Book Review : the “Ultimate”

Ok, so I don’t read a ton of books. Yet.
With 4 kids at home, it’ll be a few years still until I can find an hour or two out of their reach, and off the computer ;-).

However, here is one I love to peruse, and whether you’re a homeschooler or not, there are great ideas for learning to be found.

This book is FULL of 1-paragraph submissions from people (mostly Moms) from all over US, Canada and probably elsewhere. All give a creative way to learn. There are so many (500+!) you can take and pick ideas, depending on your own child’s interests, learning level, fun-level.

Each “idea” is under a heading, such as “Communication”, then sub-headings such as “Spelling”, “Reading”, etc.

We’ve tried:

• “Fundial” on p154 : Draw you child’s shadow at various points of the day in chalk on the sidewalk, always standing and facing away from the same point. Draw an arc to mimic the arc the sun makes in the sky.
• “Rice Write” on p114 : Layer rice on a baking tray for practicing letter-writing.
• “Tactile Letters” on p89 : I revised this one. We cut out a hard cardboard cutout of each letter of the alphabet and every week we’d decorate a new one, practice writing it, come up with words that started with it, and put it all in an “alphabet book”.
• “I Love YOU” on p45 : Start with “I love you”, then the other responds “I love you too”. Keep it going with “I love you three!” and see how far you can get.

You can find the book on Amazon.ca (or .com I suppose!) : amazon.com

Enjoy!