This holiday, we’ve been using some of our kids’ break to help them get a start on their studies. All we’re doing is half an hour or so of study related activities each day or so and the kids are treating it as a game.
Tracey bought some maths and english books from the local Newsagency for a variety of age groups offering worksheets. Miss8, Master6 and Miss4 are plowing through them. Because it isn’t for hours on end, and because we let them choose which pages they have a go at, it’s all just a bit of fun to them.
To be honest we’ve already noticed an improvement. It’s amazing how a little one on one time, and a boost in confidence, can really help them along.
To help with their reading levels, the last couple of nights, before bed, Tracey has been using flash cards. Even Miss2 is demanding to join in – she stares almost violently at the words and tries to repeat what Tracey is saying. This took less than ten minutes to get through all three of the older children, plus half a dozen cards for Miss2.
We aren’t raising Doctors or Rocket Scientists, we’re raising kids. We want ours to have happy memories of playing with each other and laughing a lot. But by the same token we don’t want them to end up adults who refuse to read books which don’t have pictures. Hopefully with a little of our time we can encourage each to discover their own potential and carve out for themselves an exciting and satisfying life.
When not typing away over here and checking his stats every two minutes Bruce Devereaux hangs out at his ‘BIG FAMILY little income’ Facebook Page.
’raising a family on little more than laughs’
such a good idea! my sis is doing similar- turning those 5c notebooks on sale at woolies into holiday journals, and getting the kids to write and draw about their day- she’s using lots of stickers and stamps etc to keep it fun.