BFS Wacky Week!

Have you done something crazy in your homeschool?  Do you fingerpaint with your toes?  Do you let your children do your hair?  Do you wear your pajamas during homeschool?   Oh, the list is endless, but it’s up to you and how much fun you want to have.

Oh boy!  Where do I start!  I have done SO Many wacky things with my kids.  

One of the first wacky things that I did when I was first learning about Charlotte Mason, and the whole idea of narrating, was make my kids microphones out of toilet paper rolls and old nylons.  After I finished reading the story, the kids all took turns standing up and telling back the story in their microphones.  That was so much fun!  I was actually thinking about the time we did that the other day, and made up a new microphone for them to narrate into.  It works really good!  Now I just need to keep it consistent so the narrations will get better.

 

Another wacky thing that I have done, is use a squirt gun to keep my kids' attention focused on their school books. I have some highly distracted kids.  So I filled a small squirt gun, and when ever they started playing or day dreaming, they got a little squirt.  They would laugh and giggle, and say " No mom!" and then pick their pencils back up.  It's great!  Especially on hot days. 

My oldest son, has had hard time keeping his wrists straight when he is writing.  I came up with yet another wacky idea to make his writing fun while training his hands to write correctly.   I drew a big black eye on his wrist with a sharpie.  Then I told him to make sure that eye looks down!  Don't let it look around!  He thought it was pretty funny.

Have you ever had a hard time getting your children to finish a page of simple math facts?  For my 7 year old, it can be torture.  We have had many days filled with tears because he just didn't want to do it.  But we came up with an idea that has worked everytime!  For every answer, he gets that many kisses.  I get a bit tired of giving kisses, but my kisses have faithfully produced completed math assignments.  So I will gladly keep giving them out.

Just this last week, my wackyness set in again.  I homeschool 4 kids, ages 9, 8, 7, and 5.  It is quite a challenge trying to help them all at the same time.  I get a lot of  "Mooommmeee!!!  Heeelllpp!".  And when I have 4 voices saying that at once, it can get confusing and overwhelming.  I had to come up with something to fix the situation.  The next day, I pulled out my stack of post it notes.  I told my kids that in public schools, kids raise their hands when they need help.  But we aren't doing public school!  I wrote help on some 5 post it notes, and told them that when they needed help, or had a question, to stick their help note on their foreheads.  Then I could see who needed me without hearing SO many "MOM HELP!" 's  I have 4 kids..so where does the 5th fall into place?  The 5th one was MY help note.  After we were done with our school work for the day, I stuck my note on my head.  They all looked at me and said.. "What do you need help with?"  I gladly said..  the dishwasher needs unloaded, the floor needs to be swept, and the bathroom needs cleaned.  To my surprise they jumped right in and helped me out.  

I get a lot of wacky, zany ideas while I am homeschooling. I am so wacky that I purposely made a Wacky Ideas category for my new blog, before I even read what the next BFS assignment was!  My kids can keep listing all of the things that I have done.  One day when they are teenagers they will probably come to realize their mom is nuts.  But for now, they love my wacky ideas.