Here are 5 very easy and even enjoyable ways to learn more about our globe without compromising your other studies or losing your kids to utter boredom. Continue reading »
Search Results for: interest led learning
Teaching Money Management: Using Envelope Budgeting (Part 5)
Although the last article examined the fact that borrowing money leads to overspending and poor financial health, it is natural to ask the question, "Just how, then, does one purchase items for which he/she does not have the money?" The answer to that question ties in closely with principles addressed in Part 4: 1) Children must learn to delay gratification and 2) Children must be taught to live within their means. When borrowing to purchase an item is not an option, parents can teach children another method to getting what they want, an approach often called "the envelope system". Continue reading »
Teaching Money Management: Overview (Part 1)
Math, English, History, Writing, Spelling, Science... few would disagree that these should be included in the homeschool curriculum. But one of the unique opportunities homeschooling affords is the ability to train children in areas that go far beyond simply the academic. The ability to manage money can impact a child's future as much as or more than his or her academic knowledge, yet this subject is rarely (if ever) found in a typical public school academic plan. Continue reading »
Tips for Keeping Children Engaged, Part 1
While Kindergarten in public schools generally starts at age 5 or 6, many homeschoolers choose to begin some type of academics much earlier with their children. While every schoolteacher knows that the early elementary years are synonymous with short attention spans for many kids, homeschoolers also have the added excitement of trying to involve children as young as two. Fortunately, homeschooling offers the flexibility to accommodate the wide range of focusing ability that children bring to the table, whether the result of age, maturity, or special needs. Continue reading »
No Curriculum Needed Vocabulary Lessons
Words, words, words! A variety of research, such as that by the University of Kansas, has demonstrated that the number of words children know dramatically impacts their success in other academic areas. While reading to children is one of the best ways to help them gain a strong vocabulary, at some point it is helpful to study vocabulary words in an intentional way. For older children this is often incorporated as part of English or Reading curricula, but for young children, such as those who have just learned to read, what options are there for learning vocabulary? Continue reading »
Homeschool Plan: Debt-Free 4 Year College Degree
How to charting a path through college that will meet student needs and financial goals. Continue reading »
The "Show Me" Letter
A new administrator, unfamiliar with the finer points of the homeschool law, asked for more than the legal requirement. She called to tell me she wanted a list of the books I would be using. Being an unschooler, I couldn't guess what books would grab my kids' interest. Even if I could guess, this was beyond the law. However, I felt this phone conversation was not the time to say so. Continue reading »
Christian Unschooling: Growing Your Children in the Freedom of Christ
For too many years, the segment of homeschoolers that consider themselves "Christians" and "unschoolers" have been ignored. Many thought one couldn't be both a Christian and an unschooler. But Teri Brown with Elissa Wahl expose that not only to Christian Unschoolers exist, they are growing in numbers. Through Christian Unschooling: growing your children in the Continue reading »
A.C.E.
Accelerated Christian Education® has taken the conventionally styled textbook and divided it into bite-sized, achievable, worktexts called PACEs. Each PACE is similar to a unit in a textbook. Each level consists of 12 PACEs in each subject. PACEs integrate Godly character-building lessons into the academic content, and self-instructional activities are carefully designed to develop thinking Continue reading »
Choosing a Homeschool Language Arts Curriculum
What does a homeschool language arts curriculum need to have to make it useful, interesting and comprehensive? Are there language arts lesson plans which I can use over a number of ages? Well, firstly we need to consider what language arts lessons makes a language arts curriculum. It would need to include reading, writing, speaking and listening. Getting to finer details, it would need to teach writing skills from handwriting to written sentences, paragraphs, essays and writing in a wide variety of forms. It should teach interesting use of words, sentence grammar and the use of a variety of sentence structures. It should include listening, reading aloud, discussion of character, themes, actions, morals and personal application. Quite a range of skills! Continue reading »
Choosing Your History Curriculum
For homeschool moms and other teachers who are able to choose their own history curriculum, selecting the book(s) that will keep you energized all year long is a crucial decision. Whether you call them spines, source books, core books, or textbooks, you can’t ignore the importance of having one all-encompassing history guide to keep you grounded and make sure you leave no obvious gaps. This book will reinforce the flow of events, even if your extended reading is chronologically a little before or behind it in time sequence. Continue reading »
Avoid the 7 Biggest Mistakes When Teaching Science
Learn the seven most common mistakes made when teaching science and how to avoid them Continue reading »
10 Secrets to a Successful Homeschool
1. Have fun. Attitude is everything with home learning. Enjoy learning and your kids will enjoy it. Make it drudgery and they will respond as well. Try to make even boring tasks pleasant at least. This is not to say that everything must be a 3-ring circus, but if you have a fresh, upbeat attitude Continue reading »
Unschooling - Education Outside the Box
To understand unschooling, you really have to look back at the history of education and homeschooling. The standard used to be for children to be taught in the home. However, by the mid '70s, homeschooling was nearly extinct. Over 99% of school-aged children in the United States were attending institutional classroom schools. By that point, people seemed to have forgotten that children had ever been successfully educated without going to school. Slowly, though, an increasing number of parents began to recognize that they were in a battle for their children's hearts, minds, and time. They saw the control that the government had taken not only in education but in their families' lives, and these parents began again choosing to be in charge of their children's education. Continue reading »
Many Rivers Unschoolers
An all inclusive homeschooling group. We practice child-led learning, as opposed to following a set curriculum. We meet every Wednesday for an unstructured play group, and on other days for special field trips and special-interest groups. Our special-interest groups currently include anime club, science club, game day, gym day, fiber arts group, and parent's night Continue reading »
How To Make a Timeline Easily
How do we make a timeline? This is a great question and armed with knowledge and the right tools, it is not as hard as it might seem. Continue reading »
Introduction to the Unit Study Approach
Unit studies, sometimes called thematic units or integrated studies, are very popular with homeschoolers. Unit studies usually use a hands-on approach for effective learning. The child learns by actually experiencing or discovering through different methods and activities, rather than just reading a chapter from a textbook. Studies show that children using unit-study methods retain 45% more than those using a traditional approach. Continue reading »
Should I Teach Geography?
Have you ever been teaching a history lesson when one of your children pipes up with a question. “Mom, is Carthage a city in Oregon or some other country?” Oh dear, you think to yourself and then calmly explain, “Honey, first of all, Oregon is a state, not a country. And Carthage no longer exists, but I think it was located on the northern tip of Africa across the Mediterranean Sea from Italy.” After receiving two or more questions along this vein, you realize that you need some better resources. Continue reading »
Choosing Color Words When Writing
You have been working on concreteness. Your student is excited to discover a world of new words in his thesaurus and WriteShop word lists. As a parent, you want to allow him to flex his creative muscles, yet you want to guide him so he learns to choose suitable words. This article focuses on picking Continue reading »
Before You Buy a Telescope
Telescopes for Homeschoolers: Before you buy, save yourself a lot of trouble and expense by obtaining a bit of experience with astronomy. Here are some points to consider before you buy a telescope. Continue reading »
Waiting For Unschooling To Work
The best homeschooling advice I received came when my first child was a baby. My friend Barb, an experienced homeschooling mom who loaned me stacks of Home Education Magazine and Growing Without Schooling, told me that to homeschool I only had to "provide a rich environment, involve children in everyday living, and help find answers to their questions." That sounded very simple, and it is; the challenge is in trusting that such a plan is enough. Continue reading »
Homeschooling with the Moore Formula
Dr. Raymond Moore and his wife Dorothy Moore are sometimes called the grandparents of the modern home schooling movement. For over 50 years they have been educational professionals, and for the last 30 years have been sharing their research and their "formula" for successful home schooling, a program that is low-cost, low stress, and yet brings high-achievement. Continue reading »
Movies: A Resource for Homeschooling Parents
Each year the movie industry makes some very valuable films that can be used to teach children. Over the last 70 years, these films have accumulated into a national cultural treasure. Continue reading »