Adding Humor (and Fun) to Homeschooling by Lois Corcoran
Home schooling is one of the most serious responsibilities one can undertake, but that doesn't mean it must be a somber experience. Not only does humor generate enthusiasm, it increases the likelihood of retaining knowledge.
That said, how can we inject levity into the learning process’ Here are some ideas for a variety of subjects and grade levels:
Language Arts - To teach my son the parts of speech, I made him a board game. On a large piece of cardboard, I drew six rectangles and labeled them "Articles," "Adjectives," "Nouns," "Adverbs," "Verbs (Past Tense)," and "Prepositional Phrases." I then made a dozen color-coded cards for each category, writing an appropriate word on one side and its part of speech on the other.
To play the game, my son placed one card from each category on the board. Then he'd turn it over to reveal a sentence guaranteed to produce giggles, like ‘A hairy ant carefully drooled out of the house.’
For more fun with parts of speech, we used Mad Libs, which are pads of fill-in-the-blank stories that are available at discount stores. Players supply nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. and these custom words complete the tale. For example, "The (adjective) giant (verb with -ed ending) out of the castle," might read, "The plaid giant tiptoed out of the castle."
We use a standard (read: boring) textbook for Language Arts, but found a way to generate some fun with it. The exercises for most lessons list two choices, right and wrong. For example: "It (doesn't/don't) matter to him if he gets dirty." So I instruct my son to read the sentence orally using the WRONG word. This way I know he's aware of the correct answer but he has fun at the same time.
Literature - I read aloud from humorous books, both classic and modern. Each day we read a chapter or two. When we finish the book, we rent the corresponding video, when available. Afterward we have a friendly debate over which was better -- the book or the movie.
Penmanship - Definitely not my son's favorite subject, we nevertheless found a way to make it more appealing. He selects a joke book from our vast collection and turns to a random page. Then he writes out the wisecracks in script. Not only has his penmanship improved, he developed a repertoire of jokes for any occasion.
History - For U.S. History, we studied from a standard textbook before reading excerpts from "Dave Barry Slept Here, A Sort of History of the United States." After learning about Ford's development of assembly lines, my son guffawed at Dave Barry's take on the subject. "Instead of having the workers move from place to place to assemble the cars, he had the cars move from place to place to assemble the workers." [A word of caution: Read these beforehand so as to skip any passages you deem objectionable.]
To remember the presidents in order, my son wrote a story using their (somewhat skewered) names. It went something like this: George's washing town (Washington) had an ad man (Adams). The ad man had a son named Jeff (Jefferson). The son named Jeff had a mad son (Madison)...etc. I videotaped him reciting this peculiar tale and we watched it every day for about a month. Eventually we both knew the lineup. My memory being what it is, that is no small feat.
This year, I thought up another way to learn history. After each day’s reading assignment, my son writes five questions for me to answer. To make it more fun, he hums the theme from ‘Jeopardy’ as I ponder the questions. And grading my quiz is the highlight of his day ‘ especially when I flunk.
Geography - A family in my homeschool group came up with a clever idea for remembering state abbreviations. They make up short funny phrases such as "Pa is from Pennsylvania."
To help my son remember state capitals, we thought up visuals with similar sounding words. Our prompt for Olympia, Washington, for instance, was "Washington throwing the discus" because that’s an "Olympic" event. We also use word associations, i.e. "Boise, Girlzy." Silly, yes, but surprisingly effective.
Composition - If we want our children to use their imaginations, we need to exercise our own. To that end, I devised a list of fifty creative writing projects to replace the dreaded book report. Each day my son can either write a journal entry or ‘pick a project,’ from the list. (See roster below.)
Grade school and high school students alike will enjoy the License Plate Game. When traveling, one of us calls out the letters on a passing car and we each come up with an acrostic phrase. For example, "NEL" might become "Never Eat Lizards."
Typing - My son learned how to type with a silly program called "Read, Write and Type." Since then, his speed has risen dramatically by answering email and typing his assignments. Every few months he takes a typing test through www.mrkent.com, which generates comical sentences that always prompt a chuckle.
Math - There are several ways to make math fun. For early grades, playing almost any board game encourages adding skills because you must total the amounts on the dice in order to move tokens.
Any age group will enjoy Bingo Math. For this, you use standard cards but instead of calling out "N36," for instance, you might say "3 times 12." Older students can be given more difficult problems like ‘The square root of 1296.’ They must then solve the problem correctly in order to mark their card.
Computer Lab - One feature offered by most word processing programs is "Find & Replace" mode. My son discovered a hilarious use for this by substituting innocent words to produce funny stories. For example, he'll change the word "I" to "me" throughout a story, then print it out and read it back. Guaranteed to produce unlimited laughs.
Science - Each day my son reads the text assignment and writes a half page summary in his own words. At the end of the unit, he uses his notes to write a script. Then he dons a lab coat and I videotape ‘The Lab Dude,’ teaching an invisible audience the principles he has learned ‘ with a bit of stand-up comedy thrown in for good measure.
One of the most important things you can encourage in your children is a sense of humor -- not only to cushion them on the bumpy road of life but for health’s sake as well. Given its well-documented benefits, perhaps humor belongs in a class all its own.
Composition Projects
1. Write tongue twisters by thinking up two nouns, a verb and an adjective that start with the same letter
2. Write funny new lyrics for well-known tunes
3. Write a letter to your favorite celebrity and ask for his/her picture
4. Start a newspaper including (a) feature articles (who, what, when, where, why and how), (b) want ads, (c) comics, (d) letters to the editor, (e) police logs, (f) sports stories, (g) human interest stories, (h) obituaries
5. Write your own greeting cards ‘ silly or serious
6. What’s your favorite and why: (a) food, (b) show, (c) holiday, (d) animal, (e) subject, (f) song, (g) computer program, (h) season, (i) car, (j) game, etc.
7. Define a made-up word
8. Write jokes and compile them into a book
9. Write a story or caption for a funny picture
10. Write your Last Will & Testament (‘I, so-and-so, being of sound mind and body’’
11. Write a story from your pet’s point of view
12. Write fortunes and put them in fortune cookies.
13. Write interview questions you’d like to ask your favorite celebrity
14. Write humorous rhyming epitaphs (like ‘Burt got hurt so now he’s in the dirt.’)
15. Interview family members and write your family history
16. Choose a random name from the phone book. Write a description of that person’s appearance, personality, job, and life.
17. Write a user’s manual for any random object
18. Write a report card for your teacher. (Be kind!)
19. Write Tom Swifties. For instance, “I cut myself,” he said sharply.
20. Write a wanted poster
21. Invent a new holiday and describe how it should be celebrated
22. Write a real estate ad for your treehouse
23. Describe something really gross
24. Write a biography about someone you admire
25. Write an autobiography about someone you admire ;-)
26. Think of a name for a business you’d like to start. Make up a slogan, write a jingle and create an advertisement for it.
27. Turn song lyrics into a funny news article
28. Keep a homeschool scrapbook of photos of experiments and other activities. Be sure to include a write-up with all of the details.
29. Tell a tall tale full of really big whoppers (Paul Bunyan style)
30. Write a letter of application for your dream job. Be sure to brag yourself up! (‘I can leap tall buildings in a single bound!’)
31. Write your own resume or one for your favorite character
32. Write a presidential speech (‘If I’m elected’’)
33. Write about your most embarrassing moment
34. Write a comic strip
35. Write a good-news/bad-news story
36. Write a horoscope
37. Write a ransom note
38. Write a ‘Once upon a time’ story
39. Write a persuasive essay on ‘Why Homeschool Should be Mandatory’
40. Keep a dream journal
41. Write and videotape a funny TV commercial
42. Write a radio ad with sound effects and record it on
cassette
43. Write and videotape a fictitious news broadcast
44. Write and videotape a funny weather forecast
45. Write a movie or TV script
46. Write a letter to yourself to be opened in five years
47. Write a “round robin” story with your friends. You write the first paragraph (or chapter) and take turns writing each subsequent paragraph (or chapter).
48. Write a list of New Year’s resolutions
49. Do some people-watching and use them for characters in a story
50. Pretend you’re a fashion editor and describe the clothes in your wardrobe
About the author:
Lois Corcoran homeschools her 12-year-old son and writes a weekly humor column for a dozen Great Lakes Area Newspapers. Her latest books, "Jest for Fun" and "Now Jest a Minute," can be ordered at http://store.fictionwise.com/servlet/mw
Email her: corky@up.net
