4real ladies were asking about pics of the folder games so am uploading a few in case you haven’t seen them in person.  Our favorites are the Carson Dellosa line, not for the great art (it isn’t) but for the variety of skills addressed and the age range covered by the series. Another mom reviewed the Evan-Moor books quite favorably. And there are some printable games free online. Free File games   preschool printables  free games from Mormon Chic  yet more games  Most of us prefer the books to the freebies in this case.

Some wondered about the prep time involved for the teacher. That depends.  If you personally are doing all the coloring, laminating and cutting then yes, its time consuming – at least initially.  There are short cuts though. One is printing directly onto colored cardstock vs coloring by hand.  The other is to enlist an older child who could use the fine motor practice.  If you choose the latter the game is not going to look as glitzy as the ones on the books’ covers but they enjoy them just the same.

The earliest games include things that go together, visual discrimination (matching pictures/patterns), shape work, basic counting (to ten), beginning letter sounds.  At the next levels they progress to single digit addition/subtraction, beginning phonics work (consonant and vowel sounds, capital and lowercase letters, etc), time telling to the hour and half, and so on.  The highest levels include games for parts of speech (noun, verb, etc), multi-place value addition and subtraction, fractions, contractions, ending punctuation, and the like.

What I like about these games is that they cover the same skills found in basal workbooks but they are nonconsumable and don’t depend upon writing ability.  Kids can progress based on their academics and not on their fine-motor finesse. This was huge for some of ours!

Basic construction: copy the game pieces onto cardstock (white or colored), tape half into an opened file folder as directed. Laminate or cover the matching pieces with clear packing tape and cut them out. Affix a small ziplock baggie to the back of the folder to store the loose pieces.  That’s it! You can store them in magazine holders upright on a shelf you can file them in a file cabinet. You can hole punch the folded file folder and store in a larg 3 ring binder as well.  You can also use poster board cut in half and folded if you wish for more vibrant colors than those which most file folders come in. They may not fit into the mag holder or cabinet however.

Now, take my word on this one, under no circumstances allow the children to play with the games when not supervised. You will be pulling your hair out when you open it next and find some of the pieces have gone AWOL.  Been there, done that. : / 

Figured I would explain the two games shown in the storage post while I am at it. First is a simple sound discrimination game made from craft sticks and varied sizes of bells.  (both available in the craft section of Walmart or the like) You put a bell on each end of a pair of the sticks.  In case you are thinking glue would have been faster let me save you the trouble.  The bells stick yes, but they dont jingle. : P   Play is most effective when the children are blindfolded so they can’t identify by sight. you can make the game harder by making intermediate pairs from, say,  small and medium bells.

Next is the poker chip patterning game from I Can Do It (see left sidebar – it is a must have!). You make mats from standard craft sized felt rectangles and trace chips in various patterns onto one side of the mats. To play the children can initially place chips right onto the tracing. I made dots on the outlines so if they wish they can practice patterns and counting by placing that number of chips in the pattern. Later they can reproduce the pattern on the blank side of the mat.  Much later yet they can make mirror images of the patterns such as those found in books like Building Thinking Skills.  I like games like this that have multiple levels of play.  More bang for your buck. ; D 

Elizabeth Donna Marie Theresa and the 4Real Ladies  have been sharing hands-on learning ideas lately which got me thinking. Homeschools rich in manipulatives are soon challenged by what to do with them all, especially if there are tiny people to watch out for.  Traditional Montessori environments call for open, uncluttered displays of the manipulatives. This works well if you have a LOT less books and furniture than most of us have. It can be done however!  This site http://www.berteig.org/melanie/Haifa/Homeschool/montessori.html  shows a smallish home set up with traditional Montessori principles.  If you are just starting out (with kids, with *stuff*, with furniture) you might want a goal room like this to work towards.

If displaying ALL your manipulatives at once is not practical, and it was not for us all the years we lived in military housing, you may elect to rotate smaller displays while storing the rest. Boxing and bagging are your best bets.  We love heavy duty zipper top Ziplock bags for storing just about anything. There are now two gallon sized bags perfect for oversized puzzles. I have typed out basic directions for use and taped them to the bag so if an older sibling wants to help they can easily see what to do.  The bags are see-through so there is still the element of self selection possible.

Bags can be stored several ways. You can put a small square of clear tape on the top corner and hole punch. Then several good sized bags can be strung on a large ring. Small bags can fit onto key rings. You can also hang the bags from multi-rack slacks hangers and store them easily in a closet.

Don’t forget other kinds of bags. Hanging shoe bags have unlimited uses! This site http://www.geocities.com/helenasplayhouse/PicturesNewChildCare.html has pics of of a home daycare provider’s setup.  She has labeled the pockets and hung them strategically throughout the house.  Just think!  You could store art supplies, flash cards, child sized table settings, fabric match games, color box cards, craft stick games, Cuisenaire rods, magnifying glass….  While your mind is full of closet organizer-turned-homeschool-organizer options consider hanging sweater bags as well. You can stack puzzles and games in those very nicely.

Natural Structure recommends these screw top plastic containers for small items.  By the time their hands are large enough to open the tops they are generally responsible enough not to eat (or lose) the contents.

There is no end to box options. We like the clear cheap Ziplock containers.  Sterilite boxes are sturdier. Both stack well.

You don’t need to purchase new containers by any means. Look at what you are throwing out. Plastic baby wipe boxes are favorites of mine.  They stack also and have attached lids.  Empty oatmeal containers are good for storing large materials like braiding and lacing boards.  Neither the wipes nor the oatmeal boxes  are see through however so labeling is more important. 

What else?  CD cases are very nice for holding the Montessori cards which are readily available from the Montessori Materials groups. They are the perfect size and you can store them vertically in a CD rack.

The playschool6 yahoo group has photo files of members’ environments.  These are great to give you ideas for how to house materials. Surfing for home daycare center images is also helpful.  These people generally have lots of stuff to store with the added pressure of home inspections.  As a result they have become savvy about storing their materials.  Whatever you decide to do commit to not bringing anything into the house without an appropriate storage  container.  You will save yourself lots of grief and lost pieces later.

Dear friend Jen and I have been hashing out her boys’ high school (homeschool) history options.  The available syllabi have been universally expensive or cumbersome.  While reviewing some of the options I stopped and googled "world history outline" thinking it best to give palatable hooks to hang knowledge upon rather than inundate with details. Look what I found! Student’s Friend  It is very similar to the geography core book recommended in an earlier post

This course focuses on core knowledge the student can be expected to retain.  We assume that the student will read widely from primary and secondary sources and historical fiction to round out the course, but this would provide a free, thorough core. Since the information is reduced to core facts there is less editorializing than is typically found in such a course. Big plus. 

Included are blank outline maps, a basic list of questions, quizzes, and a short course in teaching philosophy for mom. This last part is a short summary of the ideas found in many homeschool manuals and websites. Good overview explaining the value of narration, timelines, and other home education standby’s with the added perk of translating them into edu-ese for you should you ever need to explain them that way.

To flesh out such a course consider these sites:

Timeline Helps from Homeschool in the Woods  gives lots of practical help and examples for creating timelines and notebooks. Historical Movies in Chronological Order  has a list and short descriptions of movies to enhance your studies. Mr. Donn’s has a collection of unit studies for each era, should you desire more hands on activities for some time periods. Chronological Art lessons is just what it sounds like.  One, not 5,000<g>, art projects for each major era. A History Reading List like this one is readily available in homeschool catalogs that specialize in teaching with real books. Keep it handy for library trips. The linked list has the advantage of including several free ebooks of original source material.  Kidipede History for Kids is a site suggested by Theresa which I had forgotten about.  It is perfect for incorporating younger students in your studies. This site Picture History is a great aid for narrations once you get to modern times. Otherwise we do google image searches to illustrate timeline and narration pages like this Download Esther.doc narration from our newly 12 yr old daughter’s Old Testament notebook.

Just remember it is NOT by any means necessary to all of these things, every week.  If you try your head may spin.  If you do incorporate art or geography or literature into the history course be sure to document that work for credits in those areas on your transcript. If you already have a history course you are satisfied with you might want to download this pdf file to use as a quick review of the essentials.

Happy history rabbit trails to all! (Speaking of which remember the 4Real board has a wonderful history forum )