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Homeschool Activities For 9 Year Olds – In Activities , Planning , STEM Preschool Powol Packs by Carla // Wednesday, January 04, 2017 // Leave a Comment
Whether you’re planning a homeschool curriculum for preschoolers or a homeschool curriculum for any age, this guide (and free printables!) will help you organize your needs and design a STEM homeschool curriculum for any topic or unit you want to study! I also share an alternative way to plan a STEM homeschool curriculum that actually requires very little planning!
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This post is a little longer than my usual posts because it includes detailed instructions on educational objectives, curriculum planning, and creating a comprehensive STEM curriculum (as well as why you want a STEM curriculum in the first place). I’m going to organize this post with a focus on STEM homeschool curriculum, but the method I’ve shared works well for classroom teachers (and all focuses). In fact, I developed this method as a classroom teacher years ago, and many other teachers use it.
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The great thing about this method is that it’s one of my favorite aspects of homeschooling… it’s flexible enough to allow your kids to learn the important information they want to learn while reading whatever topic they want! As an example, throughout this post I will share our current unit/topic: Ancient Egypt. Over the holidays I asked my kids what they wanted to study this year and they said Ancient Egypt (my oldest – 9 – convinced everyone they wanted to!). You can use this method to plan one topic for all of your children, or you can use it to plan a different unit for each of them.
Of course, there are a million different ways to create a homeschooling program. I have a passion for developing education and training programs and will share the way that works best for me.
Here’s what you’ll find in this post (feel free to scroll down for the topic that interests you the most!):
We use an eclectic, child-led approach to homeschool. Children choose the subject, topic or chapter they want to study. They can choose any activities or projects. I fill the unit or topic with activities that meet the learning goals I have for each child at that time.
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Each day includes at least one group activity. This is usually a science, history, geography or STEM project that crosses all age boundaries. It allows children to learn together, learn from each other and teach each other. It also creates shared experiences that improve children’s relationships with each other.
Each day also includes individual work for each child and one-on-one time with me. This can sometimes be difficult to schedule (since we have four kids), but usually it works out with a rotation or two where the kids take turns working with me and working and playing on their own.
I was creating a “STEM Homeschool Curriculum” for my kids long before it was a popular thing. Research has shown (for years!) that children learn best when subjects are integrated. Our minds were never designed to store bits of information! Our brains naturally associate new information with previously learned knowledge. (Click here to learn more about how children’s brains learn.)
Using a STEM approach to education intentionally integrates the four subjects (science, technology, engineering, and math) whenever possible. The most important aspect of communication is problem solving through the scientific method and/or engineering processes. I also try to cover art, history, geography and other subjects. I did this when I was teaching public school (my first science class always included a history story!), but I love, love, love that homeschooling gives me more flexibility. I rarely teach a subject in isolation… ever! Everything is connected in real life, so I try my best to connect it in school as well. That’s why I love STEM education: it embeds knowledge and allows kids to experiment that connects information and skills. STEM is so much fun for kids and I think they will enjoy it as much as I do! 🙂
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So what is a “STEM Homeschool Curriculum”? The term “STEM” stands for “Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics” and is typically used to refer to programs that encourage research in those fields, as well as the degrees and jobs that come from those subjects. It seems to have been developed around 1998, but really became popular after 2007 because of the laws that focused on subjects, especially “at risk” and minority children. Historically, STEM fields have been dominated by white males, and in the past decade there has been a huge push to make them more accessible to minorities and women.
When I talk about a “STEM Homeschool Curriculum,” I mean a curriculum that includes specific STEM topics and integrated STEM learning. It encourages problem solving and engineering. It’s a simple concept, but it seems to scare many parents and educators. My goal with this post is to make planning and designing a STEM Homeschool Curriculum (or any homeschool curriculum) feel intimidating and even fun! I know this is a little corny, but I really hope some of my love for curriculum planning rubs off on you as you read this! Consider this a free class in curriculum development and feel free to take as many breaks or repeat challenging sections as you like! (Honestly… Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are a little demanding. But they will have FUN when you realize that you are planning activities that will help your kids learn the information and skills they need while studying the subjects. They will love it!!)
Goals are easy! What do you want your children to learn? Maybe you want your 3-year-old to count to 20 or your 9-year-old to memorize multiplication facts. These goals should be specific skills and knowledge that can be applied across multiple subjects (such as counting or multiplication). Don’t know where to start? NAEYC has a great collection of preschool standards here. If you have older children, I would like to review the Texas State Standards here. Remember that your goal in homeschooling is not to replicate what happens in public schools. If you want ideas, look at the standards, but create goals (or “standards” if you prefer) for your children that best suit their abilities.
I like to make two lists of goals for each child: one long-term list and one short-term list.
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The goals on the long-term list are usually broader and broader and include everything I want to accomplish by the end of the school year. An example of writing for my 3-year-old would be writing the first letter of his name and recognizing his full name. A long-term writing goal for my 6-year-old might be to write sentences that I can interpret. A long-term writing goal for my 9-year-old might be to write clear, persuasive, and personal writing projects with proper grammar and spelling.
I write long-term goals and keep them handy when I write short-term goals. Sometimes I edit them…never need to be specific!
DO THIS (Activity 1): Print out this page and write a long-term goal for math, reading, writing, art, and STEM. You can add more than one long-term goal for each subject and choose goals for other subjects (eg history, geography, religion, etc.) of your choice.
Short-term goals are very specific and must be accomplished within 2 weeks. An example of a writing goal for a 3-year-old might be cutting a strip of paper into straight-edged pieces (strengthening the fingers). A short-term writing goal for my 6-year-old might be writing words in the -it family. For my 9-year-old, a short-term writing goal might be to properly format a letter.
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Here is an example of short-term goals I set for my 9-year-old during the 2-week Ancient Egypt unit:
It’s great to focus more on one subject than another in any given unit, but as we work to create a STEM Homeschool Curriculum, we always want to have at least one goal in the “STEM” box (write it).
DO THIS (Activity 2): Print out this page and fill in your short-term goals! If this is your first time doing this, set only one goal per category. It gets easier the more often you do it! Again, if you need ideas, you can visit these links, but you don’t have to cover everything they list: NAEYC’s Preschool Standards and Texas State Standards.
Once you know what you want your kids to learn, pick a unit or topic… I usually let the kids pick one — it might surprise them what they want to do! It is clear that we are working
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