how many projects do you do with your kids?

[ProudGrandma]

I mean, do all of you go out of your way to find really cool and interesting projects for your kids to do, create and make? If so, I must be one of the most boring homeschooling moms ever. I have 3 kids and I feel overwhelmed doing much over the basic lessons of the day. I don't look for extra experients or projects....but maybe I should. If so, where do I start?? i am curious what the rest of you do.

[NanceXToo]

It's not that I look for extra projects, it's that I looked for a curriculum to begin with that included cool projects instead of all textbookish stuff. Between Oak Meadow and SOTW we often have some sort of fun project or activity to do and they're usually simple enough that I don't feel overwhelmed by them.

 

With Oak Meadow there's a lot of integration...so like whatever we learn about for social studies, the reading material will be based on that for English, the writing assignment will be based on that (there's usually a choice of interesting/creative assignments to choose from), and there will often be some sort of project or activity to do, like she recently had to write a poem based on Persian-inspired themes of friendship, beauty or heroics, and then we did a paper-marbling project and she used one of her sheets of marbled paper to mount her poem on to make a nice frame/border for it.

 

Or you'll read a short lesson about ancient India and then it'll have you read the Ramayana for literature and it'll give you Indian recipes you can cook and it'll suggest listening to Indian music online and finding out what instruments are in the piece and drawing pictures of them.

 

Or last year we made lanterns out of tin cans (hammered with nails to make designs on them if I remember right and we used a bent hanger to make a handle for it), and made our own candles and stuff like that when we were reading more about American history.

 

So I like that it's more hands-on and interesting, but also all laid out for me with instructions so I don't have to think of that kind of stuff on my own.

[angela in ohio]

No.

 

When my dc have a passion in an area, I support it by providing them with books and supplies and help to do whatever projects and activities they would like, be it traveling or building a collection or building a model of something.

 

I also provide a full line of quality art and craft supplies and books of ideas and art lessons.

 

But I don't go out of my way to add projects just to add them. They are usually more about the product and not the process, and that goes against my educational philosophy.

[ProudGrandma]

thank you very much!

[fairfarmhand]

No.

 

When my dc have a passion in an area, I support it by providing them with books and supplies and help to do whatever projects and activities they would like, be it traveling or building a collection or building a model of something.

 

I also provide a full line of quality art and craft supplies and books of ideas and art lessons.

 

But I don't go out of my way to add projects just to add them. They are usually more about the product and not the process, and that goes against my educational philosophy.

:iagree:

 

This is me. We do participate in 4H which does fill in the gaps a bit. We also do tons of artwork and crafts for our county fair in the summer. We grow a garden and farm, so I guess our lives are a project, so to speak. It is just a part of who we are.

[regentrude]

None.

My kids HATE "hands-on" projects. They beg to be allowed to just read about the stuff in a book.

We do lots of field trips, travel, museums, concerts, theatre, National Parks... but mummifying chicken or building a diorama in a shoe box or jello-and-candy-cell model? The whole family would run screaming the other way. Fine with me.

[ProudGrandma]

the reason I am asking this question is based on my trying to figure out what to keep to show that I did actually educate my kids. I didn't want to keep a whole bunch of useless worksheets and others have told me they don't, but rather projects or pictures of projects they did keep. Well, what if we have very few of those....then what?? Yes, we have SOTW projects...we don't do them all or even one with every chapter, but we do have some. We have a science notebook (we use Nancy Larson Science) and my kids are making a writing notebook. But what else?? Will that be enough in the end???

[regentrude]

How much you need to keep depends on your state regulations.

We keep a portfolio with writing samples (essays and creative writing), tests (math and science), programs of performances watched/participated in...this sort of stuff.

(We don't do worksheets anyway.)

[Amy in NH]

No.

 

When my dc have a passion in an area, I support it by providing them with books and supplies and help to do whatever projects and activities they would like, be it traveling or building a collection or building a model of something.

 

I also provide a full line of quality art and craft supplies and books of ideas and art lessons.

 

But I don't go out of my way to add projects just to add them. They are usually more about the product and not the process, and that goes against my educational philosophy.

 

:iagree:

 

This is me. We do participate in 4H which does fill in the gaps a bit. We also do tons of artwork and crafts for our county fair in the summer. We grow a garden and farm, so I guess our lives are a project, so to speak. It is just a part of who we are.

 

:iagree: This is us too.

[Tigger]

My DS is a project kid - he loves doing projects, building things, creating things. Whether I initiate something or not, he'll do something on his own, so we have lots and lots of materials available to do just about anything he can think up.

 

Earlier in the school year it quickly became apparent I might be over-run with projects, so I started to take pictures of the things DS made, and added them to our binder for the year.....we now selectively purge as DS makes new things to keep the number of things laying around to a reasonable number.

 

Art projects he makes go up on the walls around our school area (dining room) - I take pictures too, but he likes to see them up on the walls.

 

To kfeusse - what you keep depends on what you need for reporting and/or record keeping. Where we live I only maintain records to show progress, how many hours we do school and what we do - I don't need to keep a portfolio specifically, but do keep a big binder of work throughout the year because that shows the progress if I ever need to prove it. We also do a standardized test at year end so I can have an independent measure of how DS did for the year (no testing requirement in our state, I just do it anyway). Taking pictures of things is a very efficient way to keep track of what your DC do during the year, especially if you don't keep it all.

[Ellie]

Not many, not unless it's something they really want to do and thought of on their own. Even when we did KONOS, I didn't choose activities that required projects.

[happypamama]

None.

My kids HATE "hands-on" projects. They beg to be allowed to just read about the stuff in a book.

We do lots of field trips, travel, museums, concerts, theatre, National Parks... but mummifying chicken or building a diorama in a shoe box or jello-and-candy-cell model? The whole family would run screaming the other way. Fine with me.

 

LOL! We did the jello-and-candy-cell model earlier in the year, and it was a hit. It did help them remember the functions of the various cell parts. (I just read about the mummifying chicken project in the SOTW1 AG last night, and DH and I were laughing about it -- we think they might actually enjoy that one.)

 

I go back and forth about projects. In theory, I like them and think they are an interesting way to add a dimension to a lesson, to make it more relevant, to break up any monotony of reading/narrating, to give them a sense of what life was like in a particular time period. In practice, it depends. A lot of the history project books seem, to me, well, silly. We tend to like stuff like games or recipes from various time periods, but with a lot of stuff, the kids want the real thing instead. They want to do a real historic craft, not an imitation. However, I'm looking forward to the SOTW1 AG next year, because we have not studied anything about ancient history yet, and I think the projects will be fun. If we get to them, that is; I'm not great about getting to them.

[angela in ohio]

the reason I am asking this question is based on my trying to figure out what to keep to show that I did actually educate my kids. I didn't want to keep a whole bunch of useless worksheets and others have told me they don't, but rather projects or pictures of projects they did keep. Well, what if we have very few of those....then what?? Yes, we have SOTW projects...we don't do them all or even one with every chapter, but we do have some. We have a science notebook (we use Nancy Larson Science) and my kids are making a writing notebook. But what else?? Will that be enough in the end???

 

Many homeschoolers tell you that because it is all they have. That doesn't mean it is the only way. :001_smile:

 

One of our assessment options in Ohio was a portfolio review. Yes, most people said to keep pictures of projects, because most homeschoolers were project-oriented. If you aren't, keep a book list, notebooks like you describe, a sample of worksheets completed, etc.

 

Definitely don't change your style to fit the assessment, though. If you decide that projects are what your dc need and that fits your educational philosophy, then go for it. Otherwise, make the assessment fit you.

[ProudGrandma]

I basically don't have any assessment requirements. We live in Nebraska and all I have to do is at the beginning of the year tell them how many hours I plan to do for each month, and what curriculum choices I have made for the year. I don't have to show them anything. This is why I am not sure what I sould keep or not. But it is sounding like I really don't need to keep anything, much...but the stuff I want to. I like that.

[lllll]

...

Edited December 24, 2012 by ksva

[joannqn]

the reason I am asking this question is based on my trying to figure out what to keep to show that I did actually educate my kids. I didn't want to keep a whole bunch of useless worksheets and others have told me they don't, but rather projects or pictures of projects they did keep. Well, what if we have very few of those....then what?? Yes, we have SOTW projects...we don't do them all or even one with every chapter, but we do have some. We have a science notebook (we use Nancy Larson Science) and my kids are making a writing notebook. But what else?? Will that be enough in the end???

 

We've been using a virtual academy for the past 4 1/2 years (this is our last year), and part of that was a monthly review that I wrote to give the "teacher" a good idea of what we covered. I wrote it in narrative form, explaining what topics we covered, literature we read, what we did, and where we went. I keep hard copies of those and a handful of samples from each subject for the year. (In Washington, you have to keep records but they don't specify how/what those records are.) I also blog a lot of our field trips and projects.

 

That said, we do projects. We started out with just SOTW projects but have lost interest in those because my kids are older than the curricula was intended for. So, we've done fewer and fewer over the years. We're working on returning to a project-based model but with bigger, more challenging projects.

[foxbridgeacademy]

Not really, that's what Co-op is for.

[2_girls_mommy]

Projects at home: My kids are 2nd and 4th now. When dd were younger, we did a lot of the SOTW vol. 1 projects, especially the easier, paper ones. The more involved arty ones we did several of and it created a love of history for them.

 

Now in the older elem. grades we do Drawing with Children for art. We try to work on that once a week, but at least 3-4 times a month. We do science projects for science as we are in chemistry, moving into physics. The goal again is once a week, but often it is more like 3 times a month.

 

We have zoo passes and a pass to a children's science museum. We go to these often, like 3 or 4 times a month too. There is lots of hands on there, and we take occasional classes that they offer and do all of the special events at both.

 

We do co-op and girl scouts, so there are projects there too.

 

DD9 is doing SOTW4, so she is creating the timeline book with that.

 

So I would say we do "projects" fairly often, but nothing huge or out of the ordinary. Most are written into our curricula, and require nothing but having art and recycled stuff on hand and setting aside the time to do them.

[sewingmama]

Every day -it's how my DD learns and the only schoolwork she doesn't refuse to do :glare:

 

I've never been one to mind cleaning up mess so that doesn't bother me.

 

I really have no choice in the matter - if I don't create "controlled" projects for my DD she will make them up on her own -which means bigger mess and using things she should not be using.

 

AND - (the big reason) it is required by our State under the subject Design and Technology

Edited January 26, 2012 by sewingmama

[NASDAQ]

We don't do projects.