I’m a former high school English teacher. I gave up that noble profession in favor of homeschooling my own children. They are now ages eight, six, and three, and we do our homeschooling inside and outside of our Tiny Home. We love doing school outside when the weather is nice—I have been known to sit on the cement patio with sidewalk chalk for all sorts of lessons and to send the children scurrying to find rocks and leaves and sticks to make patterns with. Hopscotch is great for learning skip-counting—and skipping! The challenge of helping our family thrive in 300 square feet while running their school as well is a delight to my creativity. The children get to experience a huge range of things because of the versatility of both homeschooling and the freedom not having house payments affords us. They are having a very diverse childhood, and loving it.
My sister-in-law sent me a copy of Evan-Moor’s kindergarten level Smart Start: STEM book. I looked it over, and each lesson seemed both to be a lot of fun and to encompass a variety of learning skills. They begin with some basic knowledge and vocabulary pertaining to the lesson and move into activities that cement the knowledge and reinforce skills, such as writing. From that point, the problem is presented in the form of a story; stories are awesome, and everyone knows that any good scientist needs a problem before he or she can begin devising a solution for it. The problem is then broken down into an experiment or challenge that the children need to conquer. Some of them are silly, and all of them are fun.
The first lesson I chose to do from Smart Start: STEM was “Trees Have Parts.” We had a bonus child with us that day, and everyone got involved in the lesson. We talked about trees, and everyone listed the parts of a tree they could think of. We read about what those parts do for the tree. We told stories about different trees, and even reminisced about an autumn color leaf walk we had gone on in the past. Each child took a turn answering the questions on the following pages—the three-year-olds needed a little more help than the older ones when it was time to trace the words. If someone looked like they were maybe going to answer incorrectly, the other children helped redirect them by asking them questions. It was a great example of cooperative learning. I was impressed. They don’t always behave that well during lessons.
We arrived at the problem story. (Each lesson from Smart Start: STEM includes a story with a problem.) My eight-year-old got into story-teller mode and read it to the younger ones. The people from Tree Town seem to know how to make sure apple trees grow, but they are impatient and want a tree now! Can my intrepid student scientists help them acquire one? (Happily, this doesn’t involve stealing someone’s full-grown tree and transplanting it. That would be the wrong lesson.) They are told that they need to stack plastic cups to make a tall tree that will hold an apple on the very top for at least ten seconds. The tree needs to be the tallest you can make, but you’ve only got thirty seconds to build it.
I decided to have them take turns building their trees—with only thirty seconds, I thought four children would get in one another’s way. My eight-year-old drew a semblance of a plan after we all talked about how it might work best to build the tree. My six-year-old began the building. He built a pyramid five cups wide at the base by four cups high. Sadly, just at thirty seconds, it fell over and never got to hold the apple. I had the pair of three-year-olds team up for the second round. They managed to make their tree four cups wide and four cups high. Their tree held the apple!
My eight-year-old wanted to try next. I whispered to her that she might want to try making multiple rows at the base to give the tree more support in its “roots.” Given thirty seconds, there’s not a lot that can be done, but her tree had two rows of five cups each at the base and was five rows high. It, too, held. By then, the younger kids had lost interest, but the elder two helped me finish writing up the results of our tests. Afterward, we had fun building cup trees for the apple to rest on without the constraint of a timer, and built some impressive specimens.
Everyone had fun, the parts of a tree were either learned or reinforced (and the roles each of those parts plays were discussed), those who needed it practiced writing (without explicitly telling them to), everyone began to get a grounding in the scientific method, and everyone felt like we were just playing. My kids didn’t take very long before they asked me when they could do another experiment. Overall, I’d say it was a very successful lesson, and I look forward to more educational play with Evan-Moor’s Smart Start: STEM activity book.
Try a free sample lesson from Smart Start STEM here.
Check out Homeschool STEM Adventure: Building a Mouse Trap for STEM lessons for grades 1-6.
Kathrina E. Jones uses her teacher voice all the time. She used to use it in a high school English classroom, but about four years ago she stopped doing that in favor of homeschooling her three children. Either way, and even before she was in the classroom, she is (and always has been) a teacher. She falls into teaching mode with decided regularity, regardless of subject. Everywhere she goes, she finds something that the kids can learn about in one way or another. The family gets to go a lot of places because they live in a Tiny House (yes, the kind on wheels), where Kathrina teaches the kids, writes short stories and novels, sews occasionally, and hosts dinner parties for up to twelve people. Any more than twelve guests wouldn’t fit at their table. She is a dreamer with a ruthlessly practical streak, and regularly points at the door to send her children outside to play, because outside is a good thing.
When I was studying to become a teacher, one thing that impressed me most about my mentors was how these teachers purposefully used bits and pieces of time for effective learning. I am talking about those precious minutes ranging from 5 to 20 minutes that happen “just because.” They may happen daily, weekly, or unexpectedly. I found myself thinking how the value of quality time fillers adds up over a period of time. It became one of my goals to use effectively these precious bits of time during a school day.
Marti Beeck started her career in education as a parent volunteer in her three children’s classrooms. Her teaching experience, including adult school, intervention, and the primary classroom, was inspired by her background in psychology and interest in brain-based learning. Marti currently works in the field of educational publishing as an editor.
Rewards, Rewards, Rewards
Host a Mini-Olympics: Plan to host an outdoor Mini-Olympics with your grade level! Ask each classroom to create five outdoor activities (staffed with parent volunteers.) 
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.
Of course the first thing that parents think of is how long will this take my kids? How can I convince them to complete it? This is the great part; each day covers one workbook page that is front and back. As mentioned above, I want my kids to have a break during summer, but keep some of the essentials current during this time. The workbook can be completed anywhere, too! It is not limited to the kitchen table; you can easily get creative and have them complete it outside, underneath a homemade fort, or even in the car during a road trip. Completing these lessons every day will certainly help carry over previously learned material.
The books provide excellent opportunities to expand on many of the skills/topics featured. For instance, geography is a feature every week. Expand your 
My crew was incredibly receptive to these workbooks! They loved the variety of assignments to be completed and never felt bored or tired of the work even though they knew what to expect. The layout of the pages was easy for them to follow and never caused frustration, which would never be the intent of a summer enrichment book. They were also pleased with how much work space was given so everything could be solved on the actual workbook page instead of having to use a separate piece of loose leaf paper. Naturally, the drawing pages were a huge hit!
Circle-Step Synonyms and Antonyms:
3X5 Card Prefix Ladder: Write prefixes from Vocabulary Fundamentals and line cards in a ladder format on the floor. Practice saying words that start with that prefix, moving up the ladder with each word. 
Whether you have an outdoor box garden or just a window box, plan to grow a few garden favorites this summer! Gardening teaches gives children practice developing their creativity, responsibility, and physical development.
Create a summer memory book with photos and have your child write about each adventure. If you have a budding photographer, let him or her get behind the lens and take create his or her own photo portfolio. This will turn out to be a wonderful keepsake for your child to remember summer experiences. The book doesn’t have to be fancy, and the photos can even be drawn. The writing can be short or long depending on your child’s abilities.
As a teacher, I would often get questions from parents, such as “Is it really important for my kids to know their math facts quickly?” Yes, it really is. What so many of us forget is how much we use those skills in the upper grades and throughout high school. Students first begin to understand the importance of math facts when they learn long division. They are multiplying, dividing, and subtracting all within one division problem. If children do not have a firm grasp of their math facts, these new math strategies and skills become more and more difficult with each passing year.
This flashcard activity takes a slightly different approach to practicing math facts, and the number fluency required helps children build a strong math foundation. It can be played with one or more players. You will need either multiplication and division flashcards or addition and subtraction flashcards.
The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs! by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
Click, Clack, Moo Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin
I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff
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.
Amy Michaels is a certified teacher with 11 years of elementary classroom experience who is actively homeschooling her own children. Her mission is share the best teaching methods and resources with all homeschoolers. Amy supports parents through her podcasts, webinars, and online training for homeschoolers on her website www.thrivehomeschooling.com.
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.