You can take the teacher out of the classroom, but sometimes you can't take the classroom out of the teacher. For a homeschooler, that can be good and bad I suppose!
One thing I used to do as a ps teacher, and have continued to do at home, is to have a board in my classroom where I would have various things to "make them think." When I started homeschooling I wanted to continue this idea, and I came across E.D. Hirsch's Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. It contains all kinds of facts (which are interesting in and of themselves) but two things it has are comprehensive lists of English idioms ("get up on the wrong side of the bed", "as the crow flies," etc.) as well as proverbs ("Don't look a gift horse in the mouth", "Don't count your chickens before they hatch", etc) along with the explanations of each. When I came across this, I thought it would be fun to put those in the school room to see if they can guess what they mean, making it a fun way to learn the meanings and be "culturally literate." Another thing I found a couple of years ago is Object Mysteries, cards with pictures of random items that they have to guess. My son, especially, loves to guess what these are. I change them out as they figure out what the sayings mean, or figure out the mystery object... or if they finally give up. :)
It's been a fun way to keep us all thinking!
3 comments:
I love your way of using the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy! I have this book (50 cents at my library's used book store!), and I think I'll copy your idea. Thanks for sharing!
great idea, I might have to steal this...!!
I guess I am a visual person, I liked seeing the photo of the idea in action. thanks for sharing
I love to steal, umm... borrow ideas. I found both the book and the game on Amazon. Avery and Evelyn love them. Thank you for sharing!
Post a Comment