I have been homeschooling our boys for 8 years now. I remember doing all the fun preschool activities with my first two boys. We had so much fun playing and learning. Then they got older and almost overnight, they lost interest in fun activities. Instead we focused on reading, writing stories and reports, watching the History Channel and National Geography and doing science experiments. While we were learning with my older boys, I started teaching my 3rd son reading, writing and math. However, I never did repeat the playful learning activities. I realized that even though my barely 6 year old child has an amazing vocabulary and can tell you about the "special cells in your blood that eat the old cells" and can easily talk about Jupiter and Mars or even understands slavery, he missed out on the simple fun of learning.
I started changing our homeschool to help my younger 2 boys have fun and learn through playing. This morning we talked about patterns and made Fruit Loop Bracelets. We talked about how each pattern has a beginning and an end. How patterns repeat the same cycle and while they were making (and eating) their Fruit Loop bracelets, I set up a few patterns for them.
What comes next? So much more fun then using plastic links!
They made their own patterns up and then happily gobbled up their creations.
It was a lot of fun and it brought back memories for my older sons. Now I need to go and stock up on Skittles and M&M's.
