Hello everyone. Today’s article focuses on whether homeschool is right for you.
One of the most critical aspects for assessing whether you can successfully homeschool is to determine how well homeschooling fits into your own personality and lifestyle. Based on my personal experience, here are the most important factors leading to a rewarding homeschool experience:
1. Motivation. This one factor trumps all others below. If you question your motivation about homeschooling your child, take a serious moment to reconsider. The concept of homeschool may seem nice, studying in pajamas and getting to go on vacation with your kids during non-peak seasons, but it also requires tremendous effort and support from parents. You need to plan your lessons in advance (which can take more time than actually teaching the lessons) as well as teach the lessons. These activities drain valuable time away from things that you want to do. In effect, homeschooling isn’t just a job; it’s a new lifestyle that you need to accept. That said, I’ll bet that nothing is more rewarding than watching your child’s face light up when she learns something new…...read more
Heath Literacy Part ll
by Pennie Sempell, JD, ACMT
In the March 2010 issue, I shared some foundational concepts about the
importance of a child becoming “health literate”. A healthier, happier
child, is generally more successful academically. Yet, the sets of
skills to become health literate are many involving care of the body
(physical well-being), care of the mind (mental well-being) and
development of successful social relationships (social well-being). A
fourth branch of health, spiritual well-being, can be included, and
refers to a sense of meaning and purpose in life, or faith. The home
and school are where these health literacy l essons are best learned.
Increasingly, scientists have demonstrated in many studies that there
is an intricate interconnection between these branches of whole person
health. One can easily make the connection that people with healthy
diets tend to live longer. It is less obvious that people who belong to
a community also tend to live longer lives, as do married couples.
Conventional wisdom still applies. Eat nutritious food, keep fit and
get a good night’s rest. ...read more
How Do Science and Math Become Real?
by Daniel Yordy
Science and math are typically taught and learned in a vacuum, as
numbers and diagrams from the pages of a workbook. But project-led
learning gives an entirely different approach in which science and math
become almost a sideshow, essential building blocks in the creation of
something of great value to the child.
When I build a house or a set of kitchen cabinets, I enjoy the tools
that I use. I work with them, and I know how to use them to do their
part in the creation of this beautiful thing I am making. But the tools
I use are never the main thing. I do not build a house for the sake of
using tools. I use tools for the sake of building a house.
Science and math are tools; they are never the real reason for doing
anything. In the classroom, lab experiments or math problems are given
to the child only for the sake of learning “science” or “math” and
never for the sake of the project itself....read more
Being a children’s cookbook author and cooking instructor, I was thrilled to hear about Jamie Oliver’s new show and movement, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.
I watched the two-hour premier on Friday and was absolutely moved by
his efforts to revolutionize the way children and families eat in this
country. The processed foods, including schools offering pizza for
breakfast, are resulting in this generation of children to be the first
to live shorter lives than their parents. While the word ‘revolution’
sounds like it requires grandiose efforts, Jamie proves that it’s the
simple changes that will make the greatest impact.
In the first episode, Jamie travels to the unhealthiest city in the US,
deemed by the CDC, Huntington, West Virginia. He tries, with great
resistance, to infuse fresh foods into...read more
When K-12 online schools started to appear as a choice for students
approximately a decade ago, it was not uncommon to find that the
profile of a student enrolling in online courses was someone who was
academically strong and do I dare say the “computer geek.” It was not
that online learning was a poor fit for academically at-risk students,
or for students with learning disabilities but rather that the adults
who were responsible for student academic placement were themselves
unfamiliar with how online learning would work. Perhaps it was natural
to assume that since online learning involved technology that the
students most interested in computers would be the best candidates for
online learning.
The truth is that online learning is for such students, but also for
all types of students. In my experience some of our most successful
and memorable students were those who struggled in a traditional
classroom yet excelled in their online courses because they found the
online environment to be much more engaging, challenging and fun. The
online learning environment by its very nature
provides...read more
Ask Noami - A Rejected Child and the Volcano
by Naomi Aldort Ph.D.
Q: Homeschooling means many hours of children having to get
along. When my daughter plays at home with two friends, one of them is
often rejected and comes to me complaining and hoping that I will ask
the girls to let her in again. If the other two mothers are present,
they always intervene and insist that the girls play together. This
keeps happening often. Is there a better way to respond, maybe one that
will help for more than one time?
A: Last week, when the Mount St. Helens volcano started to erupt, one
of my children asked, “Do people who live close by get mad when the
volcano erupts?” “Do you get mad at the rain?” I asked, to which his
older brother said, “Being mad at the rain or a mountain erupting is as
insane as being mad at another person.” I gasped with delight; indeed,
by presenting itself totally unchangeable, the volcano teaches us to
love reality. When it erupts, we don’t try to stop it, change its mind
or judge it; we simply remove ourselves from the area and we get
excited about the drama of nature from a safe distance. We live at
peace with nature because we have realized that it doesn’t change for
us. Yet, we expect humans to change for us. ..read more
Tips for Teaching Children with Short Attention Spans
by Sarah Major, M.Ed
Lately I’ve been reading books written by professionals who work
with children with short attention spans, and children who have already
been diagnosed with ADD. It seems to me that there has been a
significant upsurge in the numbers of children who have difficulty
maintaining focus on their school tasks, so many who have been
diagnosed with ADD and put on medication, and I have become very
curious not only about what has caused this upsurge, but of course,
what we can do to make school lessons easier for these children short
of medicating them.
Jeffrey Freed, M.A.T., author of Right-Brained Kids in a Left-Brained World,
writes that one reason for the increased number of children with
attention difficulties is that our generation of children has been
saturated with various types of technologies that foster a short
attention span. He speaks at length about the damage to focus from
watching TV or playing computer games. The constant shifting of images,
the sound bytes, the flashing colors all contribute to changing the
wiring of the brain, even going so far as to push a left-brained
learner toward becoming a strongly right-brained learner. Because our
educational system is designed beautifully for the left-brained
learner, what is happening as a result of the prevalence of technology
as entertainment is critical to observe and evaluate. Do we really want
our children to be less able to handle what we consider normal school
tasks? Of course not!....read more
Overwhelmed by Homeschooling and Life Part 2
by Barbara Frank
In Part 1, I described some difficulties that come with homeschooling
and how to handle them. Now I think I should also remind those newer to
homeschooling of all the advantages of this lifestyle.
When we began homeschooling, it was so nice for us to be able to stay
in on a cold rainy day and read book after book while the neighbor kids
stood out in the rain waiting for the bus. I remember my kids spending
happy hours in the basement, using an easel my sister gave them to
paint masterpieces while I put classical music on the tape player
(“Peter and the Wolf” was a special favorite; I loved it because it
introduced my children to the orchestra and the instruments used in it.)..read more
Inspire your child to learn about different countries, cultures and languages in a fun and engaging way withLittle Passports.
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Have you thought about the importance of teaching your child about money?
Did you know that more and more young adults are having to move back home to mom and dad’s because
they have made bad money choices?
And did you know that the largest group of people filing for bankruptcies today are under the age of
30?
Couples are getting divorced in drastic numbers and the number one reason is 'money stress'.
The first step in teaching your child about money is to teach them age-specific, individual money lessons that
will give your child a really solid understanding of the money fundamentals.
Amanda van der Gulik, from TeachingChildrenaboutMoney.com has put together a complete resource guide for parents showing us step-by-step, age-specific money lessons for our children.
Amanda has spent over three years compiling all of the resources that
she has kindly placed at our finger tips in her ebook. It would take us
years to find these on our own. Amanda has made it really easy for us.
Better still she has even created a special 7 day Course for our
children with over “50 Money Making Ideas for Kids” to help us get our
children started earning their own money so that they will have the
money needed to learn how to successfully manage it.
