Preparing

I am in the process of preparing for next school year. I have been organizing curriculum materials, decorating, and trying out different schedules. I still have a long list of things to do including painting our school room.Once the school room is painted, I can set up the math calendar and hang maps. I cannot wait because once all of that is up, the room will really feel like school to us!

This whole process is really exciting to me. I LOVE to plan. Thinking through all of the possibilities makes me feel like we can do anything! I am already searching for books and thinking about extension activities that we can try out. I think E is tired of hearing about what my plans are for the fall, but the kids cannot wait for it to start!

Now if I could get E to help me out with the set up, I could get it finished in no time…

End of Year Assessment: A Quick Portfolio

It is that time of year when you need to evaluate your child’s progress in your homeschool. Here are a few tips for showcasing your child’s learning.

Create a portfolio of literacy and math skills. There are many ways to keep a portfolio, but here is one quick and simple way of creating one. Include the following items in your portfolio:

1. Information about your child’s literacy. You can find a comprehensive collection of printable assessment forms for all kinds of literacy assessment at Reading A-Z. Here are other ideas to help.

*A reading comprehension assessment is important for you to include because it tells you about your child’s readling level, comprehension skills, and what kinds of books to choose in the future. Story retellings are a great way of assessing your child’s reading comprehension. You can find an example of a retelling rubric (a scale that gives a score) here. You can also estimate your child’s reading level at ReadWriteSite: Level Estimator.

*Spelling tests can give a snapshot of your child’s knowledge of spelling patterns. The LA County Office of Education has directions for how to use spelling inventories to better understand specifically your child’s knowledge of words. All About Spelling offers spelling lists for grades 1-7 as well as the Dolch Sight Words list and the Ayers Spelling Scale. Education Place has a number of spelling lists for 1st-6th grades.

*A book list of all the literature your child has read and a book list including all the literature you have read aloud to your child gives a snapshot of your child as a reader. It will also help you choose books wisely in the future.

*Writing samples can showcase your child’s writing skills. Include a description of the assignment with each sample. Carefully choose samples that show what your child has learned. Choose a few different genres of writing, too: a report, a short story, a poem, etc.

2.Information about your child’s math competency.

*An end of year math test is a great way to show what math skills your child has retained this year. You can use the assessments that come with your curriculum if you wish. Otherwise, I have found two websites that have math assessments: Open-Ended Assessment in Math and Free Math Test.

*Work samples are also important to include. Carefully choose work that shows what your child has learned in math.

*Photographs of math projects with descriptions about the work are also important samples to include in a portfolio.

Hopefully this guide to creating a portfolio will help you to wrap up your school year with a good glimpse of what your child has learned!

Photo courtesy of Hey Paul

Building Excitement for Homeschooling

Montessori school is out for the summer, and we are homeschooling both kids full time this fall. I planned on taking some time this summer to really get my head wrapped around our schedule, goals, and the like while having a few minor summer projects for the kids. As I started organizing my things for school, I decided to show the kids our school supplies in order to build excitement for school at home. (There have been some negative comments about the idea of home education directed at the kids recently.) They thoroughly enjoyed the sneak peek! We have talked about school at home a bit recently, too.

Despite the fact that the kids have been sick with fevers and coughs this week, there has been much enthusiasm about starting school at home. Apparently the kids want to start the school year now. They demanded school work today. A2 kept asking for a project. I think she wanted to do one of the mosaics from a kit that we have been working on. (They each take about an hour to complete with a lot of assistance from me. I just didn’t have it in me today to do it.) They wouldn’t back down until I found something for them to do. We did puzzles together for a long while. C5 also read a book to me, and we reviewed some sight words. We even talked a bit about place value today. All of that work was on top of cleaning our home. It was definitely a productive day for us!

It looks like I was successful in making the idea of homeschooling positive.

Photo courtesy of tiffanywashko

Supplimenting Your Homeschool Curriculum

It is the time of year that my husband and I discuss school. We have purchased a curriculum that we will use this coming year, but now we are deciding how we will round out our kids’ school year. We will use our curriculum to keep us focused all year, but we also plan on supplementing with interesting activities. The goal is to map out some ideas we want to try.

We have been looking at the options for classes at our local YMCA as a way to vary our kids’ experiences. The classes there are a great way to address PE and learn new skills. Our problem is deciding which classes to take. We want our children to experience many different things before they settle into focusing on one particular activity they want to pursue in depth. For example, we want them to try various sports, dance,  and swimming. The trick is getting them to try something new. When I suggested a dance class, my daughter told me that she already knew how to dance. I explained that there is much more to learn about dance, but she insisted that she simply did not need to learn anything more about dance. I also recommended other classes we could try with similar responses.

What are your strategies for getting your children to try out a new sport or activity?

First photo courtesy of tiffanywashko

Second photo courtesy of lunawhimsy

Heeding Advice

We are in the process of planning school for the fall. C4 is starting Kindergarten and A2 is starting preschool this year. This is an exciting time, but it is also a bit stressful. Of course we want to do what is best for our children. We also want to do what is best for each of us and for our family as a whole.

Right now we are wavering about whether or not homeschooling is the best choice for us this coming fall. The outside world is making me question what is right for our kids. Have you had this problem before? I keep reminding myself that I have to keep focused on what we think is best and to take only the advice that is reasonable. It is so hard to not be swayed by other people’s opinions and it is hard to discern when we should heed someone’s advice.

How do you discern what advice is worth listening to? How do you know that your decisions are the right ones for your family?

A Traditional Literature Theme: Tall Tales

Continue your Traditional Literature study in your homeschool with Tall Tales. These stories are short, fun, and engaging. If your children are resistant to reading, Tall Tales can be a great way to capture their interest.

~You can find copies of American Tall Tales here. There are also comprehension quizzes on this site.

~You can find a unit study on Tall Tales at German Town Academy.

~Tall Tales fit into a unit of study on the westward expansion. You can find general information about America in the 1800’s at this website. You will also find a host of educational resources at this website.

~Some Tall Tales are based on actual people. You can have your children research the lives of the Johnny Appleseed and Davey Crockett and compare the facts they find to the exaggerations in Tall Tales.

~You can make a lapbook on Johnny Appleseed. Homeschool Share has a free one.

~Have your children write their own Tall Tales. Remember to include exaggeration in the tales. Illustrations would complete the stories.

Photo courtesy of cliff1066

A Traditional Literature Theme: Fairy Tales

Are you studying traditional literature in your homeschool? You can engage your children in this study by diving into Fairy Tales and adding a twist to the learning experience.

• Your children might enjoy reading several versions of the same fairy tale. It is common to do a study on the Cinderella stories and compare the different versions of the tale. You can find a great lesson plan at EDSITEement. Write or act out the story from a different character’s point of view. You can even have your children write their own version of a fairy tale but from as if it is from a different culture. Research a particular culture thoroughly first and require that the story include information about that culture in the story.
• Add fractured fairy tales to your study. Read the “original” version of a tale and compare it to the fractured version. There are many great fractured fairy tales available now such as The Fourth Little Pig, Just Ella, Sleeping Ugly, and The Paper Bag Princess. Then have your children write their own fractured fairy tales. You can even incorporate persuasive essays in your study. Your children can write from the antagonist’s point of view explaining why s/he was wronged.
• Since many fairy tales were collected by the Brothers Grimm in an effort to preserve German folklore, you can do a research project on Germany.
• Study Hans Christian Anderson’s life and fairy tales. (Beware that his tales do not always have happy endings.) You can also learn about Holland since Andersen was Dutch.

Photo courtesy of g.naharro

Puppets Encourage Homeschool Literacy

Puppets can be a useful tool in your homeschool literacy program. Here are a few ways to use them with children eight years old and younger.

~Your beginning reader can read books to a puppet. Young children buy into the fantasy of the puppet interacting with them. Sometimes the presence of the puppet helps a child who is struggling with reading to relax and enjoy the experience. The puppet makes it fun to read.

~Your children can retell books by writing a script and using puppets. It is a fun way to encourage your children to reread a book and understand it well enough to capture the essence of the story. It also encourages your children to write a good script. Younger children will love to watch the puppet shows, too.

~You can make a read aloud more engaging with a puppet. My kids love listening to the puppet read stories, ask questions, and explain parts of the stories. They talk to the puppet. They also like touching it and even mimicking the way that I use the puppet. This tool can be especially helpful in engaging children who find it difficult to sit still long enough to listen to a whole book.

~Your children can teach the puppet. This is a fun way to have your child summarize a new skill or concept that you’ve been practicing. For example, the puppet can learn to sound out words or find rhyming pairs. The puppet can even find sight words in a story such as “the”, “what”, and “said”.

~You can research another culture with puppets. Shadow puppets are part of Indonesian culture. Your children can create a shadow puppet show as a culminating activity after researching Indonesian culture.

Have fun with puppets!

Photo courtesy of nickstone333

Madarin: A Homeschool Foreign Language

Are you a homeschooler who wants to incorporate a foreign language into your curriculum? This video is an introduction to Mandarin Chinese and will hopefully give a taste of what the language is like.

I like how this particular video has a slow pace and gives many opportunities for you to practice the new vocabulary. The teacher speaks slowly and clearly as well. It is also helpful to see the pronunciation guide as you learn the vocabulary. Sadly this video is not as edgy as the Learning Japanese from Yoda video previously posted, but I still think that teens will like that the lesson is short and easy to follow.

Football Theme

I have a dear friend, Rose, who has inspired this post.

Do you have a kiddo who absolutely loves football? Use this passion as a way into learning. You can use the football theme to teach practically anything this year in your home school. Here is what I mean.

Social Studies:

• Have your child create football trading cards that include information about important historical figures.
• On a map locate where the home stadiums are for each NFL team.
• Create a time line of the history of football.

Math:

• Convert yards into feet.
• Throw a football around the backyard, make an estimate for the distance it went, and measure it in feet and in yards.
• Calculate someone’s quarterback rating.

Science:

• Investigate gravity. How long does the ball stay in the air and how high does it have to go?
• Investigate wind resistance. Why is the ball oblong?
• Investigate properties of materials. What makes leather hard when it gets cold?
• Investigate conservation of energy and conservation of momentum. When a player is tackling another, how fast does the light person have to be going to stop the heavy person? (f=ma, e=mv²)

Writing:

• Write a series of newspaper articles on key players for each team.
• Create a series of letters that one of the players would write to family members. They should be written as if the player is actually writing.
• Write a research paper on one of the players.
• Write a fictional story about a football.

Handwriting:

• Write the NFL teams’ names in cursive.
• Write sentences about football in cursive.
• Make a football shaped book for spelling words that are inspired by football written in cursive and in sentences.
  

  

Reading:

• Read newspaper articles about the players.
• Read any available biographies on the players.
• Read football inspired stories.
• Research the rules for the NFL.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, so be creative! Have fun learning through football!