The Joy of Teaching – Page 11 of 46

August 31, 2020
by Evan-Moor
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What Type of Learner Is Your Child?

Every child learns differently and will respond to different teaching strategies depending on his or her learning style. Some students will excel with hands-on activities, while others prefer quiet reading or writing-based learning. So what are the different learning styles, and which one does your child prefer? Below are tips for how to identify what type of learner your child is and how to incorporate strategies to help him or her learn best.

What are the types of learning?

There are seven main types of learning styles, and though students can process all seven, usually one stands out as their strongest. The seven types are:

Auditory (aural-musical)
Visual (spatial)
Verbal (writing-speaking)
Kinesthetic (physical)
Social (interpersonal)
Solitary (intrapersonal)
Logical (mathematical)

Teachers often use a combination of these styles in class, but adapting at-home learning or study activities to your child’s strengths will help him or her excel. For example, if your child is an auditory learner, encourage him or her to practice other types of learning, but emphasize reading out loud, listening to music, etc.

Auditory Learners

Auditory learners thrive in situations where directions or lessons are spoken rather than written. They prefer listening to audiobooks rather than reading, or would rather give an oral report on something than write a report on it. Your child may be an auditory learner if he or she:

Likes background music when playing or trying to sleep
Talks to others or self frequently
Asks lots of questions
Enjoys reading aloud
Has difficulty understanding written instructions

If your child is an auditory learner, there are several learning strategies you can adapt in at-home work and studying. These include:

Using rhyming word games to help memorization
Reading aloud whenever possible
Use video or audio tapes instead of reading materials
Recite and repeat vocabulary or study materials with eyes closed
Talk through difficult areas
Working in a quiet environment or playing soft background music

Visual Learners

Visual learners excel when they have strong visual aids or examples included in their learning. They prefer charts, graphs, and pictures in their activities, and may work better after seeing a demonstration of what they’re supposed to do. Your child may be a visual learner if he or she:

Likes movies or TV better than reading, audiobooks, or music
Likes drawing, pictures, or art activities
Struggles with auditory directions or verbal instructions
Becomes impatient or disengaged when listening to something
Processes information better when it is displayed as a chart or graph

Visual learners will improve their learning and memorization with strategies like these:

Color coordinating notes and using different colored pens
Flashcards for study facts
Drawing diagrams or charts for memorization
Show problem solving when working with multi-step problems

Verbal

These learners are often grouped with visual learners, but while visual learners benefit from pictures, verbal learners prefer words through writing and speaking. They will like reading comprehension questions that directly relate to the passage they just read as well as interacting with the text. Your child may be a verbal learner if he or she:

Likes reading books or stories
Can recall information from something he or she read
Has trouble concentrating with auditory distractions
Doesn’t process oral or visual presentations well

Use strategies like the following to help your reading/writing–style child improve his or her study methods:

Copy notes by hand instead of typing
Repeat writing important information for memorization
Provide written instructions for activities
Keep notes organized with headings, titles, etc.
Write notes in the margins of readings

Kinesthetic Learners

Learning by doing is the best way for kinesthetic learners to learn. They will prefer hands-on activities and have a hard time sitting still while learning. They will learn better by doing and figuring it out for themselves rather than watching someone else do it. Your child may be a kinesthetic learner if he or she:

Has difficulty processing reading or auditory material
Likes sports, science experiments, or other hands-on activities
Likes study activities and games
Likes puzzles or figuring things out independently

For these types of learners, try the following study strategies:

Play study games instead of using flashcards
Create practice tests to simulate test environment
Act out situations instead of reading about them
Use movement or whiteboards for studying activities instead of sitting still

Social Learners

Students who are social learners will process and understand better when working in a group. Group activities and projects, as opposed to individual work, will benefit these types of learners. This has more to do with the setting they thrive in rather than the style of learning. They can be visual, auditory, or other learners as well. Your child may be a social learner if he or she:

Gravitates toward groups
Is extroverted
Naturally assumes a leadership role in a group
Learns and performs better in group settings

For these learners, practice some of the following activities and learning strategies:

Form study groups with friends and classmates
Play group games
Work/study in partners
Repeat information back to a partner instead of writing it out

Solitary Learners

Solitary learners prefer working independently rather than in groups; this is the setting they prefer, whether they are auditory, visual, or reading/writing learners. This style of learner will focus better when working individually. Your child may be a solitary learner if he or she:

Works faster, better, and more efficiently alone.
Is generally independent
Behaves privately
Has a hard time concentrating in busy areas or loud groups

Use study strategies like the following for your solitary learners:

Provide quiet or independent study time, especially in stressful or busy environments
Provide lots of visual and reading/writing materials for your learners, so they have plenty to work on individually
Limit group projects or work so as to not overwhelm your students
Encourage your learners to work individually but share with a partner or group

Logical Learners

Logical learners benefit from mathematical learning activities and will prefer logical processes to abstract ones. Logical learners may benefit from both individual and group settings. Logical learners will exhibit the following:

Strong pattern and number recognition
Interest and talent in math and science
Difficulty with creative or abstract subjects
Understanding of statistics or facts

Encourage the following strategies to help your logical learners:

Include puzzles, numbers, or statistics whenever possible
Make vocabulary into a crossword puzzle
Develop systems or patterns in all subject areas to help logical students process information

Helping students recognize what study strategies work for them will help develop study habits and patterns that will help them down the line. It’s also important to note that not every child has just one learning style and that children will need help figuring out what works best for them by testing out different strategies. Observe your child in a working environment and play games to figure out what works best!

For more learning ideas and tips, subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter.

Christine Wooler has experience working with children as a youth soccer coach and summer camp counselor. She is currently studying English Literature and journalism in college. She enjoys exploring educational topics that help students have fun while learning.

August 31, 2020
by Evan-Moor
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Main Idea and Details and Tips to Teach It

Identifying the main idea of a text is the first step in learning to summarize important information. In addition to being one of the most important reading comprehension skills, it is also one of the most difficult to teach and for students to understand. Mastering main idea and details will serve as a foundation as students are assigned more advanced reading and must draw out the main idea. This then builds to complex analysis, making it crucial that students start practicing this skill at a young age.

Below are some tips and resources that will help you teach the main idea and details of a text and improve students’ reading comprehension. These strategies for helping students identify main idea and details are from Evan-Moor’s Reading Comprehension Fundamentals for grades 1–6.

What Is a Main Idea and Why Is It Important?

The main idea of a paragraph, story, or book is the overall “big idea” that the reader should walk away with. This could be a lesson, a moral, or just a concept. The main idea you get from a short story is going to be very different from the main idea you get from a passage in your history textbook. It’s important that students grasp the main idea, because without it, they cannot fully understand what they have just read. It is also the piece that completes the puzzle of all the other details in the story, tying them all together. Understanding how to identify the main idea is the first step is helping children learn to summarize what they read.

Tips for Finding the Main Idea

Summarization: Break the reading into chunks, whether it’s by sentence, paragraph, section, etc., and have your students summarize each chunk of text. This will help make the reading more manageable, and will help narrow down important details that support the main idea.
Highlight and Make Notes: If your students have access to the material in a hard copy format that they can write on, encourage them to highlight important details and cross out unimportant ones as they go. Post-It notes are great for note-taking in a school library book. Keep a pad nearby so children can make a note on a page without marking up the text. This is a great exercise for narrowing down the possibilities for the main idea.
Process of Elimination: If your students are having trouble finding the main idea, have them come up with 3 or 4 ideas of what it may be, then one by one see if each one connects to all other pieces of the story. Is it supported by other details? Does it connect all pieces together? If it doesn’t, it’s not the main idea. Keep doing this until one fits.
Look for Important Repetitive Phrases: Using the highlighting method, circle (or write down) repetitive key phrases. For instance, if one phrase, word, or idea is repeated a lot, it is probably very important, and will help determine what the main idea is.
Use Headings and Subheadings as Clues: Using passages with titles or subheadings is a good place to start, as it provides an inherent clue. The main idea of a passage is directly related to the title of the passage or the heading it lies under. This will help narrow down important details to find the main idea.
Find Supporting Details: The main idea will be supported by many other details in the story, and these details will “prove” why your choice is the main idea. Practice finding these as well as the main idea, as they will become increasingly important in reading comprehension and writing. Finding supporting details will also make finding the main idea easier.

Download a free main idea and supporting details worksheet from Reading Comprehension Fundamentals here.

If you’re reading with your children at home, you can help them learn to identify main idea and details by asking these questions:

What is the topic sentence? Most of the time (but not always), the main idea is stated in the topic sentence of a paragraph or essay. Ask your child to re-read the first sentence or paragraph of their reading text to see if the author points out what topic he or she will be discussing.
What is the lesson? It is easier to identify the main idea in a nonfiction article than in a piece of fiction. If you are reading fiction, ask your child what the moral or lesson in the story is.
Can you connect writing to reading? Remind your children about the format they use when they write a paragraph. They can make a connection between where they insert their topic sentence and supporting details and where main ideas are located in a text.

Practice Clue Games

To get your students thinking about clues as supporting details, make a mystery bag.
Inside this bag will be several items that all relate to one main idea.
For example: flour, eggs, frosting, cake mix.
Pull each of these items out one by one and have your students try to determine what the main idea is.
These items are all connected by the idea of “making a cake.”
This is the main idea; the things in the bag are the supporting details.

Reading Comprehension Fundamentals Grades 1–6

Reading Comprehension Fundamentals covers all the foundational elements in reading fiction and nonfiction writing. It teaches skills and strategies such as: fiction and nonfiction texts, genre studies, author’s purpose, inferences, main idea and details, compare and contrast, and more! These units practice different strategies to find common themes in passages that range in length and difficulty.

Download free sample lessons for Reading Comprehension Fundamentals here.

Improving reading comprehension will help your students excel in all subject areas, and being able to identify main ideas based on supporting details will become a crucial skill throughout their educational career. As your students advance to more difficult readings, having the foundational skills to help them fully understand what they’re reading will help them succeed.

For more learning ideas and tips, subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter.

August 18, 2020
by Evan-Moor
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Why Reading Nonfiction Is Important and How to Teach It – Free Reading Comprehension Lessons

Reading nonfiction makes up the majority of the reading curriculum, from kindergarten all the way through high school. Students’ classes outside of English, such as science, history, or math, use primarily nonfiction texts to teach content, making nonfiction reading an essential skill. Recently, education standards have put a greater emphasis on nonfiction reading, but teaching it can be difficult, especially in the younger grades. Here are some tips and resources to help you teach nonfiction reading comprehension strategies successfully.

Why Is Nonfiction Reading Important?

Being able to successfully read and comprehend nonfiction text becomes increasingly important as children advance to higher grade levels. They’ll find that through high school and college, the majority of their daily reading is nonfiction, and being able to analyze and understand it will be a key factor in their success.

Taps Children’s Interest: Nonfiction will also appeal to students who are interested in areas other than English, and will improve their overall reading skills. Students who don’t enjoy reading fiction will find that nonfiction appeals to their interests, and thus will be more motivated to read daily because they’ve found a topic they enjoy reading about.
Builds Knowledge: Reading nonfiction builds social and global knowledge at an early age and connects children of different nationalities because it enables them to learn about each other’s homes and cultures.
Academic Vocabulary: Important vocabulary that children will use in their writing and speech often comes from reading nonfiction. While fiction provides casual vocabulary and speech patterns, nonfiction usually provides more elevated and formal language.

Strategies to Improve Kids’ Nonfiction Reading Comprehension

Reading Informational Text for grades 1–6 provides practice and strategies for developing nonfiction reading skills and comprehension. Below are listed tips and strategies from this teaching resource that are great for at-home practice or teaching activities for the classroom. Nonfiction reading articles and comprehension strategies in each grade level provide reading topics on multiple subjects such as geography, biology, social studies and more.

Text Structure: Start by teaching children the characteristics of nonfiction text, such as text structure. This means students will be able to recognize nonfiction text based on characteristics such as headings, maps or charts, indexes, etc. Learning this distinction will help increase overall reading comprehension.
Determine Importance: Main Idea vs. Interesting Details: With all reading, determining the main idea of a text and its supporting details will help children fully comprehend the text. Use headings and charts to help determine what the most important details of the text are. Often, a good question for a child to answer is:
“Why did the author write this?” or
“What was his or her purpose?”
Ask Questions: As students read, have them write down questions they may have. This will develop their overall comprehension of the reading and enhance their understanding of the content.
Use Visual Notetaking to Organize Information: Obtain hard copies of the text that students can highlight, underline, and take notes on. Being able to separate and organize information as they read will help with their comprehension and keep longer texts manageable. This is also useful for finding main ideas.
Summing It All Up: Either by section, paragraph, or chapter, have students write a short summary about what that section was about. This will help them find main ideas and important details and quickly review key aspects of the text.
3-2-1 Strategy: As a class or individually, after reading the text, have students write down 3 things they discovered, 2 interesting things, and 1 question about the topic. This will increase their understanding of the topic, improve comprehension, and maintain interest.

Reading Comprehension Fundamentals for grades 1–6 provides the perfect balance of fiction and nonfiction texts and systematically teaches skills and strategies to help children practice important comprehension concepts.

Download free sample lessons of Reading Comprehension Fundamentals here.

Nonfiction reading makes up a good majority of daily reading as students grow and advance, so don’t wait to start teaching them these valuable skills! Use different strategies and topics to keep students engaged in their reading, whether it is nonfiction or fiction.

For additional nonfiction reading resources check out Nonfiction Reading Practice for grades 1-6.

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August 17, 2020
by Evan-Moor
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How to Teach PreK at Home with Evan-Moor

Becoming your child’s preschool teacher is an academic extension of what you already do as a parent: teach. As a parent, you already have experience teaching your child, and teaching preschool at home is not incredibly different. The key to transitioning from parenting to at-home preschool teacher is to be engaging, structured, and flexible! The best way to foster a love of learning at home is to guide children through hands-on activities and give them opportunities to explore and express themselves. The following tips, tricks, and activities will inspire your own at-home, well-organized, and engaging preschool curriculum.

1. Establish a Daily Schedule

Having a routine or schedule is vital to ensuring a successful learning-at-home environment. Especially with preschoolers, timing and routine are important to get the most out of their attention spans. Typically a preschooler’s attention span is only 15 minutes, so your learning schedule should consist of a recommended three 15-minute-long learning sessions, broken up by equally long breaks that focus on movement or hands-on activities (examples given below).

While making your daily learning schedule, include your child in the process so he or she understands the importance of the routine. This will also help establish your role as teacher in the home setting, and ensure your child feels like he or she is in a learning environment. When constructing your schedule, remember to incorporate your other time demands, such as working from home or providing academic support for other children.

2. What Kind of Learner Is Your Child?

Determining the types of activities your child learns best from and incorporating these into your curriculum will reinforce positive learning experiences for your child. Does your child prefer visual aids? Hands-on? Auditory? If you’re not sure, ask your child the following questions:

What is your favorite thing to learn about?
Do you like art or outdoor activities better?
Do you like hearing stories or watching movies better?

Pay attention to the answers and adjust your learning curriculum to fit your child’s needs. If your child is having trouble sitting still while learning, increase the frequency or duration of your movement breaks.

3. How to Start the Day

Beginning your child’s day with morning mindfulness is a great way to establish routine and prepare for learning. Transition into songs or chants about the alphabet or letters to provide a foundation for learning these concepts. Here are some examples of morning mindfulness:

Taking three deep breaths
Stretch up to the sky and down to your toes
Choose a positive theme statement and repeat it each morning; for example, “Learning makes my brain grow.”
Sing the alphabet song or chant the alphabet and say what sound each letter has, such as: “A” says /aaaa/, “B” says /bbbb/ etc.
If your child has the alphabet down, recite the alphabet, but for each letter, say a word that begins with that letter (a=apple, b=banana…).

4. What to Teach?

It can be overwhelming to plan a preschool curriculum by yourself. The basics are a great place to start. Begin your reading curriculum with the alphabet and beginning sounds and your math curriculum with basic counting 1–10. Add one letter and number each week until you have successfully incorporated all 26 letters and numbers 1–10.

Sample Preschool Curriculum

Evan-Moor’s Homeschool Curriculum Bundles PreK provides everything your child needs for practice of essential skills for preschool (ages 4–5 years). The fun illustrations, interesting themes, art projects, and hands-on and written activities will keep your child engaged in learning important PreK skills—and get ready for kindergarten! Each bundle includes:
- 11 colorful activity books and flashcards
- Activities that cover basic foundational skills for reading, writing, language, math, science, geography, and critical thinking.
- Downloadable Homeschool Teaching Guide with teaching tips and activity ideas.

Activity Books to Enhance Your Preschool At Home

Early learning resources are not hard to find, but finding the one that best fits you and your child’s needs is important. Here are some links and descriptions for Evan-Moor’s early learning workbooks:

Skill Sharpeners: Reading for PreK provides basic reading exercises, focusing on one letter at a time. Within these fun and colorful activity pages are reading comprehension, vocabulary, phonetics, and other fundamental skills to practice reading basics.
Skill Sharpeners: Math for the PreK level introduces numbers 1–10 in short educational activity pages. Each unit has a theme to keep things interesting and provides excellent math practice at home.
Skill Sharpeners: Science uses songs, rhymes, and hands-on projects to teach preschoolers about different types of science! They’ll learn about life science, earth science, and physical science, all with fun activities and simple concepts that they’ll see in their daily lives.
Skill Sharpeners: Grammar and Punctuation for PreK provides fundamental instruction on grammar and punctuation concepts like types of words, periods, and capitalization. Using riddles and word games, the workbook presents and practices these fundamental concepts for early learners.
Smart Start series: The Smart Start series for PreK presents three different workbooks, each focusing on a different subject area. These activity books specialize in early learners and supply a balance of fun activities and worksheets. Check out each title below:

5. Hands-on Learning Activities

Though including workbooks in an at-home curriculum is important, teaching such a young age group means that a balance of materials is essential. Preschoolers have a very short attention span, so overdoing it on hard copies of worksheets may turn them off to learning. It’s important that you include plenty of hands-on activities to balance out your workbook load. Check out some of the learning activities we recommend below:

Scavenger hunt: A small scavenger hunt can be adapted for any type of preschool learning! Place numbers, colors, or animals throughout the house or yard and have a scavenger hunt to find them. This will practice recognition of each color or animal. Practice counting the number of items you find. You can also say the name of the animal and identify the letter of the alphabet it starts with.
Practice letters with playdough: Create tactile learning experiences by using playdough to form alphabet letters.
Sorting colors: Use a pack of colorful items such as pompoms, M&Ms, skittles, etc., and pour them all out on a table or plate. Practice naming colors and sorting them into piles, and then practice counting each pile. This will also practice fine motor skills. Once your child understands numbers 1–5, you can have him or her count out 1–5 of each item.
Music time: One-on-one music time between parent and child is an excellent activity! It’s hands-on and engaging and can get them interested in music. Create your own instruments with paper plates, cups, and dried beans.
For more hands-on learning for preschoolers, check out the blogs linked below.

Kindergarten Readiness Checklist: What Does My Child Need to Know for Kindergarten?

6. Creative Time

Designate time that is specifically for your child to express his or her creativity. This can be time when you are doing something else nearby, or working alongside your child, but encourage your child to work independently in order to express him- or herself. Here are some ideas for creative time:

Drawing or coloring
Making or playing homemade instruments
Building with blocks or Legos
Molding with playdough or clay
Alphabet Puppets: Create fun puppets for each alphabet letter your child learns.
Jumbo Fun with the Alphabet: Introduce letters and letter sounds with the fun hands-on activities provided in this e-book.
Paper Tube Zoo: Create animal-themed art in this fun hands-on activity! Act out a story with your paper tube zoo!

7. Exercise

Exercise and movement breaks are essential in at-home learning. Pay attention to your child’s preferences and schedule your movement breaks around when he or she has the most energy. Movement breaks can be a number of things, depending on what your child enjoys. Maybe your child enjoys running around alone in the backyard, or perhaps being sociable with family members and exercising together is preferable. Cater to your child’s needs to maximize these movement breaks and leave your child ready to learn again.

You can also use your exercise time to practice math or science. For example:

Hopscotch and counting
Counting things in nature like flowers, bushes, trees, etc.
Observing animals and nature outside
Set out colored or numbered cones. When you call one out, your child has to race to that cone! Great for awareness and recognition.
Play Simon Says with active commands like “hop,” “jump,” “run,” etc.
Jump rope and count your jumps!

8. Social and Emotional Learning

When children are out of their normal routine and without a traditional school setting, it’s important that they are properly managing stress or anxiety. Provide your child with a notebook or journal where he or she can draw and have quiet time during the day when he or she can reflect about the day. This small and simple activity will help provide stress relief.

9. Read, Read, and Read Aloud!

Reading aloud is one of the most important parts of forming language skills for early learners. Schedule daily read-aloud time for you and your child (or other family members) to help form vocabulary and a love of reading. Children will also start to recognize what fluent and expressive reading sounds like. Here are some of our favorite read aloud books: (include book title images: these are already in WP from another blog)

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault: This fun book introduces children to sounds and letters and provides an opportunity to practice letter sounds and recognition.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff: Enjoy colorful illustrations that pair with this fun story about a small mouse.

Franklin and the Tooth Fairy by Paulette Bourgeois: Franklin is a character in a series of children’s stories and often faces problems that most children may face. In this story, Franklin is frustrated because all his friends are losing teeth and he is not. These stories help provide children with coping strategies and stress relief.

My First Bob Books: Pre-Reading Skills by Lynn Maslen Kertell: This is a beginning reader book for young children who haven’t begun to read yet! It fosters young readers and beginning reading skills and encourages a love of reading.

Mixed by Arree Chung: This is a fascinating story about how separated colors, upset by something one of the other colors said, finally join together and make beautiful new colors. This is a great story about diversity and working together.

Thank You, Mr. Panda by Steve Antony: This is a book about gift giving and showing gratitude, and really displays the sentiment of “it’s the thought that counts.” Along with colorful illustrations, this is an excellent story.

Teaching preschool at home can be overwhelming, challenging, and exhausting. The good news is that it’s really hard to mess up! Just focus on spending time with your child in a scheduled and structured way, going over the basics and spending lots of time reading and being creative.

Check out 10 Tips for Teaching Kindergarten at Home with Evan-Moor

For more learning ideas and tips, subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter.

August 17, 2020
by Evan-Moor
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How to Make a Virtual Kids’ Book Club for Grades 3–4

With schools closed or only partially open, you may be struggling with providing safe and productive interactions for your child with friends and classmates. One solution is to create a pandemic book club for your child and his or her friends or classmates. This will keep your child reading in the absence of traditional classroom reading and will also provide some interaction between classmates. Depending on your city and comfort level, your child’s book club can be virtual or in pandemic pods.

Pandemic pods are the nickname for small groups of 3–6 children who get together for homework with a parent or tutor. Your pandemic pod can also meet virtually if that’s more comfortable or safe. You should also consider the following when forming your pandemic pod:

Is everyone around the same reading level? Check this so that all children can finish the book between meetings.
Give children between 30 and 60 days to finish the book, depending on the amount of reading they’re additionally assigned in school.
Not sure how much to read daily? The recommended reading is 30 minutes per night for grades 3–4.
Meet with parents to come up with comprehension, discussion, and reflection questions. If possible, read the book before doing so.
When your child finishes the book, meet virtually or safely in person with the kids and parents to discuss the questions created by parents.
Make book club a fun experience by providing themed snacks or treats, asking friends to dress like a character, suggesting a related art project, or watching a related movie.

Below are 10 suggestions for your Kids’ Pandemic Book Club for grades 3–4 level reading:

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White: This classic story of love and friendship is a great book for your book club. This is a beginning chapter book, so your third or fourth graders should be able to read comfortably and independently.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio: Auggie, born with facial constructive differences, struggles to fit in. This is a more advanced chapter book, but tells the story of being yourself and acceptance. Wonder is an excellent addition to your book club, and will inspire reflective thinking in your children.

Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan: This is a coming-of-age novel that follows Esperanza as her family is forced to flee from their ranch in Mexico and travel to California. This eye-opening story will educate and inspire children about rising above challenges and adversity.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl: A classic chapter book of imaginative and colorful storytelling, this is one of Dahl’s most popular children’s novels. Explore your child’s own imagination in accompaniment with this book, and bring the story to life with yummy treats at your pandemic book club meetings.

The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks: This is a more advanced chapter book, but an entertaining tale of little figurines come to life; most notably, a small Native American figurine befriends a little boy. This novel explores racial stereotypes and prejudice and how they can be overcome.

How Tia Lola Came to Stay by Julia Alvarez: After Miguel’s parents split up and he moved to Vermont, his Tia Lola came from the Dominican Republic to lend a hand. Miguel is initially embarrassed by his tia, who doesn’t exactly fit in, but he soon realizes the importance of his culture. This short novel is a great illustration of diversity, living in two cultures, and cultural identity.

Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne: This is not one novel but a series of chapter books that follow Jack and Annie, two siblings, as they travel through time. In any given story, they might be sailing the seas with Blackbeard or sitting at the round table with Camelot. This is a fun and classic chapter book that kids love.

If Kids Ran the World by Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon: Written by two-time Caldecott medalists, this book tells the story of kindness in a world where kids are in charge. This book celebrates diversity, kindness, forgiveness, and charity. The end of the novel also includes ways that kids can help others in today’s world if they’re inspired by the story.

Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster: Follow along with Milo, a young boy who embarks on a journey through a magical tollbooth. The world he enters is nothing like the one he left, and is full of imagination and interesting people. Explore imagination in your own world after reading this classic story.

The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner: If your children like adventure and mystery, they’ll love this chapter book series! Follow four siblings as they solve mystery after mystery, and fill your children’s head with curiosity and a drive to discover.

Once you have picked out your book for your book club, it’s recommended that you and other parents read it first. Doing so will give you a better grasp of the novel and the issues it explores, giving you a chance to approve it before your child reads it. Now that you’ve read it, create some questions that explore different parts of the novel. For example, if you pick Wonder, your questions could look something like this:

Why does Auggie think he doesn’t fit in?
What could Auggie’s classmates have done differently to show more compassion?
How do Auggie’s parents use humor and comedy throughout the book?
Have you ever felt like you haven’t fit in? Explain.
Have you ever noticed someone else who had a hard time making friends? What did you do in that situation?
What would you have done if you were Auggie? Would you feel the same, or would you feel differently?
What do you think the main message of Wonder is?

Providing a mix of comprehension and reflective questions to your pandemic book club will help your children not only understand the book, but the message it’s trying to deliver. Fleshing that out in a discussion will help children carry this message (in Wonder’s case, about being yourself and showing compassion to others) into the real world, and will translate in their thoughts and actions.

If your child is having difficulty reading by him- or herself, turn book club reading into a family activity, reading aloud to your child. This will help your child process the issues or information being presented more effectively.

A Pandemic Book Club is just one solution to children’s decreased social interaction, but this is a great opportunity to discuss real-world issues with children. Include both classic novels, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and other novels that explore diversity, like Esperanza Rising or Wonder, to provide a well-rounded after-school curriculum for your child. Whether virtually, social distanced, or in pandemic pods, providing this activity for your child will be fun, engaging, and educational.

Be sure to check out How to Make a Virtual Kid’s Book Club for Grades 5-6

For more educational ideas and resources for grades PreK–8, subscribe to Evan-Moor’s free education newsletter.

August 17, 2020
by Evan-Moor
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How to Make a Virtual Kid’s Book Club for Grades 5-6

Finding a productive activity to stave off your child’s pandemic-induced boredom just got easier! Make your very own pandemic kids’ book club with your child’s classmates and friends! This is a fun activity that will keep children busy, entertained, and provide quality reading time that they may not be getting with online or hybrid schooling. The first step to forming your own book club is getting a group together, which can be done virtually or in pandemic pods.

Pandemic pods are small groups of 3-6 children that get together to do homework or discuss a book with a parent or tutor. It is rising in popularity to provide students with safe social interaction with classmates and an imitation of a traditional school setting. Pandemic pods can meet virtually according to your county’s safety regulations, but regardless of how you meet, here are a few things to consider when creating your pandemic book club pod:

Ensure that the children in your pandemic pod are around the same reading level so that they can all comfortably finish the assigned book.
Give children 30 or more days to finish the book, depending on how much reading they are additionally assigned in school.
If you’re struggling to set a pace for your child, the recommended reading for grades 4-5 is 30 minutes daily.
Meet with parents remotely to discuss comprehension and reflective questions that you can ask your child when they’re done with the book.
If possible, read the book before your child does.
When the children finish the book, meet safely or virtually to discuss the questions, both comprehensive and reflective.
Make Book Club a fun experience by providing themed snacks or treats, asking friends to dress like a character, suggesting a related art project, or watching a related movie.

Below are 10 suggestions for the 4th-5th grade reading level book club:

Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan: This book series brings history and fantasy to life in an entertaining book series. The book follows 12-year old Percy as he discovers that he is part of a world he thought was fake: Greek mythology. Percy brings the reader on adventures and his quest to save the day; this book series is great for readers who like fiction.

Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis: This is a seven-book series that follows four siblings as they stumble into a world of knights, adventure, and magical animals. This is a fantasy book series that never fails to entertain children. After your child has read the book, reward them with a movie viewing party of the film adaptation!

I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai: This autobiography tells the story of Malala’s incredible heroism, just a young girl who stands up to the Taliban in a fight for women’s rights. This is an incredibly inspirational true story that will inspire children everywhere to stand up for what’s right, and is especially impactful for young girls in their own journeys.

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen: Thirteen year old Brian is left stranded in a Canadian forest after his two-man plane goes down and he is the only survivor. Equipped with just a hatchet and his wits, Brian must fight to survive long enough to be rescued. Follow his efforts in this exciting survivalist novel.

Ghost by Jason Reynolds: Ghost is just a young middle school kid, running away from his problems and his past. When he is placed on an elite track team with other kids who are vastly different from each other, he must fight his past to compete in the Junior Olympics. This is a great story of diversity, adversity, and embracing one’s past.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling: This classic chapter book that brings magic to life is always a hit for kids. Follow 11 year old orphan Harry as he discovers his real identity, and it leads him on countless adventures in the magical world. This seven book series will keep your child entertained for months, and is paired with excellent film adaptations as rewards for reading!

Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper: Meet Melony, an 11 year old genius who has cerebral palsy. Despite having a photographic memory and being the smartest kid in school, Melony struggles to show or tell anyone because of her disability. This is an excellent addition to your book club and educates children on disabilities and empathy.

Nancy Drew by Carolyn Keene: Nancy Drew is a hometown detective, famous in her small city for her ability to solve crimes and mysteries that left the police stumped! With her best friends by her side, Nancy takes on mystery after mystery in this massive book series.

Hardy Boys by Franklin W. Dixon: Meet the Hardy Boys, the male counterparts of Nancy Drew. The Hardy Boys are two brothers who take on their own mysteries in their hometown and other cities who ask their help. If your child enjoys this series or Nancy Drew, check out the crossover stories called Super Mystery.

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell: In the 19th century, a 12 year old Native American girl is left stranded on a small island off the coast of California. This historical fiction novel tells her story of survival, and is loosely based on a true story of a brave young woman named Juana Maria.

Once you’ve selected a book for your kid’s book club, it’s recommended that you read it first. In addition to being able to come up with better questions for your book club, it also gives parents a chance to understand the issues presented in the book, and approve it for your children. To prepare for the book club, come up with a list of questions, some comprehensive and some reflective, so your child can not only understand the novel but learn from it in a real-world sense. Some examples of questions for Harry Potter are:

Why is Harry so surprised when everyone in the magical world knows his name?
Why did Harry grow up with his aunt and uncle? How did they treat him?
Was it better for Harry to grow up not knowing who he was? Why or why not?
What was Harry’s reaction Christmas morning when he woke up with presents? Why did he react this way?
Why was Hermione upset, and how did she end up in the bathroom with the troll?
Have you ever known someone who had a hard time making friends?
How can you do little kindnesses to make someone’s day better?
At the end of the book, how did each of the trio’s talents come into play? What does that tell you about how everyone is different and unique?

Make reading time easier or more fun for your child by turning book club reading into read-a-loud for the family! This will also help them understand the book better because they can ask questions as they read.

Pandemic Book Club within your pandemic pods is just a supplemental form of social interaction for children during COVID, but it can be highly beneficial. In addition to achieving the recommended reading time per day, your child will get to interact with the reading in a fun and new way. With a mix of classic novels, like Nancy Drew, adventurous fiction, like Percy Jackson, and books that teach real-world problems, like Ghost, your child will learn valuable lessons through reading.

Be sure to check out How to Make a Virtual Kids’ Book Club for Grades 3–4

For more educational ideas and resources for grades PreK–8, subscribe to Evan-Moor’s free education newsletter.

August 4, 2020
by Evan-Moor
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How to Homeschool with Evan-Moor

There are so many “right” ways to homeschool using Evan-Moor resources, but don’t take our word for it!

We’re thrilled to highlight just a few of the videos that homeschoolers have shared showing how easy and fun it is to use Evan-Moor resources with their kids.

How to Homeschool with TeacherFileBox

Tanya from Project Happy Home on YouTube uses Evan-Moor’s TeacherFileBox, an online subscription-based lesson library designed to allow homeschoolers to personalize their curriculum for multiple children.

Learn how she builds and saves her curriculum within TeacherFileBox!

Head on over to Project Happy Home to learn more about how Tanya creates her children’s curriculum.

How to Homeschool Multiple Kids

Kaylinn from Full Purpose and Heart on YouTube shares how her family uses Evan-Moor’s Daily series and Skill Sharpeners series in their homeschooling.

She also shares some great organizational tips to help everyone stay focused and finish the assignments – especially when teaching multiple children. Plus, you can peek at her cute homeschool room in the background.

You can find the budget-friendly Evan-Moor resources Kaylinn mentions in her video here:
Skill Sharpeners series
Daily series
Literature Pockets
Homeschool Bundles

Head over to Full Purpose and Heart’s video on YouTube to learn more.

How to Homeschool Spelling

Kelly from @homeschoolbythebeach on Instagram has multiple reviews of Evan-Moor books she uses in her homeschooling.

In her “How to Homeschool Spelling with Evan-Moor” video, Kelly shows you what she loves about Building Spelling Skills and Skill Sharpeners: Spell and Write. She shows you exactly how she uses each title, as well as, how she uses her TeacherFileBox subscription for budget-friendly curriculum resources.

Check out Kelly’s video on IGTV.

How to Homeschool Preschool (with or without Special Needs)

If your child has special needs (even as a pre-schooler), Natasha from Educational Roots shows exactly how to teach your child using Evan-Moor resources in her YouTube video.

She even shares ideas for hands-on activities and has a free download of her lesson planner that you can use right away!

Watch Natasha’s video, where she specifically talks about teaching preschoolers with these Evan-Moor titles:
Top Student PreK
Smart Start: Read and Write PreK
Smart Start: STEM PreK

How to Homeschool Language Arts

De-Shaun with @littlelearnerandmom on IGTV shares how she homeschools with Evan-Moor’s Fundamentals series and Daily series. You’ll appreciate the peek at her lesson planner, too.

De-Shaun shares why she doesn’t use some resource books from front to back, and how applying language skills outside the curriculum is important.

Another thing that she celebrated is how her child has overcome his math weakness and does Evan-Moor’s Daily Math Practice on the weekends and while out and about. Isn’t that great?

Watch Little Learner and Mom’s video to see how these resources work well in her homeschooling:
Language Fundamentals
Daily Math Practice
Daily Reading Comprehension

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I am walking through how we side @evanmoor_publisher Language Fundamentals Grade 3 in our homeschool along side our grammar curriculum! #evanmoor #homeschool #homeschoollife #homeschoolmom #homeschoolcurriculum #lessonplanning

A post shared by Little Learner and Mom (@littlelearnerandmom) on Feb 28, 2020 at 1:50pm PST

How to Homeschool Science

Andrea from No Mommy Left Behind on YouTube shares how she teaches hands-on science in her YouTube video with Science Lessons and Investigations.

She explains her kids’ reactions and insights with the hands-on experiments and how each step of the unit helps deepen kids’ understanding on the science concepts.

You can learn more about Science Lessons and Investigations here.

Homeschool Subject Bundles Make It Easy

These are just a few of many videos shared on social media on how to homeschool with Evan-Moor resources. We want homeschooling to be fun and engaging for you and your child.

In fact, we’ve made it super easy for you by bundling (and discounting) our top homeschool books by subject for grades 1–6. Be sure to check out Evan-Moor’s Homeschool Subject Bundles!

If you’re looking for resources to teach a particular subject for homeschooling your child, we’d love to know. Leave us a comment to let us know how we can best support you!

Amy Michaels is a former teacher turned homeschooler. She creates fun learning activities based on popular children’s books. Connect with her at BookBrilliantKids.com

August 4, 2020
by Evan-Moor
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10 Tips for Teaching Kindergarten at Home with Evan-Moor

Kindergarten is an exciting and challenging grade to teach. As a parent, you are already your child’s first teacher. As you expand your role into an academic one, keep in mind that kindergarten-age children need a lot of guidance and direction as they engage in learning. They also need flexibility and opportunities to be creative and express themselves through a variety of hands-on activities. Their love of learning and your love for them is sure to result in many fun learning experiences at home. These tips and ideas will help you create your own homeschool kindergarten curriculum and schedule as well as foster your child’s love of learning.

1. Establish a Daily Schedule

Timing and choice are important factors in establishing daily routines in which children can thrive. Kindergarten-age children need support as they engage in learning academic subjects. As you establish your role as teacher and facilitator of learning, consider giving your child some control over his or her daily schedule by working together to create one. Also consider the demands on your own time if you are working from home or have other children you are providing academic support for.

For a free kindergarten schedule and template from Evan-Moor click here.

The average attention span of a kindergartner is about 15 minutes, so every learning activity should be followed by a movement activity or break. Try to incorporate short, 15- to 20-minute learning sessions (recommend 3) throughout your school day interspersed with activity and other creative learning activities (see below).

2. What Kind of Learner Is Your Child?

Understanding how your child learns will help you create positive learning experiences for your child and foster a love of learning. Ask your child these questions to gain some insight. (If your child has not experienced any school activities yet, ask which types of activities he or she likes best.)

What is your favorite thing to learn at school?
What don’t you like to learn and why?
Do you like art or outdoor activities?

If your child is extremely active or has a difficult time focusing, factor frequent movement breaks into your daily schedule.

3. How to Start the Day

Start the day with a morning mindfulness routine and transition into alphabet and number songs. The songs and chants provide a strong foundation for learning numbers and letters.

Morning mindfulness routines should start out with positive statements, breathing, or movement. A few examples are:
- Taking three deep breaths
- Stretching arms to the sky and touching toes
- Choosing a theme statement every week and repeating it, such as: “Learning makes my brain grow.”
- Name each letter of the alphabet in order and say a word that has the same beginning sound. For example, “A is for apple. B is for bat.”

4. What to Teach?

Planning a kindergarten curriculum can seem overwhelming. Your reading readiness curriculum, alphabet letters, and beginning sounds is a great place to start. For your math curriculum, begin with counting and learning numbers 1–20. Plan to focus on a few letters and numbers each week and slowly build up to the entire alphabet and numbers 1–100. Incorporate one new subject area each week until you have introduced your full curriculum.

Sample Preschool Curriculum

Evan-Moor’s Homeschool Curriculum Bundles Kindergarten provides everything your child needs for practice of essential skills for preschool (ages 4–5 years). The fun illustrations, interesting themes, art projects, and hands-on and written activities will keep your child engaged in learning important PreK skills—and get ready for kindergarten! Each bundle includes:
- 11 colorful activity books and flashcards
- Activities that cover basic foundational skills for reading, writing, language, math, science, geography, and critical thinking.
- Downloadable Homeschool Teaching Guide with teaching tips and activity ideas.

Activity Books to Enhance Your Kindergarten At Home

Here are some quick links to the Evan-Moor early learning workbooks that we recommend:

Skill Sharpeners: Reading grade K provides practice in early literacy skills such as reading simple sentences, recognizing initial consonants, reading word families, phonics, categorizing, rhyming, demonstrating comprehension by drawing, understanding that pictures have meaning, understanding that words have meaning, and many more. Each unit focuses on one letter from the alphabet and begins with a simple story that features words that begin with the focus letter.

Skill Sharpeners: Math grade K provides practice in math skills and concepts such as counting, writing numbers, number order, patterning, beginning addition and subtraction, word problems, comparing sets, and many more. Each unit is based on a fun theme to engage your child as well as provide context for some math items.

Skill Sharpeners: Science grade K provides instruction and practice in the most important grade-level science in the areas of physical science, life science, and earth science. Each unit focuses on one science concept that is presented in short reading selections written to the tune of a chant or a rhyme.

Skill Sharpeners: Grammar and Punctuation grade K provides instruction and practice of foundational grammar and punctuations skills such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, end punctuation, and capital letters. In addition, the activities in this book practice basic skills such as writing words, matching, understanding that pictures have meaning, reading simple sentences, and many more.

Additional Resources:

Smart Start: Read and Write grade K: Practice beginning reading and comprehension skills with colorful pictures and activities. Twenty easy-to-follow weekly lessons build alphabet awareness and develop reading readiness skills.

Smart Start: Sight Words grade K: Practice important high-frequency words and sight words for kindergarten. The ability to read sight words and high-frequency words is necessary for fluent reading and is one of the most important components of language learning! The stories and activities in this book help children read Dolch Sight Words and high-frequency words quickly and accurately.

Smart Start: STEM grade K: Teach your child to become a problem-solver with fun, hands-on STEM projects. Your child will practice reading and writing and learn the engineering design process.

5. Hands-on Learning

Hands-on learning activities are a great way to create fun learning experiences and take a break from written practice activities. Incorporate learning into creative outdoor games and activities. Check out these articles for tips and ideas:

5 activities to get active boys and girls ready for kindergarten

The ABCs of Kindergarten Success: Ways to Help Your Child Learn the Alphabet

6. Creative Time

Designate time for your child to express his or her creativity. Think about whether your child needs to be in a quiet space doing something calming such as coloring, painting, or working with playdough, or in an active space doing something like building with blocks or making homemade instruments. Here are a few ideas to consider:

Alphabet Puppets: Create fun puppets for every new letter your child learns!
Jumbo Fun with the Alphabet grades PreK–K: Introduce letters and sounds with fun activities and hands-on lessons.
Literature Pockets: Folktales and Fairy Tales grades K–1: Get creative with classic stories like “The Three Little Pigs” with hands-on art and reading comprehension activities. Included in this title are seven hands-on study units to accompany seven different children’s stories.
Paper Tube Zoo grades PreK–K: Create thematic learning lessons with fun animal themed art! Incorporate the art into a writing project or themed reading activity!

7. Exercise

Exercise is an essential part of your child’s day. Plan the best time to incorporate exercise into your daily schedule. Think about: Is this the time your child wants to be alone and just run around the backyard or jump on the trampoline? Or is this a social time when your child wants to engage with family members and exercise together? Finding out how to meet your child’s needs in this area will go a long way toward having a child who is ready to focus when it is time to sit down and work in a book.

Incorporate math and science into outdoor exercises. For example:

Hopscotch and counting
Throw a bean bag and using nonstandard measurement to see how far you found it.
Count how many flowers, bushes, and trees, noticing their shape, colors, and textures.
Notice wildlife such as birds and butterflies, obeserving their behaviors.
Play Simon Says game with action verbs such as “jump, hop, skip.”

8. Social and Emotional Learning

Provide your child with a journal or notebook to draw pictures that show how he or she is feeling. Have your child go to a quiet space where he or she can reflect on his or her day and draw about it. This simple act can help your child manage stress and reduce anxiety.

9. Read, Read, and Read Aloud

Reading aloud on a daily basis is an important part of a kindergarten curriculum and builds foundational skills. Reading aloud introduces vocabulary; models fluent, expressive reading; and helps children develop a love of reading. A few favorite titles are: (include book title images: these are already in WP from another blog)

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, Jr., and John Archambault: Introduce young children to alphabet letters and sounds or give them practice saying and identifying each letter/sound combination with this beginning reading book.

Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy E. Shaw and Margot Apple: This funny, rhyming picture book tells the story of a flock of sheep who get stuck in the country.

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff: This is a cute picture book with fun and colorful illustrations about a mouse.

Franklin and the Tooth Fairy by Paulette Bourgeois: Franklin is a popular children’s character who faces relatable issues for young children. In this story, he is frustrated because his friends are losing teeth and he is not.

My First Bob Books: Pre-Reading Skills by Lynn Maslen Kertell: Get young children interested in reading with this beginner reading series. No reading skills are necessary to start with these beginner books.

10. What Does My Child Need to Master?

Kindergarten is a year in which children learn how to be in an academic setting as they acquire basic skills. They also learn how to communicate and show what they know. These are important kindergarten benchmarks. State and national standards set academic benchmarks as well as social and emotional benchmarks. Find out which specific skills your child needs to master by looking up your state’s kindergarten standards. For example, a search for “California Kindergarten Standards” will bring you to a document that outlines the standards and expectations your child should demonstrate mastery of by the end of the school year. Don’t worry if your child is strong in some areas and still has some growing to do in others. That is normal and will help you create learning goals for your child as you move forward.

One example of a learning goal you may have as you begin your kindergarten homeschool is to plan which letters, sounds, and numbers you will practice each month and follow your child’s progress, noting when you need to slow down and review and when you are ready to move on. The beauty of homeschooling a kindergarten-age child is that it allows you to design your school day to meet your child’s specific learning needs.

Here are 10 skills to help guide your goals throughout your kinder year:

Write uppercase and lowercase letters
Sound out simple words
Write your name
Use invented spelling to write words
Memorize Kindergarten Dolch Sight Words list (check out Smart Start: Sight Words grade K for list)
Understand that numbers represent quantities
Count and write numbers 1–20 (work toward counting to 100)
Use counters to solve simple addition and subtraction numbers
Recognize plus and minus signs
Recognize and create patterns

For more learning ideas and tips, subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter.

Heather Foudy is a certified elementary teacher with over 7 years’ experience as an educator and volunteer in the classroom. She enjoys creating lessons that are meaningful and creative for students. She is currently working for Evan-Moor’s marketing and communications team and enjoys building learning opportunities that are both meaningful and creative for students and teachers alike.

August 4, 2020
by Evan-Moor
2 Comments

How to Teach Art in Your Homeschool

If you’re looking for simple, kid-approved homeschool art lessons that go beyond basic crafts, Evan-Moor has several resources that are easy to use and budget friendly.

There’s something about art that is fun for kids. Maybe it’s the potential mess or the freedom to experiment and create something new. Either way, kids really appreciate tips and suggestions so they can create “real” art.

Our top pick for homeschool art is How to Teach Art to Children for grades 1–6.

With 96 art lessons, featured artists, references to art history, and numerous art enrichment activities, you can use How to Teach Art to Children ($18.99) each year of your homeschooling for your child’s elementary art education.

Homeschool Art with Evan-Moor According to Our Fans

Evan-Moor fans agree that homeschool art can easily be added into your homeschool week. We invited these homeschoolers to review Evan-Moor’s art resources. Check out what they had to say:

Kelly from @HomeschoolbytheBeach on Instagram takes an in-depth look at the layout and format of How to Teach Art to Children here. She has found it works really well when teaching multiple children at the same time. Her family especially enjoys the recommended literature connections featured with the lessons featuring famous artists. Perfect for unit studies, too!

Jessica from @TheWaldockWay shares how she uses How to Teach Art to Children to teach both art basics as well as information about specific artists. Check out her homeschool art lesson about lines in her video here.

Kaylinn with @FullPurposeandHeart tells how she used homeschool art to move from cute preschool crafts to teaching art elements once her kids started elementary school. Watch her YouTube video here.

Tanya with @ProjectHappyHome talks about how homeschool art can focus on specific artists featured in How to Teach Homeschool to Children. Come see her effective approach to teaching homeschool art in her video.

Even MORE Homeschoolers Are Talking About Homeschool Art with Evan-Moor

The Art Kit is an expert in art activities and says, “If the fun activities don’t draw you in (pun intended ?), the bright colorful pages will!” You can see photos of the bright colorful pages she mentions here in her full review.

Learn with Emily shares how she adapts some of the lessons for seasonal events, as well as four benefits of using How to Teach Art to Children in her blog post.

Melanie from WildlyAnchored.com reminds readers that you also get a FREE ebook of artwork to use in your lessons with the purchase of How to Teach Art to Children.

She says, “With 96 projects, you can do an art lesson once a week for 2–3 years while never repeating yourself.” This curriculum is the perfect open-and-go format where a lesson is short and simple. You can find her blog post here.

Additional Homeschool Art Resources

Looking for other homeschool art options for seasonal events, unit studies, or writing connections?

In addition to How to Teach Art to Children, Evan-Moor offers several other art resources:

Art for All Seasons, grades 1–4

ArtWorks for Kids, grades 1–6

Draw Then Write, grades 1–3 and 4–6

Folk Art Projects, North America, grades 1–6

Folk Art Projects Around the World, grades 1–6

Holiday Art Projects, grades 1–6

Ready to Plan Your Homeschool Art with Evan-Moor Resources?

Evan-Moor provides several great options for affordable homeschool art resources.

Most of all, it’s important for kids to enjoy their learning. Try this fun lesson about collages with your kids today so you can see for yourself how much fun homeschool art can be!

Then, be sure and download the Evan-Moor Homeschool Art Curriculum Guide to choose the best resources for your family.

We look forward to seeing your kids’ artwork on social media soon!

Amy Michaels is a former teacher turned homeschooler. She creates fun learning activities based on popular children’s books. Connect with her at BookBrilliantKids.com

August 4, 2020
by Evan-Moor
0 comments

Easy Learning Solutions for Home

The perfect solution for hybrid school-and-home learning

When I think about school this fall, I get a mix of emotions, from anger to sadness and anxiety. As a parent and teacher, I worry about my children’s progress in school and how our family will balance our at-home work life with a hybrid school-and-home schedule. Without the same in-class instruction time, I know my children are going to miss out on valuable learning opportunities this year, but as a working parent, I am not sure how to fill the gap.

One solution I found is to organize our daily schedule to include a mix of serious learning activities and creative fun (so we don’t go nuts doing the same things). Here are a few tips and ideas for building your own schedule.

Start the day with a positive attitude. Take time to create positive morning experiences that start your children off on the right foot. A few ideas could include:
- Listening to fun music while getting dressed
- Making animal-shaped pancakes or fruit smoothies (get your children involved in the process)
- Start each day with a positive thought. Write down a favorite quote on a family whiteboard or just talk about one thing you are excited about or grateful for.
Transition from home to school. When your children go to school, they physically experience the transition from home life to school routine. Create your own transition activity to help minds and bodies enter into learning mode. Some activities could include:
- Mindful meditations: Begin the day with 15 to 20 minutes of calming breathing and stretching exercises. Build positive statements into your routine such as:
  
  “I am excited to grow my mind today.”
  “I am a scholar.”
- Create a short and simple 10- to 15-minute practice activity that reviews what your children are already studying. Create a simple word problem to solve on an individual whiteboard or create a picture for them to write about and describe.
- Start a social and emotional morning journal: Have your children draw a picture or write a sentence or paragraph describing how they feel that day.
  
  “I feel happy when…”
  “I am good at…”
  “I wish I could…”
Mix up your day. Children learn best with a mix of learning activities, physical exercise, and creative time. If your schedule allows, create breaks throughout your academic day. Attention spans for children and grade levels are very different.

Download a free daily schedule for your grade level here.

Exercise is an essential part of your child’s day. Plan the best time to incorporate exercise into your daily schedule. Think about: Is this the time your child wants to be alone and just run around the backyard or jump on the trampoline? Or is this a social time when your child wants to engage with family members and exercise together? Finding out how to meet your child’s needs in this area will go a long way toward having a child who is ready to focus when it is time to sit down and work in a book.

Easy Learn-at-Home Options

If you are looking for a little extra to supplement your current curriculum, check out Evan-Moor’s Learning at Home Skill Sharpeners Bundles. These easy-to-use books fit neatly into our weekly at-home-learning routine, and the activity books are colorful and create fun learning experiences for children. The practice activities and lessons are easy to understand and help my children practice important skills in math, reading, language, and science! The bundles are for grades PreK–6 and include:

Four full-color Skill Sharpeners activity books:
Skill Sharpeners: Math

Skill Sharpeners: Reading

Skill Sharpeners: Grammar and Punctuation

Skill Sharpeners: Science

A parent guide that gives tips and teaching support, including organizing a daily schedule, fun hands-on activity ideas, reading strategies, math models, and suggestions for helping children manage stress and share their feelings.

Assessment pages to give you feedback on your child’s learning.

The Skill Sharpeners books included in this bundle provide a home base for giving your child a strong academic foundation, even during school shutdowns. The lessons in each book provide an easy-to-follow guide for your child’s learning, and the downloadable parent guide provides additional teaching strategies and ideas to give you a positive learning experience at home.

My favorite part of this bundle is the fact that my children can work independently beside me while I work from home. The activities in each book provide great directions and examples for children to follow with minimal support from me.

Check out these additional at-home-learning resources from Evan-Moor:

Top Student grades PreK–6