Hi all, I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted!!! Please forgive! This year has been so crazy busy, the time just got away from me. Ok, first let me catch you up on what's been going on with me and then I'll share my free resource with you.
Let's see, I decided to join a coop this year. The coop meets twice a week and you can choose to have your children take most of their core courses with them, or you can choose individual classes (very nice). I decided to sign the children up for 3 classes and they have been enjoying the experience and making wonderful friendships with the children in the group.
I am teaching two science classes: Anatomy and Astronomy. My Anatomy class is for high school and gifted middle school students. It focuses on the major body systems and will end with a unit study of forensic science. We are using the Apologia Exploring Creation through Astronomy textbook for the Astronomy class and really having a great time with it. Did I mention how much I love Apologia Science books? Love it!
I have also been working on writing a book and it is going very slowly, but I'm hoping to have it finished by December of this year. So....what is everyone up to? Any great homeschooling stories to share? Please let me know what you are doing for school this year.
Now, my resource of the day: Free History DVD from the history channel!!!!
From the website:
America The Story of US — premiering on HISTORY™ April 25 at 9pm/8c —
is a six week event that provides a fascinating look at the stories of
the people, events, and innovations that forged our nation. It will
provide you with an unprecedented opportunity to bring our nation's
history to life for your students. This 12-hour series will be
supported by educational materials tied to curriculum standards and is
copyright cleared for Fair Use in the classroom by instructors or
pupils in the course of face-to-face teaching activities.
* HISTORY is offering America The Story of US on DVD to every school
in the United States. School must be an accredited public, private or
home school, for grades K-12 and college. In order to receive your
school's DVD, your school principal (grades K-12) or Dean of Students
(college) should fill out the request form below. HISTORY strictly
limits one request per school.
DVD requests must be made prior to July 1, 2010. DVD's will be mailed around August 2010 and free shipping is included in this offer.
http://classroom. history.com/ america-dvd/ event/form
Well that's it for now. My next post will be a review on the Teaching Company Resources I have been using. Please stay tuned!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Monday, September 14, 2009
Taking the word "no" out of your homeschool day
Hi all,
I am going a little off topic with this post, so I hope you will all bear with me. I belong to a few different homeschool email groups and a poster recently asked a very good question about how to have a productive homeschool day, when your strong-willed child says "no". The poster was telling the story of a typical day of her homeschool day with her 5 children. Following the Charlotte Mason philosophy, she wisely scheduled all the lessons to be about 20 minutes long, however she was finding that her children would whine and complain, drag out the lessons or just plain refuse to do them unless she was sitting right next to them and they would spend hours working on the assignments.
Now we all know how hard it is to focus on the lessons of one child, when the other child or children are also vying for your attention, so what do you do? I can tell you, when we began our journey, it WAS difficult getting the children to "cooperate", especially because they were transitioning from a school environment to a home environment. The idea of mom being their teacher was a new concept, so my heart went out to the poster.
Here are some suggestions if you are facing the same type of situation:
1. Learn what their learning style is and tailor their subjects to that style.
2. Stop making it just like school if it's not working for them. Who says your homeschool journey has to be set up like school (nothing wrong with that if it works for your child). If they don't thrive in a school environment, switch it up a bit.
3. Give them daily and weekly incentives. For example, in the beginning you want to get them doing their daily work, so I would put the assignments on the board for that day (remember, don't make the assignments over-whelming) ), for every assignment completed, I would give them a punch on their reward card. If they had all of the assignments completed, they could get to watch a movie, or play a video game, if they had only 4 out of 5 assignments done, they couldn't have the first reward, but they could earn a lessor award like a dollar store toy or something to that effect. The point is to give them something to motivate them to want to complete their assignment, and reward them for their efforts. Even if they only get 2 assignments done, find a way to reward them for their efforts and encourage them to "earn" the higher prize. That way the pressure is taken off of you, and you're not getting frustrated and neither are they.
4. Give them wiggle time. If they are high energy children, they will need to release that energy. Let them have some free time to run around (use a timer and set to 15 minutes, so they know when it goes off it's time to get back to work. If they refuse to come back to the studies, let them know they will not earn another free time for the day)
5. Keep lessons to about 20 minutes or so. Even if they haven't finished it, let them work for 20 minutes and then give them a break and move on to something else. They will improve their abilities over time once they are used to being able to work within a time constraint, but it won't be right away, so give them a break.
6. If your kids like to read, unit studies are the best way to transition your child from public school to homeschool. It is much less threatening and the children learn a lot while reading.
7. Make a schedule for yourself and stick to it. When you are organized, it helps them to stay organized. You can plan activities for the younger one's to do (like online computer time or watching an educational video) that doesn't require you to be with them while you help the older children and vice versa.
I hope these suggestions help. It won't get better overnight, but it will get better if you are consistent with it.
If you have any suggestions or tips that have worked for your family, please take a moment to post it here. Thank you and God Bless!
I am going a little off topic with this post, so I hope you will all bear with me. I belong to a few different homeschool email groups and a poster recently asked a very good question about how to have a productive homeschool day, when your strong-willed child says "no". The poster was telling the story of a typical day of her homeschool day with her 5 children. Following the Charlotte Mason philosophy, she wisely scheduled all the lessons to be about 20 minutes long, however she was finding that her children would whine and complain, drag out the lessons or just plain refuse to do them unless she was sitting right next to them and they would spend hours working on the assignments.
Now we all know how hard it is to focus on the lessons of one child, when the other child or children are also vying for your attention, so what do you do? I can tell you, when we began our journey, it WAS difficult getting the children to "cooperate", especially because they were transitioning from a school environment to a home environment. The idea of mom being their teacher was a new concept, so my heart went out to the poster.
Here are some suggestions if you are facing the same type of situation:
1. Learn what their learning style is and tailor their subjects to that style.
2. Stop making it just like school if it's not working for them. Who says your homeschool journey has to be set up like school (nothing wrong with that if it works for your child). If they don't thrive in a school environment, switch it up a bit.
3. Give them daily and weekly incentives. For example, in the beginning you want to get them doing their daily work, so I would put the assignments on the board for that day (remember, don't make the assignments over-whelming) ), for every assignment completed, I would give them a punch on their reward card. If they had all of the assignments completed, they could get to watch a movie, or play a video game, if they had only 4 out of 5 assignments done, they couldn't have the first reward, but they could earn a lessor award like a dollar store toy or something to that effect. The point is to give them something to motivate them to want to complete their assignment, and reward them for their efforts. Even if they only get 2 assignments done, find a way to reward them for their efforts and encourage them to "earn" the higher prize. That way the pressure is taken off of you, and you're not getting frustrated and neither are they.
4. Give them wiggle time. If they are high energy children, they will need to release that energy. Let them have some free time to run around (use a timer and set to 15 minutes, so they know when it goes off it's time to get back to work. If they refuse to come back to the studies, let them know they will not earn another free time for the day)
5. Keep lessons to about 20 minutes or so. Even if they haven't finished it, let them work for 20 minutes and then give them a break and move on to something else. They will improve their abilities over time once they are used to being able to work within a time constraint, but it won't be right away, so give them a break.
6. If your kids like to read, unit studies are the best way to transition your child from public school to homeschool. It is much less threatening and the children learn a lot while reading.
7. Make a schedule for yourself and stick to it. When you are organized, it helps them to stay organized. You can plan activities for the younger one's to do (like online computer time or watching an educational video) that doesn't require you to be with them while you help the older children and vice versa.
I hope these suggestions help. It won't get better overnight, but it will get better if you are consistent with it.
If you have any suggestions or tips that have worked for your family, please take a moment to post it here. Thank you and God Bless!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Homeschooling through High School
Wow! Time flies when you're having fun! I have only one more year before I have to start worrying about high school! What do we do as parents? Do we succumb to our insecurities and put our children in school? Is there anything out there that can help us prepare our children for the challenges of high school and ensure that they are highly competitive for college scholarships?
I believe it is a very obtainable goal to homeschool our high school-aged children, but it IS something that many people worry about. With the economic outlook of our current economy, many families worry about how they are going to pay for college should their child decide they want to attend. It seems to me, if we want to give our children a fighting chance, we need to provide them with a "top-notch" college-prepartory education. How do we do that? Do we put them into a traditional high school? Do we "bite the bullet" and enroll them in a college-prep private school or boarding academy? Do we continue to school them at home and hope for the best? These are the questions my husband and I have contemplated as our oldest child begins 8th grade.
A few years ago, I belonged to an international online homeschool support network. I was "introduced" to a wonderful woman by the name of Lee Binz. Lee has successfully homeschooled her two sons through high school, and she now dedicates her time to providing tips to home educators such as myself. The thing I really like is how she has such a calming way of relieving the fear monster that likes to sit on our shoulder. Take a look for yourself.
Well, I hope that I have inspired you to want to check out what Lee has to offer. If you would like to visit her site, please click here
As always, please check out the links I have in the homeschool links section. There are many links that apply to multiple grade levels, and new ones are updated on a regular basis. If you have any questions, concerns, comments or great links that you have found, please leave a comment below.
I believe it is a very obtainable goal to homeschool our high school-aged children, but it IS something that many people worry about. With the economic outlook of our current economy, many families worry about how they are going to pay for college should their child decide they want to attend. It seems to me, if we want to give our children a fighting chance, we need to provide them with a "top-notch" college-prepartory education. How do we do that? Do we put them into a traditional high school? Do we "bite the bullet" and enroll them in a college-prep private school or boarding academy? Do we continue to school them at home and hope for the best? These are the questions my husband and I have contemplated as our oldest child begins 8th grade.
A few years ago, I belonged to an international online homeschool support network. I was "introduced" to a wonderful woman by the name of Lee Binz. Lee has successfully homeschooled her two sons through high school, and she now dedicates her time to providing tips to home educators such as myself. The thing I really like is how she has such a calming way of relieving the fear monster that likes to sit on our shoulder. Take a look for yourself.
Well, I hope that I have inspired you to want to check out what Lee has to offer. If you would like to visit her site, please click here
As always, please check out the links I have in the homeschool links section. There are many links that apply to multiple grade levels, and new ones are updated on a regular basis. If you have any questions, concerns, comments or great links that you have found, please leave a comment below.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Back to school days
Hello all,
I actually had planned on blogging earlier than this, but as always, life happened :-). I had the wonderful privilege of chaperoning my darling daughter's youth group trip to an International Camporee that takes place every 5 years. Can we just say...wow! There were 35,000 children from all over the world that attended this week-long event, and at the end, 500 children were baptized (to include mine. Yeah!)! God is good all the time, and all the time...God is good!
Well, I'm back home, exhausted, a little under the weather, yet excited to get back into my homeschooling routine! I expect that most of you have already begun your school year (didn't this summer just fly by)?. I have spent the last few days finalizing facility locations and tweaking the syllabus of both my Anatomy and Astronomy classes, and am finally feeling confident that I have everything covered.
Yeah...right... I woke up this morning to face the day and it suddenly struck me....hmmm I haven't organized the kids classroom/playroom (currently functioning more as a playroom), there's a ton of laundry that I need to do from our trip, I haven't actually sat down and made out my school schedule yet ( I like to plan the school schedule in 30 day blocks), and oh yeah...My children did say they wanted to take Spanish this year...hmmm I should probably get right on that....
Have any of you ever felt as over-whelmed as I sound right now? Well, I have a plan... I am going to sit down with my coffee cup and my bible and have a few moments of stillness. I will let the peace and comfort of God's love wash over me and I will know that HE has already worked it all out. He knows my name, he knows my needs, and he says...Michelle, I have already taken care of all of that for you! I take comfort in that knowledge and if you are having one of those mornings, I'd like you to take comfort in that knowledge also. It's so easy to lose sight of our real purpose when we focus on all of the little details, don't you think? Take comfort and know that he is God.
I'd like to take a moment to ask all of you who are praying people, to pray for one sick little boy, Noah. He's been having quite a difficult time with his health lately, and I pray for peace and understanding for his family.
Anyway, in closing, I'd like to share a link to a free resource I found (well, part of it is free, and she charges a low yearly fee for complete access). Molly Evert is a wonderful blogger, and she has taken a lot of time and effort to develop a wonderful website that brings you many of the classic stories in audio format. I plan on checking out her site often, I hope you do too. Check out her site at: http://www.myaudioschool.com/
Sunday, August 2, 2009
Drum Roll Please! Free Homeschool Helps
Well, I don't know about you, but I am in full swing planning my next homeschool year. We will not be starting until after Labor Day this year due to our many obligations during August :-)
I decided that this year, I really want to make my life a little easier as I develop my business, and prepare for a year-long service project that our family will be doing. So, I've opted to do a multi-subject, year-long unit study called A World of Adventure.
Here is the description from the website "A World of Adventure, gives a year of lesson plans in a daily format. It is based on world history and covers all subjects but math, which you must supply with a program of your choice. This book tells you exactly what to do each day, which books you must check out of the library and which books are suggested. It includes hands-on activities, recipes, discussion questions and writing and project ideas. Ideas and activities for extended learning adventures are included. Lists of required materials are given at the beginning of each unit. It gives guidance where guidance is needed. It was written for those who lack the confidence or the time to put together a unit study of their own. I've done the work for you so that you can spend more time making memories with your children.
This book is written for children in grades 4-8. However, you may easily supplement or simplify the material in various areas to accommodate younger and older children. There are six units in this book, one corresponding to each historical period of study. They are: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, The Middle Ages, The Renaissance and Reformation, and The Age of Exploration."
Great right? Well of course, I am adding my own little twist and supplementing with Math and Science (because Science is my thing :-))
This year, I will once again be teaching Science coop classes: Anatomy (middle/early high school) and Astronomy (Elementary/Early Middle). Please keep me in prayer as I mentor these wonderful children in the ways that God has a hand in all things, and how we can explain wonderful aspects of science from a creationist viewpoint. Pray that the Lord will be a light onto my path and touch my lips so that I may speak what he desires me to reveal.
As many of you know, I really enjoy teaching using a hands-on learning approach. I was doing some research to find additional projects to do with my students, when lo and behold, I came across a terrific homeschool website. This site has so many things to help you organize your homeschool, wonderful forms and best of all, lots of free worksheets and unit studies! Yeah! What a treasure, and it was truly wonderful to find it! The website I am talking about is: Highland Heritage Homeschool.
http://highland.hitcho.com.au/
Take some time to go through all the various units on the site; you'll be glad you did. If you are interested in finding out some more information about the unit study I mentioned earlier, check out:
http://www.learning-adventures.org/A_World_of_Adventure/a_world_of_adventure.html
Everything is done for you, you just have to get the library books and begin! Good luck with your homeschooling year, and feel free to tell me about what your plans are for this school year :-)
I decided that this year, I really want to make my life a little easier as I develop my business, and prepare for a year-long service project that our family will be doing. So, I've opted to do a multi-subject, year-long unit study called A World of Adventure.
Here is the description from the website "A World of Adventure, gives a year of lesson plans in a daily format. It is based on world history and covers all subjects but math, which you must supply with a program of your choice. This book tells you exactly what to do each day, which books you must check out of the library and which books are suggested. It includes hands-on activities, recipes, discussion questions and writing and project ideas. Ideas and activities for extended learning adventures are included. Lists of required materials are given at the beginning of each unit. It gives guidance where guidance is needed. It was written for those who lack the confidence or the time to put together a unit study of their own. I've done the work for you so that you can spend more time making memories with your children.
This book is written for children in grades 4-8. However, you may easily supplement or simplify the material in various areas to accommodate younger and older children. There are six units in this book, one corresponding to each historical period of study. They are: Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, The Middle Ages, The Renaissance and Reformation, and The Age of Exploration."
Great right? Well of course, I am adding my own little twist and supplementing with Math and Science (because Science is my thing :-))
This year, I will once again be teaching Science coop classes: Anatomy (middle/early high school) and Astronomy (Elementary/Early Middle). Please keep me in prayer as I mentor these wonderful children in the ways that God has a hand in all things, and how we can explain wonderful aspects of science from a creationist viewpoint. Pray that the Lord will be a light onto my path and touch my lips so that I may speak what he desires me to reveal.
As many of you know, I really enjoy teaching using a hands-on learning approach. I was doing some research to find additional projects to do with my students, when lo and behold, I came across a terrific homeschool website. This site has so many things to help you organize your homeschool, wonderful forms and best of all, lots of free worksheets and unit studies! Yeah! What a treasure, and it was truly wonderful to find it! The website I am talking about is: Highland Heritage Homeschool.
http://highland.hitcho.com.au/
Take some time to go through all the various units on the site; you'll be glad you did. If you are interested in finding out some more information about the unit study I mentioned earlier, check out:
http://www.learning-adventures.org/A_World_of_Adventure/a_world_of_adventure.html
Everything is done for you, you just have to get the library books and begin! Good luck with your homeschooling year, and feel free to tell me about what your plans are for this school year :-)
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