ABCs of Homeschooling – “I” is for…

It’s ABCs of Homeschooling Day with 5 Kid and a Dog, and today is the letter “I”.

I really didn’t have any problem coming up with a word for “I”.  “I” stands for INGENUITY.  According to the dictionary, ingenuity means “the quality of being clever, original, and inventive.”  Yep!  That describes our homeschool to a T!

Sometimes, our children see life like this…

 What’s put in front of them is not what they are focusing on.  They focus on what is going on around them.  We have to use ingenuity to find the ways to bring what they need to see or learn into their focus.

Using ingenuity, we can come up with that one thing that piques their interest at that moment.  With DD11, that is sometimes Disney and sometimes history.  With DS8, it is almost always Disney.  DS8 doesn’t like to sit and write, so we have found ways to get him to write while having fun.  When he doesn’t want to sit, we let him stand and write in color either at the chalkboard or on the dry erase board.  We also have had math lessons that involve gummy bears or gummy worms when showing how one number is greater than another.  This is also good for showing that it doesn’t matter what order the numbers are in addition problems.  For example, 2+6=6+2.  It is so much more fun with gummy worms!

When DS8 is in his physical therapy appointment, the therapist plays off of his interest of the day.  Yesterday, that interest was the upcoming Disney movie, Cars 2.  DS8 wanted to be a super secret spy, so his therapist laid out a super secret mission for him to perform while doing his exercises.

Yes, ingenuity is invaluable in our homeschool!  What about yours?