It’s occurred to me that I should have written this article as an
introduction to how we got started in homeschooling way back with my
first article in August 2009. This is the story of how we got started
homeschooling. I hope that our own story below can resonate with those
of you who are at the verge of embarking on this incredible journey…
A Medical Emergency
Serina, my wife, had twins who were born at 28 weeks – that’s 3 months
premature compared to the usual 9 month gestation period. Babies born
this early are known to be confronted with enormous developmental
challenges, including potential for bleeding in the brain, eye-sight
issues, gross and fine motor skills debilitation, and potential for
permanent and serious digestive system issues. The twins were in the
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of our local hospital for 3
months. Born at 2 pounds each, our twins were one of the most fragile
out of the entire NICU patients. ....read more
Financial Education for Teens: Making It Real, Making It Matter, Making It Last
Parental Issues that Interfere with Financial Education Two Lessons for Teens
by Jill Suskind
When young adults mismanage their money, they suffer AND so does
everyone else! We cannot afford to marginalize financial education any
longer. As individuals and as a country, it’s no longer acceptable to
say “I will let my children learn about finances later.” We have
learned that this attitude breeds generations of adults who don’t know
how to manage their money.
One of the primary responsibilities of a parent is to prepare their
children to be financially competent and confident. I watch my friends
with children who have very exciting resumes—they sing, they dance,
they play football, they volunteer…all great things. And, in the
background, a nasty monster is growing, and it’s called “YOUR CHILDREN
CAN’T MANAGE THEMSELVES AS ADULTS.” And it really looks like it’s not
a big problem, because for so many generations, we have “survived” this
reality, rather than transforming it. ...read more
How to Set Parenting Goals for the Coming New Year - The Right Way
by Jay Lambert, MPA MSW LCSW
Over the past couple of weeks I have been preparing for the New Year
that we are beginning today, and have done some reading on New Year’s
resolutions. As expected, there’s a ton of advice out there on what our
goals should be, how to go about reaching out goals, and the usual
critiques, such as “they don’t really work anyway” and “New Year’s is
arbitrary; if you want to set a goal, set it.” Yes, yes, all very nice
and enlightening. Personally, I see nothing wrong with making the most
of what is admittedly an arbitrary, man-made line in time. If it works
for you, go for it. With that in mind, I figured now would be a good
time talk about goal-setting regarding a subject we all care about:
parenting. Maybe I’ll be just another voice in a swarm of advice, but I
hope you will see that what I have to share is a bit different than
what else you might be hearing.
The Nature of Goal-Setting
Before one sets a goal, one needs to understand the fundamental nature
of goals. It has been said repeatedly - and with good reason - that
good goals are measurable, achievable, and time-limited. Let me explain
why...read more
The television audience waits with baited breath for the crucial moment
that will set the tone of the day’s show: the declaration of the secret
ingredient. Iron Chef America, a cooking show aired on The Food
Network, as well as other cooking programs, has transformed cooking
into cutting-edge entertainment that has brought a new younger audience
to the world of cooking shows. The massive response from young viewers
is staggering: The Food Network reports that currently more than 40
million of their annual viewers are children. In addition, children’s
cookbooks and cooking classes are more popular than ever. This
diversified early exposure to cooking is certainly shaping the next
generation of chefs. When it comes to cooking, kids may in fact be the
secret ingredient to driving the growing success of cooking in mass
media.
A prominent chef who began cooking at an early age is Ming Tsai, one of
the premier Asian-American chefs. Tsai recalls that his true culinary
test came at the age of ten. Unexpected guests dropped by when Tsai’s
parents were out, and his traditional Chinese upbringing demanded that
he offer food to his guests. Without hesitating, he whipped up the
fried rice he had seen his parents make a thousand times, even though
he had never prepared it before. Recalling his mother’s recipe, he
added what he hoped were the right proportions of ginger, garlic, soy
sauce, oil, and eggs to the rice. Upon serving the dish to his
appreciative guests, he learned the lesson that would shape his career:
food makes people happy. Tsai now brings food to the home viewer
through his PBS Show Simply Ming. He also won an Emmy for his very
first episode of East Meets West on The Food Network in 1998. As a
father, Tsai recognizes the importance of introducing healthy cooking
to children. He urges parents to “stop the fast food. Whoever invented
super-sizing should be shot.” Tsai recognizes that “children make 70%
of all restaurant decisions and they should be empowered with the
knowledge to make better choices.” His involvement with nonprofits
including Common Threads, Chefs for Humanity, and Harvard’s School of
Public Health’s Nutrition Roundtable, all strive to inform children
regarding healthy eating and cooking. Tsai views television as the
perfect medium to educate kids on healthier cooking and eating. .....read more
Doing Projects is a Better Way to Learn
by Daniel Yordy, M.Ed.
Learning should be real. Deep down, most of us know this to be true. I
have taught and worked with teenagers for many years; I know for a fact
that any young person would leap at the chance of doing something
personal and real in place of “school.”
But sadly, so much of the curriculum available to families follows the
same group learning - simulated (read fake) exercises that fill the
pages of modern education. And too many people believe that modern
education is about “learning.” It is not.
Real learning comes from doing something real and important, something
that adds value to the life of the child and to the life of the family.
Weaving the objectives of learning around doing real projects like
building a tree house or raising a flock of chickens or taking
photographs for fun and profit is what makes Project-Led Learning a
better way to learn. ...read more
Keys to a Healthier, Happier Child
by Pennie Sempell, JD, ACMT
In a world of differing opinions on just about everything, there might
be unanimous agreement on one thing: the wish to be healthy. “Health”
is more than the absence of disease. The Department of Education of
the State of California has defined health as a complete state of
physical, mental and social well-being.
Being healthy is a state of being. That is not a static, unchanging
place. Being healthy is a dynamic process that takes place with every
breath, achieved through a myriad of skills and a complex interaction
between our environment, our genetics and our lifestyle. Already some
readers may be throwing up their hands and thinking “That sounds
awfully complicated to me.” And it is. But the good news is that
even young children can learn simple steps to consciously protect their
treasure of health and happiness....read more
Reading for Multisensory Learners
by Sarah Major, M.Ed
Here’s a riddle for you! How do you teach in a way that ensures that
all your children with their different learning strengths are reached?
It is possible to teach the same multisensory curriculum to multiple
children who learn most easily in a variety of ways. Children who are
non-traditional learners will be reached as well as those who would
naturally thrive in the traditional classroom. I want to clarify that
when I say “non-traditional learners,” I am not implying that something
is wrong with the kids or with their natural method of learning. Some
children just naturally gravitate to visuals, need movement in
learning, or learn best through story or humor. And I use the word
“traditional” only to mean "how we usually teach.”
Some of the key elements of a multisensory approach to teaching reading are laid out in the next few paragraphs.
....read more
A Tale of Two Cities, Part 4 (of 4)
by Scott Powell
In
the previous installments in this series we looked at the rise of the
Athenian Democracy, the dramatic episode of the execution of Socrates
that illustrates democracy's tragic flaw, and then the rise of the
Roman Republic, whose government implemented a novel and invaluable
principle -- the protection of individual rights. In this final
chapter of our story of the Ancient world's two greatest cities and
their governments, our unpleasant but instructive task is to trace the
decline and fall of the Roman Republic. This story is a powerful
reminder of what a republic is, and how difficult one is to maintain --
a lesson imminently applicable to American life here and now.
In 494 BC, as we saw, the Roman plebeians wrenched special protections
from government's power from the unwilling hands of the patrician
aristocracy. Henceforth, all citizens of Rome would be protected from
the arbitrary use of force by the government against the people. The
plebeian tribunes would now act solely in the capacity of protecting
rights. (Today, the same functions are performed in the far more
articulated and complementary roles of police officers, defense
attorneys, and judges.)...read more
Arcademic Skill Builders
THE Place for Educational Video Games
Our research-based and standards-aligned FREE educational math games and language arts games will engage, motivate, and help teach your kids.
Of the 53 million K–12 kids in the U.S., 51 million of them (or 93%) play video games. Arcademic Skill Builders tap into the excitement of video games to engage today’s kids and help develop their 21st Century Skills.
Our games help improve performance through:
• Increased time on task
• Increased motivation and engagement
• Increased corrective feedback
These multi-player and single-player educational games provide fun and focused repetition practice that enables automaticity and fluency to be achieved more quickly. Students must employ strategy under exciting circumstances to make rapid responses while being given immediate feedback on their decisions.
TwoThumbsHigh.com provides millions of Moms and Dads all over the country an opportunity to support, inspire, acknowledge and congratulate your sons or daughters for all the positive academic and athletic accomplishments that they are achieving. Whether in or out of elementary school, middle school, high school, or college, show your kids how proud you are of them. We do this by providing parents an opportunity to activate a Promotional Banner of your child, which instantly provides parents with a Congratulatory Page for Free, similar to a “senior ads.” This is where parents can promote positive accomplishments about your children.
Twothumbshigh.com currently has two great opportunities for parents this month.
First, we have a great promotion for the New Year.
The next 500 moms and/or dads who sign up and pay for their sons or daughters Promotional Banner, which will also provide you with a Free Congratulatory Page, before January 31, 2010 will receive a “Life Time” membership to promote their sons or daughters FREE. (Life Time, meaning for the Life Time of Twothumbshigh.com website.)
This means that each year when it is time to renew your membership, you will automatically be renewed for FREE for the lifetime of this website. You never have to renew again, it is Free, unless you upgrade your account! Those who sign up after the first 500 parents will be billed only once per year, though you can cancel your membership anytime you want, which means you will not be billed for the following year. Come take advantage of this promotion now. Register Here!
Secondly, take a look at our Fund-raising opportunity. We provide parents, schools, home-schooling parents, co-op’s, clubs, PTA, Boosters and parents, a wonderful way to raise between $500.00 - $25,000.00 by promoting our site. Click here to go to our Fund-raising page and read about this powerful opportunity we have for you to make money.
Come by and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity today! Register now!
