Thursday, November 5, 2009

History at Our House


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Originally uploaded by Sherene Silverberg
Couldn't resist posting this pic of my kids as they do a History through Art lesson with Scott Powell from History at Our House.

Every Monday to Thursday, from 11-11:30 a.m., the children call into their history class. I've discovered the trick to keeping Ben focused to to have him bounce on a Pilates ball.

I always quiz them about what the've learned immediately after and before a lesson. I discovered that the children retain substantially more of what they hear when they bounce on the Pilates balls during the lesson.

I can't believe it took me so long to have them bounce during a lesson as I've used movement successfully so often in our homeschool. We practice Latin conjugations, declensions and translations while we walk, jump, climb stairs and swing. Ditto for math facts. Now I see it works for history as well.

I've transferred this lesson to the rest of our schoolwork. Now, when I teach them something new, I make sure they are sitting on the balls or marching around.

I feel sorry for all those children who are institutional schools all day and who don't get to move while they learn.

4 comments:

therealkimaliczi said...

Next HAOH lesson, Igor is sitting on that ball. In fact, he may be living on it for a while. It never occurred to me to use the exercise ball that way - excellent!!

Normally I deal with him kicking the sofa, or biting his nails, or heaven knows what else.

I Love You!!!! :)

scentsy mom said...

What a great idea... I have to try this! I would have thought it would be a distraction. Thanks for the advice!

Dana Leeds said...

Wow... I've never heard of History at Our House. I just spent some time on their website and will be looking at it more closely. Thanks!

Oh, and I'll have to try the "ball" idea, too!

Shez said...

The ball works incredibly well. We love History at Our House. I plan on writing a review soon.