JoyfulMama Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Just learned that a friend has this little perk in her Mondays, and it's making me think that a regular perk here and there might be fun... Anyone else do a regular perk to their schedule? We've done Family Fun Fridays, and now do Dougnut Days twice a month, but those take up time outside the house. I'm thinking just a little perk, thrown into spice up the day a bit, while other things are getting done at the same time. So hers was Hot Cocoa with Math on Mondays... I'm thinking another possibility might be a hot cup of tea while we sit and discuss literature on Thursdays.... Or purposeful food math for snacktime one day... :lurk5: oooohh... now I am thinking popcorn for a treat too... Maybe I'm just hungry... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest janainaz Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 We do fun stuff all the time - random fun stuff. We're at home and have the liberty to make things as comfortable as possible. We're just always relaxed while we get our work done and I think that is why my kids don't mind doing school (most of the time). My ds makes a big tent and does his schoolwork inside it, some days we take work to the park and sit outside. I really can't imagine a school-like, uptight setting when there does not have to be one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardening momma Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Anyone else do a regular perk to their schedule? We've done Family Fun Fridays, and now do Dougnut Days twice a month, but those take up time outside the house. What are your Doughnut days like, and why do they take you outside the house? You could either buy donuts at the grocery store the day before (or earlier) or make your own. Do you have a deep fryer? Use those small, cheap refrigerator biscuits--the ones that come 10/can, often 4 cans fastened together. Poke a hole in each biscuit and slightly stretch the hole (some people pull out a piece to make a donut hole). Fry in your deep fryer--when one side is golden brown, turn the donut over and fry the other side until golden brown. After removing from fryer, immediately coat donut in powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar. These make really good, really soft donuts. They are best when eaten the same day. They aren't very good the next day (much tougher). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoyfulMama Posted December 4, 2009 Author Share Posted December 4, 2009 What are your Doughnut days like, and why do they take you outside the house? Our Friday mornings are often busy with shopping, so as a special treat we go get doughnuts before 10am storytime at the library those two weeks. (They are right next door to eachother.) And our Family Fun Fridays were scheduled fun time with DH - sometimes at home, sometimes out, but a dedicated time when the kids knew their father would be home, since his schedule was so variable when we did it. I'm just looking for some fresh ideas to ward off the winter doldrums... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JillZ Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 I'm just looking for some fresh ideas to ward off the winter doldrums... If you do science experiments or labs, you could always use the time to listen to some fun, new music while you're working. This is what scientists often do while working in the lab :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Alte Veste Academy Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Anyone else do a regular perk to their schedule? We've done Family Fun Fridays, and now do Dougnut Days twice a month, but those take up time outside the house. I'm thinking just a little perk, thrown into spice up the day a bit, while other things are getting done at the same time. Well, maybe we do too many but the kids love it. For school, we do art study during breakfast, lunch with literature readings, and poetry with tea every afternoon. This is all very light and informal but I love how it brings subjects that might get lost to the forefront every day. Maybe you could pick one and do it once a week? Our poetry tea is my favorite thing. Sometimes it is fancy, with really great tea, scones and cloth napkins, and sometimes it's just snacking while reading some funny poetry. It's good to mix it up. Then we do music appreciation every night at dinner as a family. Outside of school, we do movie night on Friday (with dinner at the card table in the living room, a huge treat for the kids) and game night on Sunday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyGrace Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 I LOVE Hot Cocoa with Math Mondays! Going to steal that one! We desperately need more fun around here :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathleen in VA Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 I LOVE Hot Cocoa with Math Mondays! Going to steal that one! We desperately need more fun around here :glare: :iagree: I like all these ideas - tomorrow will be Fun Friday!! Not sure how that's going to fit in with ds13's doctor's appt. to have his warts removed:tongue_smilie:, but I'll think of something.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muffinmom Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 love these ideas...would love to hear more :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
missmoe Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 (edited) I throw snacks at my little people if they know their vocab words!:D We review each week before their test. They sit in little chairs while I sit on the couch. I call out the pair of vocab words. If the words are synomyns, they stand. If the words are antonmyns, they stay seated. Sometimes I have choc. chips, or combos, or something small like that and I throw them to my dks who get the words right. They love it. We also play jepodary--every once in a while. My kids earn play money which they then use in an auction to buy little trinkets or snacks. Of course, this takes a lot of prep on my part. Edited December 4, 2009 by missmoe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tam101 Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 (edited) Great ideas! My son likes an Orange Julious now and then. 6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate 1 cup milk 1/2 cup water 1/4 cup powder sugar 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1 cup crushed ice Blend until smooth! We play the "Marshmallow Game" with math. Use small marshmallows as manipultives and you get to eat your answer! You can also do it with handwriting. Each correctly formed letter gets a marshmallow or an M&M, Raisin...ect Edited December 4, 2009 by Tam101 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Alte Veste Academy Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Great ideas! My son likes an Orange Julious now and then. 6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate 1 cup milk 1/2 cup water 1/4 cup powder sugar 1 tsp. vanilla extract 1 cup crushed ice Blend until smooth! Oh my! You're the only other person I know who makes Orange Julius at home! We have them all the time here, except my recipe calls for regular sugar and a whole cup of water. We love, love, love them! We play the "Marshmallow Game" with math. Use small marshmallows as manipultives and you get to eat your answer! :lol: We just did this today! After flying through 5 pages of math today, DS6 suddenly started moaning and couldn't get his brain to puzzle through the very last question. :confused: I went for the mini marshmallows. The whole time I walked back and forth to the kitchen to get them, I was thinking, "Oh, I bet you'll be able to figure out how many fewer pretty darn fast when it's you with fewer, boy..." and, sure enough, he did figure it out in about two seconds. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatieJ Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 A friend of mine starting homeschooling when her two youngest were teens. Every Monday morning they went to a local coffee shop.....kids had their books, Mom had their planner. They chatted, planned their week, and had a great time! Eventually those kids graduated and our friend bought a coffee shop. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristusG Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Love these ideas! I may steal some!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Alte Veste Academy Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 A friend of mine starting homeschooling when her two youngest were teens. Every Monday morning they went to a local coffee shop.....kids had their books, Mom had their planner. They chatted, planned their week, and had a great time! Eventually those kids graduated and our friend bought a coffee shop. :001_smile: Oh, that is so lovely. I'm in no rush to get there but it's great to have something to get dreamy over about the teen years. :D One more thing we do (it's so routine I didn't even think to mention it) is reserve all day Friday for nature. We have breakfast, do our math and then head out to our little oasis. We spend all day and listen to books on tape there and back. Then we come home and have movie night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoyfulMama Posted December 4, 2009 Author Share Posted December 4, 2009 I learned more from my friend... turns out they start their week with hot cocoa and math from autumn through winter, as a nice way to transition out of the weekend and into the week. Loving the ideas, though. And my kids ALWAYS look for ways to work mini marshmellows into our day. Never thought about throwing them at them... I think they'd enjoy that! I did move our radio into the kitchen, which is the center of our first floor. I'm learning my way through mp3s, as well. Computer is next to the radio, so I can alternate between downloaded and pre-recorded tunes, or flip on the radio if desired. Radio goes on every morning during chore time. But I've been bad at remembering to turn it on at lunch. We made toffee popcorn two weeks ago, and that was a great afternoon treat as well. Any excuse my oldest can find to work being in the kitchen into her day, she's happy. Keep the great ideas coming! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jujsky Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 Don't know if this has been said yet, but Fun Fridays. This is our first week. I promised the kids that if they could get 5 days of work done in 4 days, we could have Friday off & I'd take the kids to our local paint-your-own-pottery place. If they can repeat this next week, we'll go to see the new Disney movie with our co-op friends. It kept the kids really motivated all week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muffinmom Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 One more thing we do (it's so routine I didn't even think to mention it) is reserve all day Friday for nature. We have breakfast, do our math and then head out to our little oasis. We spend all day and listen to books on tape there and back. Then we come home and have movie night. Love this idea. What do you do in the winter? and may I ask what your oasis is? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Alte Veste Academy Posted December 5, 2009 Share Posted December 5, 2009 Love this idea. What do you do in the winter? and may I ask what your oasis is? Funny you should ask because today it was in the low 30s here most of the day (we actually got some snow flurries!) so we did not go. (DS6, DS3 and I also have a pretty icky cold, so that didn't inspire either.) BUT, we live in Texas so mostly we just go. The weather here is typically very mild and we can usually get away with just a cardigan or sweatshirt in the winter. It is rarely bitterly cold (so rarely that it doesn't kill me to cancel an occasional outing). Our oasis is a nearby state park. It's less than an hour's drive away and yet somehow in the middle of nowhere. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birchbark Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Tried cocoa with math today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mycalling Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 More food ideas: use edible markers to write on marshmallows or vanilla wafers. Use those for matching games, unscrambling words or make a big word they make as many small words out of as possible (can't remember the name of that game) or number 1-20 to put in order. They can put their name in order. Use food as counters for algebra: wafers for Xs, white mini marshmallows for numbers, colored mini marshmallows for negatives. As they balance the equation, they get to eat the stuff the balance out. Diagrams by decorating food like brownie battles or maps, cookie cells with frosting and sprinkles. Jello is great. Jello jiggler cut out shapes, letters, numbers. Jello cells or anatomy. School on the trampoline or in a tent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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