Homeschool Conference Encouragement

Today we went to the homeschool conference! It was so good to be able to attend a couple of workshops and shop for curriculum with my hubby. Sometimes it feels like the kids are all my responsibility so it helps to have hubby with me to make big decisions like what homeschool curriculum we should use.

God is so faithful and He provides exactly what we need. I have been feeling a bit discouraged latley because of the naysayers out there who give me a difficult time about homeschooling. Everyone has an opinion about how I should educate my kids. I really should be used to that, though. Doesn’t that start when your first baby is born and everyone tells you how you should raise your kids? I got used to that so I know that I can get used to the judgment about my kids’ socialization education.

One of the speakers today gave a great tip that I have to share with you. Perhaps you already do this, but I think it is important enough to repeat. Write down a homeschool mission statement and plan. Why are you homeschooling? Who teaches the children which subjects? What will the children learn? You get the idea. The point of doing that is that you may need that information at some point in time. Your school district may ask for that kind of information. Your family and friends might continually ask you those questions. Or you and your spouse might need to be reminded of the answers to those questions when you feel discouraged or frustrated. It is the single most important tip I came away from the conference with today!

I look forward to sharing a few more gems with you from the confernce in the next few posts!

Photo courtesy of mp_eds

A Cat in the Hat Day

Have a Cat in the Hat day in your homeschool. Make stovepipe hats to learn about patterns and play a Seuss inspired indoor P.E. game. You can also practice handwriting, phonics, and spelling. These projects are appropriate for preschoolers and kindergartners.

Stovepipe Hat

Supplies (makes 1 sample and 2 hats)
3 pieces red construction paper     3 pieces white construction paper     2 pieces large drawing paper
glue sticks     scissors     permanent marker

How To
Cut about one inch off of the long edge of three pieces of red construction paper and three pieces of white construction paper. Trace one of the remaining rectangles onto a large piece of drawing paper. Then trace the cut off piece of paper onto the base of the large rectangle to form the brim of the hat. Make one tracing for each child.

Give each child the tracing of the hat. Have each child glue the one inch white strip to the brim of the hat. Have the children fold the red paper in half hamburger style twice and cut the paper along the folds. Do the same for the white paper. Now create a pattern with the colors on the tracing by gluing red, white, red, white. (Each child will have 2 extra pieces of red and 2 extra pieces of white paper. Reserve these for another project.)

Have your children help spell the words “Cat in the Hat” and write them as a title at the top of the page.

Word Work

Supplies
remaining strips of red and white construction paper     permanent marker    pencils

How To
Use the remaining strips of paper to write the words “cat”, “in”, “the”, & “hat”. As you write the words (except “the”, which you write out and explain that it is a sight word), have your child say the sounds in the words and tell you the corresponding letters. Then have the kids trace over the letters. Your children can play “Concentration” and “Go Fish” and also practice spelling the words with these flash cards.

Indoor Seuss Inspired Frisbee

Supplies
2 dessert size paper plates (per child)     red marker     read crayons

How To
Draw a stovepipe hat on the back of each of the plates. Draw lines for your child to color in with red crayon. Once the Frisbees are decorated, toss them around. We played Frisbee down our hallway and even played relay races. Be creative!

A Dance and Tumble Class?

Photo by msburrows

As a homeschooling family, we are always looking for opportunities for our children to learn skills that we value but cannot provide ourselves. For our family, we seek out physical activities for our very busy and precocious children. We suggested that my dad give the girls dance/gymnastics classes for Christmas for this very reason. Today was C4’s first “Dance and Tumble” class for the winter session at the YMCA.

Not only did we want C4 to join a gymnastics/dance class for physical education and dance skills, but we also knew that there would be social, emotional, and neurological benefits from the class.

~C4 has Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD), and she is definitely a sensory seeker. The activities in this class provide lots of proprioceptive input, which will help her with motor planning and balance. There are plenty of deep pressure activities in the class as well such as rolling, hopping, and jumping.

~This class gives C4 the opportunity to make some friendships outside of our current circle of friends. I hope that she can connect with other little girls who share her interest in dancing and gymnastics. The class gives her a topic to discuss with her friends, shared experiences, and time away from me and her sister to establish new friendships.

~I hope that the experiences she has will build her confidence in her physical abilities resulting in a better sense of what she can do independently. She often tells me that she is unable to complete a task that I have seen her do a dozen times. I suspect that her frustration is a result of her SPD sometimes and other times is part of her limit-testing as a strong-willed child. Perhaps she will gain better control over her proprioceptive function through her dance class and maybe learn a little about following the rules.

~Most of all, I hope that C4 has fun in this class. Today she was so excited that she was going to her class that she simply could not nap. As we got ready to leave the house, she kept telling A2 about how she was going to a special dance class that Papa gave to her for Christmas. When we arrived, she ran right into the room. She dove into the class. She smiled. She laughed. She was thrilled by the end of class. She made sure to tell Daddy all about her experiences.

I have high hopes for this little class!

A Few of My Favorite Homeschooling Things

There are lots of homeschooling blog posts about how to homeschool on a budget, but I haven’t seen any about the supplies that make things run smoothly. Here are a few of my favorite things to keep on hand for our homeschool.

1. Index cards – for making flash cards, for making games, for writing memory verses on, for making a changeable schedule with (to be placed in a pocket chart), to make into letter tiles for word building, and the ideas are limitless.
2. File folders – to make lapbooks (We need lots for these.), to make an easy-to-store board game such as “Roll to 100″, to make a sorting game with, to make a phonics game on, to amke small sentence strips with, and the list goes on!
3. Construction paper/Copy paper/Notebooks – to make cards, to make collages, to make anything crafty, to make homemade books, for the kids to keep a journal in, for you to take notes on your children’s progress, to write just about anything.
4. Glue sticks & White glue – We glue something almost every day!
5. Plastic zipper storage bags of all sizes – for storing homemade games & puzzles, for keeping hand wipes in (They are great for cleaning up after a messy project.), for storing journals used outside, to store play dough in, for crushing ingredients when you cook, for storing wet paintbrushes, to organize like items for counting & sorting, and a million other uses.
6. Scissors & Paper cutter – I have a variety: adult scissors, blunt scissors, & a nylon pair that only cuts paper.
7. Pocket Folders – I keep everything from printed worksheets to the work related to a unit study in these. I like to use different colors and different patterns to make them easily distinguishable.
8. Packing tape – to fix torn pages in a book, to reinforce game pieces, to adhere lapbooks together, to reinforce the binding on books, for taping large boxes for pretend play. Packing tape fixes it all!
9. Post-it Notes – for reminders for you & the kids, for bookmarks, for games, for cloze procedure exercises, to write a note about something in a book to discuss, and many other things.
10. Paper plates of all sizes - to use as a palette for painting, to make masks, for putting glue on, for cutting into fractions, for sorting objects on, to make a variety of crafts with, to make a clock, to make a spinner, and many for more projects.

Do you have any favorite supplies that you just have to have for your homeschool?

Homeschooled Kids Called “Demented” on The View

Yesterday on “The View” homeschooling came up in the Hot Topics discussion. The panel was discussing the schooling options for the president elect’s daughters, and home education came up as one option. Unfortunately, Joy Behar called homeschooled children “demented” during the segment, and a few homeschoolers on Twitter and some bloggers such as Barb at Back Door Homeschool Tools were offended. The discussion about homeschooling comes up at the 5:45he 5:45
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It saddens me that Joy Behar, an educator herself, would look down on the home education movement. She has been in the classroom and knows that not all children learn the same way. Children need different educational choices because each child is unique. Homeschooling provides children lots of flexibility that allows parents to meet their children’s needs. Sadly, Joy Behar does not see it that way.

Katie, at Moms in the Right, gave me a link to this article by John Taylor Gatto. It is a satirical piece, so please take it from that perspective. Overall, John Taylor Gotto sounds like an interesting author and educator. I plan to read some of his work.

Hopefully, home educators can continue to work towards changing stereotypical views about homeschooling. It is unfortunate when someone who has a powerful opinion makes comments that are both hurtful and untrue.

Homeschool Mom: Persevering or Proving Herself

I just read a great article in “Christianity Today” about “dropping out” of homeschooling. It got me thinking that home education is a huge commitment and perfectionists like me might wrestle with the decision to continue homeschooling. As I was reading this article, I kept thinking that I often do not show myself any grace, and the mother in the article didn’t either. She talked about her struggle to let go of homeschooling. She wanted it to work even though nothing she was doing made things improve, and she clearly heard God telling her to send her children to public school. It can be difficult to distinguish between perseverance and the need to prove something to everyone else. Perseverance is good, but proving yourself to others is not.

My husband and I have decided this:

• We will think about and plan school one year at a time. It is impossible to think through all of the possibilities and determine what will be best for our children beyond that time frame.
• We will remember that each child is unique. Home education may be good for one child, but not good for another.
• We will work together as a team to educate our children. Ecclesiastes 4:9Ecclesiastes 4:9
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  9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.
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  tells us that we need each other. Hopefully that will help us make better decisions about our children’s education.
• We will pray about the direction of our home school. Right now we feel called to home educate our children next year full time, but God may have different plans after that. I want to follow His plan!

Show yourself some grace and pray. Homeschooling is hard work and rewarding. But if you find that home education is not working for your children, then investigate alternatives.

Responding to Concerns about Homeschooling

Recently I have been talking with other moms about our decision to homeschool full time next school year - both kids. This seems like a big step for us since we are supplementing Montessori school right now. I know that we can do it, though. For some reason I have found it incredibly difficult to face those other moms when I tell them that. I think people think that we are weird.

I have a friend who just started homeschooling this year because she and her husband feel called by God to do that. She told me that although she is confident in their decision to homeschool, but she also finds it difficult to talk to other people about this decision. She also feels like people will think that they are weird and doesn’t know what to tell people. After some discussion about the topic, we came up with a couple of things you can tell people about your decision to homeschool.

• Our homeschool meets my children’s learning needs better than any other educational setting right now. I have more flexiblitity to try different curricula and methods to reach my children.
• We want to provide a Christian education for our children, but we cannot afford private school.

The other concern that others have when I talk about home education is about socialization. I have to wonder why socialization is the big concern and not the quality of the education that my kids get, but this is what I say:

• By not paying for school, we will have funds available to put towards dance class, horseback riding lessons, swimming lessons, and the like. These are the situations where my children will be involved in group learning experiences away from Mommy.
• We are active in our church, so my children are forming friendships with these children. This way I know the families already when we either host a play date or play at a friend’s house.

Some people are concerned about me doing too much. They talk about me needing a support system and a break, which I agree with. This is my response:

• I will find a co-op or just a group of other homeschoolers to talk to about our school and our joys ans trials.
• I will also continue attending Mom-to-Mom and my church’s women’s Bible study. I will either have to work with the Children’s Ministry Director or find an alternative form of child care for the children in order for me to be part of those groups, but I know that attending these programs is essential for me.
• My dear husband will also take charge of some ongoing math and science projects to work on with the children when he is home (in the evening, on the weekends, or on vacation). He will also discuss the curriculum with me. We plan to be partners in this endeavor!

What has your response been to well-meaning people when they raise concerns about home education?

How Corn Flakes Can Help Your Child to Read

We had an amazing moment today while I was making dinner. My 4 year old daughter named the letters on the Corn Flakes box and read the word “flakes” as “f-l-a-k-e-s” (short a & short e). After I explained that the “e” is silent and tells the “a” to say its name, she read the word correctly! Then she covered the “f” and asked me what it says. I told her to try it out for herself, and she read “lakes”. Then she proceeded to cover other letters and read those words, too. I was stunned and called my hubby and my dad. This is a moment that I have been anxiously waiting for. I just knew that she was ready to start reading! Here is a sampling of what I have done to get us to this point:

• For a couple of months now I have been demonstrating how to sound out words by saying the sounds of each letter and then “pushing” the sounds together.

• I point out sight words (the, is, what) when I read aloud.

• I have her read the letters in alphabet books.

• I have shown her how you can use onsets and rimes to make new words and to figure out unknown words.

1. I’ve written words in the same word family (-at) with sidewalk chalk and bathtub crayons.
2. I explain that we know that “a-t” says “at”.
3. Now add the “b” to “at”. The word is “bat”.
4. Take off the “b” and add a “c”. Now you have “cat”.

I am so excited for her. She was so proud of her accomplishment. This is what homeschooling is all about!

Thanksgiving in October: Praise for What We Have and Prayer for Those in Need

Today is Blog Action Day 2008, and the topic is poverty. What does poverty have to do with homeschooling?

First, poverty cannot be ignored. According to the National Center for Children, four out of ten American children are growing up in poverty. The World Bank reports that one in four families in developing countries is living in poverty. That is an enormous amount of people directly affected by poverty!

Additionally, poverty leads to death because of hunger and disease. According to Poverty.com, “there is plenty of food in the world for everyone.” We also have vaccinations for many of the diseases that are killing people who cannot afford them. What a tragedy!

As a mother and homeschooler, I want my children to understand how much we as a nation and as an international community are affected by poverty and that we do not have to stand idly by. Our family owns a home, has electricity, and clean water. We are one of the most fortunate families in the world considering that much of the world does not have any of these things. I want my children to understand that they are living a privileged life and feel blessed and thankful. I want my children to feel empowered to do something about poverty, understanding that we can responsibly help the poor improve their quality of life.  How can my family do tha?

A service project is one answer. Our church based small group has completed a few service projects in the last couple of years such as hosting a yard sale to benefit our troops, making meals for a local halfway house, and cooking dinners for a local ministry. I think that it energized us to want to serve. I encourage you to look at service opportunities in your community.

There are many mission trips that families can take together both domestically and abroad. There are short term mission trips that last approximately two weeks while others last for a year at a time. I have been on a mission trip myself, and I am thinking about mission trips for my children. I know that seeing first hand what a developing country is like had a huge impact on me, and I know that, one day, that my children will have that same experience.

Lastly, don’t underestimate the power of prayer. Pray for the people who are suffering because of poverty. Please pray for the organizations that are sending relief to the poor. Pray for everyone to take initiative to help those in need. Pray to end poverty. I know that we will.

Homeschooling on the Road

Homeschooling my kids means that I can teach them when ever and where ever it seems appropriate. We went on vacation this past week, and I was able to take our school on the road. We enjoyed some relaxation while learning a lot.

On vacation we were able to continue our nature study on our hikes. While we went hiking, we talked about the leaves and continued identifying which trees they came from. We also looked under logs to see the bugs. There were so many tree roots on the trail, so we discussed what the roots are for. All the while we were taking photos and laughing with each other. What great memories!

We also went to a gorge and saw a waterfall there. It was magnificent! The kids were amazed by the size of the waterfall and surprised by how loud it was. They had never seen a waterfall like this one! On this same hike we were able to talk about the plants and bugs that we saw and even used our magnifying glasses to observe the plants more closely. There was a bear’s den tucked away on the hike as well. Since we had read Blueberries for Sal this summer and made a lapbook on it, we were all happy to see a bear’s den up close.

One of the highlights of our trip was a train ride. We were able to see the foliage as we rode through the woods. The train we rode did not have a steam engine, which came to a surprise to our kids. They assume that all trains are like Thomas the Tank Engine. They asked the conductor about it, and we learned that this train runs on diesel fuel that creates electricity that runs the motor. I never knew that and would never have taken the initiative to find that out. Our kids wanted to know what made the train run, though, so we investigated it further.

Why is it so important to me that we can take out school with us when we vacation? My kids’ education is richer from the experiences that they are having on vacation. I am able to encourage their natural interests and reinforce their learning while we are relaxing and making memories. While I am at the library this week, I will look for books about trains to continue the conversation about that. I will also find books about waterfalls and more about autumn. We may also incorporate some new and interesting experiments in the coming weeks. Now my kids have real life experiences to draw from as they read books about trains and nature. They will also be able to write something more meaningful and interesting in a story or an article. There are layers upon layers of meaning folded into their understanding of these three simple experiences.

I hope this inspires you to keep the learning going while you vacation!