Organizing Your Homeschool with Little Ones in Mind

Maybe, in many ways, you are an “expert” homeschool Mom. You have well-developed academic goals for your children and have chosen a curriculum or method and materials that work well for you. But what happens when you add infants, toddlers, or preschoolers into the mix? Likely you sometimes doubt your ability to adequately nurture the little ones without compromising the educational needs of your older children. Or, you worry that you are neglecting your home management responsibilities, or missing out on the joy of day-to-day life as a family. These few tips were designed to help you through this often-overwhelming phase of the homeschooling journey and give you confidence in your attempts to “do it all.”

First, prioritize. Make sure to put first things first. This is necessary at the heart-level as much as on paper. Priorities will be different for each family, and different tasks have to be juggled on different days, with varying levels of importance – so this is a very fluid process. By way of example, our priorities are as follows: faith, family relationships, discipleship of our children, academic learning, and home management. Not everything needs to be done perfectly every day. The idea is that in the long-haul all your goals will be met. Remember that when you homeschool, it’s 24/7/365, not from 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, Monday through Friday, 180 days a year. Some days it seems that we have to emphasize character-building issues and it may be a temporary frustration not to do so much “schooling,” but we catch up quite easily on other days. It’s a balance – so set your priorities and keep them in some kind of order, day by day.

Next, develop a good routine. “Schedule,” maybe – if it works and doesn’t become a hard task-master for you. Routine, DEFINITELY! Everything goes much smoother if everyone knows what to generally expect in the course of each day. Make time for Bible reading and prayer. Fit in chores, school time, free time for the children, some family time, extra-curricular activities (well-considered), and whatever else is on your priority list.

Now, integrate tasks. Consider how multiple objectives can be met concurrently. Some of the things that need “doing”: taking care of the baby, keeping the young ones occupied during school time, schooling the older kids, character training, home management and perhaps ministry or service within the community. And of course, it’s important to always enjoy just being a family! Some examples of integration: let one of your older children spend some time rocking the baby while they listen to a teaching tape or watch an educational video. Have a daily 30-minute chore time (or two, 30-minute chore times) during which everyone helps in some aspect of home management or food preparation. At the same time, do math drills out loud, Mom can read aloud to the kids while they work, or verbally review what the children have learned in their lessons during the morning or the day before. Let the little ones use the math manipulatives that the older kids are using or scribble on paper while the big kids do their writing. It may be a bit distracting, but it keeps the family unified and lets the little ones feel included – thus, they are often less disruptive.

On a related note, integrate academic subjects as much as possible. Think about how you can kill many birds with one stone in academic learning by doing a Unit Study on a topic of interest. Use your science or history textbook as a springboard for theme-related ideas that you can flesh out with different activities. A quick search online will usually result in many great ideas, no matter what topic you want to cover. One example: One science topic on our list of objectives was to study the human body systems. We read a library book on body systems (SCIENCE), then (for LANGUAGE ARTS), we reviewed how to use a dictionary. The younger children used a simple kids’ dictionary and the older used a standard dictionary. Each child looked up different words related to the topic. (For example, the first grader looked up things like “brain,” “stomach,” and “lungs,” while the third grader defined things like “system,” “organ,” and so on.) They wrote words and definitions, then a short summary of what we had read. To integrate MATH, we compared the interrelated body systems to the interrelation of different mathematical operations (i.e., addition as the opposite of subtraction, and multiplication and division as inverse operations). Integrating social studies in this case was a bit challenging so we simply did some book work at a later time. Integration is great, but it doesn’t have to be all-or-none. You can purchase many unit study materials, but a little creativity and an Internet connection sometimes suffices just as well. Also consider how the arts and different subject areas can be integrated just through journaling and “living books,” as in the Charlotte Mason approach.

Of great necessity is training your toddlers. Expect and train your younger children to occupy themselves with a single activity for at least 20-30 minutes during school time. Activities in a bag or box are good for this (there are many ideas online, free or for purchase). Help your children enjoy reading by giving them quality picture books and simple stories for an independent “reading time.” Remember that even if you invest heavily in the training process on the front end, it will reap great dividends on the back end; don’t put off training in favor of schooling your older children, especially if temporary chaos is the result!

Finally, remember that your little ones are at a stage in life where they need lots of love, guidance, and attention. This time passes all too quickly. So meet the unique needs of your little ones, and everyone will be the better for it. It is important to balance their quiet times with more physical activities. Keep them well-hydrated and offer small, healthy, mid-morning snacks. Fill them up with some “Mommy time” before their independent play period. Finally, don’t expect them to tend to a task or activity for much more than 20-30 minutes at a time.

Leverage these few tips from our “growing homeschool” trenches, and you can remain productive in all your homeschooling and home management responsibilities, while also experiencing the everyday joy that God desires for your family.

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Cynthia Carrier is the homeschooling mom of seven children and author of The Growing Homeschool: Integrating Babies and Toddlers into Your Already Busy Schedule and the children’s character training coloring book, Growing to be Like JesusThe Values-Driven Family: A Proactive Plan for Successful Biblical Parenting and Values-Driven Discipleship: Biblical Instruction and Character Training Manual. She is also a popular speaker at homeschool conventions and events. Visit her website, ValuesDrivenFamily.com.

SpellQuizzer

How SpellQuizzer Works

SpellQuizzer is a spelling program for helping children master their spelling and vocabulary. Students hear the word and a sentence, see a reminder sentence, and then type in the spelling for the word. If the spelling is correct, the next word is played. If the spelling is incorrect, the correct spelling is shown along with the incorrect spelling so the child can see his/her error. At the end of the list, if every word is correct, the child hears a cheer. If words were misspelled, SpellQuizzer will play the incorrect words again until the child gets every word spelled correctly. The program is simple enough that children as young as first grade can study on their own.

Creating SpellQuizzer Spelling Lists

With SpellQuizzer you create your own custom spelling lists quickly and easily using your child's spelling curriculum. You can use your child's weekly spelling list or create a list of words that your child frequently misspells. Simply type in the spelling word and then record the word and a sentence using that word. Then type in an optional reminder sentence. SpellQuizzer has a built-in spellchecker that recognizes both US and UK English spellings. The spellchecker warns you when creating a spelling list if a word is entered that appears to be spelled incorrectly. Because of this safeguard it's reasonably safe to let children create their own spelling lists guided by the curriculum they are working on. You can also down load free spelling lists from the SpellQuizzer web site. You can easily export and import SpellQuizzer spelling lists to share with other SpellQuizzer users. This makes it so members of homeschool groups can share their lists rather than everyone having to record their lists individually (assuming everyone is on the same curriculum).

Who Should Use SpellQuizzer?

Grades k-8, high school, collage students, and homeschoolers will benefit from using SpellQuizzer because it was not designed with any one spelling curriculum in mind. In fact, it should compliment virtually any spelling curriculum. Even parents and grandparents who would like to improve their spelling can use SpellQuizzer. SpellQuizzer spelling software is a great tool that homeschoolers and parents can use to build spelling and vocabulary skills.

SpellQuizzer Giveaway

If you would like to be entered in a drawing for free SpellQuizzer software, leave a comment with your full name and email address stating that you would like to be entered into the SpellQuizzer giveaway drawing. Your info will not be shown publicly or given to anyone else. Sept. 1 we will hold a drawing. The winner will be notified by email and their first name will be posted on this blog.

Homeschooling ABC's

I recomend Homeschooling ABC 's to anyone who is just starting homeschool or struggling with it. You will receive a simple lesson via email each week that will walk you through the steps from just beginning homeschool to building a successful homeschool routine and curriculum. The lessons include links to helpful sites, homeschooling support groups and more.

Is Homeschooling Right for You?

Whether To Homeschool Your Child
By Mary Joyce

One of the first questions you need to ponder when deciding whether to homeschool your child is to define to yourself what exactly is homeschooling to you. What does it mean to you to homeschool your child? If you can’t pin down exactly what your definition of homeschooling is, then you will struggle with the very decision you are trying to make. And that’s just the beginning.

You won’t be able to make clear cut decisions on the other aspects of homeschooling that need to be answered down the road. Such as: what type of homeschool curriculum (pre-packaged or non at all)? What type of homeschool teaching methodology do I use? If you can’t answer these questions then you won’t be able to determine what type of resources should I target to research or what type of homeschool materials and homeschool supplemental materials should I purchase?

Another critical question to ask yourself is how much do I enjoy being around my children? Now wait a moment... You’re probably saying… What on earth kind of question it that! Of course, I love my children! Understood, but think of that question in the context of being around your children 'round the clock with sometimes... no breaks.

If two parents are involved are you both in agreement on the decision to homeschool. I can’t tell you how important this one is. It’s huge. Homeschooling is going to affect your entire day. All of the household chores with now a homeschool schedule are going to change the way you and your family move about during the day.

Depending upon your current job schedule, think about how homeschooling your child is going to affect your income. With the family potentially down to one income, how will this be budgeted out? Crunch the numbers folks. It’s very important.

Hopefully these few questions will get you started down the path of asking and answering more and more. Have these discussions with the rest of your family and make sure that all those affected by your homeschooling decision are on board with the plan.

Plan for success and work your plan.

Mary Joyce is a former educator, successful homeschool parent, and the primary contributor to the Homeschool-Curriculum-4u website. Please visit (http://www.homeschool-curriculum-4u.com/) for a complete list of Mary's articles, resources on homeschool, ideas, and curriculum information.
Also tips guides and how-to's to help you successfully teach your child at home.

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Exploring the Top 10 Reasons to Homeschool
By Julie Jackson

There are several reasons why families elect to homeschool. Each family that chooses to educate their children out of the setting of a traditional classroom has at least one main reason that they choose to do so.

These reasons may include religious beliefs, medical complications, or even simply wanting to take a more active role in the education of the child. Here, you will be introduced to the ten most common reasons in which a family chooses this educational route.

1. The very first reason why you may choose to educate your child at home is so that you can be with your family. In today's fast paced world, it is often challenging to discover time that you can designate specifically to spending time with your family. By choosing to educate your children, you are guaranteed several hours of time a day with your child.

2. By homeschooling your child, you have the luxury of setting your own schedule. You can engage in educational lessons at any time of the day! Perhaps your child prefers to go to the library and other activities in the morning hours, and likes to do school lessons after lunch. If you educate them at home, you can set up the schedule to reflect one that is more suitable for your child, as well as for you!

3. It could be possible that your child has medical conditions and learning disabilities. Seeing that you know and understand the condition, and/or learning disabilities that your child may have, you can customize your routine and lessons according to the need that your child has. You know what types of activities and lessons that your child is most receptive to, and can easily adjust your lessons accordingly.

4. When you elect to homeschool your child, you can choose a curriculum that best suits the needs of your child. There are several different types of curriculums available for the family that chooses to educate at home. You can choose one that uses a hands on approach, or one that centers around book work. You can also choose to work with an accredited distance learning school such as Laurel Springs School (laurelsprings.com) - the choice is yours!

5. The next reason that you may choose to educate your child at home is so that you can be aware of the state and progress of your child's education. Many parents often complain when it comes to the basic school system because they fail to keep them informed of the topics being covered in the classroom, and only update on a child's progress every few months or so. If you homeschool your child, you can keep track of this for yourself at all times!

6. By homeschooling, you can keep your child away from the complications of peer pressure. Peer pressure can often result in a child making decisions that they normally would not make, such as giving into alcohol and drug consumption, joining groups that are rebellious, and more.

7. If you choose to homeschool your child, you can give gifted children the attention and challenge that they need to grow personally, and academically. Many children who are highly intellectual often lack the challenge to keep them productive in the average school system. However, by educating these children at home, you can easily discover what challenges them, and what bores them.

8. You can love, nurture, and teach your child the character and morals that you value the most when you educate them at home. Schools are typically not taught to teach morals and religious values that go outside the normal state standard in which they operate. However, as a parent, you can teach your child virtually anything that you cherish in the way of morals, values, and character traits.

9. As a homeschool family, you can make learning fun and exciting for your child. You know what appeals to the child the most, so you can center your focus around this, and teach based on it.

10. As a homeschooling family, you can also make the learning experience as experiential as you want. For example, if you want to teach your children about plants and trees, you can also help them learn by allowing them to plant their own! If you want to teach them about fractions and measurements, you can build a birdhouse, or even teach them how to make a pizza or other food!

There are many benefits to homeschooling your child, and many ways to provide this education at home. Here, you have been introduced to the top 10 reasons to homeschool.

About Laurel Springs School
Laurel Springs School, founded in 1991, is an accredited, college prep private school offering distance learning programs and teacher services for students in grades K-12. Located in Ojai, California, Laurel Springs serves students across the United States and in 43 countries. Current enrollment is 3,000 students, with more than 2,000 students enrolled in the online high school program. Laurel Springs uses web-based communication tools, a standards-based curriculum, and personalized instruction to offer students the highest quality home education experience.
http://www.laurelsprings.com

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Homeschool Education - Is it a Radical Or Right Choice?
By Cyra Miles

Is it really a radical choice for parents to decide homeschool? Or should we applause these parents for making the right choice about their children's education?

Some parents nowadays are thinking-out-of-the-box to make sure that their children don't have only the best education but possess also the right values, principles and attitude towards life. There is an apparent increase in the number of homeschool students. According to U.S. Department of Education, there is approximately 1,096,000 students who are educated at home in spring of 2003.It is a big leap (approximately 29% increase) compared to spring of 1999 which has only an estimated 850,000 homeschoolers.

Let us delve as why more parents are now taking the radical choice of opting for homeschool education for their children.

Away from school bullying . This is one of the primary reasons cited by parents who homeschooled their children. School bullying is very prevalent nowadays. The National Youth Violence Prevention stated that there are over 5.7 million youth who are bullied at school. It is about 30% of total youth population in the United States.

It is a disturbing situation with a negative impact to children being bullied at school. Bullied students live a stressful life as they become fearful with possible bullying incidents again. They are scared to be alone like being in the bathroom or in the hallway. Victims will have less interest in attending school also and even the task of riding a bus becomes a terrifying activity.

This results to depression, low self-esteem, physical illness, loneliness and in worst cases, suicidal thoughts.

Most bullied children also find it difficult to learn at school as they struggle coping up with their fear and anxiety. They can hardly focus in the classroom.

Other Safety Concerns. Homeschooler parents are worried about the safety of their children in the traditional school. Safety concerns include drugs, negative peer pressure and accidents. Some isolated cases include children being gunned down or murdered at school. Children's safety at school is unpredictably at stake.

Some homeschooler parents perceived that homeschool children are safer compared to children attending a regular school.

Quality Learning. Parents are the primary teacher and models of the children. A ratio of one teacher to two or three students makes a huge difference in the quality of education delivered to a teacher handling 30 to 40 children in a regular classroom.

Also, the fact that it is their children, education is more personalized and the result is far better. Schedules for homeschool are flexible also so children are not forced to wake up early to catch the school bus and options for what the children want to learn for the day are possible.

Better Person. Parents always want to instill good values to their children. It is one of their intention and hope that their children become a better person but when children attend a regular school, parents can no longer control the other factors such friends, schoolmates and school environment. These are external factors that can influence the children either positively or negatively.

Oftentimes children acquire attitudes from their friends at school. Children are vulnerable to adapting certain manners or attitudes which are relative to the kind of friends or clique they mingle and hang out with. On some occasions, they are negatively influence because of peer pressure. For the child to be part of the group or to be labeled 'cool' at school, sometimes they do things out of their way.

Parents of homeschoolers prefer to train and raise their children the way they would have wanted them to be. They believe that they are more effective in instilling moral and religious values.

24/7. This is the best advantage of homeschool. Parents are with their children 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

Experience parents always encourage new parents to spend as much time as they can with their children especially in their growing years. This is the stage where children are still dependent to their parents. Once they reach puberty, they now prefer to spend time with their peers and once they reach adulthood, they will spend more time with colleagues, friends and at work.

Strong bond. As parents and children spend more time together than the average parents whose children are attending a regular school, the opportunity to develop profound bond and strengthened relationship is inevitable.

Homeschool reinforces the value of family.

Flexibility. There are parents who are always mobile because of work related issue. Some parents find homeschool very convenient because it allows them to travel without much constraint. Travelling can be planned anytime as there are no worries of missing the classes or interrupting school activities.

It indeed gives more flexibility to parents and children to travel.

Without doubt, homeschool education offers many benefits to your children and to you as parents though critics always question the socialization life of the homeschool children. Are they really being deprived of their socialization skills?

Homeschool curriculum nowadays have supplement activities like pottery classes, museum visits, karate classes and so on. There are many institutions also that offer and organize different activities for homeschool children. If you can just do a little research and get connected with the right network or community of homeschoolers, you will be amazed with the available socialization opportunities for homeschool children.

Socialization is not limited at school only. There are so many venues that children can develop their socialization skills.

So, is it really a radical or right choice to homeschool? Parents know their children better than anyone else and so does the answer to this question.

Statistics Resources: www.safeyouth.org, www.ed.gov

Cyra Miles is a part-time freelance writer living in Abu Dhabi, UAE and her areas of interest are travel, events & holidays, health, culture & society, human interest stories and education.

Visit her at http://www.cyramiles.com/ or take a peek inside her mind at http://www.anintimateconversation.com/

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Using Computer Programs to Teach Children to Read

How to Use Computers to Teach Children to Learn to Read
By C Michael Levy

During the past 20-30 years, computers became omnipresent within most traditional school classrooms. Yet, even as school districts dedicated an increasing amount of their technology resources to installing classroom computers, educators were often at a loss about how to use this new technology to teach. Teachers already had books, visual aids, and tactile materials specially designed to teach students all they needed to know about just about everything. Of what use was this new computer-based technology that promised to help teach an enlarging curriculum to kids who already had everything they needed to learn?

The reality is that computers have opened a whole new world to students, both at home and in the classroom. When the personal computer was merely a word-processing gadget, there were scattered opportunities to teach students limited reading and writing skills, but no real offering of any exciting new ways to teach subjects including social studies, science, and, above all, reading.

With the explosion of the personal computer into an advanced world of enhanced graphics and increasingly complex programs, the computer became more than a black screen with white words and a blinking cursor. Computers became true interactive tools for educators to use to stimulate the imaginations of their students. And, as computer software developers forayed into more than word processing and financial programs, games turned into age-specific programs, and age-specific programs morphed into educational opportunities.

One complaint voiced by many parents as computer software matured from adaptations of video game into real educational offerings, was that their children were spending excessive time in front of the computer. After all, there is little to smile about when a child trades his Nintendo for computer pinball or her Atari for a Barbie creativity program. But, most experts agree that computer software developers really stepped up to the plate when designing programs that not only presented children with real learning opportunities, but that appealed to a wide variety of interests at the same time. Now, many parents are actually pleased when their children want to use the computer.

Computer Software that Can Teach Children to Learn to Read

Relatively early on in the learning software game, developers worked to present learners with basic computer programs that focused heavily on A,B,C's and 1,2,3's. Early programs presented even preschool learners with simple reading programs based on traditional reading materials such as Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Cinderella, and the Dr. Seuss books. Later programs learned to focus on specific reading skills.

Today's computer software programs incorporate reading into a variety of learning media and subject area content. Just as educators have traditionally used different subject areas to help teach reading and vice versa, computer software has grown to the point where programs present children of all ages with multi-pronged combinations of reading activities across subject areas in order to facilitate and enhance learning. Just as computer games began to adapt play to the users' skill level some years ago, so too do sophisticated modern reading programs adjust to the needs and capabilities of the individual student. These new "learning" programs are so engrossing that students often tend to view them as "games." Now, even well-thought out computer games can be excellent supplemental learning opportunities for moderate and established readers.

Careful software purchasing decisions by parents, along with flexibly allocating computer time devoted to instruction vs entertainment can help sustain their children's interest and enthusiasm for both kinds of program at a high level.

Michael Levy is a well-known teacher and university researcher who has published more than 250 articles about learning. His latest project is Reading Buddy 2.0, software for teaching children to learn to read basic English using the innovative syllabics methodology. Michael invites traditional and home school teachers to explore this new method. Claim your free copy of Reading Buddy 2.0

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10 Tips for Homeschooling First Grade

#1 The first grade is the doorway to the child's entire education. It must be a positive experience because it will affect the rest of his life. If he learns to love school in the first grade, he will enjoy in the rest of his school years.

#2 Your decision to homeschool you first grader is a great responsibility. Don't panic. Don't stress out. Yes, this is an important time in the life of your child, and you may not feel prepared or capable. Relax. Have fun. Your child will learn every thing he needs if YOU enjoy school.

#3 Make your first grader the #1 most important member of the family. Let him feel that first grade is very important. You can show it in small, simple ways. For example, let him sit beside you when you read, even if he is not the youngest child. Let him have special school crayons or pencil for use only when doing school work.

#4 Don't let the preschoolers do the first grade workbooks. They see older children doing it and it looks so fun. Make it a special part of first grade, that only those special first graders get to do. Then when your preschooler gets to first grade, it will be new and exciting.

#4 Play learning games like word games and letter games. Include lots of pre-school activities. But at the same time, don't let play distract form studies. Keep a good balance between work and play. Think of it as a balance. Work is on one side, play on the other. If the work side gets too heavy, the child may end up disliking school, get grumpy about doing his work, makes your job of teaching harder, and learn almost nothing. On the other hand if the play side of the balance gets too heavy, the child learns no study skills which will be a disadvantage when he gets in higher grades.

#5 It is important to teach the child to finish his school work in a timely manner.You need to expect work from him, and he needs to know that it is expected of him. Work is in fact a frame of mind. So using this balance of play and work, make his work pleasant so that it seems more like play.

#6 Focus on reading. Reading is the base that the child will build his entire education on. If he learns only this one skill in first grade, he will be prepared for the rest of his school years. Center your first grade curriculum around your reading program. Of course the other subjects are important, but phonics, writing, spelling, and language can all be incorporated into the reading program. History can be taught during story time which is important to any reading program.

#7 Math is also very important. Choose a good math course that will continue on and build through each grade.

#8 Don't forget art. Drawing, coloring, and cutting all improve eye-hand coordination which in turn will help delve lope reading and writing skills.

#9 Keep a fast pace. First graders don't have a real long attention span. Alternate between math and reading throughout the day so that the child doesn't get tired of doing one subject.

#10 The first year of school will take more of your time than any other year. If the proper foundation is laid in the first grade, the child can almost take himself through his lessons the rest of his school years.

Gardening for Summer School - The Small Space Solution

Since gardening is a great way to continue your child's education through the summer months, I've included gardening in my homeschool schedule. When you homeschool you don't get a summer break. The children are always doing something and if it's not something useful and good, well, it won't be good. In my previous blog, I outlined some of the ways gardening can be a great hands-one learning experience for homeschoolers, or children home for summer break. The problem is not every one lives in the country with wide open gardening spaces. In fact, many people live in apartments with no gardening plot at all. So I've searched around and found a solution.

With window boxes, everyone can enjoy a summer garden. Help your child plant some seeds and see his delight at caring for them and watching them grow. What better education can a child get?

Gardening Can Change the Way Your Child Looks at Education

By Lily Ann

Spring is here. As summer approaches and school time is getting close to the end, many children are getting restless and tired of school. They are looking forward to a great summer vacation. How can parents encourage their children to continue their studies?

Gardening is a very effective way to continue your child's education. Children can use skills learned in school to research plants, how they grow, what care they need, which plants will do good in your zone, how people use plants (food, landscaping, etc.), and why plants are important to life. They will get real life experience of how food is produced. You may not realize it, but if you live in a city your child may think that food just comes from the grocery store. You can help your child get a real education outside of the text book.

Involve your child in every step from planning to harvesting. It will give him a practical application of every subject that he is taught in school. Gardening is a science. Together research different plants and gardening techniques. Read seed packets, gardening books, planting guides, and seed catalogs. Write about what you have learned. Use spelling skills to spell words correctly. Use mapping skills and math to plan out the garden plot. Provide hands-on experience of preparing the soil and planting and caring for the plants. Finally, reap the rewards with the harvest.

First, make a list of plants that would interest both of you and choose ones you will plant. Look at other gardens, in gardening books and catalogs. Read about each plant to see which ones will do good in your area. This is important because you want you child to have a successful experience. Be careful when ordering from catalogs. For example, if you live in in Washington State and you order an Orange Tree that grows wonderfully well in California you won't get good results. If you live in the desert, you're not going to grow a tropical plant. For the best results, go to a local nursery.

Using your child's math skills measure your garden space. Research each plant to see how tall and wide each one grows. Use your child's writing skills to record this information. Be sure he uses his spelling skills. Rule out any plants that are not going to fit. The child will then use mapping skills to draw a map of the garden and where each plant will grow. Let him use his artistic abilities to create a garden landscape.

If you live in an apartment with no available garden spot, use pots on the deck. You may even consider indoor gardening. Read about shade loving plants and different ways of indoor and container gardening. The child can still use mapping and math skills to plan out where each pot will sit. When choosing potting soil, let the child read labels and instructions. He can use reasoning skills to decide which soil is best. Comparing prices and calculating the total cost will use his math skills.

Next, prepare the soil and plant. Let the child learn the value of work. He works his mind to study soil preparation, ph balance, and mulching. He works his body to physically turn the soil, spread fertilizer, and put the seeds in the ground. Again, he uses math skills to plant each seed and plant at the correct depth and spacing. Can you begin to see how all the skills he is learning at school come together with real meaning?

The child learns responsibility when he cares for his garden every day. He will see the results of neglect if he neglects his duty of watering, weeding, and feeding his garden. He will continue to use reading, writing, and arithmetic to figure out how much water the garden needs, when to feed the plants, and how to give each plant the correct amount of nutrients.

Finally, the child will reap the reward of the harvest. He will enjoy delicious home-grown vegetables or a spectacular display of blooms (or both). Best of all, he will have used reading, writing, math, science, spelling, phonics, dictionary skills, and many other skills. He will be more prepared for the next year of school because he hasn't forgotten his lessons over the long summer.

Plant a garden this year and watch your child grow.

Visit The Garden Guide for more information and gardening books.

10 Simple Teaching Techniques Will Make Your Child an Excellant Reader.

When I began homeschooling my first child, I wondered "How does a teacher with thirty plus students teach them all to read?" I was struggling to teach one child. Now with a few years of experience and some successes behind me, I'll share some of my most effective teaching techniques.
1 - Steady progress not instant mastery. Each day build on what the child has learned the day before. Every improvement no matter how small is a step in the right direction. If the child is learning something every day, you are succeeding. You are getting closer to your goal with each baby step.
2 - Set your child up for success. On purpose put him in situations where he will win. Set short-term easy-to-reach goals for him.
3 - Let him know you are excited about his reading goal. Praise him for every step in the right direction.
4 - Have story time every day. Read to your child. A child that is read to has a greater ability to put the words together into a meaningful story. Choose books with no pictures and encourage the child to build his own pictures in his mind.
5 - Choose reading material that is at the child's interest level rather than just his reading level. He needs to be able to relate to the story from his own real life experiences.
6 - Write words the children say. Suppose your child had an exciting day and he wants to tell you all about it. Grab a pencil and write down word for word what he says. Ask him questions to get more information. Write down exactly what he says. Then read it back to him. Let him read it to a friend. This kind of activity will help him transfer the written word into something meaningful.
7 - Label things around the house. Put labels on the table, chair, desk, floor, and ceiling. Anything that has a name can be labeled. Get creative. Use descriptive labels like big blue chair, Kris's room, dull brown carpet, pretty rose tea kettle, etc. Let the child use his imagination to come up with exciting labels.
8 - Teach at odd times. While making dinner, read the recipe out loud. Point our letters and words on signs while driving. Show him articles in the news paper. Read him the mail. Just about anything you are doing, you can include the child.
9 - See, Hear, Say, Write. Choose a reading program that uses this method. See the word. Hear the word. Say the word. Write the word. If your program does not include this, it can easily be added in. Just write the word on a paper. Tell the child what it says. Have him repeat it to you and then copy it onto his own paper.
10 - Read it to him, read it with him, child reads alone. Read the story or book to the child before you ever try to get him to read it alone. For the child who is just beginning to read, or an older one who is struggling, this is a very affective method. True, he may read some from memory, but it helps him to remember the words when he sees them in other places. After you have read the story, read it with the child. Take turns. You read a sentence then the child reads the next sentence. Finally, the child reads the story alone.

Reading Begins With Real Life Experiences

If a child learns to read well, he will be able to succeed in any other subject. It works the other way too. If he learns from experiences, he can understand what he reads. Reading does not only consist of putting sounds together to make words; but also putting words together to make sentences, and and sentences together to make a story. If he doesn't have a clue what a word or group of words means, the story won't make sense to him. The beginnings of a good reader is in real life experiences

A word only means something if the child has something real in his mind to connect it to. For example "apple." Your eyes read the word and you mind tells you the rest. You know what an apple feels like, what it tastes like, what color it is. You know it grows on a tree. You know what the price for it is at the store. You know Great-grandmother cannot eat one because she doesn't have any teeth. Baby brother likes to throw it around. Mother doesn't like him to because it bruises it and makes it soggy and yucky. There are many things that the word "apple" triggers in your mind because you have had real experiences to tie it to. If you'd never seen an apple, the word would mean nothing.

Toddlers are busy for a reason. They are learning how everything feels, looks, tastes, smells, and sounds. All this information is stored in their little brains. The more real life experiences with real things they get, the better they will understand the concept of reading when they reach school age. Interact with your child. Show him things. Tell him about them. Encourage him to use words to tell you about things. A child needs to be able to use words verbally before he will be able to read and write.

The simplest thing to you, a mature adult with years of experience, could be a great exciting discovery to a young child. Even a six-year-old going into first grade will come up with great discoveries that are every day occurrence's to you. Share the excitement with him. This is where your child's reading skills begin.

When a child learns to read, he learns to picture in his mind what the words mean. If he reads "The fox ran into the hollow log" he sees in his mind the picture the story tells. What if he's never seen a fox. Maybe he doesn't know what a hollow log is. Encourage you child to ask questions about the things he reads. Answer his questions. Show him as many real life experiences as you can. Go to the zoo. Take a nature walk. Find a fox, a hollow log. Let him see, hear, feel, smell, and listen to the fox and the log. Make the story have meaning then he will learn that those black letters on the white page are really more than just black and white letters. They mean something.

Read to your child. Every one says it. You can even read it on the cereal box. Read to your child. Children love books with pictures, because they can look at the picture to know what the story means. Read stories and books without pictures, and encourage your child to make up the pictures in his mind. When he has this background of being read to and making pictures out of the words, when he learns to read, he will already know how to convert the words into something meaningful.

Write down words that your child says. For instance, Johnny's tooth fell out. He wants to tell Grandmother all about it. Have him dictate a letter to her. Write down exactly what he says and then read it back to him. Watch how pleased he will be with the letter that he "wrote" to Grandmother. This kind of an activity will help the child see that written words mean the same as spoken words and get him used to seeing written words before he even enters school.

Give your child real life experiences and start him on the way to reading.

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The Worste Day of School. Should I Quit?

Books, papers, crayons, glue, and just about everything else is strewn all over the floor. It's 11:30 a.m. and all we've covered so far is a half a lesson of math. The preschoolers are happy, for the most part, dumping every box and container they can find. Did I hear the toilet flush a few too many times? The students are getting grumpy. First grader seems to think that pounding the paper will solve the problem. Baby needs changed. Now they all think of a reason to leave the school room, drinks, potty, etc. Preschooler doesn't want any help with his work book. He's a big boy. "Now I 'm not going to do it because you told me how." Sisters start fighting over who's right it is to rest their elbow on the other's desk. Now every one is screaming, but not teacher yet. This looks like a good time to take a lunch break (it's lunch time anyway isn't it.)


Some of these problems can be avoided. How? Children get grumpy and uncooperative. Here are some simple steps that may help. You can take steps to dodge the problem, but you won't get away from it altogether.


Get the children to sleep early the night before. Many times a child is ornery just because he didn't get enough sleep.

Don't feed the children cereal for breakfast. Feed them something nutritious, with no sugar if you can help it. Even if your morning is rushed, a good breakfast is worth the time. Plan ahead the night before. Get up ten minutes earlier so you can fry some eggs or potatoes. Even good old-fashioned mush will do the job. Just don't call it mush. Think up a creative name. Hot Corn Cake With Milk.

Clean up the school room after school so you can enter on a clean room and get a fresh start. It only takes a couple of weeks to get everyone in the habit of putting things away before they leave the room. You may seem like the mean mama bear, but insist. No one goes out for anything, unless it's a real heart attack, until the room is clean.

Limit wacking-up-papers activities. Hide the scissors. It makes clean-up easier.

If every one gets really grumpy, change the scene. Play a game. Take a walk. You stay happy and you'll have 100% better chance of getting the children to be happy.

Put things you don't want dumped up out of the reach of little hands. Make a special place, preschool cupboard or shelf with toys that preschoolers can get any time. Have only a few toys at a time. If you periodically change the toys, it will keep them from losing interest and heading for more exciting things, like the toilet. Keep the bathroom door closed.

Let older children take turns doing a preschool "class." Have them take turns keeping the toddlers busy while you work with another child.

Don't sit there getting nowhere. If one subject, say math, takes all day, cut the lesson short after half an hour. Thank the child for what he's done that day and go on to the next subject. Stop while he's still in a good mood, before he gets frustrated.

If a child just woun't write his lessons, let him use a crayon, or colored pencil, or a pen. A little change may do the trick.

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3rd grade, kindergarten, etc. See how many thousands of results you will get. How does a homeschooling parent search through all of that and find what they really need? Homeschooling ABC's class will help confused parents sort things out.
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Time It! Motivate Your Child

Finding ways to motivate children to get their schoolwork finished in a timely manner is sometimes challenging. Try these activities with a simple timer and get those lessons done.

Sometimes a child can get stuck on one page or problem in a lesson and waste precious time getting nothing done. Before trying these time-it activities, be sure the child understands the lesson. One reason for not doing the work maybe that she doesn't know how to do it.

When using time-it activities, be sure your child does not give up quality for quantity. Make sure she does a good job. If it's not her best work, it's not acceptable and the timer keeps going. You know what your child can do and what her best work is because you've seen it before.

Beat Your own Time Time your child to see how long it takes to complete the lesson. Write it down and post it somewhere where it can be seen easily. Each time you do another lesson in that same subject, write it below the last time. Encourage your child to beat her own time.

Five Minute Page Turn This activity has given some humorous results. It works well on a lesson that has multiple workbook pages.

First, think back to a good day when the child completed this type of lesson in fairly good time. How long did it take to complete? This is how long you will set the timer. Look over each page and determine if it will need more or less time. A more difficult page will need more time. Explain to the child how much time he will have complete each page and be sure he understands all the instructions on each page. Determine a prize or reward to give if he beats the timer.

Now set the timer for the first page. When the timer goes off you turn the page. If he did not complete the page, he turns it anyway. The time for that page is over, and the timer is set for the next page with no break. When the timer rings again, you move on to the next page. If the child finishes a page before the timer goes off he can turn back to a page that he did not complete and work on it until time is up. When the timer goes off for the final page, the lesson is over.

Time One Problem This activity works well when a child is just plain bored with a page of the same thing like addition problems. Time how long it takes the child to solve one problem. Write down the time. Time the next problem and write down the time. Encourage the child to do each problem faster than the one before

Time's Up This activity will help the child increase her attention span. Set the amount of time for the lesson. Start with a small amount of time, 5 or 10 minutes. Explain to the child that you will study this lesson for the set time and when the time's up she can do an activity of her choice. Be sure to set the time to go back to the rest of her lessons.

Set your timer and begin the lesson. No matter how much or how little you feel she has accomplished, when time's up the lesson is over. After the first week or two, you will notice that she can stay focused for a longer amount of time.

Consistancy is Vital to Successful Homeschooling

Routine is one of the most important factors in a successful homeschool. Homeschooling cannot be considered a matter of convenience. It will not be easier than sending the child to school. A successful homeschooling parent must be dedicated enough to be up and ready on time everyday. Every day is the key.

A daily schedule is essential. Rather than including set time limits for everything, a good schedule should focus on order of events. For example:
Opening exercises-song, prayer, calendar, memory gem, journal
Lessons- math, english, grammar, handwriting
Break- snack, go outside
More lessons- spelling, phonics, reading, science
A start time is important. Start at the same time every day.An ending time will set a goal for school to be finished and keep it from dragging out into the rest of the day.

Now that a workable schedule or routine has been determined, the school can begin at the top of the list and go down to the end and end.

Persistence in the routine is so important. The same thing happens every day. Then the child knows what is expected of him on any given day because he knows which subjects, what order, and how much of each one. If he's a self-motivated child, he can go through his lessons on his own and go in the right direction. If he's a child that is not self-motivated or doesn't especially like to do school work, there is a goal to work toward. He can have this much done before recess, and then get this much done before lunch. He knows he can't visit friends, play with toys, watch TV, or go any where or do anything else until school work is done. Best of all, he knows where the end of the list is.

Consistency in the daily routine of the homeschool will help the child perform better because he knows what to expect.

Successful Homeschooling, Be Ahead

Get up early. If a mother expects to have any kind of success she should be up before the children. The earlier, within reason, the better. If she is up at least an hour before she expects the children to get up she can be dressed and have her personal needs taken care of. Then when the children get up, she's ready to tackle the day.

Why is this important to homeschool success? If the children are up first, the mother usually ends up just following them around all day cleaning up messes. she needs to be prepared so she can direct the children's activities and be in charge of the morning routine. Then she can focus them on their school work, and they don't get hung up on doing their own thing before school. This will save much of the battle of trying to get them to mind.

Plan the lessons ahead. The lessons should be planned before school starts. Using a curriculum that follows the same format each day will help. If special materials are required for that days lesson, they should be gathered up before school time. The lessons should come one right after the other with no time for messing around in between.

Why is this important to homeschool success? So often mother is busy getting the lesson ready when she should be teaching the lesson and the children all wonder off. She loses their attention and a lot of time is wasted trying to get them focused again.

Don't hurry. A homeschool schedule should be planned carefully leaving enough time for everything to be done. If it's not working, a new schedule is in order. One that either includes more time or less work in a day should be used.

Why is this important to homeschool success? How well can a child learn if she's always being pressured to hurry? She needs time to do her best work. Quality should never be given up for quantity.

Successful Homeschooling, Think "I Love You"

Why are you doing homeschool? For most of us it is because we love our children. We want the best for them. We want them to get a good education so they can be successful. We are doing this for them because of our love for them.

The power of positive thinking in "I Love You" will get you through the worse days when everything goes wrong, and it will make the best days perfect. When working with your child, Keep these positive thoughts in mind."I love you if you make a mistake." "I love you if you are not happy or cooperative today. I am here to help you find happiness." "I love you when you stubbornly want your own way. I will help you see a better way." "I love you when you are good." "I love you when you get to school on time." "I love you. I want your success." Think up your own "I love you"phrases and use them in your every day problem solving.

This positive thought pattern will help you come up with effective solutions to any problem, whether it be a bad behavior that your child has or just helping her to understand her school lessons. It is impossible to become angry or out patience when you remember "I love you." You are here for the child. You are giving yourself for her success.

"I love you" does not mean "I let you do whatever you want." "I love you" means that you help the child make the right decisions. See to it that she obeys you and follows the rules of the home. This will help her to be a law-abiding citizen when she grows up. See that she treats others well and takes care of her responsibilities. In this way you can help her to have friends and to be a good friend to others. Show her the true path to happiness is through loving others.

"I love you," Let this positive mind frame be the motive for every action and you will have a far greater success in your homeschool than you ever thought possible. Think "I love you."

Successful Homeschooling, Give It Time and Diligence

You will need to do some serious thinking and planning to make your homeschool a success. It is going to take much of your time. Be prepared to give up some recreation, hobby, or working outside the home to give your time for homeschooling. What you put into your homeschool effort is what your child will get out of it.

Besides taking a good deal of your time, Homeschooling also takes a lot of thought. Your mind has to be into it. It takes dedication and consistency. It takes planning. It takes perseverance even on the worse days. It takes creativity and a tremendous amount of patience on your part.
You have to teach everything, including good study skills, habits of organization, and cleanliness. You have to be the motivator, the rewarder, the punisher, the loving kind understanding mother, and the big fat mean boss.

You are the one that has to get the child out of bed, get him into his clothes, get him to the breakfast table, and into school on time. You have to figure out how to get his mind on his school work and get it done. All these things take time and diligence. It isn't going to happen in one day.

It will take diligence day after day the whole year. If your child fails, it's your fault. If he succeeds, it's your fault. The success of your homeschool depends on you and the time and energy that you put into it. If you get up and make it happen, it will. If you don't, won't.

Sucessful Homeschooling, It Depends On You

Be cheerful and enthusiastic about school. The children will take on your attitude. The way you feel shows in youractions, your voice, and the look in your eyes. You can't hide it. Children will quickly pick up on the way you feel. You can't head into the school day in a bad mood feeling grumpy and impatient then expect your child to be a good student. Even if you have the best curriculum in the world,it won't take the place of a patient, kind teacher. You will need to present the lessons in a cheerful, happy manner that makes learning enjoyable.

Demand of yourself what you expect of your child. You can't get lazy. You must take it seriously for your child to take it seriously. You be strict with yourself first. Get yourself to school on time. Let your actions show thechild that you care and that you are serious about doing homeschool. If you lie in bed two hours late not especiallyfeeling like doing school today, what is you child going to think? You are sending a suddle message that, "school is not important. We don't really have to do this." Then the child will act it our ten times worse. Next day when you try to wake him up, you'll have a battle on your hands with no ground to stand on. Be stricter on yourself. Show him the good example. Let you actions send the positive message,"School is important. We can do this. We will do this. School is wonderful so let's get learning."

You, the parent and teacher, get your homework done. Have your lessons ready. Have yourself ready on time. The Success of your homeschool depends on you.

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Getting Started

A To Start Teaching Your Kids......Homeschooling is an alternative form of education that is now fast growing. There are approximately more than two million people worldwide today that undergo homeschooling. It completely fills up the role of institutional learning. In homeschooling, both parents and their children determine the extent of their learning. http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Start-Teaching-Your-Kids......&id=711324 - Sep 04, 2007







Free Homeschooling CurriculumMost people think homeschooling is expensive and is only for the well off. Homeschooling need not be expensive, for example free homeschooling curriculum materials can be obtained quite easily if you know where to look.http://ezinearticles.com/?Free-Homeschooling-Curriculum&id=404930 - Jan 05, 2007



To Start Teaching Your Kids......Homeschooling is an alternative form of education that is now fast growing. There are approximately more than two million people worldwide today that undergo homeschooling. It completely fills up the role of institutional learning. In homeschooling, both parents and their children determine the extent of their learning. http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Start-Teaching-Your-Kids......&id=711324 - Sep 04, 2007