite ways to take advantage of travel time? Please feel free to leave me a Comment and don’t forget to follow Most Important Work on Pinterest!

Want to dive in deeper? Check out these 2 Bonus Resources:

Give Your Child the World Jamie C. Martin
Read A-Loud Family Sarah Mackenzie

How to Add Delight into Your Homeschool Day

Reading Time: 4 min 42 sec

I am always looking for creative ways to encourage a love of learning in my children. When I stumbled on the idea of using board games as a supplement to our curriculum, I seriously did a dance of victory!

I felt like I had uncovered the homeschool hack of the year as I read about how different moms raved about the benefits of adding board games to their homeschool curriculum. It was like a light bulb went off for me. I was so excited at the thought of having yet another resource that encouraged a love of learning, but that was also FUN. Who doesn’t want to have a blast learning each day?

I decided to immediately test this new theory, I had noticed that we could stand to improve our math skills, and so instead of reaching for another book, I decided to dust off the old board games and gave it a whirl. I was shocked that over a few short months my children’s math comprehension improved immeasurably.

They went from not understanding basic math

concepts to doing mental math in their head.

That was all I needed to be convinced that this game idea worked! I jumped on the game schooling bandwagon and have never looked back!

And the rest is history!

Here is a quick overview of three benefits and my favorite recommendations for adding games to your homeschool day.

Sneaky Learning

Adds Fun to Your Day

Builds Family Memories

Top 21 Favorite Games

1. Sneaky Learning

Let’s be honest, a lot of what we do as homeschoolers qualify in the “sneaky learning” category and playing games is no different. You can literally teach almost any subject using a board or active game.

My children seem to go through seasons where they dread opening their workbooks and so when that happens, instead of going through the whole cajoling and tears, I just pull out a game of the same subject and learning still happens. A Win for mom!

I was amazed, my experience mainly consisted of playing chess and a handful of card games throughout the years, that there are games for almost every subject!

For instance, we have really enjoyed playing Story Cubes, a language arts game, where the player is challenged to create a story, using the picture prompts that are on the dice. I appreciate that you can play this game multiple ways adapting it to fit younger audiences.

This game encourages creativity, imagination, the ability to think on your feet, and how to create a story with a beginning, middle and end. It comes in a tiny box, that is easy to take with us wherever we go.

As a side note, I follow the age requirements listed on the games very loosely for I have found they always swing older. For instance, my youngest was four years old when she started playing the game Quoridor. This is an unbelievable logic game, that reminds you of chess, but states that it is for ages eight and older. Needless to say, my four-year-old didn’t care about the age requirements as she was crushing every adult in the vicinity with her skills (we are still recovering from that humbling experience).

Adds Fun into Your Day

Board games are the antidote to cranky, sleepy, rainy, days where typically I would be fighting a losing battle when it came to learning. There is something about coming together around a game that fosters laughter, encouragement, and fun.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, I will say that when we started my kids were little and we had not yet learned how to win or lose (or anything in between) well. I was very on purpose about teaching them the rules of good sportsmanship.

I have also added over the years several cooperative group games, where the players are all working towards a common goal (check out Wildcraft on the list below) which has really helped foster a good attitude when it comes to winning and losing. It’s all about having long-term goals when it comes to heading off potential outbursts!

We do not just leave playing games to chance but have added them as a part of our weekly schedule. Not only does it give me a break from teaching (woohoo!) but it gives the children something to look forward to when they know it has a dedicated part of our schedule.

3. Builds Life Long Family Memories

Some of our most favorite memories as a family has been centered around a game. We typically grab snacks, cozy blankets and turn on some good background music, as we gather around the table. There is something about playing together, that relaxes the whole family, fills us with laughter and jokes, and teaches us to think strategically and work together.

The nice thing about board games is that you can take them with you anywhere. You can develop your logic skills while on vacation, your French in the waiting room at the doctors, and your math skills at the park. It is fun to see your kids laughing, learning and building memories, instead of hearing the dreaded words, “Are we there yet?”

4. Top 21 Board Games

If you are trying to find a game for a specific subject that is not on this list look up the company Think Fun.com. They offer a variety of easy to use games that have been fun to play and are consistently well made.

Though we love every game on this list, Quoridor (pronounced like Corridor) blew me away, with its modern, well made, wooden set. You want to leave this game out as a decorative piece, it’s that impressive.

This game is a little on the higher end of the price tag, but WELL WORTH IT (I have already bought it to give away as gifts)! It takes anywhere from ten-twenty minutes to play the game so it is easy to use when you only have a short window of available time.

I have seen a significant improvement in my children’s ability to think logically after playing this game. Okay, even though I could go on and on, you get the point, they knocked it out of the park, in the creation of this game!

Here are my top 21 favorite games split by subject for ages three to adult. Enjoy!

Math

Geography-

Language Arts-

Art-

Van Gogh & Friends Art Game 3+

Science-

WildCraft! 4+

STEM-

Kinetic Sand 3+
Magna-Tiles 3+
Knex 5+

What about you? What are your favorite games to foster a love of learning at home?

If you try any of these activities, let us know! Leave a comment, and don’t forget to follow us on Pinterest. about you? What are your favorite ways to increase your child’s awareness of God?

Reading Time: 4 min 49 sec

1. Rhythm to the Day

2. Focus on 1 or 2 Subjects

3. School Year Flexibility

4. Explore New Interests

5. Learn Outside

6. The Answer To “I’m Bored”

7. Intentional Time Together

1. Rhythm To The Day

2. Focus On 1 or 2 Subjects

3. School Year Flexibility

5. Learn Outside

6. The Answer To “I’m Bored”

7. Time Together

Here are my favorite low-prep summer resources:

Reading Time: 10 min 32 sec

1. Language Arts

2. Mathematics

3. Science

4. Social Studies

5. Bible

6. Art & Music

1. Language Arts

Reading

Favorite Audio Books

Foreign Language

2. Math

Logic Lollipop Series

Math Workbooks

Games

Math Picture Books

Science

Games

DVDs

4. Social Studies

Games

DVDS

4. Bible

DVDS

Picture Books

Art-Music

Games

CDS

Picture Books

Drawing Books

DVD

How to Make Math Fun

How to Make Math Practical

How to Make Math a Treat

How to Make Math Unforgettable

How to Make Math an Adventure

Make Math Fun

Make Math Practical

Make Math A Treat

We bought the program for my oldest, but my youngest who was in Pre-K at the time, got a hold of it, and after playing for several months ended up skipping K and most of 1st-grade math due to using this program.

Make Math Unforgettable

Math Books by Cindy Neuschwander

General & Logic Math Books

Famous People in Math

Addition

What about you? What are your favorite ways to foster a love of math at home? Please feel free to leave me a Comment and don’t forget to follow Most Important Work on Pinterest!

Individual Games

Music

Art

Audio Books

So let’s dive in…

Car Games & Activities

Music

Art

Reading Time: 4 min 42 sec

I am always looking for creative ways to encourage a love of learning in my children. When I stumbled on the idea of using board games as a supplement to our curriculum, I seriously did a dance of victory!

That was all I needed to be convinced that this game idea worked! I jumped on the game schooling bandwagon and have never looked back!

Here is a quick overview of three benefits and my favorite recommendations for adding games to your homeschool day.

We do not just leave playing games to chance but have added them as a part of our weekly schedule. Not only does it give me a break from teaching (woohoo!) but it gives the children something to look forward to when they know it has a dedicated part of our schedule.

4. Top 21 Board Games

If you are trying to find a game for a specific subject that is not on this list look up the company Think Fun.com. They offer a variety of easy to use games that have been fun to play and are consistently well made.

Though we love every game on this list, Quoridor (pronounced like Corridor) blew me away, with its modern, well made, wooden set. You want to leave this game out as a decorative piece, it’s that impressive.

This game is a little on the higher end of the price tag, but WELL WORTH IT (I have already bought it to give away as gifts)! It takes anywhere from ten-twenty minutes to play the game so it is easy to use when you only have a short window of available time.

I have seen a significant improvement in my children’s ability to think logically after playing this game. Okay, even though I could go on and on, you get the point, they knocked it out of the park, in the creation of this game!

Here are my top 21 favorite games split by subject for ages three to adult. Enjoy!