Showin' Off

In my last article, I offered up some ideas on how I've engaged my attention-challenged littles around here with mini-units and lapbooking. I promised a "show off" of the extended units we've tried and a "how-to" on planning. And some of you asked how much work I had to do up front. Good question. Not as much as I was putting into pulling their proverbial teeth in our traditional "school work." Also with 3 learners between the ages of 2 and 6 right now, I like that I can do so much more with them all together. Which also equals less work than what I was doing, plus nobody feels like the other is getting to do the cooler work - we're all doin' about the same things. And, I think I must admit here one of my dirty little secrets: I'm a geek that loves (way too much, by the way) the research and printing and organizing of the upcoming study.

And so without further ado...

Once I decide on a topic I make all copies that I will need for the week. Since I teach all 3 of the older kiddos at one time I make 3 copies of everything and then just tailor how I teach it according to their ages. After I decide what I'll cover on which day, I then separate the material into file folders labelled with each day of the week. I make a list of further research or printables that I'll need and sticky note them to the front of the appropriate folder to look up and print off on that day. I have 3 Ziplocs, gallon-sized, that I collect all of their finished work in until the unit is over. I keep all of these things stashed in a 3 ring binder to be the "teacher's guide" for our units. I print off the lesson, put it in the binder for current teaching and future reference, and separate each lesson with (none other than...) a file folder! So far, I'm only planning for the next week. I'm rollin' with whatever tickles their fancy. I printed off a scope and sequence check list that I refer to from time to time to keep me on track.

Voila! You're all set for a week's worth of big learning fun for little ones!

These extended lessons all began with watching "A Bee Movie" a couple of weeks ago. My girl kept asking why the flowers all died. So I did what any self-respecting homeschoolin' mama would do. I looked up honey bees and then found a good story to read to my little honeys. We then jumped into a literature-based unit study turned lapbook "Winnie the Pooh and Some Bees" by A.A. Milne. And incredibly my short-attention spanned lovebugs stayed on task daily for a whole WEEK!

Of course that led into an in-depth study of bees. (With the promise that we'll find a real live bee farm to take them to!) We've cut, pasted, danced, and tasted our way through so much bee trivia that I just knew I'd tried to cram too much in to actually have any retention. Au contraire, madams. My six year old blew us away at the dinner table with his facts that he just rambled off. Ah, another successful venture!

Homeschool Share provided both the Winnie the Pooh and Some Bees unit and the Honey Bee unit. Enchanted Learning gave great worksheets. A Bee Movie - the official site provided some very cool learning activities.