10 Days of Homeschooling with Diabetes - part 5 Family learning ideas

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Catch up on previous posts:
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

My children are like night and day so their natural inclination is to fight like cats and dogs. Obviously it is not our goal as parents to promote bad behavior! Our goal is to mold their character to the image of Christ, not to the image of self. They won't always live under our roof, and they won't always like the other people who live around them, so what better way to learn to "live peaceably with all men" than learning to work together at home.

We actually own three or four desks or tables where our boys can work independently without having to share their space with a sibling, but having two toddlers often makes that impossible.  Someone is always looking to steal your crayons!

With my diabetes I have limited energy during the day so we need to maximize our learning time and keep the interruptions down to a minimum.  We do that by combing some subjects and working together as a family.

So far we have only worked together on Science Unit studies.  Even though we live in the mountains of Peru the boys were obsessed with studying the ocean. We bought a few notebooks, looked up some ocean facts, read some books together, cut and glued, ooh-ed and aah-ed and basically made a huge mess at the dining room table. But to see those huge grins on their faces, and hear them eagerly sharing all of the new things they learned with their father was priceless.

What kind of things do we learn working together?

• How to wait patiently for instruction on how to do their assignment.
• How to share and take turns using school supplies.
• How to listen when someone else is speaking instead of talking over them.
• How to praise others instead of criticize.
• How to be kind and loving when others are not.

The list goes on and on. Character building, social skills, teamwork...it's not always pretty, but we're working on it!  The Princess is also there, adding her "two cents", asking the boys to please pass the crayons, and doing her own "school". 

This year we plan to incorporate group learning for Bible, Memory Work, Singing, Music, Art, Geography, Science, and P.E.  Basically we will only divide for Language Arts and Math!  Imagine how much time this mama saves by teaching our family as...well, as a family!

What tips do you have for working together with your kids?

Be blessed!

Casandra