There are a lot of resources that may be used in the homeschool classroom. Given here is a list of four resources that will make it much easier for the homeschool parent in the classroom.

A White Board

So much can be explained and done on a white board. It does not have to be very large, but it would be a good idea if it is hung up on a wall of the homeschool classroom. Ensure that you have white board markers in all different colors available along with a duster to wipe the board clean.

Art and Craft Supplies

No matter what subject you decide to make a project in, you will need all kinds of art supplies. It’s a good idea to invest in these scissors, cutters, colors, pencils, sharpers, glue and staplers in bulk. They do not spoil over time and they will always be used in the homeschool classroom.

A Laptop and Color Printer

Most families will already have a computer dedicated to the homeschool classroom. Having a laptop with an internet connection is such a basic requirement, that it need not even be mentioned. However having a color printer available at home is a resource that is quite invaluable. So many worksheets, lesson plans, notes and more can be printed out right in the homeschool classroom if a color printer is available.

A Lamination Machine

This may at first not seem to be a very useful resource to spend money on in a homeschooling family. However the sheer number of pages, documents, flash cards, and chore lists that you can laminate and save time on later will be well worth the initial expense of investing in a lamination machine.

A Kindle

Books are the best resource that a homeschool classroom can invest in. However physical books take up a lot of space, which can be in short supply in the homeschool classroom. They also tend to cost much more than their digital counterparts. This means that buying and using e-books is a much better alternative to spending on physical books. Plus with the Amazon Kindle, you have the option to use the Kindle Unlimited membership to have free access to hundreds of books at a very low cost.

Cutting down on expenses is not always easy when you have a classroom full of homeschool students. However there is always a way to stretch what resources you do have to benefit everyone. Here are some ways that you can do more without going bankrupt in your homeschool classroom.

Re-Use What You Have

Instead of investing in workbooks, invest in textbooks. These can be re-used for the next homeschool student who reaches the grade. Buy more unit studies as these will have activities and knowledge for different grade levels and experiences. Use educational games. These can be played with all the homeschool students and can be modified in difficulty levels as they grow older. The idea is to be able to use each resource that you buy for at least two academic sessions and with at least two of your homeschool students to make them more economically viable.

Inexpensive Supplies and Furniture

A lot of money and effort can be saved if you re-purpose what is already available within the home to use in the homeschool classroom rather than going for store bought supplies and furniture. Stock up on spiral notebooks in the month of August when they are cheapest. They can be used throughout the year for various purposes. Buy school supplies in bulk packages where ever possible to ensure that you get good discounts. Reuse school bags, pencil boxes and other material which is still in good condition. Buy something new only when the old breaks beyond repair.

Frugal Field Trips Combined with Errands

Taking the homeschool students on a field trip could often be combined with chores such as picking up groceries so as to save money on fuel. Also field trips can be made to places like public parks, town libraries and historical sites which do not have any entry fees. There is plenty of learning that can happen on such field trips as long as the homeschool parent plans the trip well in advance. Spending on food on a field trip can prove to be quite expensive, so make sure that each homeschool student has their own food packed from home.

The study of science is characterized by attending classes of theory and then putting it to the test in a laboratory experiment. With parents who teach homeschool science is the lack of a formal laboratory in the home a limiting factor? While some may think so, it need not necessarily be so. There are many ways to conduct experiments and the lack of a laboratory need not be a limitation for a home school student if the parent is able to harness the power of available resources.
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Money is always a consideration when a homeschool parent looks into resources for their homeschool students. There are always surprise expenses that tend to throw the homeschool budget out of kilter each academic session. However that does not mean that the homeschool students will have to do without good study material. Here are some ways to homeschool effectively on a shoestring budget.

Don’t Buy, Borrow

When it comes to text books, buying new ones can prove prohibitively expensive. Instead of buying new books look for homeschool cooperative associations and libraries from where you can borrow them. Many such libraries allow you to keep books for a month or more. Use each subject text book to set the tone for the topic being studied and then move on to using other free resources.

Buy Second Hand

Not only are many homeschool parents looking to recover some of the money that they spent on textbooks, it also gives the next homeschooling family a financial cushion to be able to buy textbooks second hand. Keep in touch with parents whose children are in a grade higher than your own and ask them about selling their text books at the end of the academic session. This can be a major savings source.

Library Sales

Books that may not be in the best of states physically are often sold for a song by libraries. The material inside is still good. Check the condition of the books before you buy them to see that you can use them with your homeschool students. You can get a number of reference books at an extremely reasonable rate if you keep track of the local library sales.

Public School Giveaways

While you may not get exactly the sort of books you want your homeschool students to read, you can still pick up map books, encyclopedias, workbooks and other reference material at these giveaways. There is no harm in checking out what you can pick up for free or at really minimal costs. Make sure that you go through all the second hand books you get before handing them over to your children to use.

While every homeschooling parent would like to pretend that the picture perfect classroom runs like clockwork everyday, we all know that it’s a fallacy. There will be good days just as often as there will be bad days in the homeschool classroom. The idea is to keep trying to gather as many good and productive days that you can with your homeschool students. However there are some emotional costs of homeschooling that a homeschool teacher may find difficult to pay.

Explaining Your Decision to Homeschool

“Why do you homeschool your children when there’s a perfectly good public school near by?” This is one of the most energy draining questions that homeschooling parents have to deal with. Having to explain the rationale behind their decision to homeschool, and why they feel that it was a better choice for their children is a huge emotional cost. Even when you stand by your decision firmly, the mere fact that so many people seem to question your choice, can be difficult. It is one the single, most difficult things attached to being a homeschooling parent.

The Constant Supervision

When your children are being homeschooled, you never get a break. A parent whose child goes to regular school can enjoy the time off from supervising the children while they are being handled by teachers in school. A homeschool parent never gets that kind of time off. No matter how they are feeling, in good health, or sickness, with guests arriving for dinner, or grandparent’s dropping in for a quick visit, the homeschool parent is always responsible for their homeschool students. The only true break is when the spouse takes over for a while.

Struggling for Acceptance

While things are much easier now, since there is a higher level of awareness about homeschooling, the regular parents always struggle to accept homeschooling parents. To be a part of a group of parents in the neighborhood who are seen as some what strange or different for their decision to homeschool, is also a taxing emotional experience. They may like you as a person, but not be sure how to react to you or even how to socialize with you.

Unit studies allow a parent to teach a child all possible aspects of a topic or theme in a single schematic manner. This means that if a child is learning about hometown he will learn about the geography of the state and the location of the hometown. Then he will learn about the places of interest in the place which deal with the history of the hometown like museums, the city hall and other related places.
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There are many costs of homeschooling and not all of them are monetary. Here’s a look at what you will be spending when you take on the task of homeschooling your children. This post focuses on the possible monetary costs that you are likely to encounter on your homeschool journey.

The Curriculum and Text Books

These are the basics of providing an education in both the public school as well as the homeschool set up. You will end up buying books for your homeschool students for every grade and each subject that they need to study. This is a given.

Home Library and Internet Data

The reference data that you will need to teach all the subjects will come from one of two primary sources. Books and websites. You may choose to use your local library for the books but may still end up buying books that you refer to often. Similarly you can use the internet at the library, but it makes much more sense to get a good data plan and use the computer at home.

Professional Memberships 

There are homeschool associations, local support groups, legal support groups and homeschool cooperatives that all charge a minor amount as membership fees for all the help that they provide. Depending on the number of groups you join and the features you want available to you, you will have to make payments accordingly.

Standardized Testing

Many states have made standardized testing mandatory for the homeschool students. This allows the state education department to monitor the progress of these students in an unobtrusive way, as well as compare their performance to others in their peer group. These tests all have fees associated with them. Be prepared for these expenses by charting them out in advance.

Extracurricular Activities and Sports

Often a good way to socialize homeschool students is to make them join classes for crafts, arts, music and team sports. These can be as per the interest and talent that your homeschool student displays. As well as what is locally available for the child to attend. These classes will also bear a monetary cost.

A High School Diploma is usually considered a must for admission into a college. It is a good idea to get in touch with a college counselor to get details of what kind of homeschool diploma will be acceptable to the college for admission purpose. For a homeschool student who may have completed the high school requirements at home, is it possible to get a formal diploma?

The most common practice for the parents to design and present the homeschool students with a diploma by themselves. In this case the homeschool is treated as an independent educational institution. The details include the name of the institution (i.e. the homeschool) issuing the diploma, name of the student,  city and state in which the diploma is issued, date, and a signature of the individual who has overseen the student’s education.

For some parents who may be associated with an online school or correspondence school, it may be possible to arrange a diploma from this educational institute as well. This will have the name of that specific school along with all the other details outlined in the passage above. It will be issued to the students who have enrolled for a specific course with the institute and have successfully completed it.

In extremely rare cases the parents may approach the local public school and ask about them issuing a high school diploma to their homeschool students. The educational institute will probably ask the student to undergo some testing in order to determine that the child is competent in the subjects that he or she is supposed to be graduating high school in. Usually this is not seen as public schools do not encourage homeschooling.

In some states it is possible for the homeschool student to obtain a high school diploma from the Department of Education. This is specially true of states where the homeschool parents must continuously update the department about the progress of their homeschooled children through the years. The years of transcripts and standard tests which are a must for this process serve as the basis of the allotment of the high school diploma.

In regular school each academic subject is taught in a different class and at times by a different teacher. The same is not necessary in a homeschooling program where the parent can teach the child using unit studies.
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Moving from homeschooling to regular school can be a monumental step. It is a decision which can not be made lightly on the spur of the moment. For the process to be smooth and the transaction to be successful certain tasks need to be taken care of before hand.If you went through your initial education as a home schooler and now want to get into a regular high school you will need to get a few things in order before you can join classes.
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Self-doubt is the worst affliction that a homeschool teacher can be afflicted with. There are so many people around you being negative about homeschooling that it’s difficult to keep telling yourself that you are doing the right thing. Questions such as  “Am I doing the right thing?” or  “Is my child getting all that he needs?” are usually floating through the minds of any new homeschooling parent. How do you deal with it? By asking yourself some tough questions.

What Are Your Reasons For Homeschooling?

Are you homeschooling your child for the right reasons? Is is because you want your child to have a good learning experience and to be able to grow into a well adjusted human being? Or are you simply trying to instill the correct moral values in your child that you find are lacking in the public school set up? Maybe you just think it’s cheaper to homeschool your children? What is the reason that turned you to homeschooling your children? Think about it. You will know if it’s a good one in your heart.

What Are Your Priorities?

No matter what your reason for homeschooling your child, do you make it a priority to ensure that the child is studying well?Does the child have age appropriate toys and books? If the child has enough to challenge him while he learns new things, it means that as a homeschool teacher you are doing a credible job. If he can hold his own in a conversation with peers and share his toys while playing, he’s adapting well to his social life.

What Values Are You Passing Down?

Does your child wish elders? Is he mindful of other people in the room when he’s playing loud music? Does he help with chores around the home? What are the messages that you send him with your own actions and words regarding correct values and morals?  No parent will try to willingly harm their child, and neither are you. Your New Year Resolution should be to have faith in the process. To know that you are doing your best and that your child is benefiting from your efforts.

No matter how hard you try, the holidays are likely to throw the schedule you have for your homeschool classroom out of kilter. While this is especially true for those who are new to homeschooling, most homeschool teachers will face this issue to some degree. This means that you need to reorganize what you will be teaching the next month to include what you have been unable to teach this month.

Since you will not be making too much progress with your homeschool students during this period of time, it can be used instead to get yourself more organized about the upcoming homeschool schedules post the holidays. Here are some things that you can do in advance to stay ahead of the game in January.

Get the Homeschool Classroom Cleaned Out 

There are a number of tasks that a homeschool teacher will put off on a normal school day. Now is the time to catch up with all that cleaning up. Go shelf by shelf and check what is no longer needed in the classroom. Collect the old worksheets and discard the ones that are not going into the children’s portfolios. De-clutter and make more storage space available.

Check Materials and Furniture 

Take a stock of all the arts and crafts material and see what supplies are running low. Make a list of all the stationery items that you are going to need, if possible place the order for delivery after the holidays. If the furniture needs to be cleaned out or painted, this is a good time to do so as the class is not is use. Painting the walls or wall papering is also an idea to consider.

Make Correction to Your Study Plans 

The lesson plans that you may have worked on at the beginning of the year may not be working out so well now that you are actually using them. Now is a good time to remake these plans with a healthy dose of reality thrown in. Add the extra days that you didn’t give yourself to make up work that is left out from previous classes.

The homeschool curriculum you follow is essentially a guideline to help you teach your children. Do not make the mistake of following it so rigidly that you lose the advantage of teaching your children at home at the pace that they are comfortable with. Each child is different. Just because your first child enjoyed coloring it does not follow that your second child will also like it as much.
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Sharing is Caring

The winter months can be a tough time for people who are less fortunate. By making your homeschool students aware that they can do something for such people, you give them a practical lesson in sharing is caring. Make a list of people who your family knows who could do with some brand of sharing. This could be in terms of time spent with the elderly who are lonely, or putting together a care package for students or military personnel in foreign countries, or even just gift wrapping toys for the local orphanage. Think up of new ways that they can share things as well as their time to show how much they care.

Possible Places to Visit

The local orphanage is a good place to visit during the holidays. Take along all the clothes that the homeschool students have outgrown. The books that no one seems to be reading anymore and the toys that have been sitting on the shelf without being played with in ages, are both good gifts to give away. Maybe make the time and effort to visit a local veteran center and perform a play to entertain them. One of the easiest things is to prepare a set of Christmas Carols and go singing them at locations such as the children’s hospital, the old age home, and even the orphanage. The idea is to spread some cheer in society.

What is Expected of the Children

Explain to the younger children about the concept of giving. How giving anything from a smile to a favorite old sweater away can bring joy to someone else in their life. Speak about how people less fortunate than the homeschooling family that they belong to deal with the harsh realities of life. It is never too early to develop compassion in your children. Make it a point to have them behave well with everyone they interact. Remember they should not feel that they are doing someone a favor, instead they should realize that it’s about giving back to the society that has already given them so much more than others their own age.

The holidays can be fraught with numerous activities and trying to schedule a regular homeschool day in the midst of Church activities, Christmas shopping, carol singing and gift exchanges can be difficult. Instead why not shift the focus during the holidays on other activities?

Slow Down the Formal Academics

It’s okay if you don’t hit the textbooks regularly during this time. Remember homeschool learning is pretty flexible. You can teach your homeschool students different subjects without ever opening a reference book. Use daily activities to instill good values and morals. Pick up on activities that teach them how to do something new, while staying away from worksheets and practice in the formal set up.

Start a Deliberate Acts of Kindness Routine

Advent calendars are a good way to reinforce kindness training. Have a small act of kindness written on top of the date and a small gift in the pocket below. The homeschool student needs to complete the act of kindness and have it approved before he can get his hands on the day’s gift. You will find them planning ahead and thinking up of ways to get the act of kindness done as soon as possible.

Teach Life Skills for Actual Living

Things like baking cookies, wrapping gifts, making handmade cards, addressing and posting the cards, decorating a tree with home made ornaments are all skills for life. Just because the children are helping the homeschool parent to get ready for the celebration doesn’t mean that they are not learning anything. They are being instilled with actual life skills that will serve them for a lifetime.

Read Stories and Sing Songs

Set aside some time for just having a bit of fun. Yes there are a million little things that need your attention for the celebrations to be ideal, but you aren’t always going to have your children in the house with you. Have a story read out loud by the eldest sibling. Follow it up with some carol singing for just the family to have fun. Get into the true spirit of giving by giving your children some memories that will last them a lifetime.

As you fend off a crisis in your life it may well affect your ability to deal with the home school curriculum simultaneously. There can be all kinds of special situations where you may face an out of the way crisis. It could be a simple thing like the death of a near and dear person, or something far more catastrophic such as a physical natural disaster like an earthquake or a tornado aftermath. Truth is a crisis of any magnitude can make it nearly impossible for you to continue your regular home school schedule and studies.
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Random Acts of Kindness done during the month of December allow homeschool children to realize that there’s more to the holidays than gifts and merry making. Put up a list of such random acts in the homeschool classroom and ask your homeschool students to tick off at least ten by the time the month’s over. Here are some suggestions that you can use for kids in different age groups.

A toddler in kindergarten can be asked to call up a long distance relative and bring them some holiday cheer. This would work even better if they were to speak with grandparents who may not live in the same town. It will also instill in them a sense of family and belonging. Another act could be to compliment someone. Explain the concept and have them practice on the full family.

Young ones till grade 5 can be asked to do a chore for someone else. It could be for the homeschool parent, a sibling or even a neighbor. As long as the child can manage the chore safely, that’s acceptable. This shows the child that all people have responsibilities and they need to step up with their own. Allow them to do something fun like wishing a stranger with a smile. It’s a good way to help shy children make friends.

Middle school homeschool children could be asked to make cards and tree ornaments to be given away to people in the hospital, or even posted to those serving in the military who are unable to be at home. This activity will not only show them the importance of charity, but will prove that there are people in a worse situation than they are. Allow them to create a sidewalk greeting and write it out. They can mark it out in the snow as well.

Your older teenagers can be given a more comprehensive list with items such as thanking someone for making a difference in their lives, to collecting clothes and books around the house that can be donated. Do include simple ones like give someone a hug and letting a person behind them in line get in front of them as well.

A number of states have different legislation required when it comes to homeschooling within the United States of America. Some states are easier to homeschool in than others. States requiring no notice to the school district include Alaska, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Texas. The HSLDA is an organisation that allows you to find out the legal requirements you need to meet when you are considering homeschooling.

Unfortunately, it is not always legal to homeschool your children in other countries. If you are a homeschool family that is planning to live abroad for a while, it would be well worth the effort to find out exactly what the country’s laws regarding homeschool entail. There are more than forty countries listed on Wikipedia where it is illegal to homeschool your children. Make sure that if you are going to one of them, that you enroll your child in the legal school system.

While homeschooling is a progressive movement across the globe, and more people are opting to teach their children at home instead of sending them to public or private schools, it is still not quite as popular as it will get. Many governments around the world still feel that parents are unable to impart quality education to their children, and in third world countries this may be true because the parents are barely literate themselves. In time the option to homeschool your child would become available in more nations.

There are already nations where homeschooling is illegal, but allowed for children with special needs. Since the public school system is unable to cope in these countries with the extra attention that a special needs child requires, they have allowed parents to homeschool these children. As more people around the world realize that homeschooling can have just as many advantages as public or private schools we will see them rallying to make it legal in their own countries as well. Till then, be grateful if you live in a country which will not arrest you and throw you into jail simply because you choose to give your children an education within your home.

A few decades ago regular schools were the only logical choice for schooling because most parents just did not have the resources to teach their children at home even if they wanted to. Thanks to the advance of technology this is no longer a limiting factor for parents looking forward to teaching their children at home. These days it is easy to get homeschooling help if you chose to teach yourself.
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Homeschooling Parents are free to either use a fixed curriculum or pick and choose books and resources for each subject. The choice is often difficult to make. Should you save time by picking up a ready made curriculum offered for the grade your homeschool student is in? Or should you be flexible about what your child may or may not study in the academic session based on his or her interest?

Independent Learning

The end goal of a homeschool student is to be able to teach himself about whatever subject he may have interest in. To encourage independent learning the homeschooling parent may choose to forego a set homeschool curriculum with fixed books and learning resources. This will allow them to pick up learning material as and when they require based on how they proceed in each topic.

It can be more economical to buy a single books or so each month than buying an entire set at the beginning of the year. However in the long run, you may end up spending more on individual books collectively during the academic session. It will depend on the homeschool family’s budget to pick the option that suits them best.

Hands On Tools

With a set homeschool curriculum kit, there will be a limited number of activities that encourage hands on learning. Yes, the books will tell you about activities and there may even be a kit or two in the pile to do something interesting, but on the whole they will focus on books and workbooks for the learning.

While a homeschool teacher, who is not restricted by a set curriculum kit, will be able to add any activities that they like. They can pick up art kits, robotics kits, craft materials as required for different projects, when they want to. The flexibility and freedom of choice will be much greater in this case.

So, which is better? To have a formal, set homeschool curriculum or to make up your own along the way? That is a question best answered by the homeschool teacher by taking finances and teaching preferences into account.

The winter months can be chaotic for homeschooling families. Not only is the weather chilling the bones, the holidays mess up all the daily routines that worked so well through the rest of the year. Here are some activities that may help the homeschooling parent make some progress with the learning of the homeschool students.

Build a Snowman

Physical activity is what gets relegated to the back burner for most children during the cold months of winter. Don’t be afraid of the homeschooling students falling sick. Instead bundle them up nicely, ensure heads and hands are protected, and let them loose in the backyard to build a snowman. Doesn’t snow where you live? No problem. Just add an outdoor trek in the local town park instead. Make sure that they get to burn some calories. They will look alive. Make sure to save these memories of rosy cheeks by taking plenty of photographs.

Bake Cookies

Not only do winters cry for some home baked cookies, they are also a great way to set up an impromptu lesson for your homeschooled kids. Let them convert a recipe into making twice as many cookies, doubling all values. Make them do the measurements with the cups and the spoons. If possible get a recipe in metric values and get them to convert it to pounds and ounces. Teach them about how the oven heats up and bakes the cookies. Heat transference can be a great physics lesson in the kitchen. Talk about the chemical reaction that cooks the raw dough into yummy cookies. There’s so much to teach in the kitchen.

Make Decorations

With the holiday season upon us, it’s easy to come up with a ton of arts and crafts projects to make decorations. You can do up the homeschool classroom first with indoor decorations. Then move on to more challenging projects for decorating outside the house. Lawn figurine sculptures, painted rocks, bottle art and a whole lot more can be given a seasonal holiday twist. If you have trouble coming up with ideas for projects just browse the internet. There are a lot of do-it-yourself projects with step by step directions easily available.

Get them to do experiments

A hands on approach to home school science can make the subject your child’s favorite one. While it is important that the child understands the theory written in the science book, it is the experiments that make it an interesting learning experience. If you can capture the attention and interest of the child, the quality of learning will be greatly enhanced. The best way to do this is to ensure that the child is able to do at least one experiment per chapter. It will then become like the highlight of the school day, not to mention the fact that it will probably stay in the memory for a long time.
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The winter months can lead to a complete loss of outdoor activities for homeschooling families. It is very important for homeschool students to be able to blow off steam and keep physically active. These are some fun games that will allow the homeschool parent to keep the kids entertained.

Sock Wrestling

Get your homeschool students together for a bout of fun filled wrestling. Have a carpet laid down on the floor in a cleared out area. Now get the kids to face off each other fully dressed and with their socks on, but shoes off. The winner of the wrestling match is the one who manages to get both the opponents socks off. Do ensure that the children understand about basic safety rules during the wrestling match.

Indoor Obstacle Training

For your younger children displace the furniture and let them move through the area as an obstacle course.The need to hop over cushions on the floor, go under the tables and alternate between the chairs. Make up the course as interesting as you can. Ensure that you have a demo before you have the actual race to time them. The person with the shortest time wins.

Queen of Sheba Wants

Another great indoor game that can generate a lot of action is “Queen of Sheba”. Appoint yourself self proclaimed royalty and let your loyal subjects aka homeschool students know what you desire. The homeschooling mother must ask the kids to do different activities by declaring “The Queen of Sheba wants…” followed by an action. It can be anything from fetching her a glass of water or entertaining her with a dance or a song.

Sort the Skittles with a Straw

The best part about candy games is that they can end up as a snack after the game is over. Here empty out a couple of packets of skittles in a plate and give the homeschool student a straw. The idea is that the kid can not touch the skittles directly with his hand. The sorting of the skittles into different colored piles needs to be done using the straw. Again shortest time wins.

Since five years is the age at which most children begin to enroll in kindergarten, it may also be the age at which a homeschooling parent may decide to begin formal lessons. When you begin formal homeschooling, there may be thoughts about not doing enough with your five year old. Here we take a look at what to expect when homeschooling your young one.

Start Off Easy

Your homeschool classroom is not a substitute for school at home. You don’t have to go from loving parent to strict homeschool teacher overnight. Begin with bringing a book over to the classroom and reading it out there. Have drawing and coloring hour on the study desk. Start flashcards while seated in the student and teacher chairs. Gradually bring about the acceptance of the homeschool classroom as a place to sit down and learn.

Milestone and Learning Goals

Yes it is important for a five year old homeschool student to meet his educational goals.  Basic alphabet identification, the alphabet song, numbers and basic addition, sorting of objects and creating patterns. All these are skills that a five year old should have, but please remember that you have the full school year to perfect these skill levels. You can’t expect him to perfect everything the first time you teach him a skill.

Other Activities and Interests

Try to bring outdoor activities into the five year old homeschool student’s life besides his school lessons. Climbing, sliding, swinging, and even dancing are good activities to get them to move physically. Arts and crafts can be added with age appropriate projects. Colors and sculptures can make for interesting skill building. Add activities that your child has a natural interest in pursuing.

Remember as a homeschool teacher you have far more flexibility about deciding what your child needs to learn and when. Take advantage of this fact by letting him learn stuff higher than his grade if he can manage it. The basics given in the common core can be easily covered even as you work with your child to focus on what is essentially interest led learning.

A toy is the best teacher that a child can have. The more you play the more experience you gain. Science based toys are an excellent way to help your home schooled child learn more about the subject. There are a number of such toys that you can buy. Here’s a list of some such toys that can help the child develop a keen interest in homeschool science.
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There are many different types of methods used by homeschool families. The school-at home-approach is where they usually begin and end up exploring many other methods such as Unschooling, Unit Studies, Charlotte Mason, Waldorf and Montessori to mention a few of the more popular ones. A system of studies which has been around since the middle ages is called the Classical Method.

What is the Classical Method?

The aim of the Classical method of learning was to teach the student how to learn for themselves. This is very much in alignment with the aim of homeschooling. The five tools of the Classical method were called the Trivium. They are Reason, Record, Research, Relate and Rhetoric. As you can see the system has a lot in common with the scientific method. Each tool comes in handy when the student needs to teach himself something new.

What are the Stages of the Classical Method?

There are three main stages of the Classical Method. These are the Grammar stage, the Logic stage and the Rhetoric stage. In the Grammar stage the homeschool student learns facts, memorizes data and gains new knowledge. In the Logic stage the reasoning and logic is used on the knowledge that has been accumulated so far. Finally in the Rhetoric stage the Trivium is completed as the student learns the skills of wisdom and judgment. For instance consider learning the multiplication tables part of the Grammar stage. Then using the knowledge to solve sums is the Logic stage. Using these two together to solve word problems would be the final Rhetoric stage.

Can Classical Method Be Used By Homeschool Teachers?

Yes, of course it can. While the original method was used to teach adults how to accumulate more knowledge, the tools of teaching in this method are still very good. They can be easily adapted to help homeschool teachers make their homeschool students more self reliant in the homeschool classroom. The idea of education is to ensure that the child being educated is able to handle the knowledge that is being bestowed on him. This is easily done via the Classical Method.

The holidays can be a great distraction in the homeschool classroom. Public school is out and your children want to know why they have to study. There is so much to do within the home to get ready for the holidays and the constant distractions of family, friends and the media. It is a wonder you get any lessons done at all during the end of the year months. Here are some ways to combine the spirit of the holidays and include learning for your homeschool students.

Introduce Holiday Literature to the Curriculum

While watching movies based on Christmas and Thanksgiving is a generally accepted activity, it would make more of a difference to your homeschool students reading abilities if they were to read books based on the holidays instead. It doesn’t have to be a long book, it can even be simple Christmas carols. Just make sure that some reading is done everyday. You can even have a read out loud session each day if your young ones are too small to handle difficult words.

Put the Crafts and Arts to Good Use

There is an overwhelming number of ideas for crafting activities related to the holidays available online. Complete boards of activities and projects can be accessed on Pinterest with a simple search. Making cards to send to relatives and friends. Putting together decorations to decorate the home, tree and the classroom. Take your pick from projects which come with detailed instructions. Put together the activities that would most interest your homeschool students and you are set.

Public Speaking is a Skill to Hone

Poem recitations, putting on skits or plays, and even participating in local events around the holidays is a more creative use of time than simply doing nothing. Encourage your homeschool students to get more involved with activities that can allow them to showcase their creativity and enhance their public speaking skills in the local community. Fins out what’s happening and ensure that your young ones participate it in all. This will also help them make friends and close childhood connections and memories to treasure later on.

Social Media may be the most underutilized tool in the homeschool classroom. Yes they can be websites and apps where the homeschool parent ends up wasting a lot f time, but with a little bit of self discipline these can be turned into very useful resources for the homeschooled students. Here are a list of sites and apps that you can look into.

Google Earth: This is a great tool to supplement your homeschool Geography lessons. Allow your homeschool students to read a map, see the satellite image to identify local hot spots, and even get a street view of your own home. You can set them an assignment about creating a map of their own neighborhood and then compare how they did based on the Google map.

iBooks, Google Books, Kindle Store: Each of these ebook stores has tons of free books on promotion on any given day. While it’s not possible to get on each app and search for things everyday, consider joining a couple of newsletters that do the curating for you. BookBub is a good one to start with. A simple web search with throw up many more newsletters. Don’t join more than a couple or you’ll waste a lot more time.

Google Images or Image Searcher: Ever so often you want to use an image on your homeschool student’s worksheet. Or they need an image for a report or project. These tools allow you to find creative commons images that you can download and use legally. Just adjust the search settings and you are set to go.

Show Me: This app turns your iPad into a personal interactive whiteboard. You can record your voice with instructions as you add images and writing to the whiteboard base. A great tool to pre-record lessons for your homeschool students which can be reused time and again.

Toontastic: This free app from Google allows your homeschool students to get creative and record their own animated cartoon. They can pick characters, create a story line, draw their own character, record their voices, and animate their cartoon. Available on both Android and iTunes.

Printing may be something that young children do not always enjoy. Calligraphy writing is more like art, and those who enjoy drawing will enjoy the flourishes and loops that come with calligraphic writing. Here are some ideas to get the homeschool students started on calligraphy.

Faux Calligraphy

There is no need to buy the specialized nibs and dip ink for a beginner. Half the time a homeschool parent is strapped for cash, and investing in an activity that the homeschool student does not continue is simply foolish. Get them a gel pen which flows well. Get it in 0.5, 0.75, and 0.9 mm tips. This will give them the freedom to take on different sized lettering. Hand them the different sized nibs and dipping ink once they have stayed with the hobby for a while.

Decide the Script to Master

Most of us think of calligraphy as beautiful, handwritten lettering. The truth is, just as we have different fonts on the computer, there are different scripts for calligraphy as well. German gothic, roundhouse, copperplate, classic are some popular ones that have online tutorials available for free on YouTube. There are good worksheets available at the Post Man’s Knock, but they are not free. Let your homeschool students decide the style they want to work with and master.

Practice Makes Perfect

Remind your homeschool student that they will not be able to do calligraphy as fast as normal writing. If they go fast the appearance of the letters will be shaky and scraggly. Going slow will improve the quality of what they write. It will also allow them to enjoy the process of creating something unique and beautiful. If you are looking for calligraphy friendly to a left handed child, you may like to check out Logos Calligraphy. Yes it makes the process simpler for the lefty.

Once the homeschool students have mastered the basics of the loops and curves, have them come up with their own pieces of lettering. They can write their name on their books. Or create a sign for the homeschool classroom. Maybe a card or two for relatives. The possibilities are endless.

The traditional “school at home” method which is similar to the different subjects being taught class after class in a regular school is not the only method that can be used for homeschooling. A number of more relaxed and flexible methods are often used by homeschooling parents. Here are a few of these techniques and a brief look at how you can incorporate them into your own homeschooling curriculum.
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A single glass of water can be an excellent teaching tool. Add a couple of extra items and you can be actively demonstrating a number of different scientific principles with your homeschool students over a glass of water.

Surface Tension

To physically demonstrate the surface tension on the top of water, fill a glass almost completely to the top. Now add a few coins from the side. Make sure that you do not add them from the center as that will eliminate the surface tension. Now keep adding coins and count the number it takes to break through the bulging surface tension on top of the glass.

Diffusion

It is easy to show the process of two liquids mixing if they are of two different colors. Add water to a glass and create a mixture of colored water in a second glass. Now use a dropper to collect the colored water and before you add it to the glass of plain water give it a stir with a spoon. You will see how the drops of colored water travel through the glass before they diffuse completely with the plain water. The homeschool student may also try to add drops of colored water without disturbing the plain water in the glass. The process will be slower but easily observed.

Refraction and Reflection

Place a glass of water on a table’s edge and place a sheet of white paper at a lower level. This will allow the sun’s rays to shine through the water in the glass and split up into the colors of a rainbow on the plain white sheet below through the process of refraction and reflection. The process is similar to the actual rainbows created in the sky due to water droplets in clouds.

Change in Sound Frequency

Line up four glasses and fill them each with varying levels of water. Now use a metal spoon to strike the glass. Each glass will have a distinctly different sound due to the vibrations of the water molecules within the glass. This is a principle also used in a musical instrument known as the Jal Tarang.

Experiencing new things is actually very much like a science experiment for a young child. To explain the relevance of science to a homeschool student, it may be a good idea to help them start at a young age with easy to perform experiments.

Plant a Sapling

While you may not be able to teach a child in kindergarten about how the leaf functions as the food factory for the plant, you can still give him a leaf to hold and talk about how a tree grows. Start with soaking a few seeds that are easy to sprout. Teach them how to plant a sprout and care for it.

Basic herbs are fast to grow and can be fun to use in cooking. Teach them how to wash and chop them before they consume them. Extra sprouts can also be eaten. This gives them a co-relation between the food being grown and being cooked. Also looking after plants gives them a more green attitude to life.

Drop That Egg

As they become more inquisitive about their surroundings, teach them about manipulating the things in their environment. The homeschool student will know about some things being tough and hardy, while others are more fragile. Give them an egg and ask them to find a way to drop the egg from a certain height without it being damaged.

It may be a good idea to take this experiment outdoors if you don’t want to clean up too many broken eggs. Also have at least a carton of eggs for them to experiment with. Let them make parachutes, protective covers, extra packaging and whatever else they think will get the job done.

Elephant Toothpaste

While the sedate growth of a plant may take a while to register, and the planning behind the egg drop may keep them mentally busy, sometimes it’s just fun to mix chemicals and get an instant reaction. This child friendly science experiment allows them to create elephant toothpaste.

Add 120 ml of 40-volume hydrogen peroxide to a 1-liter soda bottle. Add a bit of liquid dish wash and if you want any food color. Now place the bottle aside. In 4 tablespoons of warm water mix a small packet of dry yeast and stir it in to activate it. Pour the yeast mixture into the bottle and watch the elephant toothpaste form right out of the bottle.

Science is all around us. We don’t really need a classroom to observe different aspects of science at play in our daily life. Take the electricity in the house that makes such a difference to our lives, or something as complicated as the mass transportation systems of buses and trains in the city. The colorful blooms in the garden can be used to explain biology and the flying butterflies can be used for a discussion on the principles of flight. Everything uses science and it is this aspect that can help make homeschool science interesting.
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The home is the first school for any child. The parents are the first models they observe. The homeschool parent needs to incorporate more than just the lessons in the syllabus into the life of the homeschool student. There are a number of social responsibilities that the homeschool student needs to be sensitized about. Here are some common issues.

Developing Reciprocal Relationships with Peers

Homeschool students need to know how to deal with other children their age. Getting along with peers includes having a sense of empathy. To try and put themselves in the other guy’s shoes and get a feel of their emotions. Emotional sensitivity is required not just to understand their own feelings, but to develop a reciprocal relationship with their friends.

Being Respectful in Relations with Elders

The number of adults that a homeschool student is exposed to may vary depending on the family’s individual situation. It is important that the homeschool teacher ensures that they learn to interact with other adults in a respectful and dignified manner. This will be the blueprint of how they deal with authority figures in the future. Ensuring that they can hold their own while being respectful of the adult is an important skill.

A Sense of Justice in Their Words and Actions

Young children usually have a strong sense of right and wrong. They see things as black or white with no shades of gray. It is necessary for the homeschool students to be considerate of extenuating circumstances, motivations, and intentions of other people. The homeschooling parent needs to show them real life examples of situations where doing something not quite legally correct, might be morally the right thing to do.

Solving Conflicts Amicably

There is no getting away from conflict in life, and it would help homeschool students tremendously if they knew exactly how to handle disagreements with others. Being socially responsible includes being able to resolve differences with other individuals of the society in an amicable manner. A few tips can go a long way in shaping how they deal with problematic people they may encounter in the future.

Science can be a passion for children who are to young to drive! Recently “America’s Best Young Scientist” was chosen by the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist in their annual challenge. The winner of the $25,000 prize this year, was an 11 year old child from Colorado called Gitanjali Rao.

Tethys, as Gitanjali’s project was called, is a sensor based gadget that tests water for lead faster than any device currently on the market. Gitanjali hopes to help deal with the water contamination crisis by using the device to decrease health effects caused by lead exposure.

As per their website students from the grades 5 to 8 in the United States, are invited to create a 1-2 minute video describing a new, innovating solution that could solve an everyday problem. Ten finalists are chosen each year for their passion for science, spirit of innovation and ingenuity, and effective communication skills.

Judging of the videos sent in is based on.

• Creativity (ingenuity and innovative thinking) (30%)
• Scientific knowledge (30%)
• Persuasiveness and effective communication (20%)
• Overall presentation (20%)

Those chosen are then guided to bring their solution to a prototype. These young individuals then work with 3M mentors to refine and improve their final project. The ten finalists are judged in a competition final which is held a few months after their initial selection.

At the finals they present the result of their summer mentor-ship as well as participate in a series of challenges based on their science knowledge. The judges come from a variety of fields and include teacher, scientists, researchers and school district representatives.

They are looking for science based ideas that are sustainable and practical. Ideas that help clear out pollution and environmental contamination issues are particularly welcome. Also gadgets and devices with moving parts which have a helpful purpose in daily life are appreciated.

The young children need to send in individual entries as teams are not allowed to participate in the challenge. Parental approval is also required for participation. To get a better idea of what kind of ideas are selected, past entries into the annual challenge can be referenced on the challenge website.

You have been wondering about how you will possibly teach your child homeschool science. Is it intimidating you because you were not a good science student yourself? It should not. You don’t have to be. Science is not a tough subject to teach, especially not to your own child. All you need is the right methods and you will be able to handle the job to your own satisfaction.
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Hands on is the best way to learn science. If you are teaching homeschool science to your children it is best to get them involved with the practical aspect of science. make them perform a number of experiments in all the topics that they study and you will find that their understanding and retention of scientific facts is much better. Unfortunately not everyone is able to cope with homeschool science as the grade levels begin to go up. Here’s what you can do then.
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As a home schooling parent the general idea is to keep the children gainfully occupied doing things that they can learn skills from. If they are not studying their school books, you will line up educational and informative activities for them to do. This stems from a belief that if the children do not have something to do they will get into trouble or fall behind their peers who are in regular school. While getting them to do these activities will help them gain an advantage it can also have a negative effect on the children. Having free time to themselves to indulge in activities that they want to is also important for well rounded development of a child.
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Keeping track of all that you have covered with your child over an academic session can be quite a daunting task if you are not in the habit of regularly noting down what was taught in the homeschool classroom. One way to make it easier to make your homeschool portfolio is to ensure that you maintain a homeschool planner regularly during the academic year.
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Recording the progress of your homeschooled child is an important part that many first time homeschooling parents do not pay much attention to. However if at a later date your child wishes to study in a regular school or college a yearly record of the child’s learning activities will be needed for the teachers to assess the child’s level of preparedness. Here is how you can make a homeschool progress portfolio for the academic year for your child.
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Homeschooling parents are usually striving to give the best of education to their children. They want to teach the children all that they should know in a relaxed and tension free atmosphere. This system allows them the flexibility to do so as and when they like. One major tool that the home schooling parents use is the computer and internet to get resources to make use of. It is quite common for homeschooling parents to use the computer in order to get material to teach their children, but they miss out on one big opportunity.
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As a group of companies realized the severe shortage of skilled manpower in technologically related fields could seriously cripple the industry, they set about rectifying the situation at the grass root level. They decided to make science and technology more interesting and exciting for students in school. As part of this initiative they set up various science fair competitions that would allow the students an opportunity to use their skill in science to create projects that would allow them to win good monetary awards. Money does make the world go round, and can be a major motivating factor with some cash prizes going as high as $100,000. Surely not a small amount for a student to win, I am sure parents will agree.
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As a homeschooling parent you are aware that there will be some subjects that you may not be very comfortable handling after a certain grade level. The basics are easy for you to teach in any subject, but if you have limited experience with teaching science, you and your child could get frustrated as the level goes higher and you are unable to answer all his questions. There are a few simple ways to deal with this challenge of teaching homeschool science.
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Organizing homeschooling activities can take a lot out of a parent. It is best to try and combine these activities with another parent who is homeschooling their children, or to use homeschooling resources that are available to you for free. This gives you some respite from the continuous planning of events that homeschooling can involve.In addition it keeps your children gainfully occupied.
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There are a few common mistakes that homeschooling parents tend to make and these five about head the list. These are not woes that are necessarily of parents new to homeschooling. Even those who have been teaching their children at home successfully for a while now can still end up making these errors. Being aware of the potential problem can help you to think proactively of possible solutions.
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If you are planning on considering home schooling for your child, it would be well worth answering these questions honestly. It will give you an idea about just how suited you are to become a homeschool teacher.
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You have struggled through the high school homeschool curriculum with your child and now its over. If he or she were attending a regular school there would be a formal Graduation Ceremony for you to attend. So why should a child miss out on a graduation ceremony just because he is homeschooled? Hasn’t the child worked hard at mastering the homeschool curriculum? Hasn’t the child graded well in all his tests and evaluations? Why shouldn’t you as a family celebrate the event in a graduation ceremony? Here are a few ideas for a graduation ceremony for your home schooled high school student.
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If you are planning to homeschool your children here is a set of skills that you should develop. They will help ensure that things run smooth in your home school classes.
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Traditional school begins in the morning and most teachers want the children to learn new topics while their minds are fresh. That’s why the heavy learning subjects tend to be taught in the first half before recess and the lighter and more physically demanding subjects tend to congest the second half of the school day in traditional schools. Is this the best way to organize your home school schedule? Not always. In fact most home schooling parents tend to differ when it comes to fixing their schedule. No two families will follow the same home school schedule.
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