"Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" Playgroup

In our homeschool, story-based lessons are some of our favorites.  We love reading books and doing activities related to the story!

Recently, my girls and I have started hosting a weekly storytime playgroup to share our love of reading.  Each week, a group of toddlers and preschoolers comes to our house for a story, art project, and snack.  This week, our playgroup focused on Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.

We started our playgroup by singing the alphabet.

Then, we read the story and sang that alphabet again.

Next, we made our own alphabet trees using toilet tissue rolls and alphabet stickers.  All of the children in the playgroup love stickers, so this activity was a real hit!

We concluded our playgroup with a little snack.  I made bread in the shape of each child's first initial.  

The girls and I enjoyed sharing a lesson with their friends.  As much as we love our daily lessons, just the three of us, sharing a weekly storytime with friends is wonderful!

Marla is a former special education teacher, PhD student, and stay-at-home, homeschooling mom of two little girls (ages 1 and 3).  She blogs about homeschooling at Marla's Motherhood Musings and her family's experiences living in Zambia at Our Life in Lusaka.

Why We Love Handwriting Without Tears

We began homeschooling when my oldest son was going into third grade.  He couldn't wait to learn cursive handwriting.  I did a little bit of research into handwriting, but it was low on my list of things to worry about when we began  homeschooling.  I had heard Handwriting Without Tears (HWT) mentioned many times, so when I stumbled cross a workbook for third grade cursive at a used curriculum sale, I snapped it up.

HWT is simple, fun, and compatible with all learning styles.  It can be taught with as little or  as much parental involvement as a child desires (in my house that means one child who wants ZERO help and another who wants 100% of Mom's help).  HWT is especially good for children with motor delays or learning differences because it is simple, fun, and incorporates a broad, multi-sensory approach.  It does not have include an overwhelming amount of drilling.

I especially love the simple, fun and easy lessons.  They required little (if any) preparation on my part.  Handwriting is completed in 15 minutes or less and the children enjoy the lessons.  Frequently they ask for and complete more than a single lesson in a day.

My oldest son completed fifth grade this year, and finished the HWT program.  I was very pleased with his fifth grade HWT book - it was humorous, helpful and interesting for him.  He has very nice handwriting and has never complained about his time mastering it.  I am also very pleased with his neat, legible handwriting.

I also like HWT because it can be very inexpensive.  Many of their additional items can be replaced with items you may have at home, and I've had a great deal of luck finding many of them at used curriculum sales.  For three years, I purchased only the student workbook for my oldest child.  If I used them at all, I found teacher's books at different sales or bought them used online.  I enjoyed having the teachers manual especially for my youngest child in her first level of print and again in the first level of cursive.

The program is very well-rounded and is a fun, creative way to teach your child handwriting.  My daughter enjoys it so much, she has asked to continue handwriting lessons during summer break.  Of course, I said "yes."

Continuous Learning

We do not homeschool year-round.  My children came from an institutional school environment and we still follow a schedule that allows for a flexible summer break.

We don't follow a curriculum during our summer break, but I do make sure our children are still learning. Here are some things we are doing this summer:

1) Puzzles

We especially like geography-oriented puzzles, which are a great learning tool and helps to cement some of the map skills we have worked on.

2)  Library Programs

Most public libraries have fun summer reading programs where kids can earn prizes and participate in activities.  My oldest is looking forward to being one of the volunteer summer helpers in a couple of years.

3)  Accidental Learning

I am a big fan of leaving things lying around for children to stumble upon.  We have summer magazines and interesting reading material scattered about the house where I frequently find a small face behind the pages when it gets hot outside.

4)  Unassigned Reading

I let my children choose books at a used curriculum sale (they chose the Narnia series and several of the first Magic Treehouse books).  They are having so much fun reading through them on their own.

5)  Reading Together

One of the cornerstones of our family's educational style is reading out loud together.  We do this continuously during the school year from our curriculum, and we enjoy it so much we keep going during the summer.  Often we revisit favorite books from previous school years.


6)  Summer Classes

Summer Recreation Programs offer lots of fun, short-term classes for kids.  My children chose not to take classes this year - my older two instead asked to learn touch-typing and my youngest wants to begin cursive handwriting.  I'm going to "let" them do these things. (wink, wink)


7)  Healthy Television

I think TV can have a great place in family routine.  Like anything else, it can also be used to excess.  During the summer my children are most susceptible to wasting their time watching junk-food-for-the-brain.  I work hard to stick to PBS, nature shows, documentaries or age-appropriate (and family-friendly) movies.  I like allowing them extra screen time in the summer, but I want to feel good about what they are watching.





If you take a summer break, what are the things your family incorporates for continuous learning?