We chose sheep for our unit study this week because kids seem to love them and also because there are people who still rely on sheep as their livelihood. In view of today’s economy many people are looking into ways to live of the land and owning sheep and/or goats really can help. They provide food (milk) and clothing (wool) and they are super-interesting creatures. Did you know that there are over 200 different kinds of sheep?

Lets begin our unit study and see what else we can learn!

Reading, Spelling, History, Art, Animal Science

If you’ve been using my unit studies for a while, you probably are already familiar with my advice on how to teach children with ADD or other learning differences how to read. If not, read our post " Tips to Teach Your Child How to Read Better ". 

First, find a book about sheep that fits your child’s reading level.  You might wish to purchase one from Amazon.  Here’s a list of books about sheep that you can buy online and have delivered to you.

If your child is very young, you might want to read the free online version of Baa Baa Blacksheep (originally written in 1880!).  Or try this other free online children’s book (1840) called The Flock of Sheep, or Familiar Explanations of Simple Facts.

Read one of the books that you ordered or downloaded and then talk about it. If it was a book that was just a cute story about a sheep ask your child what they thought it says about the personalities of sheep. Do they like sheep? Would they want to own a sheep?

Well, if you are really into the idea, you can actually adopt a sheep .  Please let us know if you do this and how it works out!

There is a lot of variety among sheep.  Here are pics of some different kinds of sheep:

These are some of the pictures we found online, but you may want to search for more. However never leave your child unattended to scout out pictures of anything online. When Googling something, be sure to add “for kids” or something like that. When you do find your pictures go through them and ask your child to determine what sheep he thinks best pictures the sheep you read about. Now go find your sheep! See where it lives and where it came from. Wikipedia has a section all about the different breeds. Use Pronto.com to get a printable map of the world if you don’t already have one and find the country that the sheep comes from. What is the climate in that country and how would that affect the sheep and farmers of that area?

Have your child draw a picture of some of the different sheep you find and have them write the type of sheep it is under each picture and the country of origin. When writing the name of the sheep have him say the name out loud and then spell the word also out load as he writes. This process allows for visual and mental recognition of the words.

A few more sheep facts

Female sheep are called ewes, baby sheep are called lambs, and male sheep are called rams. A group of sheep is called a flock.

They normally live to be about 8 years old, but can sometimes live to be as old as 20. Sheep usually give birth once a year and have 1-3 lambs. Lambs form strong bonds with their mothers. They can identify their mother by her bleat. Can you tell the difference? This site has some sounds that your child might find funny. Our dog loves it!

http://www.sheep.com/sheep_sounds.cfm

Depending on how old your child is you can teach your child the classic songs “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Math, Making a Living, Reasoning

Sheep Farming (also known as Sheep husbandry)

Go to this article on Wikipedia for a great description of what is involved in raising sheep to sell either the sheep or their milk or fleece for a living. There is also a section on sheep shearing or clipping.  Typically each adult sheep is shorn once a year (a sheep may be said to have been "shorn" or "sheared").  Depending on the size of the farm some farmers shear up to 3000 sheep in a day!

The assignment for this section is to figure the cost of raising, owning & shearing sheep.  Now figure out how much money is made by selling the wool, or the profit in making a sweater or a blanket to sell. Write these down and get the cost and profit totals. You can add the profits of selling the milk or cheese to make this a bit more challenging as well.

Example:

Cost 1 sheep $20

Shearers $5

1 sheep 6 pds of wool

$ per pd $5

With one shearing a year how much money would you make?

Add the selling of milk or cheese:

1 sheep produces 1 gal milk

1 gal milk worth $6

Now lets say you want to just raise and sell the sheep:

1 female sheep (ewe) $20

1 male sheep (Ram) $20

1 baby sheep (Lamb) $25

If a female sheep has one to two sometimes even three lambs at a time, what could your profit be for the year?

Depending on your child’s age you can make this easy by figuring this with one sheep or for older children making it a flock of 10 etc…

Sheep in daily life

Do you have any wool sweaters or blankets in the house? Have your child feel it. Compare the wool to something made of cotton. Discuss the values of wool and how it keeps the sheep warm in the winter and even cool in the summer. Ask your child what they think of the texture, the purpose and the value of wool.

Go outside and look at grass, the main food source for sheep. Take your shoes off and walk barefoot to get a feel for it. Discuss what that is like for the sheep how they would chew it and maybe even talk about “chewing cud” (Wikipedia has some interesting information on this) This is why humans and dogs can not live on grass like cud chewers (sheep, goats, horses) do. If your child is very young, just have her run around making noise like a sheep might do.

Writing, Science, Nature

No true sheep farmer could live without the help of his trusty ol’ sheepdog. A sheepdog is a type of dog whose original purpose was to herd or guard the sheep. They were first trained thousands of years ago and the herder was able to get them to act on the sound of a whistle or by voice command. Many sheep dogs are now kept as domestic pets these dogs are very active and intelligent so they require both physical and mental exercise.

Watch the following video together:

Now ask your child how would he train a dog to do this.  Ask him or her what commands might you need to train a sheep dog?

Have your child write an essay about 200 words in length to describe either all that you would do with your sheepdog or an essay as if you were the sheepdog. What would a day in the life of a sheepdog be like? The essay does not have to be perfect since, after all, your child may be pretending to be a dog. Take the words that your child has trouble spelling and make them into spelling words. Rewrite them and then play catch outside while you help your child to spell these words out load again say the word spell the word. Now go back inside and have your child try to write and spell these words on his own.

Here’s a fun video to watch about "extreme" sheep herding:

Arts & Crafts

Many people have a potential "sheep" right in their house. People have been spinning dog hair into yarn long before the Spaniards introduced sheep to North America. Chiengora (she-an-gora), or dog yarn, is up to 80% warmer than wool, very soft, similar in appearance to Angora, and sheds water well. All you have to do is save the brushings from your dog!

Here’s a site with instructions on how to make dog yarn.

Art, History, Science, Math

Try making sheep milk cheese (feta) with your child! (click on the words "sheep milk cheese" in the previous sentences for instructions.  Make sure to use this occasion to teach measurements to your child.  Have him or her measure the ingredients.  Ask him to figure out how much of each ingredient you would have to use if you needed to double or triple the recipe (or perhaps divide it in half).  If your child doesn’t know fractions or is not skilled at adding, multiplying or dividing them, this is a great time to teach him!

You might prefer making pecorino cheese (similar to Romano, that you use on pasta with tomato sauce):

OR

…try making sheep or goat milk soap:

www.ehow.com/how_4551864_milk-soap-cold-process-method.html

Next unit study

The next unit study will be in two weeks, on the topic of space!  See you then!

For the past two weeks we have been doing a unit study based on Japan.  Today we’re back to working on improving your child’s memory by means of a Japanese game. 

READ THIS FIRST

Before starting the exercises, it’s important to understand the two phases of physical memorization games.  Please click on the link at the end of the previous sentence to read about it.  Then click on your back button to come back to this post.

SPELLING

Fact Explanation/Review Phase

Two weeks ago in International Unit Study: Japan Part 1  you had your child read a book or part of a book to you.  After that you read a book to him that was a little more difficult than the one he read.  Grab those books again (or go back to the ones that you read online) and pick some words that you are not sure if he knows how to spell.  But make sure to also include some words that you are sure he can spell very well.  Including words that are easy for him to spell will help build up his confidence when you play the game.

Write the words on a large whiteboard or chalkboard.  If you don’t have one, you could just use a large sheet of paper, but using a whiteboard is the most visually stimulating and interesting to kids.  Leave space below each of the words you write.  Include no more than 10 words.  About half of them should be words he can already spell quite well.

Starting with the first word, mention to him what part of the book used that word.  If he starts talking about something that happened in that part of the book since you got him thinking about it, that’s okay.  But if his ADD makes him hyperfocus on a topic and he goes on and on about the book, politely tell him that it was interesting, but ‘let’s get back to the spelling of these words’.

Next, have him write the word himself under each of the words you wrote.  Don’t focus to much on his handwriting, especially if he’s using a fat dry-erase marker on a whiteboard, but make sure you can at least read what he wrote.  If it’s so messy you can’t even read it, kindly say something like ‘I can’t make out those last two letters, can you write them over again?’

Now have him read the first word he wrote out loud, then spell it while looking at it.

Exercise/Game Phase

As mentioned, to coincide with the unit lesson from the past two weeks, this game is from Japan.  The name of the game in Japanese is Kami-zumo.  Kami-zumo is a sumo wrestling game played with little paper origami characters. It’s not that physical, but a lot of fun and can be used as a means of memorizing facts.

First you have to make the game, which can be fun in itself.  Although the process of making the game is not part of the memorization exercise itself, you might want to have your child share in making the paper characters and game board.  Use construction paper or some other type of stiff paper and follow the instructions in this video:

Then take a sheet of paper and draw a circle in the middle of it.  Tape it to the top of a box.  You will use this as the wrestling ring.  Watch this video to see how to play the game:

If your character falls down or goes out of the ring, you lose.  However, whichever character goes out, your child must practice a spelling word before starting to play again.  Say one of the words that you reviewed with you child in the Fact/Explanation Review Phase.  Have your child spell it out.  If he gets it right, continue playing the game.  If he spells the word incorrectly, explain how to spell it right and have him repeat the correct spelling.  Continue the game and use the same word when the game stops until he can spell the word correctly.

Repeat this game for memorizing math equations or history and science facts.

Have a game or exercise that can be used to help memorize facts, math or spelling?  Please scroll up and click on the title of this post, then fill in the Comment box at the end.  I’ll choose one game to feature on this blog three weeks from now.  Let’s all pitch in and help each other by sharing ideas!

I had to skip posting a unit study last week.  My aunt passed away, so I had to take a flight up to Rhode Island for the funeral.  I’m still in RI right now, but didn’t want to skip posting another lesson, so here it is!

Two weeks ago we did Part 1 of the international unit study on Japan.  This week we’re going to focus on the history and sports of Japan.  We’ll just look into a few main aspects of Japan’s history and sports, leaving it up to you to decide how much further you want to investigate (depending on the age and ability of your child).

Keep in mind that although you’ll be incorporating some reading, writing and math in this unit study, the main purpose of my international unit studies is to help children understand and appreciate other cultures.

YOUR CHILD’S NAME IN JAPANESE

SKILLS TAUGHT:  HANDWRITING, CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

In last week’s unit study on Japan, your child learned how to write a few letters of the Japanese alphabet.  Now he’ll learn how to write his name in Japanese.

Go to: Japanese-Name-Translation.com and type in your child’s first and last name.  Then hit the Go button.  After it gives you the Japanese characters (Katakana), have your child write them on a whiteboard or sheet of paper.  Try writing names of other members of your family.

A LOOK AT JAPAN’S HISTORY

SKILL’S TAUGHT: WORLD HISTORY, READING, WRITING, ART, SCIENCE

SAMURAI

Samurai, or warrior clans were very powerful in Japan between the years 1192 though 1868.

Here is what the samurai warrior outfits looked like (actually, the last one was a ceremonial outfit, not used for fighting):

Get some paper and crayons and have your child create his own version of a samurai uniform.  Or go to Artpad’s Painter to have him create a digital painting.  After he finishes it, you can save it and send it to me at kbroccoli@homeschoolingADDkids.com .  I’ll then put a link to it on one of my upcoming blog posts so all our subscribers and visitors can see it!

GEISHA

Geisha were also an important part of Japanese history.  These female entertainers were skilled in dancing, singing and the art of conversation.  There have been Geisha in Japan since the 1600’s and you can still see them there.

Here’s a picture of a modern-day Geisha:

The Geisha wear Kimonos which are beautiful silk dresses. The Geisha were not the only ones to wear kimonos.  Here is a site with pics of children wearing traditional Japanese clothing:

http://www.japanesekimono.com/childrens_kimono.htm

EARTHQUAKES

The Great Kanto Earthquake was one of the largest earthquakes recording in history.  It destroyed the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama.  Over 140,000 people lost their lives.

Here are some pictures of what it looked like (don’t worry, they are not too graphic):

http://www.japan-guide.com/a/earthquake/

Try this experiment to teach your child why earthquakes occur:

http://www.geo.mtu.edu/UPSeis/why.html

POLITICS

In 1926, Hirohito became the emperor of Japan.  Japan pushed to expand their empire and invaded Manchuria, China.

In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  This led to the United States becoming involved in World War II.

Four years later, the United States dropped atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

After the war, power was taken away from the emperor and given to the people.

SPORTS AND GAMES IN JAPAN

SKILLS TAUGHT:  CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

One of the most popluar of Japanese sports is sumo wrestling. This website explains how it is fought and the rules of the game:

Sumo Wrestling at the Los Angeles 2008 Grand Sumo Tour - Funny home videos are a click away

They also love soccer, baseball and karate.

The Japanese have a sense of humor that might seem odd to us. Here’s an example of one of their game shows:

Human Tetris

How about some "binocular soccer"?

Japanese Binocular Soccer

JAPANESE FOOD

SKILLS TAUGHT: CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

Japanese eat very differently then we do. Their food is tasty but takes time to get accustomed to. Even though some Japanese use chairs when they eat, others families don’t use chairs like we do. Instead, they sit on cushions on the floor, like in this photo:

Here’s what some of their food looks like:

This are two different ways that they make noodles:

In Japan there are rules about how to eat: http://www.allsands.com/food/japaneseeating_nr_gn.htm

Chop sticks are often used in Japan.  Try teaching your child how to use them.  If he has trouble getting the hang of it, you can make chopsticks easy to use by following these directions.

JAPANESE NIGHT

SKILLS LEARNED:  CULTURAL DIFFERENCES, COOKING, MATH

Now that your child has learned a little about the Japanese culture, a fun thing to do is to spend a night pretending you live in Japan. Start by making a menu with your children. Here are some easy Japanese recipes:

Hibachi Chicken & Vegetables

Simple Sushi

If you don’t have a sushi mat you can use a cloth napkin. The nice thing about sushi is that you can replace the filling with anything your kids may like.

…and finish with some dessert:

Kushidango Recipe - Japanese Sweet Recipe

…or

Daigakuimo Recipe - Japanese Sweet Recipe

After making an easy Japanese menu with your child, head out to the store. This is a great time to have your child do math and find all of the ingredients just like we did in the dog unit study. After getting to the store, look for the international section and you will find most of what you are looking for.  Don’t forget the chopsticks!  If we don’t find something on one of the recipes, try to improvise or look for a local Asian store.

When you get home, set your living room up by putting your coffee table in the middle the room. Then collect pillows to sit on.

Now head to the kitchen and start cooking. This is a great time to work on fractions by having your child cook with you, measuring the ingredients.  If you are making double the amount of food, show him how to multiply all the ingredients by two.

Once dinner is ready get the room ready. We like to put on some soft Japanese music such as this (or other Japanese music that you can find on youtube):

Next get the kids ready. If you have a little girl have her dress like a Geisha.  While I couldn’t find a website that shows you how to make a Kimono, you might be able to use this site that shows you how to wear a Kimono.  Try using a robe instead.

After the kids are dressed you can start eating your Japanese meal with your chopsticks.

When dinner is over, enjoy some Japanese entertainment by having a sumo wrestle. We use our carpet in the living room as the "wrestling mat".  Steven and Kevin put belts over their clothes and then follow the directions in the sumo video. It is great fun and it will give your child a little taste of Japan.

NEXT WEEK

It’s time for working on memorization again.  As usual we’ll be doing it by means of physical exercises and games.  Please be sure to leave a comment to let us know what you thought of this week’s unit study!  And make sure to click on the Share button, below, to send this unit study by e-mail to a friend.  You can also use the Share button to post this unit study on your Facebook account or other social media sites.

This week my unit study focuses on Japan.  By studying about a foreign country you will be teaching your child social studies, history, math, computer skills and geography. He will also learn about the fascinating differences between cultures. 

I’ve chosen Japan because most of our subscribers and visitors are from the United States and Japan’s culture is so different than ours. 

So let’s go on a trip to Japan together without leaving our homes!

STORIES ABOUT JAPAN

Skills taught: reading, spelling, social studies

As in my past unit studies, we’ll start by reading some books.  If you live near a library, you could spend some time there looking for children’s books about Japan.  Or if are just looking over this unit study and plan on using it next week or so, you could go to Swaptree, which is a website you can join to trade books with people around the country.  You end up only paying around $3.00 in shipping costs, and get rid of your old books at the same time.

Or you might want to take a look at a few of these books having to do with Japan, which you can order from Amazon.  I especially like the last one since it’s a fun and interesting way to teach kids about all the products, food and other items that come from Japan:

On the other hand, if you want to get started right away, here are links to three stories which focus on Japan.  Two of the stories are very short, so you can probably read through all three of them.  Have your child read one or two of the stories to you.  Then read the remaining story or stories to him. 

When he makes a mistake on a word, write down the word on a pad or sheet of paper, so you can save it for spelling practice by means of physical games and exercises, which we’ll do in a couple of weeks. 

If he only mispronounces a few words, it is best to have him try to sound them out.  If you automatically tell him the right way to say it, his brain will get lazy and every time he sees a hard word, he’ll just mumble it, knowing that you’ll jump in.  Or he’ll just wait for you to say it.  However, if there are too many words like this and he has to sound out words in every sentence, he won’t enjoy the reading experience.  In that case, have him sound out the words you think are somewhat easier, and read the difficult ones for him.  Simply say "I’ll read this word" for some of words, or "try sounding this one out" for other words.  There’s a balance you need to reach here between teaching him to not be mentally lazy and making sure he doesn’t become exasperated.

OK, enough instruction on how to do it….here are the books you can read online for free:

  Matsuyama kagami

The Face in the Barrel (fairy tale)

Two Sisters’ Dowries

PLANNING A TRIP TO JAPAN!

Skills taught: geography, computer/Internet use and math

This section will be both fun and educational.  Your child will learn how to book a flight online and learn more about time and distance.

Get out your globe or world map if you have one or go to this online world map .  Show your child where you live on the map and then show him were Japan is. 

Now you’ll help your child to get an idea of how far they would have to travel to get to Japan and how long it would take.  Go to this online City Distance Calculator and type in the town where you live or the city that is closest to where you live.  If you don’t have a large computer monitor, you may need to scroll down in order to see the red NEXT button.  After confirming the two cities, click on the FIND DISTANCE button.  You’ll now see the distance in miles and kilometers "as the crow flies".  Explain that this expression means that the distance shown is the number of miles if you could travel there in a straight line.  However, even airplanes don’t travel in a completely straight line, and they often make a stop or two in other cities or countries, so the distance one would have to travel would actually be longer than what was calculated.

Go to Travelocity (an online travel website).  You’ll see a box like the one below.  Have your child type in the name of the city closest to where you live in the From box and "Tokyo" in the To box.

Click on the Flexible dates option so that you don’t have to pick exact travel dates and then click on the Search Flights button. 

Select one of the trips it offers.  Don’t worry, you’re not actually booking the trip. 

You will also have to pick a departure and return date.  This is a good time to improve your child’s skills at using a calendar.  Pick one of the dates that is marked in blue, as in the picture to the right, that you would start your trip if you were to go.  Then click on the return date.

After choosing your return date, you must select your departure flight.  Then you’ll see a screen like this…

…which shows your chosen departure date and gives you choices for your return flight.  All of this might seem like a lot of tedious steps, especially for a kid with ADD, but if you’ve booked flights online before then you know that this goes rather quickly.  But make don’t just click away.  Instead, have your child do the clicking and explain to him what he is doing with each step.  Have him practice reading names of places and times.

Now here’s where the math comes in:

Formulate some subtraction equations based on the start and stop times of each leg of each flight.  Depending on the age and ability of your child, you might ask him to come up with the subtraction problems based on the scheduling info.

Next, figure out how many miles away you live from the airport, perhaps by using Mapquest.  Then create a division problem to figure out how long it should take to get to the airport.

In order to help your child understand how long a certain number of hours are, use an example of somewhere relatively far from where you that you travel to on occasion.  For example, from where we live in North Carolina it is 6928 miles to get to Japan.  We go back and forth to New York from time to time, so I explain to Steven that to travel to NY it takes us 12 hours and it is about 620 miles.  Then I make him figure out how many times it would take us to go back and forth over and over from NY to NC to equal 6928miles.  He then figures out how many hours it would take.  It makes him realize how far Japan is from the U.S. and how long it would take to get there if we had to travel to Tokyo by car. 

You could also compare something he does regularly to the amount of hours it would take to travel to Japan.  For example, you might explain how on certain days he gets up in the morning, has breakfast, homeschools, plays, eats lunch, etc., and during all that time and on through evening he would still be traveling to Japan had he started the trip in the morning.  Having something to compare it to makes a big difference in helping a child to relate to time and distance.

If anyone actually gets so enthused by this that you plan a trip to Tokyo let us all know!

LEARNING ABOUT THE JAPANESE PEOPLE

Skills taught: social studies, inter-racial understanding

Explain to your child that differences between cultures are fun and fascinating.  Start him early on being interested in people, not just things.

You can start with the way Japanese people look.  Go to the Japan Window web site.  Make sure to scroll down in order to see the pictures.  It’s a nice site  because it shows kids playing just like our kids do, showing that although we are all different, we’re a lot alike, too.  Explain that the Japanese people have wonderful black straight hair and their eyes are shaped different than ours.  Show him a picture of himself and make him pick out the differences.  Point out that although they are different than us in ways, the differences between races and nationalities are  what makes for variety and beauty.

Now talk to him about the way we understand each other and our language.  Depending upon his age, he might understand this concept already.  If not, explain how Japanese people talk to each other and understand each other even though when we listen to them we don’t know what they are saying.  Explain that we also write differently. 

If your child is very young ask him say his alphabet and then say the alphabet song.  Even if he is not very young, take him to this alphabet song in Japanese:

….which also shows how Japanese letters are written.  Have him write one or two (or more if he enjoys it) on the white board.   Explain that is how they always write and to them our writing seems weird and difficult.  

Take him to this Japanese Beauty web page.  It has pictures of Japanese houses, formal clothes, instruments, cities, and landscape.  When your child gets bored looking at the pictures move on.  

Next, show him a video about traditional Japanese music and dance .  This video is a little long, but watch it for a bit and ask him how it is different from music and dance that he has listened to or watched:

NEXT WEEK’S UNIT STUDY

Next week we are going to continue with the Japanese theme and study Japanese sports, food, and history.  And we’ll finish with something we call international night.

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RSS feeds are ways to receive blog content via Outlook 2007 or RSS feed readers such as Google Reader or FeedDemon.  It’s a cool system in the sense that you don’t have to remember to actually visit my site to see if there is new content.  It will download the newest content when it’s ready. 

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Last Monday I explained how you can teach your child how to do Internet research on the topic of dinosaurs,  which was the theme of our unit study for the two weeks before that.

Today we’re going to work on your child’s memory by means of physical exercises and games again, like we did a number of weeks ago after doing the unit study on dogs.  If you did the games from last month, you’ll notice that the instructions below are basically the same as last time, except that I changed the game/exercise activities.  Keeping the same basic system for doing the Fact Explanation/Review Phase is a great aid in creating enough "ritual" to make it easy to remember how to do.  At the same time you’ll find enough variety in games that your child won’t get bored (especially if he has ADD).

READ THIS FIRST

Before starting the exercises, it’s important to understand the two phases of physical memorization games.  Please click on the link at the end of the previous sentence to read about it.  Then click on your back button to come back to this post.

SPELLING

Fact Explanation/Review Phase

Two weeks ago in Weekly Unit Study: Dinosaurs Part 1  you had your child read a book or part of a book to you.  After that you read a book to him that was a little more difficult than the one he read.  Grab those books again (or go back to the ones that you read online) and pick some words that you are not sure if he knows how to spell.  But make sure to also include some words that you are sure he can spell very well.  Including words that are easy for him to spell will help build up his confidence when you play the game.

Write the words on a large whiteboard or chalkboard.  If you don’t have one, you could just use a large sheet of paper, but using a whiteboard is the most visually stimulating and interesting to kids.  Leave space below each of the words you write.  Include no more than 10 words.  About half of them should be words he can already spell quite well.

Starting with the first word, mention to him what part of the book used that word.  If he starts talking about something that happened in that part of the book since you got him thinking about it, that’s okay.  But if his ADD makes him hyperfocus on a topic and he goes on and on about the book, politely tell him that it was interesting, but ‘let’s get back to the spelling of these words’. 

Next, have him write the word himself under each of the words you wrote.  Don’t focus to much on his handwriting, especially if he’s using a fat dry-erase marker on a whiteboard, but make sure you can at least read what he wrote.  If it’s so messy you can’t even read it, kindly say something like ‘I can’t make out those last two letters, can you write them over again?’

Now have him read the first word he wrote out loud, then spell it while looking at it.

Exercise/Game Phase

This game is called Playdo Hockey.  If you don’t have any Playdo, you can make your own or just make a little inedible modeling dough and use that.

Clear off the kitchen table.  Your child stands at one end and you stand at the other end.  Cup your right hand (or your left if you are left-handed) and think of it as being a little hockey stick.  Start the game by saying one of the spelling words that you used in the Fact Explation/Review Phase in the section above.  After you say the word, hit the Playdo with your palm so that it slides or rolls across the table toward your child.  Your goal is to try to knock it off the other end of the table.  Your child should try to prevent this using his right hand.  He can only rest his hand on the table, though.  He can’t block the end of the table with any part of his arm.

Now he has the opportunity to hit it toward you with his hand and try to get it to go off of your end of the table.  However, before he does this he must spell the word that you said to him before you hit the Playdo.  If he spells it incorrectly, tell him so and spell it correctly for him.  Then tell him to repeat the correct spelling.  Have him spell it one more time correctly, after which he may now hit the playdo toward you.

Each time he spells a word correctly, he gets one point.  The goal is to get to 20 points.  (It can be less depending on your child’s age or ability).  There are no points awarded for getting the Playdo off the opponent’s side of the table.  That part is just for fun.

When he misspells a word, his score returns to zero. 

If he seems to get bored of the game quickly, then every 3 points or so, play a fast hockey game where you both hit the Playdo back and forth without stopping until one of you misses.   This is great fun, but make sure to stop and go back to the previously-described way of playing so that he can practice the spelling words.

The key to this game’s success is making it fun for your child.  If he’s having a great time, he won’t think of it as just practicing spelling the same words over and over.  So laugh a lot and enjoy the game!

Share your experience with this game by commenting on it after you are done.   Feel free to have your child comment himself!

Let’s move on to the next memorization game, which teaches math.

MULTIPLICATION

Last week in Weekly Unit Study: Dinosaurs Part 2, you did some math together when your child colored in the dinosaur, using colors matched with the solutions to addition problems.  But in order to do math problems, he must first be able to add, subtract, multiply or divide well.  In this game your child will practice multiplication.  However, if your child is still working on addition or subtraction, keep working on that instead.

Fact Explanation/Review Phase

Start with the whiteboard again.  Write 10 multiplication problems, without the answer.   Have your child fill in the answers to the ones that he knows.  Try to include some problems which you know he can figure out so that he’ll feel positive about the experience.

When your child gets stuck, tell him the answer, but have him write it on the board.  Then erase the answer and have him do it again.  Since he just wrote it down, he’ll probably remember the answer.  Do this a number of times until it seems that he can get most of the answers right the majority of the times that he does it.

Exercise/Game Phase

Say a number and then do that number of jumping jacks.  Now ask your child to say a number and do the number of jumping jacks that he said.  Now ask him what the answer is if he multiplies your number of jumping jacks times the number of jumping jacks that he did.  Give him a point if he gets it right.  (Don’t worry, neither of you have to actually do the number of jumping jacks equaling the solution to the problem.) 

Next, say a number and do that number of push-ups. If you can’t do push-ups, try kneeling and doing them.  Ask you child to say a number and do that number of push-ups, too.  Have him multiply the numbers.  Again, he gets one point if he gets it right.

Continue to do the same with other exercises such as squats, sit-ups and similar exercises.

The goal is to get 10 points.  For this exercise game, it might be better not to go back to zero if he gets an answer wrong, otherwise you might both fall on the floor from exhaustion.

This is a great way for the both of you to get some exercise while improving your child’s memory at the same time.

NEXT WEEK

Now that we’ve had unit studies on both dogs and dinosaurs, we’ll move on to another topic, yet to be decided.

Up to now I’ve only been writing unit studies and games for memorization for each Monday.  However, I would love it if one of you would like to write and submit some unit studies, too.  We are almost at 100 subscribers.  If each of us submitted a unit study periodically, we could have enough unit studies to cover each day of the week!  Sharing is a great way for all of us to benefit from each other’s experience and knowledge.  If you are interested, please comment here or e-mail me at kbroccoli@homeschoolingADDkids.com

For the past two weeks the unit studies that appear on this blog each Monday have been about dinosaurs.  Weekly Unit Study: Dinosaurs Part 1 taught reading, writing, computer skills, graph usage, science, and art.  Weekly Unit Study: Dinosaurs Part 2 focused on teaching more reading, writing, science, and art as well as math.

Today we’re going to work on your child’s Internet research skills.  As we’ve mentioned before, memorization of facts is important for certain things such as multiplication tables, spelling and general knowledge of topics.  And we have physical exercises and games on this blog to help children with ADD to improve their memory.  However, even more important than memorization is that of teaching your child how to research.

Researching information can also help you child to develop his own ideas about things after having read over information in which there are sometimes differing opinions.  As Emerson wrote "Do not go where the path leads; rather, go where there is no path and leave a trail."

Nowadays most research is done online.  That can be a good or a bad thing, depending on whether your child knows how to use the Internet to do research.  It’s also important to keep in mind that if your child has Attention Deficit Disorder, it’s very easy for him to wander about from link to link instead of keeping focused on the subject that he is searching.

CAUTION: Don’t allow your child to use the Internet without your supervision.  As you well know, the Internet is full of great info, but it also has a lot of nasty sites.  Keeping the computer in a public area is highly advisable.

Searching for dinosaur info online

Rather than just looking for any information at all about dinosaurs, let’s make the research more specific by having your child look for information that answers the following questions:

1. What did dinosaurs eat?
2. What were some of the strangest dinosaurs?
3. What other animals were alive at the same time as dinosaurs?
4. What are the different ideas as to how dinosaurs disappeared? (We saw one theory in Weekly Unit Study: Dinosaurs Part 2, but there are others.)
5. What was the Earth like when dinosaurs lived?

The search engine that we are going to use is Ask.com, since it’s a search engine designed to work with full questions like the ones we have above. 

Once you’ve gone to the Ask.com site, show your child how to type the first question into the search engine box, and click the Search button or the Enter key on the keyboard.

Retrieval results can change from hour to hour, so I don’t know exactly what you will see, but generally the first results will be from paid sponsors.  Here’s what I got when I did the search on this question:

You’ll quickly notice that many of the sponsored links are not very relevant to your search.  It’s important that your child understand that usually the more relevant results (just tell him the "better" ones) appear below the sponsored links.  For example, when I scrolled down past the sponsored links, here’s what I got:

You can tell right away that the answers to the five questions we posed can be found at these links.  Like I said before, it might be that you have different websites retrieved than when I did the search.  However, the results you get should be quite relevant to your search. 

Ask your child to read the paragraph summaries below the first three or four links and then ask him which site he would like to visit to find more information about what dinosaurs ate.  Explain to him that even though he might find the answer right within the paragraph below the link, there is usually more information on the site itself, so it would be helpful to click on the link.

Once he has clicked on the link, show him how to find the answer to the question on the web page.  Sometimes the answer is right there with no other info.  Other times it’s buried within paragraphs of other information not directly related to the question which you are trying to answer. 

Teach your student how to scan through the paragraphs, looking for the information related to what dinosaurs eat, but without reading each word of each paragraph.  Scanning through info does not come easily to many kids, so one way to teach them how to do this is to tell them to move his eyes along the lines of text, but without reading the words.  Instead, just look for the words "eat", "eats", "ate" of "food".  Once he finds the word, ask him to read the sentence in which it appears as well as a few sentences after it until the discussion changes from talking about what dinosaurs eat to something else.

Now take out a notebook and dedicate a page or two to dinosaur research (just use a blank sheet of paper if you don’t have a notebook handy).  Have your child write the question "What do dinosaurs eat? at the top of the page.  Ask him to write the first answer below the question.  Tell him he cannot look at the website while doing it.  This is an excellent way to teach your child how to put info that they have researched into their own words. 

Since you’re not working on memory skills right now, if you’re child can’t recall what he read, tell him to read it again, but then turn the monitor away from him as he writes his answer.  If he has a very good memory, it might be that the sentences he writes don’t sound like his own and mirrors the site’s phrases too much.  If that’s the case, ask him what the sentence means, or to tell it to you "using different words".  His response should sound more like himself.  Then have him write down what he said.

Repeat these basic steps using each of the five questions we started with.  However, this time instead of having him scan the lines of text on the web page visually, teach him how to use Ctrl-F on the keyboard to find words on the page related to the question he is trying to answer.  This is, of course, a faster, more-logical way to research online, but having him scan the text visually will help him understand the principle behind what the browser’s Find tool does.

If this researching the answers to the questions takes too long or he becomes impatient, take an exercise break, a walk, or just do less questions. 

Writing a summary of the research

Teaching your child how to write a simple research paper, even if he is still very young and has strong ADD symptoms, will prove to be a valuable aid to him in many aspects of his life as he grows older, such as while pursuing further education or preparing presentations for secular work.

Have him read through his answers at least twice.  Now take his answers away from him, have him start with a clean sheet of paper and ask him to write an introductory paragraph that will explaining the topics that will be covered in this research paper. 

Next, have him write one paragraph answering each of the questions, but ask him which question he thinks should be answered first.  Tell him that he can add other paragraphs about other things he learned about dinosaurs when doing the unit studies during the two previous weeks. 

If he cannot remember some of the answers to the questions he researched, give him some hints without reading his sentences to him.  The purpose of this "rewrite" is so that he rearranges the sentences and paragraphs, continuing to reword his thoughts.  This is great exercise for the brain and encourages creativity.

When he is finished writing the paragraphs containing answers to the questions he researched and other facts that he learned while doing the dinosaur unit lesson, show him how to write a concluding paragraph that summaries what has been learned.

This can be a rather long, mentally exhausting process, especially for a child with Attention Deficit Disorder.  Don’t push him too hard if he is having a too tough of a time getting through it.  Instead, have him write only one paragraph and then switch to a different homeschooling task or give him a break.  Then after 15 to 20 minutes have him write another paragraph, etc.  Some kids with ADD can only handle certain tasks such as writing a page full of researched information if they constantly switch between tasks.  This is okay, as long as he eventually finishes the research project.

What do you think?

Let me know how you liked this week’s lesson.  Share some ideas on how you might have done it differently or ways we can improve future lessons!

Next week

Next Monday we’ll be using the unit study on dinosaurs to do some physical exercises and games to help improve your child’s memory in math and spelling.  See you then!

[ The following is a guest post from Dr. Steve Curtis, a Child Clinical Psychologist and author of Understanding Your Child's Puzzling Behavior. ]

Your little Henry is bouncing off the wall and not listening to a thing you say. You have had it and are ready to get in you car and head for the open road. Your mother-in-law and husband both think he’s a normal boy and resist any kind of super duper treatment such as stimulant medication or more comprehensive behavioral intervention. They talk about this together in a coffee shop while you are left to fend for your life.

Parents of children with ADHD come to me frequently in this distressed state of mind. Many just do not know what to do. After a period of time, many successfully resolve their differences and try the medication. Some opt for more natural remedies. Others keep themselves miserable for a long period of time by doing nothing. For all three of these examples, eventually an implementation of an effective behavior management program is a must. There are many sources of information about how to implement an effective program with the classic being the resource by Russell Barkley, Taking Charge of ADHD. Dr. Barkely presents the frequently recommended strategies of providing a predictable routine, catch the child being good, teaching appropriate behavior, and using external reinforcement.

One of my favorite strategies is to use the “positive time out.” Positive time out is when you put your child in time out when he/she is being good as opposed to bad. When a child is seen doing something desirable, he/she is told to go to time out. When in time out, the child is given a compliment for the positive behavior. Time out can still be used for more negative behavior, but the positive time out should be used far more frequently. If used in the right way, positive time out will result in fewer tantrums and more positive behavior of the child.

Children with ADHD often are only spoken to when they are doing something impulsive and inappropriate. In fact, parents of these children often only use their names when they are given a directive that the child does not want to do. Positive time out helps the parents establish a more positive relationship with the child by implementing a positive intervention. This intervention may sound very counter intuitive, but it works. Try it, you ‘ll like it. I use it with my own kids all the time. Our home atmosphere is very positive as a result. Let me know how it worked.

Steve Curtis, PhD., NCSP

Child Clinical Psychologist

Nationally Certified School Psychologist

Author, Understanding Your Child’s Puzzling Behavior

www.lifespanps.com

lifespanpress.blogspot.com

Welcome to Part 2 of our unit study on dinosaurs!  Last Monday your child read a short book to you which had a dinosaur as the main character, then you read some info from websites which taught basic science facts about dinosaurs.  After that your child learned some computer skills while writing a few paragraphs about what he learned.  You and your child also did a little math, learning about coordinates and grids in a game called Dinosaur Dig.  And he finished the unit lesson by drawing a dinosaur on the computer.

This week we’re continuing our dinosaur theme.  The subjects covered are writing, math, science, art, and memorization.

If you haven’t used our unit studies before, then first please read our previous post on How to Use Unit Studies on This Blog.

This unit study is different than some of our past studies in that it is extremely "link-heavy".  However, it’s not just a list of links like the results you get from Google if you type in "dinosaurs".  I visited tons of sites related to dinosaurs before deciding on these based on the the following criteria:

• Cool.  Yeah…not just interesting, but cool.  Most of the sites linked to here are the type I think most kids would think are cool.  They should do a good job of holding the attention of kids with ADD.
• Educational.  Of course!  Just because a site is fun doesn’t mean it can’t teach your child scientific facts or theories. 
• Flexible.  As we’ve mentioned before, our unit lessons are not for specific grades.  So we chose sites that can be used at different levels.  Explain just the basics to young children or kids with very short attention spans or go deeper if they are older or have longer attention spans.

DINOSAURS WERE REAL

Kids can sometimes get fiction confused with fact.  If you teach them about dinosaurs, they might just think you’re telling a story about make-believe "monsters".  Or that you’re talking about Barney. :-) 

Help them to understand that dinosaurs really existed and that this has been proven by fossils.  Explain that fossils are parts of animals or impressions in stone made from the animals.  Show him how this works by using Playdo or clay and have him press his hand or a few fingers into it.

Use the following link to show how dinosaur fossils were found and how they’ve built models based on those fossils.  Don’t bother reading through the info (unless you think your kid is the type that would be very interested in this type of info).  Scroll to the bottom of the page once you click on the link, then click on one of the links to one the museums listed.  Show your child the pictures of the dinosaur exhibits and talk about them a bit together.  Go back to the first page and click on a few more links to the other museums.  Don’t go to crazy with this or it will start to bore him.  This site is not as cool as some of the others, but is has the pics to prove the point:

photos of dinosaur exhibits and fossil mounts

Here’s a really cute video you can watch together about kids who go fossil hunting:

DIFFERENT KINDS OF DINOSAURS AND HOW THEY MOVED

Look through some pics of dinosaurs to see how there were so many different varieties of dinosaurs.  The "DETAILED TOUR" button shows you the different parts of dinosaurs.  If you click on the name of the part, it shows you a close up of it.  The "360 DEGREE" button lets your child rotate the dinosaur to view it from all sides.  The "SIZE COMPARISION" button shows the dinosaur size compared with that of a person.  But the coolest one is the "MOTION" button, which shows how it moved:

Dino Viewer

ANATOMY OF DINOSAURS

Go inside the body of a T-REX:

Tyrannosaurus: Airhead

HOW DINOSAURS DISAPPEARED

Ask your child if he or she wonders why dinosaurs aren’t around today.  Explain that no one is sure exactly how they died off, but scientist have a number of different ideas about how it happened.  View this video together about one theory:

The End of the Dinosaurs

DINOSAUR MATH

Time to practice a little math, while sticking to the dinosaur theme.  Here’s a dinosaur that your child can color with the appropriate colors after doing the math problems in the various sections.  It won’t print well if you don’t belong to the site, but you can create your own together by copying the idea here.  Change the math problems to make them more difficult if needed or to practice multiplication:

Color the Dinosaur

DINOSAUR ORIGAMI

Download and cut out a few of these dinosaur drawings and follow the directions to create little paper, 3D dinosaurs that your child can play with later.

Download-a-Dinosaur

DINOSAUR CONCENTRATION

Play this fun game of dinosaur concentration to help your child improve his memory:

Dinosaur Memory

DINOSAUR ONLINE JIGSAW PUZZLE

This online dinosaur jigsaw puzzle is lots of fun.  Help him with if needed.  I had fun with this one myself!:

Dinosaur Puzzle

WRITING ABOUT DINOSAURS

Have your child write a story about a dinosaur.  Instead of using the computer, this time have him do it by hand.  Help him to improve his handwriting while he works on it.  He might also want to draw some pictures in the story and make a little book out of it.

DINOSAUR MUSEUMS

If you can spend a day going to a museum featuring dinosaurs, you and your child will have a blast while learning a lot.  Here’s a link to a site with a list of states and where dinosaur museums are near you:

Dinosaur Museums and Parks

Here’s a video how you can search for fossils at the Dinosaur Walk Museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee:

PLEASE GIVE ME FEEDBACK!

If you enjoyed this lesson, please pay me with a simple comment on what you liked and let me know if you modified parts of this unit study.   Happy homeschooling!

Can you believe it’s Monday again?  Sometimes it comes too quick, don’t you think?

Anyway, it’s time for our Monday unit study.  Last week we focused on memorization by using physical exercise and games.  The weeks before that our unit study had dogs as its theme. 

This time we’re going to study about a topic that interests most kids: dinosaurs!

READ THIS FIRST

If you haven’t used our unit studies before, then first please read our previous post on How to Use Unit Studies on This Blog.

READING & SCIENCE

First, have your child read a story, or part of a story that involves dinosaurs.  If you child cannot read at all yet, then simply read to him.  As I mentioned in the unit study on dogs, we will soon write some blog posts that discuss how to teach a child with ADD how to read.

Sources of books (skip this subsection if you use our unit studies regularly since it will be repeat info for you):

Several weeks ago, I suggested using SwapTree, which is an online community for trading books you that you no longer want for books that you are would like to have.  Since then I’ve traded two of my own books that I didn’t want any more for two books from the Swaptree community.  They arrived in great condition.  You do have to pay shipping cost, which are a little under $3.00.  Plus I had to pay for a box to ship it in at the post office which cost about $1.50.  So it’s not like you can get the books completely free because of shipping costs.  But still, $4.50 for a book is pretty good.  Even used books on Amazon usually cost more than that (although you can qualify for free shipping from Amazon if you order enough books at once, totaling $25.00 or over).  So I think SwapTree is a great option.

If you choose to get a book or use one that you already have,  before starting, read through our post entitled "Tips on Teaching Your ADD Child How to Read Better".

Free online books about dinosaurs:

If you’d rather start reading right away and want access to lots of books completely for free, try these links below.  Which book you choose will depend on the reading level of your child.  Take a look through them and find one that he feels comfortable with.

Tyrone the Horrible (fairly easy reading)

Tyrone and the Swamp Gang (more about the same dinosaur)

The Lost Dinosaur (This link leads to a site where you type in your child’s name and the name of some of his friends, and then their names are included in the book.  It’s kind of cool. If the dinosaur book doesn’t appear as a link, it’s because each week two different books are featured.)

I’m Tyrannosaurus! A Book of Dinosaur Rhymes 

Reading to you:

Have your child read one of the books above (or one you have at home about dinosaurs) out loud for about 15 to 25 minutes, depending on his age and ability to concentrate. As with the books on dogs in the unit studies a few weeks ago, ask him what he liked and didn’t like about that book or the chapter that he read.  Ask him why he thinks the dinosaur or other characters acted the way that they did.

Reading to your child:

Next, read some online information about dinosaurs to your child.  Most of it will be above his reading level, but not necessarily above his level of comprehension.  If you’ve been following our weekly unit studies, you might still be reading The Call of the Wild or another book about dogs.  If so, continue on.  Don’t worry so much about the topic of each unit study that you stop reading a book that you find he is really enjoying.  But also try to dedicate some time to reading information from the sites below to him since it will teach him scientific facts and theories about dinosaurs.

Dinosaur Tracks  (Make sure to click the "next" button at the bottom, right-hand side of the page.)

Short ThinkQuest articles about T-Rex’s, fossils and extinction theories.  Don’t forget to click on the links in the left-hand navigation pane.

BREAK

Take a 10 to 15 minute break.  Try doing some vigorous exercises together like jumping jacks, pushups and jogging in place.  Click here to see why it’s good to take exercise breaks like this.

WRITING & COMPUTER SKILLS

Now have your child use your computer to type a few paragraphs about what he learned in the sites you visited together. 

Show him how to change the size and color of fonts in Microsoft Word or whichever word processing application you use.

Then show him how to save the file, find where he saved it on the computer and reopen it.  Have him do this several times until he can do it easily.

If he is used to using the computer and already knows how to do the above tasks, try teaching him something a little more difficult such as changing the spacing between lines of text and creating a list of numbered or bulleted items.  It’s amazing to me how many young adults know how to send instant messages, e-mail and so forth, but don’t know how to use many useful word processing features.  Teaching him these skills now will make it easier for him to use not only a word processing program, but other computer programs that work in similar ways.  In the future, we’ll have some unit studies devoted to computer use, teaching such skills as graphic editing, audio editing and even a little web page design.

GRAPHS

Teach your child about coordinates on a graph while he plays this Dinosaur Dig game.  You might have to wait for the ad to run before it shows the game.  Also, for some reason it first shows a race car game, then that goes away after a second or two and the dig game appears.

ART

If he enjoys drawing, have him paint a dinosaur online at: Artpad’s Painter.  After he finishes it, you can save it and send it to me at kbroccoli@homeschoolingADDkids.com .  I’ll then put a link to it on one of my upcoming blog posts so all our subscribers and visitors can see it!

JUST FOR FUN

Watch this cool video (below) of a puppet dinosaur that looks very real at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.  If you live near Los Angeles, it would be great to take your kid to see this.  (Very young children might be frightened.)

COMING NEXT WEEK

Next Monday we’ll post Part 2 of the Dinosaurs Unit Study.  Meanwhile, let us know how you enjoyed this week’s lesson.  Also, let me know if you have any ideas on topics for future unit studies.

If you’ve been receiving my unit studies for the past couple of weeks, you know that the unit study topic has been dogs.  Weekly Unit Study: Dogs Part 1 concentrated on teaching reading, writing, art, conversation, formulating opinions, math, grocery shopping, cooking, sharing and caring.  Weekly Unit Study: Dogs Part 2 focused on teaching more reading, writing and math as well as typing, responsibility, geography and computer skills.

Well, it’s Monday again, but instead of doing a unit study, per se, we’re going to work on your child’s memory by means of physical exercises and games.  However, some of the exercises and games will be related to the past two Mondays’ unit studies on dogs.  This will be a fun homeschooling day for your child and should keep him interested despite his ADD.

READ THIS FIRST

Before starting the exercises, it’s important to understand the two phases of physical memorization games.  Please click on the link at the end of the previous sentence to read about it.  Then click on your back button to come back to this post.

SPELLING

Fact Explanation/Review Phase

Two weeks ago in Weekly Unit Study: Dogs Part 1  you had your child read a book or part of a book to you.  After that you read a book to him that was a little more difficult than the one he read.  Grab those books again (or go back to the ones that you read online) and pick some words that you are not sure if he knows how to spell.  But make sure to also include some words that you are sure he can spell very well.  Including words that are easy for him to spell will help build up his confidence when you play the game.

Write the words on a large whiteboard or chalkboard.  If you don’t have one, you could just use a large sheet of paper, but using a whiteboard is the most visually stimulating and interesting to kids.  Leave space below each of the words you write.  Include no more than 10 words.  About half of them should be words he can already spell quite well.

Starting with the first word, mention to him what part of the book used that word.  If he starts talking about something that happened in that part of the book since you got him thinking about it, that’s okay.  But if his ADD makes him hyperfocus on a topic and he goes on and on about the book, politely tell him that it was interesting, but ‘let’s get back to the spelling of these words’. 

Next, have him write the word himself under each of the words you wrote.  Don’t focus to much on his handwriting, especially if he’s using a fat dry-erase marker on a whiteboard, but make sure you can at least read what he wrote.  If it’s so messy you can’t even read it, kindly say something like ‘I can"t make out those last two letters, can you write them over again?’

Now have him read the first word he wrote out loud, then spell it while looking at it.

Exercise/Game Phase 

This game is called the "Push-Each-Other-Around-the-Floor Game".  Yeah, it needs a better name, but I can’t seem to think of one (leave a comment with a suggestion if you can think of a good name, please). 

Get some masking tape or any other kind of tape that is easy to write on and cut 40 strips of tape about 2 inches long.  Together, write the words on the tape, repeating each word about 4 times (if you have 10 different spelling words).

If you have a kitchen floor with squares on it, such as a ceramic floor or a vinyl floor with design lines on it, place one piece of tape on each square.  Your playing area should be about 5 squares wide and 8 squares long.  Try not to place duplicates of the same words next to each other.  If your squares are too small to fit one of your feet on it, then use more tape to outline several squares large enough to fit your feet.  You can also use the tape to make your own squares if your floor doesn’t have any.

Now, stand on the middle line, 4 squares into the playing area, with your feet about shoulder distance apart.  Have your child face you, placing his feet a few inches away from yours. 

Put your hands out like your pushing on a door while he does the same, placing your left hand on his left hand and your right hand on his right, palm to palm.   Tell him to push against your palms to try to make you move your feet.  When you feel him pushing, push back, trying to make him move his feet.  Because you’re bigger and stronger than he is, you can probably make him move and resist moving yourself.  However, at times let up on the pressure so that he has the advantage. 

If you stumble and move your feet, ask your child to look at the square where the toes of your right foot are resting and read the word that appears there (don’t look at the square yourself).  Repeat the word that he read to you and spell it. 

If your child is the one that stumbles and moves his feet, then you should read the word while he spells it, without looking at the ground.

Each time you spell a word out loud it helps him, since he hears the word being spelled.  You count no points when you spell a word.  Each time he spells a word correctly you count one point.  If he spells two words correctly in a row, that’s two points.  Once he spells a word wrong, the score goes back to zero and he starts over again.  Spell the word that he spelled incorrectly and have him repeat the spelling before you resume the game.

It’s important to note that this is not a competitive game.  When educational games are competitive, it can distract the child from learning and decrease his confidence level.  However, if you have two children, they can play this game together, but their score should be collective.  If either of them spells a word incorrectly, their collective score goes back to zero.

The goal is to get 20 points.

Make sure that he realizes that you can only push against each other hands, otherwise it can quickly get rough and crazy, especially between two kids.

There will be lots of laughing as you push and shove each other, and you may find he doesn’t want to stop.  Our "Push-Each-Other-Around-the-Floor Game" usually lasts about 20 to 30 minutes.  By the time you are done, he will probably know the new words by heart.  If not, that’s okay, too.  Just continue to use the words that he spelled wrong the next time that you play the game together.

The key to this game’s success is making it fun for your child.  If he’s having a great time, he won’t think of it as just practicing spelling the same words over and over.  Could you imagine how he would respond if you just had him sit there and spell the words for 20 to 30 minutes, or used flash cards for that long.  Blah.  That would bore the life out of him. 

Share your experience with this game by commenting on it after you are done.   Feel free to have your child comment himself!

Let’s move on to the next memorization game, one involving math.

ADDITION

In Weekly Unit Study: Dogs Part 1 , you did some math together when you cooked the dog biscuits (simple fractions) and when you had your child figure out how much many bills to give the cashier and how much cash to get back.  In Weekly Unit Study: Dogs Part 2 , your child used math to figure out how much it costs to own a dog over time.  But in order to do math problems, he must first be able to add well.  In this game your child will practice addition.

Fact Explanation/Review Phase

Start with the whiteboard again.  Write 10 addition problems, without the answer.   Have your child fill in the answers to the ones that he knows.  Try to include some problems which you know he can figure out so that he’ll feel positive about the experience. 

Help him to figure out the ones he doesn’t know by memory.  In other words, if he doesn’t know the answer to 5 + 4, count out 5 of some item, such as buttons (not coins because they have a number value, and that can be confusing later on) and then add 4 buttons to them, then have him count the total number of buttons.  After that, count out 5 buttons again, and have him add 4 buttons, counting them as he adds them.  Finally, have him do that same step again, but this time have him put the 4 buttons he wants to add to one side, then tell them that as he adds them to the 5 buttons he must count starting with the number following 5.  In other words, he adds a button from the pile of 4 to the pile of 5 while saying "6".  The next button he adds he says "7".  This teaches him the concept of "counting up".  These methods help him to understand the conceptual side of math.

Don’t worry if he is slow at this, but if you see he is getting very bored or irritated, then just do a few of these and move on.

Exercise/Game Phase

If it’s not too cold out (we get some nice days in Winter here in North Carolina), play this game in the back yard or at a park.  He’ll love the idea of going to a park for homeschool!

All you need to play this game is a ball that you can kick, such as a soccer ball, a rubber ball or one of those cheap plastic balls that they sometimes sell at Target or Wal-Mart.  Oh, and you also need 4 sticks or rocks.

Place the sticks or rocks about 6 feet apart like soccer goal posts.  Alternatively you can scrape marks in the ground.  Do this on both ends of the field or yard. 

Start the game by saying a math problem such as 5 + 4, then kick the ball, trying to get it between your child’s goal posts.  He has to try to block your attempt.  If you get it in jump and cheer, but don’t count any points.

Next, your child yells the answer to the problem, in this case 9, and kicks the ball to you trying to get it between your goal posts.  (If he’s very young, give him a break and let him get it in once in a while.)  Jump and cheer again for him if he gets it in. 

If he gets the answer wrong, don’t kick the ball back to him. Instead pick it up and say "no, it’s 9, try again", but in a cheerful voice, and throw it back to him.  Since you gave him the answer, he’ll get it right this time.  On your turn to kick, say the same math problem again until he has done it 5 times.  This repetition is only for problems that he got wrong.  If he gets it right immediately, just move on to a new math problem.

Every time he gets one right it equals one point.  His goal is 20 points.  When he gets one wrong he goes back down to zero.  If it’s too hard for him or your time is limited, just try going for 10 points.

How hard the addition problems are depend on the age and math ability of your child.  If he can add all of the single-digit numbers, proceed on to double-digit numbers.  If he can do those, move on to triple digits, etc.

This game can go on for 30 to 45 minutes without most ADD kids becoming too bored.  If he does seem to get bored of it quickly, then every 3 points or so, play a one-on-one soccer game where he runs and kicks the ball while you try to get it away from him before he can get it in your goal and vice-versa.  This version of the game is great exercise for the both of you.

If the weather doesn’t allow you to go outside, try an indoor version of this game with two socks rolled up in a ball together.

These are just a few physical memorization games that we play with Steven.  They work fantastic.  I’m sure you’ll find the same.

Do any of you have any variations on this game?