“Hello learned and astonishingly attractive pupils!” I knew from the first line of the first World History video that I was going to like John Green. At that point I still didn’t realize that he is the same John Green who wrote Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, two wildly popular young adult novels. When he started talking about The Test — as in, “Will this be on The Test?” — I was hooked. His answer to that question alone is worth heading over to watch The Agricultural Revolution, the first video in the World History playlist. Seriously. Go watch it. I’ll wait. Read more »
Science, Math, Notebooking, Changing Curriculum, and more – This month my oldest daughter graduates from high school. We are blessed to be in an area with a support group that puts on a lovely graduation ceremony for homeschooled seniors (although my I-don’t-like-pomp-and-circumstance teen would disagree about it being a blessing). We are busy preparing for graduation and her (gasp!) eighteenth birthday, which occur the same week. As you begin to wrap up your school year and plan for next year, take some time out to just enjoy your kids. You won’t regret it. Read more »
I am going to be a math curriculum expert before this whole homeschooling thing is over. Yep, we are now on our third math program in four years. This isn’t how I planned it, but then, does anything in homeschooling go according to plan? I would have liked to have begun a math program in Kindergarten and stuck with it, at least through the sixth grade. That would have helped me be able to avoid repetition, progress more efficiently, and be able to keep a more accurate assessment of exactly what she was mastering. Read more »
Kindness is taught in many schools alongside the ABCs and the multiplication tables. And when asked, most parents would probably say we already are teaching our children to be kind every day. But are we? Or rather, how can we do this more consciously and more effectively? Read more »
How we speak to and treat our children matters. Modeling skills such as good listening, how to speak nicely even when you are in a hurry or upset, and the Golden Rule, all contribute to creating a kinder Planet Earth. Of course, demonstrating behaviors like these is one thing—figuring out how to teach these “kindness skills” to our children can take a bit more thought. Read more »
Soccer? Dance? Basketball? Piano lessons? Swim team? Debate team? Choir? There are so many options, it can make your head spin. At some point in your homeschooling career, you will have to decide: What are we going to do about extra-curricular activities for our children? Read more »
“Could Lincoln Be Elected Today?” is a resource for teaching critical thinking from FlackCheck.org, the political literacy companion site to FactCheck.org. “The site provides resources designed to help viewers recognize flaws in arguments in general and political ads in particular. Video resources point out deception and incivility in political rhetoric.” Most of the content is video and a 4 page lesson plan PDF file is available for the Lincoln lesson. The resource is an excellent way to train students to look for manipulation and fallacies in political arguments, and it is enlightening to learn the lesser known facts about Lincoln and see how they could be used against him if he were to run for president today. Read more »
If you home school long enough, you will likely come across a learning obstacle for your child that makes you want to bang your head against the wall. You use different programs, you use creative learning techniques, you incentivize, you, um, maybe yell a little… All to no avail. Your child just. doesn’t. get. it. For us, this concept was number sequencing. My second grade right-brain oriented, creative global thinker just could not get it. She can rock geometry like a star, write three-point expository paragraphs without assistance, and sew her own doll clothes. But she cannot count numbers in sequence, particularly backwards, effectively. Finding 69 on a number sequence chart (in which they are all in order according to tens) takes a while. Turning to page number 128 is a bit of a challenge. Read more »
The cherry trees are blooming, the air is warmer, and the snows have melted for good. Every parent of young (or even not-so-young) children wants to do a happy dance when spring arrives and the kids can actually go outside again (“Hide the puzzles! Hunt for the short sleeves!”). Riding bikes, playing in outside forts, soccer practice — the bottom line is that all of it means energy expenditures! Read more »
WatchKnowLearn is a wonderfully useful wiki for educational videos. The site has indexed approximately 50,000 free online educational videos in over 5,000 categories, making browsing and searching for the topics you want quick and easy. Registration is not required, and you can search for videos by subject and age level. Read more »
