Wellness Wheels: Models for Homeschooling (and parenting)?

 

I was Googling life skills resources one day and came across some graphics which I thought were interesting.

I’m sure there are many terms for them, but one term for them was a “wellness wheel:”

 

Source

 

Another variation:

Source

 

Source

 

The Wellness Wheel demonstrates how the dimensions come together to promote a more complete well-being.
When all six dimensions come together equally, the wheel is balanced. Lack of any of the six produces an unbalanced whole – this is normal!
Effort should be balanced among the dimensions in order for overall well-being to improve.

Source: http://www.sa.usf.edu/wellness/about/wheel.htm

As I looked over them, I thought, what a great model not just for life skills but for homeschooling as well. As homeschoolers, it is easy to fall into the rut of focusing heavily on the secular subjects. As can be seen from the wheel, wellness, by Allah, comes from attempting to make sure that individuals are more well balanced (not just book smart, but street smart, money smart, has adequate social skills, knowledgeable about the deen (religion) as well as the ability to apply it to life, etc).

In addition, you can take this model into your secular courses to create a more enriched learning experience as well as one which is more hands on and related to real life (as opposed to knowledge for the sake of knowledge) by incorporating activities from among the different components (add physical exercise to a math drill or create more critical thinking opportunities in math instead of just doing math problems; learn about how a particular math concept is used in a particular occupational field, show real life applications for concepts studied).

If you are interested in learning more about the wellness wheel and its components, scroll back up to the “Source” links or Google “wellness wheel.”

 

What to Do When You’re Done

 

Over at the Muslim School Teacher blog, there’s a compiled list of activities that  students can do when they are finished with their work.  The list was made for non homeschooled students, I believe, but can be adapted for homeschoolers.

I had been meaning to do this for some time, so seeing this list inspired me to finally make up mine (thanks, ukhti).  I am  hoping to do a little more with my list other than just make it a list as it is now, (kind of how things work with workboxes and the schedule cards if you are familiar with those)  but at the present I hope the list will help us.

 

Download a Premade List

You can download my list below, because as was mentioned over the Muslim School Teacher, “why start from scratch?” (ok, obviously I started from scratch, lol, but if you don’t want to, then why? lol )  I’ve left in in word if you’d like to tweak it to meet your needs.  It is in a two column format, one column text, the second column a picture.

 

What to Do When You’re Done List

 

Making it More Than Just a List

Some ideas for turning it into something more than a list include, printing out pictures of the different tasks and putting on cards.  If you want a child to do particular ones, you can put those on a schedule strip (along with cards for each class) and state the order things must be completed in and then when finished, they do the activity on the card that you have designated.

Or you can put the cards in a jar and have student pick one out a random to do. That helps solve the “which one to do” dilemma if you haven’t specified an order.   I might try that one.

By the way, over at the Muslim School Teacher, she has PDF, Word, and Open Office formats for downloading.

 

What do you do?

What do your kids do to fill time when they are done?  Please leave a comment and share your ideas/blog link about this topic with others…………….

 

Morning Meeting Agenda Cards

If you’re holding morning meetings, such as a Ramadan morning meeting (or any other time of the school year) I’ve made up some little cards that might come in handy for keeping things on track:

There’s a set of three, from one filled in with categories (Islamic greeting, calendar) to a totally blank one (good for non Muslims)

Morning Meeting Agenda Cards

 

Lesson Planning Aids/Time Savers: Mega Activity List

Time Saver: Activities List for Lesson Planning

 

If you make your own educational materials like me, you probably spend a lot of time wracking your brain with each and every product (lesson/unit, etc) trying to include a variety of  fun, creative, meaningful activities and trying to use as many different modes of learning (reading, writing, listening, speaking) and hands on activities as you can. Sound familiar? 

 

The following is a master list of activities that I made to use when planning lessons or units. 

 

My hope is that I can use this list it to quickly come up with ideas for activities to include in lessons. Sometimes after I‘ve made a lesson, I come across something that would have been great to use. Well, that will probably still happen, as this list is not all-inclusive (I guess it could never be), but I think it’s a great start.

 

I thought other fellow “lesson makers” would find it helpful. If you know of any other activities, please email and let me know so that I can add them to my list, insha Allah.

 

 

Task	Details
Alphabetize	letters, words
Affixes	identify the root or affixes in words; add affixes to form new words
Anagrams	find smaller words in bigger words
Analyze	reflect upon a concept, give opinion of concept; give your own examples of a concept; relate info to a personal experience
Apply	apply this concept to real life
Antonym/synonyms	Give/find/id antonyms/synonyms /for given words
Belongs or not?	Which letter, word, picture does not belong?
Blog/Website	Have student make a  blog or website/page pertaining to a subject studied; to record experiments, write about what has been learned.
Brainstorming	how many words can you think of to fit a spelling pattern or category?
Clue/Riddle Game	give student clues, student must say, point to or write the words, or pictures that match
Color	Have student color in pictures, words, letters, etc. (coloring pages, bubble font words and letters)
Compare items/concepts	orally or written
Comprehension questions	about a video/reading/audio (speech, lecture)
Connect the dots	numbers, letters (English, foreign language)
Convert	convert verbal or written info into mental or drawn images
Copywork	for handwriting and/or grammar, usage, mechanics, memorization foci
Craft	glue (paper on paper, objects such as macaroni onto an outlined letter/word), paint,  paper mache, build, etc
Crossword puzzle
Cut and Paste	cut out and paste pictures in order, letters in order to form a word pictures/words to an outlined area, shapes to make a picture, etc
Define	define vocabulary
Demonstrate	Have student physically  show how to do something
Dictation	Write what is said
Dictionary	make a picture dictionary book, make a word dictionary, glossary; look up guide words, definitions
Dramatic	role playing (act out situations, play restaurant for math),
Draw/Make diagrams/charts/tables	picture, diagram, tables, charts, graphs, illustrate a concept/process (by hand or on computer)
Filling out forms
Following directions	student must make or do something based upon oral or written directions
Flashcard/Review deck drills
Games	reading board games, bingo, tic tac toe, ladder game, bang, concentration, card game based upon content, file folder games
Hidden picture	find words, objects. Letters, in a picture
Lapbook/shape books
Make up own test	have student create questions from material that could form  test questions
Matching	Match pictures to pictures, words to pictures, words to words, clues to pictures or words, words to their definitions or examples of
Memorization	ayaat, etc
Missing/Fill ins	Supply what is missing: ·         Letter or letters ·         Words Can have student supply missing letters in words/sentences and those missing letters should be unscrambled to form a word that ties in with the topic being studied
Mnemonics	Have student make up acronyms to remember bits of information (sentences or words)
Multiple choice	choose from 2-4 possible answers
Narration	Summarize orally what was read or heard
Notetaking	Student takes notes from your/a lecture or book
Plurals	Write the plurals of given words
PowerPoint	create a powerpoint tutorial/book/interactive material for student, have student make a powerpoint presentation
Proofread	words, sentences, paragraphs, math problem answers (proofread for punctuation, spelling, capitalization, correctness)
Recognition	Visual – Identify letters, words, sentences by sight ·         Circle a target letter/word/sentence or picture ·         Point to a target letter/word/sentence or picture Audio –Identify letters, sounds, words, sentences that are dictated (by person, by computer audio, tape/cd)
Outline	Read an article and outline it
Questions	during reading, form questions from the material (e.g. convert headings into questions, make questions from sentences read)
Picture recall	Show student a picture for a minute or so, take away and have student write what he/she can remember
Pronunciation drill	make sure student is saying words, ayaat correctly
Puzzle	Make a jigsaw puzzle out of a picture that student has to put together
Pyramid writing	Write target words in adding one letter at a time per line (in English or foreign language) c ca cat
Quiz	Quiz/check for understanding
Read/draw	read a word/sentence, draw a picture to match
Recitation	recite words, sentences, ayaat. Structure lessons where student is asked a question (such as a definition or what something is) and recites the answer in complete sentences.
Repeated reading	select a short passage (around 100 words for older students, maybe sentences for younger students) and have student reread several times each day to build fluency
Sequencing	Sequence: ·         Letters ·         Numbers ·         Actions/events ·         Put in Alphabetical order ·         Words (E.g. put the surah names in order) Patterning ·         Fill in missing letter, number, word in a pattern
Sort	pictures, words (onto a sorting board or sort by writing) sort into categories: e.g. parts of speech, things that _____, by use/function, by color, shape, a certain characteristic
Speaking	·         Prepare/give a speech ·         Orally answer a question
Timed Games	how many words (in  a category) can you come up with in x minutes; how many things can you find in the picture
True/false	answer if true/false; orally or written
Typing	Let student type words, letters, sentences on computer
Unscramble	Unscramble letters, words, sentences and put in order
Word Search	·         Use a word bank or clues for word search puzzles ·         find letters,  concept words in real life print (labels, books)—write them or cut them out and paste them
Worksheet	give a worksheet with varied of activities from this list or focus on just one activity
Writing	Handwriting  focus Speed contest (how many times can you write a letter/word/sentence in a given amount of time) Compose sentences based upon grammar concept, a certain theme/concept Creative Writing (letter, brochure, RAFT) Summarize (a reading selection, what you did t his week/what you learned this week/today); write a letter/email to family member summarizing what was learned Expository (how to, informational/explain) Persuasive Descriptive Narrative Write a caption to a picture; write about a picture Write a paragraph based upon an outline Write words, letters in sand, rice, with modeling clay, string (cursive) Write a short story using vocabulary/spelling words Write with your other hand Write on someone’s back with your finger and guess what was written or drawn write with pens, markers, crayons, paint brush respond to prompts journal writing write a story/make a book for a younger student

 

If you’d like a printable copy, try this: homeschooling_lesson_activity_list

 

Islamic Studies Routine

Our Islamic Studies needed resuscitating so I put together a routine for  Islamic Studies just as I have for Arabic, English, math, etc.

For a printable copy (PDF) click here: is-routine