Archive for the ‘homeschooling’ Category
Book review – Say Please to the Honeybees
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Say Please to the Honeybees
Taking honey from the bees lands Violet in a heap of trouble. Violet is plagued by bees seeking comical revenge, spiders wanting tasty treats, a hungry horse, a gaggle of geese and a snippy salesperson. Children will love this humorous story with its adorable ending.
Make a Bee instructions included.Ages 3 – 8 (Grades JK – 3)
This story is a fun adventure that helps children learn about manners and give and take. Children can learn a lesson along with Violet, and the fun ending is sure to make everyone laugh. A craft is included in the book so children can be creative and learn at the same time – a great way to combine education and fun!
Susan Ross is a dedicated author that has tested her stories in classrooms of children allowing her to tweak each page just the way the kids like it!
Say Please to the Honeybees is just one of the great books written by Susan. To see more of her stories, or to order this one, visit her website http://susanross.ca/.
The Titanic’s Maiden Voyage
When the Titanic began her first voyage at 12:00 noon on April 10, 1912, there were 2227 men, women and children aboard. Many of the passengers were rich and famous but there was also over 700 immigrants traveling to a new land. On April 14, the Titanic was traveling full steam ahead in the North Atlantic. The weather was clear and cool however the wireless operator began to receive messages warning of icebergs ahead. Over the next few hours, a total of six messages came for other ships. The captain of the Titanic, E.J. Smith received some of these messages, but not all. There was no set system for passing messages from the operator to the crew and to the captain so, no one person saw all of the messages. The captain asked the men on lookout to watch for icebergs, but these men had no binoculars with them so they could only scan the waters with their eyes.
The Story Behind “Save Magic City”
While I was working for a big corporation, ten-hour-days seemed the only way of keeping up with the work load. However, after retiring, I got lots of time to look around me and take stock of the changes that had taken place while I worked.
The world is dominated by corporations who conduct their business in a globalized way. They change work forces the way we, plain humans, change clothes. As soon as a new poorer country offers better conditions, the factories and offices move and the old work force is “let go”. That means that men and women are left without the means to continue life as they knew it. The process of finding new jobs entails such stress that families split and children suffer.
I believe firmly that people should help each other when misfortune strikes; the need to put something on paper became an obsession. How to help people in a small community, where the major work supplier left and has taken their living means away?
From the beginning Leo becomes Edmund’s “magic Master” together with his Mom, he can help Edmund use his magic behind his Mom’s back, as Leona tries to solve all her problems by regular means.
Squirrel, a vivacious girl of eight, is one of Leo’s best friends, and she is always there to help with communications among teams. She is a powerful telepath, and finally, through Edmund’s cooperation, she finds the courage to tell everybody about her talent. She stops thinking of herself as a freak and proves her usefulness in the collective effort. At the end, she is the one who finds a way to communicate their dire straights to Edmund. Without her effort, the town’s children would have been left to perish by their abductor.
Raccoon, the oldest of the trio of friends, is calm and ponderous and lives most of the time he is not with his friends in front of a computer. He helps the grownups with their problems with the Internet and sets up the website for their town. He also is the one to find, through the Internet, a lawyer to volunteer his services for the problems that are sure to crop up in their strife for a new, independent life.
The town becomes a unit and they might as well adopt the Musketeers’ logo — one for all and all for one. The children surely live by that. To read their story, go to my website, www.rocsanneshield.com. You will find an excerpt of “Save Magic City”; if you are intrigued to hear more, you can purchase my book there as well. Save Magic City is also available for purchase at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble
“Save Magic City” is an excellent book for adults who want to teach their children the importance of caring for each other and the environment they live in. My book makes great reading and you will, I hope, tell others about it too.
Do You Squidoo?
Have you discovered Squidoo yet? This a great site where homeschoolers have been putting their unit studies and lesson ideas, along with pictures from their lessons – all to help other homeschoolers! There are a variety of themes and ideas and some encouragement as well. It is
The Homeschool Club is a part of Squidoo. It features lenses specific to and written by homeschooling families. They have a directory of lessons, some homeschooling success stories and great advice on college and more!
It is a place to find resources for homeschooling, by homeschoolers, for homeschooler!
And, more and more unit studies are being written for The Homeschool Club every day!
They also encourage writing a lens or two of your own. It has an easy to use template to add text, pictures, website links, amazon products and many other inclusions that can make your lens complete.
One lens is even devoted to how to write a lens for them. It says:
The Homeschool Club Wants YOU to Write About Homeschooling!
Find out more, and get some great lesson ideas, by checking out the homeschool club on squidoo!
Educating children is a career
When I was in university I majored in English and History. I was often asked, oh are you going to be a teacher? A teacher in a classroom was not the career I had in mind. Passionately, all I wanted to be was a Mom. What I didn’t know then was that I would be a teacher because I became a homeschooling mom.
Homeschooling was our choice because it was what best fit our family. I was very lucky that my husband had a full-time job that enabled me to stay at home. At the onset, I was very excited about schooling my kids. We went on field trips, made projects, got involved in clubs all the while with me taking a hands-on approach and jumping in with both feet. As a parent we nurture our children, encourage them and guide them. A homeschooler just takes the extra step of teaching them academics as well as about life.
Homeschooling is not a part-time job. We found projects, activities and learning opportunities in almost everything we did. Although we tried to maintain a school schedule, to give the kids the benefit of a schedule, we often found teaching/learning opportunites on the weekends and at nights when “school” wasn’t in session. The key was to allow the learning to happen whenever it happened. Obviously this took time and patience because in a lesson the child is encouraged to do the learning and the doing, which could slow down the process of whatever needs to be done. I remember being in the grocery store, slowly travelling down each aisle because my son wanted to read everything!
What I noticed about homeschooling was it never stopped. My husband would come home from his job and enjoy family time, and down time. But as a homeschooler, I was always involving the kids in what I was doing, fraction lessons while baking, science lessons in the bath etc. It was not a 9 to 5 job but it was a full-time career.
Teaching children, whether in a classroom or at home, is a dedicated career. Giving children the attention, the encouragement and the opportunity to learn is one of the most important jobs anyone can have. And, one of the most rewarding!
What Grade are you in?
That is a question that always stumped my homeschooled children because we didn’t follow grade levels, we followed their learning level. Many of us have experienced in our lives that different topics have a greater interest, or make more sense to us than others and therefore we may be better at it than something else.
I remember when I was in grade 6 and would participate in my cousin’s grade 9 spelling drills. I always scored higher than he did but when it came to math, I couldn’t keep up with the kids in my class. Unfortunately, since I was in the public school system I was given grade 6 English (in which I excelled and sometimes got bored with) and grade 6 math (which I barely passed). Since I knew that my level of learning differed with each subject I expected the same from my children. Sure enough, one excels in English but not math while the other is completely opposite with math being the stronger subject.
And so, if the child is excelling in English should I stiffle the flow by only allowing him to study at the grade level his age is meant to be at? If he is struggling in math do I keep pushing him forward in that level, or should I lower the level a little to give him a chance to understand. I chose to homeschool so that I could offer my children an education that I felt they deserved. Therefore, I chose not to follow grade levels but instead, to offer them each subject at a level that they could understand and learn from.
By offering lessons geared to the learning level of the child, they are encouraged to learn rather than being frustrated with learning. They are inspired to excel and proud of their accomplishments. They succeed at their own level, which is what is best for them!
Share the love – the love of learning
Recently I just read about a charity that is helping to supply books to homeless shelters, battered women’s shelters etc in order to give the kids there something to read. Imagine the gift these books will be to allow kids to soar away with their imagination and leave behind the cruel world around them.
“I met a child who loved to read but didn’t own a book. I found a lot more like her when I took a closer look.
I rallied troops to help me and we sought books by the heap. And now we find the kids in need and give them books for keeps!”
This is the motto for Books for Keeps which I think it is worth all of us adopting.
Another great way to help give books to others is through BookMooch. This is a book swap site in which you post books you wish to give thereby earning points. You can then use your earned points to choose books you would like to mooch from others. Your only cost is the shipping cost of the books that are mooched from you! I often have people ask if I have a certain book, and if I can find it on there for free I will pass it along to them! You can also donate your points to a charity that can then acquire the books they need.
This month Usborne books is offering to donate one dollar in books to to Ronald McDonald Houses across Canada for every dollar of books purchased Usborne Books at Home.
Our online educational thrift store is also sharing the love, and with every $10.00 order a book will be donated to a local charity that gives books to kids in shelters at Christmastime.
Many local libraries also collect new books in order to give the gift of reading to those less fortunate. Books are such an integral part of learning, and learning is an important part of life. So giving the gift of reading is necessary so that there is at least one book for all!
Anyone with more than one child can compare and contrast their children. They may have similar mannerisms yet opposing interests and sometimes you may wonder how two could have sprung from the same womb! Children are different, they have different interests, different focuses and different learning styles. So too, must the teaching style for them be different.
My first child was pretty easy to homeschool. He was a book kid, loved worksheets and would sit for hours working on a project. My second child is not as keen of a reader, would prefer not to have to write and won’t sit for hours to do anything. These differences are not a variance in intelligence, just in how and what they learn.
With both children, one of the main things I did was teach what interested them. My eldest son studied Medieval history at least five times. Each time had a different focus, an increased measure of learning and new projects to work on. The younger son enjoyed Medieval History as long as he was reading about knights, catapults and the siege of a castle, but really only wanted to study it once. And so, while one child created graphs about the plague, the other crafted medieval weapons from cardboard, tinfoil and duct tape. Since each activity was premised with a discussion or reading about the time period the history lesson was still being taught, just in different styles.
The older child struggled a bit with math, but when lessons involved money, things made sense! And so, many math lessons allowed counting, converting and problem solving with money. The youngest struggled with geography but enjoyed cooking. So, we travelled the world learning about common foods and recipes found in the various countries.
Free yourself from the “typical” school regime, especially with a more active, reluctant student. Create lessons through field trips, music, crafts, athletics and unit studies that fill the needs of each student. This encourages them to learn because they enjoy the subject, and the manner with which it is taught!
Education + Fun = #1: Unit Studies
“The big thinkers in education emphasize customized or individualized learning as the wave of the future.”
This is not a new concept to homeschoolers who teach individualized learning every day. One of the great methods to customize this individual learning is through unit studies. With a unit study, the concepts of English, Math, Science, Geography, History and Art can be reinforced, while the student is learning about a subject they really enjoy. If the subject is interesting and enjoyable, it will be easier to learn and the student will be more willing to learn. Unit studies focus on a specific topic, they can create an introduction to that topic and inspire further study. They can supplement other educational resources to provide a bit of learning on their own, or even on the go. Unit studies are adaptable to a child, you can use only the activities/lessons that fit your child’s learning level or interest level rather than using everything and possibly causing a student to not have fun while learning. You can create your own unit study about a topic that interests that child right now. Maybe your son wants a pirate birthday party – why not spend the week before on a pirate unit study that teaches as well as adds some fun. In the spring you can start a garden, keep a garden journal, learn about plants etc in a unit study based on the wonders of the garden. There are so many unit studies available for download, or in magazines and books that you could find one for almost any topic of interest to your child. Why not try your hand at putting one together. Search for worksheets, reading comprehension, crafts and science experiments that fit in to that theme!
If you need some help, check out all the great ideas on squidoo.
The Importance of Education – Home or School
Educational importance before the industrial revolution was tied to:
1) learning,
2) preparation for wise leadership and personal achievement,
3) opening your mind to new ideas.
These are the requirements we can assume from all education. If these steps are not being achieved than a change in how children are taught is required.
When a child does not want a particular food then we suggest they just try a bit to taste it before they decide. So can be said for educational subjects. Instead of assuming a child won’t like a subject, or need a subject, we should let them try it – he/she may just like it.
I have always wondered how we can determine the career that will carry us through our life with only a few courses of introduction. I was very excited about studying Archaeology, then I took the first course and found that the preliminary work, gridding and such was not something I would enjoy doing endlessly. But I went in with an open mind, and learned that that was not the path for me.
I am not a fan of the variety of requirements needed in order to receive enough credits for a high school diploma. Something from this group, two from that group etc. Although it offers choice to the student, it also limits choices and opportunities for them to excel at the subjects they enjoy the most. Often, courses that are not suited to the student, but are required for a diploma can discourage learning and create avoidance of that class, or school all together. As a homeschooler, I have been able to offer my children a variety of lessons, determined the ones that are not suitable, and finish them up early so as not to prolong the agony of an unwanted subject.
Students with choice, variety and the ability to switch out of a lesson that is not working for them are learning, opening their mind to new ideas and preparing the best base for personal achievement. Fulfilling all steps in the importance of education helps fulfill the student as well!