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How I Teach Science to My Kids with ADHD

January 15, 2014 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

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Happy Wednesday, y’all! We’re back with another look at how we teach our kids with ADHD – this time we’re focusing on the teaching methods we use to cover science.

Unit Studies

If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m basically a fanatic about unit studies. 🙂 We’ve completed several together and we’ve found them to be great ways to help the kids connect science concepts with other subjects. For an example, check out our unit study based on the movie The Aristocats. We managed to include geography, history, art, and biology in that one!

Experiments

Nothing makes active and kinesthetic learners happier than movement and we try to make that a constant in science class. One of the best ways to do this is by simple experiments. And I’ve found out that they don’t have to be outlandish experiments either. Plain old baking soda volcanoes will do just fine…lol.

Nature Study

Whenever it’s possible, we try to take science class outdoors with a Charlotte Mason technique called nature study. As the name implies, you spend time studying science in the nature around your home. The idea of doing nature study was pretty overwhelming to me at first, so I was thrilled to try a simple program called Nature Study Printables for Toddlers and Preschoolers with Pooh and Roo a while back. We simply completed the activities and let the kids record their own observations. It was a big hit!

Interactive Work

This one, I have to say, was all my husband’s idea. When he covers science lessons with the kids that are from a textbook, he literally gets the words off the page by making the diagrams into interactive work. The picture above is one he drew from a diagram of the brain. As he covered the different parts of the brain and their functions, the kids found the matching labels and glued them in place. It was definitely a great way to help them understand the lesson. Just another reason why I’m thankful for a supportive homeschooling spouse!

Field Trips

I would venture to say that our kids’ favorite way to learn science is by going on field trips. We’ve gotten to explore some great places, including aquariums, museums, and nature trails. One of the highlights of last year was a trip we took to Callaway Gardens. The kids got to learn about birds of prey, exotic plants, and butterflies without sitting at a desk!

During a recent trip to Zoo Atlanta, we introduced several other scientific concepts, such as taxonomy, reproduction, and ecosystems. Plus, it made for great family bonding time. 😉

That’s our approach to science! We hope to see you back tomorrow when we talk about history for kids with ADHD!

This post is part of the 2014 Winter Hopscotch hosted by iHomeschool Network! Be sure to stop by and visit our fellow bloggers to learn how they teach science in their families!

How I Teach Math to My Kids with ADHD

January 14, 2014 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy here.

Hi everyone! We’re on to Day 2 of our Winter Hopscotch and we’re continuing with our theme of ADHD learning with a look at how we teach math in an ADHD-friendly way. Like with all of our subjects, we find that short lessons, movement, and multi-sensory learning are critical to helping our kids follow along and retain what they hear. Here are a few of the methods we use for teaching math in our homeschool.

Anchor Charts

I’ve previously shared a post about my love for anchor charts, but they deserve another shoutout here. I’m a bit of a type A personality, so making detailed charts and graphs is right up my alley…lol. But we find them to be great for the kids, since they make it easy for them to visualize abstract concepts, especially those involving math. We used the above anchor chart to introduce Tigger to multiplication last year and it was much easier for her to grasp when she could see it represented visually.

Math Curriculum

We don’t use packaged curriculum often, but math is a subject where we definitely find it best to follow a structured program. Tigger struggles with confidence in math and she tends to rush through concepts without taking her time to work through the steps or check her work thoroughly. Working with her on computer math software seems to help her become more involved in the process, so that she’s less likely to rush through it to get to something she’d rather be doing.

This year, we’ve been using A+ TutorSoft Math – both the printed version and the software – and we like the program a lot. It’s a very simple, uncluttered way to present facts without overwhelming her with too much information at once. The individual lessons are short, which keeps her from getting too intimidated to begin.

If you’d like to get a look at A+ TutorSoft Math programs for kids, you can visit the website by clicking the image above. You can even get a month-long trial of the online math program for homeschoolers absolutely free! If you decide to subscribe, be sure to use the coupon code LOOKWERE to save 20 percent! You can also pick up downloadable copies of A+ TutorSoft Math curriculum on Currclick.com!

A while back, we got a chance to try out K5 Learning, a supplemental online math and language program for kids. Tigger thoroughly enjoyed that program as well. It organized the math lessons into themed adventures that did such a good job of keeping her interested she forgot she was even doing schoolwork. 🙂

You can grab a free 14-day trial of K5 Learning by clicking the link above!

Math Storybooks

As I mentioned yesterday, we love to read in our family! We keep that thread going with books and stories that involve mathematics as well. Arithmetic Village offers a very nice set of downloadable math storybooks that is absolutely free! We reviewed them a while back and our kids just loved reading the stories and learning how to multiply and divide! Even Roo, our four-year-old ended up doing a division problem on the board after reading the stories. 🙂

Math Manipulatives

We also make use of math manipulatives with our children. Counting bears, Unifix cubes, and snap cubes are all useful for giving active kids a way to “see” the math problem and involve their sense of touch during the lesson. All of our kids, even Tigger, prefer to use manipulatives as they work on problems.

Unifix Cubes (100 count)

Baby Bear Counters (102 ct.)

We also put together a short video a while back about how we specifically focus on third grade math for Tigger, which you’re more than welcome to view below!

And that’s how we teach math in our homeschool! We’ll be covering science tomorrow, so feel free to come back and see how we approach science with our active learners!

This post is part of the 2014 Winter Hopscotch hosted by iHomeschool Network! Be sure to stop by and visit our fellow bloggers to learn how they teach math in their families!

How I Teach Language Arts to My Kids with ADHD

January 13, 2014 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

This post contains affiliate links. See our Disclosure Policy here.

Good morning! Today we’re beginning a five-day series on teaching school to kids with ADHD. As you might know, we’re homeschooling at least one child with ADHD (and possibly more), so we try to accommodate their learning styles throughout our lessons.

In fact, one of the biggest reasons why we stick with homeschooling is that we don’t want to use ADHD medication (yet), so we really work to adapt our curriculum to make it more ADHD-friendly. That means short lessons, variety, and lots and lots of movement. Throughout this series, we’ll be mentioning those three factors again and again.

Regular Reading

A big part of our language arts curriculum is reading. We read to and with our kids every day. We’ve shared our homeschool reading list for this year previously. Our 9-year-old, who has been diagnosed with ADHD, began reading at age 3. Our boys, ages 5 and 4, are also reading, though they started a little later than her.

Honestly, we haven’t used many structured reading programs with our children, at least not to get them started reading. We do, however, use some reading programs to help them improve their skills.

Phonics Practice

One program we’ve used this year is Reading the Alphabet, which we reviewed a while back. It’s a great, affordable program that lets kids practice phonics while completing lots of sight word activities, which makes it perfect for ADHD learners! You can pick up the entire program for just $10 below!

Reading the Alphabet Early Reading Program

Visiting the Library

Another way that we try to make reading fun for the kids is by regular visits to the library. All of the kids love going inside, picking out their own books, and bringing them home. In fact, on occasion, we’ve gotten to attend live storytelling sessions, such as an African storytelling performance we got to experience a while back.

Hearing books read aloud with feeling and movement seems to help the kids get involved in the stories and “see” the events as real life, not just words on a page. When we engage more than one sense with our kids, they seem to stay interested for a longer period of time. (A big issue for most people with ADHD)

Physical Movement

As I mentioned earlier, movement is a big part of our homeschooling lessons. With Roo, we did a Sight Word Stomp activity last summer that involved reading, running, and writing with sidewalk chalk. It was a huge hit! But really, any time we can add a physical activity into a lesson, we find that the kids remember it better.

Unit Studies

Unit studies are a huge part of our homeschooling lessons. And a big reason why we love them so much is that they are perfect opportunities to add art, crafts, music, movies, and play into our curriculum. When we cover a chapter book on our reading list, we turn it into a unit study that involves a craft project, a movie (if possible), and some food. We did something like this with our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory unit from earlier this school year.

Games and TV

On a day when a structured language arts lesson just isn’t cutting it, we are not above resorting to games. We’ve used MadLibs to teach parts of speech and the kids were so excited to come up with outlandish verbs, adjectives, and nouns that they forgot we were having class!

Super Silly Mad Libs Junior

Kid Libs (Mad Libs)

We also love to use songs and television programs to reinforce language arts skills. Our three oldest kids have memorized several of the grammar songs from SchoolHouse Rock and we use them to remind them of their essential grammar concepts. One of their favorites is the “Verb Song”. (I have been known to sing along to this one myself.)

Schoolhouse Rock! (Special 30th Anniversary Edition)

And that’s a look at how we teach language arts to our kids with ADHD! With these and other resources, we manage to keep them interested and engaged in our lessons, which is a big help to their comprehension. Be sure to stop by tomorrow to see how we teach math to our ADHD learners!

This post is part of the 2014 Winter Hopscotch hosted by iHomeschool Network! Be sure to stop by and visit our fellow bloggers to learn how they teach language arts in their families!

12 Months of Sensory Dough: Foam Dough

January 12, 2014 by Selena Robinson 2 Comments

Hey everyone! It’s time for our 12 Months of Sensory Dough linkup! Every month, I’m honored to co-host this linky with 11 other bloggers, including Dayna at Lemon Lime Adventures, Val & Alex at Glittering Muffins, Devany at Still Playing School, Sarah at Little Bins for Little Hands, Kimberly at Natural Beach Living, Melissa Ann at The Eyes of a Boy, Nicolette at Powerful Mothering, Amy at Wildflower Ramblings, Rachel at I Heart Crafty Things, Michelle at Delightful Learning, and Jennifer at The Life of Jennifer Dawn!

This month, we’re all focusing on foam dough. I got a great recipe for two-ingredient foam dough on Instructables and we decided to try it out with the kids. On Friday, we shared our unit study based on the movie “The Aristocats” and our foam dough activity was our own kid-friendly sensory version of Plaster of Paris. Without the actual work and serious mess, though. 🙂

As the recipe shows, this foam dough literally requires two ingredients: cornstarch and shaving cream. That’s it.

We poured the cornstarch onto the table – slowly. Don’t dump it all out at once, unless you like not being able to breathe…lol.

Then we added the shaving cream. You know, it’s not until you actually squeeze out an entire can of shaving cream at once that you realize just how much is in each can.

We went a little bit crazy with the shaving cream. 🙂

The interesting thing about making this dough is that when you first start to combine it, it looks like the cornstarch won’t stick to the shaving cream. We ended up using a rubber spatula to combine it. But the longer you work with it, the firmer it becomes.

Until, eventually, you have foam dough!

Interestingly, Jay decided to add a bit of water to his batch. At first, it got slippery, but as he worked it, it got firmer and firmer until it was almost solid like chalk. The kids did the same thing and thought it was very, very cool.

It seems like if you were to add enough water and form the dough into a shape, you could probably actually make a sculpture – like you could with real Plaster of Paris. Just don’t expect it to last as long…lol.

What I really liked about this recipe is that it’s fairly easy to clean. When we were done, we just took a wet cloth and wiped the table down. Easy peasy!

We’d love to see your foam dough experiments! Feel free to share your foam dough fun below!

Please read the following guidelines before linking up.

Share family-friendly posts related to the month’s theme. Feel free to link old or new posts that highlight your favorite recipes for sensory dough. Failures and unsuccessful attempts are welcome.
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By linking up, you give permission to share your post and one photograph in future posts and through social media channels.

Visit 2-3 other posts that others have shared. Discover new ideas and meet new friends!

The linky will remain open for two weeks. On the 12th of each month, all co-hosts will post a new dough with their spin, highlighting at least one post from the month before and pin each post to the 12 Months of Sensory Dough Board.

If you would like to, please grab the 12 Months of Sensory Dough button for your blog. And be sure to stop by and visit our co-hosts to get their take on the featured dough for the month!

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The Aristocats Unit Study

January 10, 2014 by Selena Robinson 6 Comments

Let’s face it: Kids will always love to watch TV. There’s nothing we can do about it. But we can turn TV into a way to learn and that’s why we put together a fun The Aristocats unit study! This is a neat way to weave learning into movie watching, especially if kids are obsessed with classic Disney movies (like mine are).

Since The Aristocats takes place in France, you can talk about geography. But you can also learn about pedigree cats, art, and much more! Read on to see what kinds of activities we did to go along with this children’s movie!

If you enjoy this lesson, try some of our other unit studies, including our Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs unit study!

The Aristocats Unit Study

This post contains affiliate links. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.

Naturally, we got started by watching The Aristocats. It was our first time seeing it, so we let the kids get comfy on the sofa.

That’s the life, isn’t it?

We watched it on Netflix, but if you don’t have Netflix, you can rent it from Amazon for just $2.99.

The kids loved it, but we wanted to make watching the movie into a learning experience. So we decided to spend some time learning about pedigree cats and the city of Paris!

We created a set of notebooking pages featuring several pedigree cat breeds, including the Siamese Cat, the Persian Cat, and the Japanese Bobtail Cat. If you want to use it with your kids, feel free to download our Pedigree Cats notebooking pages by clicking the image or link below!

>>>>> Pedigree Cats Notebooking Pages <<<<<

To do our research, we made liberal use of the Internet. About a month ago, we bought an HDMI cable for our television and now we do most of our online research in the living room using the TV. It’s much better than trying to crowd everyone around the computer screen.

As we looked up the basic information about our cat breeds, Tigger wrote down the vital statistics on the notebooking pages. By the way, all of the facts in the notebooking pages can be found on Wikipedia.

It must be pretty nice to have school in your robe.

After we finished our research into the world of pedigree cats, we decided to take a virtual tour of Paris. A lot of the iconic sights of Paris appear in The Aristocats, including the Eiffel Tower, the River Seine, and the Cathedral of Notre Dame.

We watched a playlist of Paris travel videos from Rick Steves to learn more about these and other sights of Paris.

After that, it was time to make our own pretend “Plaster of Paris”! We used a great recipe for foam dough. And the kids loved playing with it!

We all loved learning with the movie “The Aristocats”! We had a great time learning about cats, the city of Paris, and how to make foam dough!

Ready to try some other homeschool unit studies?

Plus, see more fun thematic units on my Unit Studies Pinterest board!

This post is part of the Movie and a Big Idea linkup from iHomeschool Network! Click over to read more fun movie-themed homeschool lessons you can use!

ASL Lesson 3: Days of the Week and Telling Time

January 8, 2014 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Hey all! We’re back with another lesson in American Sign Language today! We’ve already covered letters and numbers and basic greetings. This time we’re covering how to tell time in ASL and how to sign the days of the week, along with basic calendar terms.

Keep Reading…

Vegan Crockpot Rigatoni

January 6, 2014 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

Good morning everybody! It’s super dee duper cold here (for Georgia, that is), so it’s time to break out the trusty crockpot! We’re linking up with iHomeschool Network to share one of our favorite crockpot recipes for winter: Vegan Crockpot Rigatoni!

Even if you’re not vegan (which we’re not at the moment), this is a quick and delicious recipe that our family loves. I mean, I toss five ingredients into the slow cooker at around 2:00 and then we have a hot dinner at 6:00 p.m. It couldn’t be easier!

Yes, this recipe only has five ingredients. And they’re all kid-friendly! So there’s no “Ewwww!!! I don’t like this!” at the dinner table.

Plus, this is an easy recipe to customize. If you don’t like mushrooms, swap them for something else or leave them out. Prefer to use meat? Replace the vegan tofurky with ground beef. It’s really easy to make this into something your family will love!

If this is a family favorite, add our easy chocolate chip butterscotch cake mix cookies for a simple dessert!

Vegan Crockpot Rigatoni

We got the original recipe from the book Fix-It and Forget-It: Feasting with Your Slow Cooker, which I later gave away (like an idiot). Fortunately, the whole recipe is posted at Food.com. We’ve adapted the recipe to make a meat and dairy-free version below.

Yes, there are only five ingredients in this dish. (This is probably one of the reasons why I love it so.)

You’ll need:

16 oz. box of rigatoni

4 oz. Daiya mozzarella-style shreds

12 oz. Tofurky ground beef style

24 oz. spaghetti sauce (any brand is fine)

2 – 6 oz. cans mushroom stems and pieces

Cook the pasta according to the package directions, then drain it. Spray the inside of your slow cooker with nonstick spray. (You’ll be glad you did this later.) I usually turn my slow cooker on low heat when I put the pasta in the water.

Layer the ingredients in the slow cooker in this order:

1/2 of the spaghetti sauce

1/2 of the cooked pasta

1/2 of the ground Tofurky

1 can of mushroom stems and pieces

Repeat all of the layers a second time. I’m using a five-quart slow cooker here and it nearly fills it up, so you probably don’t want to try making this much with a smaller size slow cooker. If you have a smaller model, be sure to reduce the quantities of your ingredients.

Put the lid on the slow cooker and let everything cook on low for about 2 1/2 or 3 hours.

Since we’re using vegan “cheese”, we didn’t add it until the end. It’s not as firm as dairy cheese, so it takes very little time to melt it. By the time we were ready to add the “cheese” to the top, our dish was looking like this and smelling wonderful.

Sprinkle 1/2 of the Daiya mozzarella-style shreds over the top. Be sure you cover the entire surface with cheese. Replace the lid and cook for another 30 to 45 minutes.

Let’s take a look at how everything cooked underneath…

Oh my. That’s simply marvelous.

We dished it up and we served it and all the kids had seconds! If you want to round it out, you could easily add rolls and a salad for a full meal.

Full instructions and a printable recipe are below!

5 from 1 vote

Vegan Crockpot Rigatoni

Adapted from recipe at http://www.food.com/recipe/crock-pot-rigatoni-60703

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 4 hours

Total Time 4 hours 5 minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

16 oz . rigatoni
24 oz . spaghetti sauce (any brand is fine)
12 oz . Tofurky ground beef style
2 - 6 oz . cans mushroom stems and pieces
4 oz . Daiya mozzarella-style shreds

Instructions

Cook the pasta according to the package directions. Spray the inside of the slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Turn the slow cooker on to low heat.
Layer half of all the ingredients, except the Daiya mozzarella-style shreds, in the slow cooker in the following order: spaghetti sauce, cooked rigatoni, ground Tofurky, and mushroom pieces. Repeat with the other half of each ingredient. Cook on low for 2 to 3 hours.
Sprinkle the Daiya mozzarella-style shreds over the top. Continue cooking on low for 30 to 45 minutes. Serve.

If you’d like even more great slow cooker meals, check out the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook! (Affiliate link provided below.)

Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook: Feasting with Your Slow Cooker

Don’t miss these other easy recipes!

This post is part of the Crockpot Meals linkup from iHomeschoolNetwork! Be sure to stop by and visit our fellow bloggers for some great winter crockpot recipes!

For more simple family dinners, check out my Family Meals board on Pinterest!

Free Snowflake Math Factors Printable Activity

December 19, 2013 by Selena Robinson 3 Comments

Hey everyone! We’re back from a short break this week with a free set of homeschool printables that are perfect for winter learning!

Tigger’s had her struggles with math over the years, so we’ve had to add a little fun to our math work to help her stay focused. This month, we decided to tackle multiplication factors with set of free snowflake math factor printables! Read on to see how to get your copy!

If you like these, don’t miss our ideas on how to use them for a fun snowflake math factor craft!

Free Snowflake Math Factor Printables

To use these printables, you’ll need the following: (Affiliate links are included in this post. For details, see our Disclosure Policy.)

We designed the activity so that the snowflake arms all show numbers that are factors of the larger number in the center. They work on a diagonal, so there are three numbers already given and the kids have to find the other number that makes a factor pair.

Example: On the sheet above, the center number is 36, so all of the numbers on the snowflake are factors of 36. Kids will need to find the missing number in each factor pair: 18 x ? = 36; 9 x ? = 36; 3 x ? = 36, and so on.

To give Tigger a helping hand, we walked her through the first one. We’ve covered multiplication with her in the past and found that the circles and dots method seems to work best for her.

We decided to let her try the next one on her own.

She did great! She counted up the numbers and filled in the spots pretty easily.

We added some larger numbers in the pack as well to help kids test their multiplication facts, but a full answer key is provided at the back.

Scroll down to get your copy of our Snowflake Math Factor Printables!

Don’t miss our other winter learning ideas!

Get more tips for teaching math on my Math Mania Pinterest board!

To get your free Snowflake Math Factor Printables, sign up for our email newsletter! You’ll receive these and other educational resources in our exclusive Subscriber Library!

Easy Fall Snow Globe Craft for Kids

December 13, 2013 by Selena Robinson 9 Comments

I love fall. I just love it. It’s such a rich season – full of colors and textures and scents. It’s a perfect time of year to go into full-on crafting mode.

Since we had a lot of leaves left from our Fall Leaf Garland, I thought we could make a fall “snow” globe with them. And since I love easy kids’ crafts, it seemed like a quick and fun project to make. See how you can make this easy fall snow globe craft for kids!

If your kids love making this craft, check out some of our other fall learning ideas, including our Leaf Painting Activity, our Coffee Filter Owl Craft, or our Fall Leaves Unit Study!

Easy Fall Snow Globe Craft for Kids

This is a super dee duper craft to make with your kids. Just so you know – I’m all about the super easy here. 🙂

To get started, we just scrunched up a lot of our leaves.

If I ever want my kids to have fun instantly, all I have to do is give them the chance to destroy something. Look at that face! That is pure glee.

All ready!

A quick look at our supplies: crushed leaves, brown paint, a baby food jar, and baby oil.

Did I mention that this is really, really easy?

Paint a few barren trees on the outside of the jar.

If you want, go back and add a few white clouds.

Turn the jar right side up and add the crushed leaf pieces.

Pour in the baby oil.

Screw the lid on top. If you want to add extra hold, you might hot glue the lid on.

Turn the jar upside down and give it a shake!

Ooooohhhh….purty.

This entire activity takes about 20 minutes from start to finish, so it’s a great craft to put together in a hurry.

If you want to add a bit more decoration, you could hot glue a scarecrow figurine to the lid so that the scarecrow would be “caught” in the leaves when you shake the jar. You could also add a bit of glitter for extra sparkle!

Oh – one quick note: If you paint the jar first, give it time to dry before you go on to the other steps. I had to use the very tips of my fingers to finish the rest of the project…lol.

Want to make fall learning fun for your kids? Try these ideas!

If you’d like to check out even more fall crafts and activities, be sure to follow my Fall Activities for Kids board on Pinterest!

And if you want to get awesome educational ideas and resources in your inbox, use the widget below to sign up for our email newsletter!

20 Kid Crafts for Winter

December 12, 2013 by Selena Robinson Leave a Comment

Winter’s fast approaching and it’s a great time to break out some winter crafts for the kids! I’m not in love with winter, but I do love to make cute crafts and that’s usually enough to perk me up out of the winter blues. 🙂 Now that we have a very active preschooler, she always wants to make things with scissors and glue, so crafting is a perfect way to spend some time with her.

I’ve rounded up some of our favorite kid crafts for winter from around the web and I’m sharing them here today! We’ll be trying out a few of these this month and through the season, but I’d love to hear which ones catch your eye as well!

By the way, if you want more winter craft ideas, don’t miss our lists of penguin crafts for kids and snowman crafts for kids!