Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Honest. Quirky. Real. Practical tips, candid reviews, and stereotype-smashing humor for homeschooling families.

Honest. Quirky. Real. Practical tips, candid reviews, and stereotype-smashing humor for homeschooling families.

FREE Geometry Vocabulary Interactive Book

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Written by Rachel of You’ve Got This.

Vocabulary. We often think it applies to social studies and science….but some math units have a boatload of vocabulary. If they don’t quite grasp or get this vocabulary, our kiddos won’t be successful.

My oldest has just reached his geometry unit, and we are surrounded by words that he has never heard of. Seriously, perpendicular lines isn’t a word I often use when talking to my children.

Knowing that he will not be successful in this unit without mastering these new words, I have created two activities to help him learn and understand geometry vocabulary words such as line, ray, line segments, parallel lines, and perpendicular lines.

We are starting with this fun, interactive dictionary and then moving onto a geometry bingo activity.

Prep Work For Geometry Vocabulary Interactive Book

This activity has two options with different level of prep-work.

Very Little Prep Work (the kiddos do all the work)

  1. Print off the book
  2. Provide scissors and a stapler for your child or students
  3. During math time, have them cut out the book and staple it together.
  4. Have them cut out the pictures and vocabulary words.

More Prep Work For You

  1. Print off book
  2. Cut out the books and staple them together
  3. Either cut out the pictures and vocabulary words or let the children do that depending on the amount of time you want to spend.

How to Implement

We did this interactive geometry vocabulary book before we did anything else, so my little guy had absolutely no clue what the words meant.

We started by looking up the words in the interactive dictionary. We would read the definition, play with the lines, and then move back to the book.

Once we knew the definition, we would take the vocabulary word and find the definition in our book. We would then glue in the word int he blanks.

Next, we would find the picture that matched the vocabulary word and definition, and that was glued in.

Finally, we used our rulers to draw our own version.

Not only did we have fun learning about the words, but we now have a great resource that will help us as we play our Bingo game and complete the assignments from his math book.

We hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Get your free book HERE.

What’s your favorite way to introduce new vocabulary to your children?

Hands-on Division Practice with Free Sorting Activity

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Written by Rachel of You’ve Got This.

When you provide hands on division practice, your children will develop a better understanding of the process. This free printable will help you do just that.

Hands-on Division Practice

Singing! Skip-Counting! Games! We’ve been doing it all year, and now it is time to put it into practice. We are jumping into a short multiplication review, and then a long focused study on division. All that prep work to make sure my little guy knows his facts has all been in preparation for this unit. And I can’t wait to get started with some fun activities.

This free pirate sort is just one of the many fun activities we will be doing!

Prep-Work

  • Print out all pages on card stock paper (You can laminate them for extra durability.)
  • Cut out pirate mats, coins, and problems
  • Sort into division problems that have remainders and those that don’t

Hands-On Divison Practice (Problems without Remainders)

Day One:

Beginning a math lesson with a book is an excellent way to engage your children and get them ready to do a little math. Before you begin the division lesson, I highly suggest starting with the book “The Doorbell Rang.” It is a short, fun book that has children sharing cookies with their friends. It is a perfect way to get your kiddos excited about sharing gold coins with pirates.

After reading, pull out the pirate mats, cut out coins, and some of the problems. Begin by showing your young ones a division problem, and talking about its parts.

For example, you may say:

  • This number is the dividend. It is the number being divided up. It tells us how many gold coins we need to gather to complete the problem.
  • This number is the divisor. It tells us how many equal groups we are going to put the coins into. When we look at this number, we will know how many pirate mats we need to get out.

Now comes the fun part, the hands-on division practice! Give your children the mats, coins, and problems and let them give it a try. Encourage them to use the vocabulary as they sort.

Day Two:

On day two it is time to introduce remainders. Grab the book “A Remainder of One” and read this delightful story with your little ones. As you read, see if they can figure out the dividend and the divisor. And of course, begin introducing the word remainder.

Now jump into the problems with remainders. Each time your kids figure out how many do not fit into equal groups have them tell you that they have a remainder of ____!

After day two, it is time to expand on division and give them some more opportunities to explore. You could try these fun division problems, or teach them how to model division with arrays. The options are endless.

Enjoy this time of exploring and expanding your child’s thinking!

Download Your Free Printable HERE

What are some of your favorite ways to help your children learn and practice new concepts?

4 Fun Car and Travel Games

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Written by Susan Williams of Education Possible.

Whether it is time for a family road trip or just a full day of running errands around town, spending a lot of time in the car can be challenging for kids (and parents) of all ages. Over the years we have discovered several easy games to help keep everyone entertained while on the road. And the best part of these games – no batteries required!

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Here are 4 fun car and travel games that we hope will make your next trip a little more enjoyable:

The Alphabet Game

This is one of the easiest games ever and every time you play your answers will be unique to your surroundings.

To play: Each player looks for letters of the alphabet on signs, license plates, bumper stickers, etc.

Variations:

  • Have players find items that start with each letter of the alphabet.
  • Players may have to find letters in alphabetical order.
  • Maybe players are limited to just signs or just license plates to find letters.
  • You can also print this handy Alphabet Game printable to keep track of letters found.

Group Storytelling

You can get some silly stories going when everyone helps to create a story together.

To play: Someone begins by telling the first line of the story. The opening line could be something familiar like, “Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who lived in a castle” or start with something crazy like “The other day two aliens landed at the mall and wanted to go shopping.”

Everyone takes turns adding just one line to the story. You never know what creative twists and turns your stories can take or how long they will be.

Variations:

  • The person starting the story could establish a theme for the story – action, fantasy, current events, etc.
  • Try creating a poem by requiring the last word of each sentence to rhyme.
fun car games

Mad Libs

This classic game is fun and clever because kids don’t realize they are brushing up on their language arts lessons while making up funny stories, describing historical sights, and more.

To play: The easiest way to play is to buy a couple of Mad Libs books and bring along a pencil to fill in the answers with different parts of speech. Some of our favorites are Mad Libs on the Road, Vacation Mad Libs, and Happily Ever After Mad Libs, but there are dozens of Mad Libs books to choose from.

Variations: Sometimes my kids like to create their own Mad Libs.  Just write down a basic story and leave out a word or two in each sentence.

Teen Road Trip Scavenger Hunt

Sometimes you need a creative way to get your teens to unplug while they are in the car.  That’s why my friend Megan created this fun Road Trip Scavenger Hunt with 50 things to search for that will challenge your middle school students.

To play: Download a free copy of the scavenger hunt for your teens, bring along a pencil, and see who can find the most items during your next car trip.

Variations:

  • Set a time limit for the hunt.
  • Make everyone find the items in order.

We hope these fun and easy games will make your next family car trip entertaining and memorable!

What are some of your family’s favorite car and travel games?

This post is linked to the Hip Homeschool Hop.

How-To Writing for Elementary Writers

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Written by Tara Mitchell of This Sweet Life and Embark on the Journey.

Writing is an important skill for everyone to develop. However, it’s not easy to teach good writing skills. In order to get young students engaged in writing, homeschool moms need to make writing useful. For many kids, writing needs to have a purpose, because they don’t enjoy it.

One way to engage young writers is to teach them to write a how-to. Writing directions is something they’ll have to do into adulthood. So, it’s important to get them excited about writing at a young age.

how-to-writing-for-elementary-writers

To make it a little easier to teach your children to write a how-to paragraph, I’ve created a writing pack that you can download.

First, have your student cut out the pictures they’ll need for their writing assignment. Discuss with them the order in which they would complete that particular task. For instance, what steps would they use to make a s’more? Put the picture cards in that order.

Next, have them glue each of the images on the writing page. There are two styles of writing lines included in this pack to accommodate your writer. Again, talk about the order in which each step is done. This will help your child order his thoughts before he begins writing.

Then, have your child write (or dictate) a sentence or two for each step of the process. Once they’ve got their thoughts on paper, help them do a quick edit for spelling and punctuation before moving on to the final step.

Finally, have your student write a final copy of their how-to paragraph on the final page of this packet. Remind them to be careful about spelling and punctuation. They can illustrate the edges or bottom of the page if they’d like.

how-to-writing-pack

 

Download your How-To Writing pack here.

The How-To Writing Pack contains two sets of writing activities – How to Build a Sundae and How to Build a Snowman. If you’d like more how-to writing activities, visit Embark on the Journey to grab a set of eight more!

What’s your favorite way to teach writing to young writers?

Fall Fun Bingo Game for Kids

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Written by Tara Mitchell of This Sweet Life and Embark on the Journey.

I’m so excited that fall is just around the corner. I’m so ready for cozy sweaters, apple cider, and anything pumpkin-flavored.

My daughter is ready to do math by the fireplace. She’s looking forward to raking all of the leaves in our backyard into a big pile she can jump in.

Thinking ahead to fall, I was inspired to make a fun Bingo game you can play with your kids.

fall-fun-bingo-fb

Fall Fun Bingo Game for Kids

There are six Bingo boards in this pack and one page of calling cards. I suggest printing them on card stock and laminating them for durability.

You can be the caller, or the kids can take turns flipping a card over. Each player then covers a square with a token (buttons, acorns, pennies, etc.)

The first player to cover their board is declared the winner!

Download your Fall Fun Bingo Game here. 

fall-fun-bingo-game-for-kids-pin

To keep your little ones anticipating the upcoming fall season, let them try one or more of these fun fall crafts:

Keep them engaged just a little bit longer with these fun fall books:

What’s your favorite way to get kids excited about fall? 

This post is linked to the Hip Homeschool Hop.