I'm sure you've all heard of the expression "brain food." For me, that expression conjures up images of fresh fruits and veggies and all the vitamins and minerals that my body needs to be healthy. Building and maintaining a healthy brain does begin with a nutritional foundation, but there's so much more to the process than just fueling your child's brain with food. As homeschool moms, there are several things you can do to boost your children's brain power throughout the day. Intrigued? Read on. Continue reading »
Search Results for: Benefits of Homeschooling
Naming Your Homeschool
Does your homeschool have a name? Does it need one? What makes a good name for a homeschool? Whether you name your homeschool has to do with law, custom, and personal preference. You will want to consider benefits and disadvantages to naming your homeschool, as well as naming ideas, things to avoid, and how you can use a homeschool name to your (and your children's) advantage. Continue reading »
Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu & Tai Chi; Homeschool Kung Fu Program
Jing Ying Institute of Kung Fu & Tai Chi offers the benefits of a well structured and progressive program in a special class for homeschoolers. Classes will improve your strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, and endurance while teaching effective self-defense techniques in a non-aggressive environment. Kung Fu is really about learning to use your body properly. Continue reading »
Free Monthly Writing Prompts
TheHomeSchoolMom is offering a set of printable prompts for each month of the academic year with ideas to start kids off if they need it. Continue reading »
Flourish Music Academy
WE KNOW HOW HARD YOU WORK TO GIVE YOUR KIDS A QUALITY EDUCATION You understand the huge benefits a music education can give them, but worry you don’t have the musical experience to give them what they need. We are here to support the great work you are already doing as a homeschooling parent. At Continue reading »
Let Your Children Keep Their Own Homeschool Records
Homeschooling brings with it a plethora of busywork that only adds more stress to a homeschool mom's already busy schedule. Letting your children keep their own logs is an easy way to lighten your load. Children can easily keep track of their learning progress in simple notebooks, planners, or on pre-printed pages. Think of the process as another hands-on project that teaches valuable skills. Continue reading »
Did School Happen Here Today?
An occasional complaint of the primary homeschooling parent (most often Mom) is that the other parent (most often Dad) does not appreciate any learning for which he doesn't see first hand evidence.
If "learning" happens while Dad is away working, but he happens to come home to kids who are on the internet, watching television, or "just playing," he may not believe any "school" took place in his absence.
This can certainly be a reasonable concern that a father has for wanting to make sure that the children he loves are being well educated. Continue reading »
Technology and Learning
When the modern homeschooling movement first began a few decades ago, the personal computer didn’t even exist, but now the majority of homeschooling families use a computer as part of their educational program. This not only reflects the growth of computers throughout our culture, but it also indicates that many homeschooling parents have assumed that computers can help children learn more effectively. But if we think that plugging every kid into a computer will transform education, we’re fooling ourselves – and potentially harming our children. Continue reading »
Grandparent's Guide: Sharing Your Time
I wrote in the first installment of the Grandparent Guide to Homeschooling that grandparents can be a big blessing to homeschooling families -- by sharing their time and resources and by providing informed support. Today's post is about sharing time. Grandparents who are able to share time with their homeschooled grandchildren can make a huge difference in their lives and in the lives of the homeschooling parents. Continue reading »
Ask Jeanne: Speech Delay and Reading Comprehension
My question is this: in your opinion would speech delay in a child directly affect the child's ability to comprehend and read simultaneously - meaning, the ability to read words is good, however the understanding while reading seems to be disconnected. My little girl is turning 6 at the end of the month and although had a speech delay which was identified at 3, she is now within the "normal" spectrum ... translated as: her speech and language therapist says she has caught up with her peers but still has some pronunciation issues. Continue reading »
Action Karate Nazareth
Complement your child's homeschooling with the benefits of Martial Arts training. Physical fitness, Balance and Coordination, Confidence, Honor, Improved listening skills, Discipline and Self-Esteem are just some of the benefits that come with your Action Karate training. Homeschool students have the flexibility to meet other Homeschooled students in our special Homeschool early afternoon classes or Continue reading »
Help! My Home Is Overflowing With School!
Whether you're just starting out or have been on the homeschooling journey for years, organizing your homeschooling routine can seem like an immense undertaking. The key to any successful organizational system is to keep it simple and make it part of your normal daily routine. The first year that I homeschooled my son Matt, I worked hard to make sure that homeschooling didn't throw our entire household into chaos. By the time his little brother Mason was ready for school, I had gotten a whole lot better at it.
Here are some of the lessons I've learned about homeschool organization. Hopefully these simple suggestions can help you get organized, too. Continue reading »
#1 Tip for Organizing Homeschool Activities
You float an idea on a homeschool email list or a Facebook group:
"I'm planning a field trip to Smith Historical Farm on the morning of April 10. I can get a group rate if we have 20 kids, and they'll do special hands-on projects with the children."
You give the details, and people say "count us in," giving a headcount of 32 children for the field trip.
The day before the field trip, emails start flying with all the reasons people can't be there. You go anyway, embarrassed to find that only 11 kids are there, and two of them are technically too young to participate. The Smith Historical Farm people are nice, but point out that you no longer qualify for the group rate, meaning that each family is now going to pay double what they expected. Continue reading »
How to Host an International Student
In an earlier post, I described how hosting an international exchange student can be a benefit to a homeschooling family. Today I'd like to tell you a little more about the nuts and bolts of hosting a student in the United States. These details can help you to know what to expect when hosting an exchange student and can ease the transition for the whole family. Continue reading »
The School Rules You Need to Break
If you’re new to homeschooling, you’re going to have to think differently. Yes, you’re going to have to be willing to break the unwritten "rules of school" and forge your own, often uncharted, path. And although this can be nerve-wracking and downright terrifying at first, it is the key to an effective, individualized, fulfilling homeschool experience. Continue reading »
What Curriculum Should I Use For My 4 Year Old?
You don't need a formal curriculum for your preschooler. The best way for small children to learn is through play. We have some ideas to encourage your preschooler's love of learning. Continue reading »
Thirteen Ways to Help Your Library and Find Friends
Homeschoolers love libraries! If you're looking for a way to provide a service for homeschoolers in your community, consider becoming a liaison between your library and homeschoolers. Continue reading »
What Making Messes Can Do For Your Homeschool
I am sitting here, on the computer, listening to animated voices, slams and bangs of metal and ceramic above -- and I am very afraid. The snow may be falling outside, but it is the potential mess within that has me huddling over my work in the basement like a besieged citizen in a bomb shelter...anticipating in trepidation what I might discover when I emerge.
The girls are baking. Continue reading »
How to Plan a Library Scavenger Hunt
A great activity for your homechool group or co-op is a library scavenger hunt. Working with your librarian, plan a gathering for homeschoolers that includes sending the kids throughout the library to find resources, so they'll get to know the library better. If the scavenger hunt is promoted by the library, you might even find some more homeschooling friends in your community if they show up at the scavenger hunt. You can organize the kids into pairs or teams (and have the youngest kids hunt with an adult), and send them out with a list of things for each child to find or do in the library. A sample scavenger list might ... Continue reading »
Challenging the Advanced Student
One of the most wonderful things about homeschooling is that it can accommodate the needs of students across the full spectrum of ability. One-to-one attention can encourage and expand on individual strengths, and curriculum can adapt to address individual needs.
Continue reading »
Explore, Discover, & Create . . . With Notebooking!
At the end of each school year, are you finding yourself swimming through mounds of worksheets, quizzes, tests, and half-finished workbooks wondering just what to do with it all? Where does the organization begin? What do you keep? Where will you keep it? How much should you, dare I say, throw away? As you begin Continue reading »
Interest-Based Groups For Learning & Fun
In my family, interest-based groups have been an important part of homeschooling life. We formed a number of these groups over the years. Some, like a history club made up of eager parents and not-so-eager young children, barely lasted long enough for a few meetings. Others have lasted ten years. The most successful has been our boy’s science club. It was started by five families with nine boys between the ages of seven and eleven. When we began it was highly structured. We met regularly at each other’s homes. Parents took turns planning a project or experiment, got the materials, explained the educational principles underlying the activity, and if things didn’t turn out as planned (actually quite frequently) it was usually a parent who searched for answers. Continue reading »
The Education Association of Christian Homeschoolers of CT Support Groups
Support group list benefits and encourages homeschooling families and is not to be used for soliciting business.
Delaying Academics: When Homeschoolers Defer Formal Lessons
Schools are pushing standardized testing and formal academics earlier than ever, with today's kindergartners and preschoolers asked to master skills and content that used to be learned in first and second grades.
Stories like this one from New York and this one from Chicago are popping up all over the country -- frequent standardized testing of five year olds (and the accompanying test prep) is becoming the norm in public education. Formal reading, writing, and arithmetic teaching are displacing the time honored traditions of kindergarten -- play, story time, learning to share, and enrichment activities that lead to numeracy and literacy.
Some school reformers see the same thing that many homeschoolers do -- that a loss of play puts academic success at risk. A complete report on this was issued by the Alliance for Childhood, "Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School". Continue reading »
Instead of Curriculum
Everyone has a comment on the increasing popularity of homeschooling. When I talk to people about homeschooling, they frequently mention the availability of "so much curriculum these days," as if that is the single most important factor in being able to homeschool. Non-homeschoolers, prospective homeschoolers, and new homeschoolers seem surprised that many homeschoolers use learning materials that are not, strictly speaking, part of a homeschool curriculum. There are many reasons why people use other learning resources instead of curriculum. Continue reading »
Homeschool Nutrition Unit Study
What's something we do every day that presents the perfect opportunity for a cross-curricular unit study for everyone in the family, from toddlers to teens? We eat! [feast_advanced_jump_to] Teaching nutrition in your homeschool Food is right in front of us every day, and eating food paves the way for a unit study on nutrition that Continue reading »
Unschooling
The range of homeschoolers claiming the unschool label vary from "radical unschoolers" who disdain any form of curricula or textbooks to those who prefer child-led learning but might also be called eclectic. All homeschooling was originally called unschooling by John Holt, one of the pioneers of the movement. Gradually the term has come to mean those who use no formal curricula but make liberal use of the learning opportunities that present themselves in daily life. Without outside intervention in the form of forced teaching, learning naturally happens. Unschoolers attempt to provide the best environment to allow that natural learning to take place. It is often called child-led learning. Continue reading »
Homeschool to Military
Information for homeschoolers considering entering one of the military academies or a branch of service Continue reading »
Homeschool Discounts {Updated}
Below is a list of some companies that offer discounts and/or educator appreciation receptions for homeschoolers. I have linked to the website if one exists, but that does not necessarily mean that the discount is honored online. Most of the sites have a store locator where you can find a brick and mortar store near Continue reading »
Local Homeschool Groups & Resources
Submit a Local Resource [feast_advanced_jump_to] Learn What Homeschool Resources Are Available in Your State Homeschooling is a uniquely state-oriented activity, because legal requirements for homeschooling are set by the state. As a result, the opportunities and services available to homeschoolers may vary widely between states. Some states have umbrella schools as required by statute, some Continue reading »
How Do I Homeschool My Child? Advice for New Homeschoolers
I've had more friends this year decide to homeschool than any other year since we began homeschooling. The reasons have varied -- concern over values taught in the public school system, distress about peer relationships, a desire to inculcate principles of faith, worries about increased "teaching to the test" procedures in government schools, an interest in providing more individualized instruction... but whatever the reason, each parent has had a significant "deer in the headlights" look as they have shared their newly chosen educational path. They have one question in common, whether spoken or unspoken: "How do I homeschool my child?" Continue reading »
How to Choose Extra-Curricular Activities
How to choose extra-curricular activities for your homeschooler that fit your family's values, schedule, budget, and lifestyle. Continue reading »
The Homeschool We Never Thought We'd Have
I had the best of plans. We'd spent the whole summer preparing for the baby. I'd even prepared the girls for what would happen during the labor and delivery, because, in true homeschooling style, their baby brother was going to be born at home. And they were right there, in the midst of it all, as our long-awaited little man came into the world, in a surprise breech birth, on July 31, 2012. Dominic James Capuano: 7 lbs. 0 oz., with a huge head of dark spiky hair, and the most beautiful, perfect lips and his Daddy's button nose. It was all crying and smiling and praising and enjoying the miracle of new life. And then, concern. Continue reading »
Homeschool Groups: To Join or Not to Join
There are many different types of homeschool groups, including intimate family groups with shared teaching, nationally-based tutor-led groups such as Classical Conversations, local extra-curricular-based homeschool groups, state-based associations, and local co-ops with parent-rotated teaching. The goals, purposes, cost, and time commitment varies with each different group, so it's almost impossible to speak in generality about the myriad options homeschoolers have for joining with other home educators. Continue reading »
Should You Prep for Standardized Tests?
In order to be responsible homeschool parents, we need to examine how much our focus on standardized testing is about our children and how much it’s about us. Continue reading »
Back-to-School Perspective
Many public and private schools are starting the new year, and it’s not surprising that many homeschoolers use the fall to "get back into the groove" of things. Whether moving up to the next level in curriculum, adding a new subject, or simply trying something new, “back-to-school” can be an exciting time of rejuvenation and starting anew for home educators. It's easy, though, to get caught up in the whirlwind of curriculum, practices, scheduled events, and educational endeavors that before you know it, the year is halfway over and you wonder where the time has gone. As those with grown children know all too well, when raising a family, the days often seem to pass slowly, but the years pass way too quickly. Continue reading »
Taking School Outdoors, Part 2
Let’s see…schoolwork sitting at a desk or table, relaxing on the couch in the living room, or lying down on a comfy blanket spread out in the shade under a tree? Fortunately, homeschoolers don’t have to choose! Doing school outdoors is one of the many benefits of home education, which has benefits that are physical, emotional, and educational. Continue reading »
Taking School Outdoors, Part 1
As the weather warms with Spring, mothers everywhere begin singing praises that their children can finally go outside again! After months of being cloistered inside with books and projects, the warmth and sunshine of May brings yet another enjoyable aspect of homeschooling – doing school outdoors! While there’s no doubt that the kitchen table has its merits in the homeschool, taking studies out into the open can bring a world of creative options and invigorated spirits. Continue reading »
TEACH - Texarkana Educators Association of Christian Homeschoolers
A Christian homeschooling family organization that offers field trips, parties, choir, and various other activities, as well as enjoying numerous other benefits.
OASIS
We are a diverse group of homeschooling families in the Greater Kalamazoo Area. We are an inclusive group that benefits from the vast knowledge, creativity, and diversity of each family. We keep our members "in the know" concerning events, classes, and opportunities available in Southwest Michigan through our Yahoo Group