If you know a homeschooling parent it would be a good idea to ask them what kind of educational toys or resources they would appreciate getting for Christmas for their children. There are a number of outstanding educational tools available in the market today and most of them cost a pretty penny, so any homeschooling parent would appreciate getting them as gifts. Just make sure that you check with them before hand so that you don’t end up giving them duplicates or something that they have already covered in homeschooling classes.
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Very often a homeschooling parent tends to get bogged down with the details and forgets to take a look at the big picture. Yes it is important that you have a well organized study schedule for your homeschool classes. Yes the children do well with some structure to how and what you teach, but it is also equally important for the children to know that there is life outside the classroom.
When you homeschool your children it is a good idea to develop a support system. Very often you will find other homeschooling parents your city who can help you in various ways. Some parents work out exchange deals with others wherein one parent takes up all the children for a subject that they are good at, while the other parent takes care of teaching all the children a subject that they may not be comfortable handling.
Getting a college degree is no longer as complicated as it once was. In fact if you have been homeschooling your child to protect him or her from catty cliques and brutish behavior in regular schools, you may not be so comfortable sending them to regular college as well. In this case you can prepare your homeschool high school student to apply for his college degree online or via distance education.
As the season begins to change it would be a good idea to go for a nature walk in a park near the house to spot the different colors of fall. It will not be long before winter sets in and outdoor outings will become scarce. So take your children on a nature walk and enjoy the great out doors.
The first day of school after the summer vacation is a special one and most schools have some special ritual that is followed on opening day. Being in homeschool should not restrict you from coming up with a “Back to Homeschool” ritual for your children. Here are a few that you could consider adopting.
Most homeschooling families make the decision to homeschool their child at the preschool age. This is where the homeschooling teacher must instill a love of science in the child by teaching him to perform activities that show him science in action. Performing small experiments that are fun is the key here.
Managing an infant or an active toddler along with teaching an older child can be quite an exhausting and frustrating process. The baby needs attention and so does your school going child.
One of the main criticisms of homeschooling is that the children do not learn how to interact with their peer group. Some critics say that they are not as socialized as their regular school going counterparts. This may have been true in the past, but now with the amount of networking that homeschool families engage in, it is just another myth.
Over the summer your children have been out doing different activities. These could range from summer enrichment camps to extra sports activities. All things that they enjoyed, and now suddenly they are back in the classroom. In a regular school set up, children get used to the pattern and are likely to look forward to meeting old classmates in the new grade. How do you customize the homeschool children to the new grade and the new routine?
You’ve had a fairly peaceful summer. The children have been gainfully occupied without much intervention on your part and now it’s all about to end. ‘Back to School Blues’ can hit the homeschool teacher just as hard as it can hit the homeschool student.
Homeschooling is supposed to be hassle free for the child. Its only the parents who need to keep coming up with lesson plans. The general emphasis of stress free education in homeschooling leads to the misconception that homeschoolers do not get formally tested for their skills. This is incorrect as homeschooling families all over the country tend to use standardized tests to check on the progress of their students.
With one parent staying at home to homeschool the children most homeschooling families have a tight budget. This means that the resources that need to be purchased must be bought with foresight and used to full potential. Here are some ways that you can be frugal while homeschooling and still ensure that your children get the best possible education that you can afford.
Videos
Using videos on different topics is a really cool way to teach homeschool students.There are any number of educational videos available for free online. However not each of them will contribute to your homeschooling activities unless you follow some guidelines. Here is what you need to do to ensure that your children actually learn something of value from the educational videos that they watch.
An elementary school science teacher has decided to do away with textbooks and teach hands on science with experiments to her fourth and fifth grade students. Leigh Ann Anderson at Barnhart Elementary School in St. Charles, MD believes that in order to learn science, you have to do it. So she has decided to put, “the lab before the blab.” This is something that many homeschool science teachers already do. Here are some ways to put this theory in action.
With the amount of information that is available on the internet it is possible for homeschooling students to learn from experts sitting at their computers. The recent explosion of free course online for the mass public offers one more resource that the home schooling parents can use.
It has got to be said that when you homeschool your children you are running two very different portfolios. One is that of teacher in the homeschool classroom and the other is that of home maker and care taker. Needless to say one set of responsibilities often imposes on the other and can make it tough going for the homeschooling mom. Here are some ways to balance the scales.
The focus of educators in recent years has been to encourage science and technology based education in order to meet the shortfall in skilled labor at the industrial level. This had resulted in the STEM or Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics based subjects getting a boost at the schools. However now there is a group of educators who feel that being innovative in science requires you to have adequate exposure to arts. They are now hoping to add arts to the mix and make it STEAM.
One of the simplest scientific unit studies can be based on the principle of gravity. It can involve students from kindergarten to the highest grade. Here is a set of activities and projects that you can undertake with your homeschool students using gravity.
Teaching science at home includes having the homeschool students perform science experiments. For this you will need some of the equipment that a school laboratory keeps. In case you have no clue where to buy such equipment or it is not that easily available in stores in your town, you can consider getting them online. Science equipment is not that difficult to buy online. You have a good choice of picking up either second hand or brand new equipment online depending on your budget.
One of the main challenges of homeschooling is to keep children in different grades gainfully occupied during the school day. There is a tendency for the homeschool teacher to get side tracked with the demands and tantrums of the younger child if there is not enough planned to keep the younger one occupied while the elder one is being taught. Here are a few techniques that you can use to ensure that neither of the children is neglected during school hours and both get a full school day’s work done.
You have three children in the homeschool classroom and find it tough to keep everyone focused on the lessons that they should be following. The elder one obviously needs the most guidance from you personally as they are learning new things every day. The youngest one needs you to hold their hand and guide them as they begin to explore writing. The middle one can always be guided by the elder sibling and so does not need your personal supervision.
Being organized is the key to making the homeschool classes interesting and informative. A large onus lies on the homeschooling parent to provide the child with activities that will challenge him and help him learn new concepts. This is not something that can happen overnight. The parent needs to plan out classes in a sequence for the learning to be steady and consistent. To this end having a lesson plan book for your homeschool classes can be a major help.
The focus in homeschooling should lie not just in planning lessons in each subject of the curriculum and teaching them, but also in developing independent thinking in the homeschool student. By allowing a child to solve a problem on his own you are equipping him with a great tool to handle life. The natural imagination and creativity that a child possesses can be a huge asset to you as a trainer. Here are some activities that would help the child in developing his creative skills.
If you plan to take your children for a foreign vacation you might be surprised to hear that your family can use the experience as a great learning tool. This applies not only to homeschooling students but to any child; the exposure is great for broadening their horizons. Here are a few things that you can help them focus on in order to get more out of the trip.
Your daughter is great at writing fictional stories, but basic multiplication and division give her major trouble.
Socializing with the peer group is not the only thing that homeschoolers are views as missing out on. In some situations the difference between regular school students and homeschoolers can become painfully obvious. If you wonder about what homeschooling students are missing out on, here are a few regular school traditions and activities that you can consider.
The family vacation, a trip to a new town, a visit to grandma, or any other form of travel can be easily converted into a teaching tool for your children. While it is a good way for homeschooling parents to add supplementary lessons, travel can be used just as effectively by parents of children who attend regular school. Here are the things that you can teach them.
When you think of school, do you think of the textbooks used in each subject? Textbooks are a great way for teaching a large number of students standard information. That is why they are so popular in regular schools. However they are not the only teaching tool that a homeschool teacher can use. The homeschool classroom is a place where textbooks can be easily substituted with other instructional tools.
As a parent there is a fine line between praise and just words said just to placate the child. If that parent is also the homeschool teacher there has to be a fine line between praising the child and merely mouthing the words. How much praise is enough and can you over do it?
Equipping a homeschool laboratory does not have to cost a whole lot of money. There are a number of things that you can use from around the house. However, you will have to invest in some things that will give the feel of a proper science lab to your homeschool students. Here we discuss the different types of equipment you will need to keep on hand to conduct your homeschool science experiments.
How to Teach Science That Kids Really Enjoy AND That’s Easy To Teach.
If you've ever wanted to sneak a peek into my cabinet of educational games and books for kids, now is your chance. Use this list for gift ideas, boredom busters, and just plain family fun. Some of these games you can pick up at the store, and the rest are the home-made, print-it-out, cut-and-play variety that your kids will really learn from.
Math Games
Most kids love the idea of science – of building things, creating inventions, and getting stuff to work by using their own two hands. Kids have a natural passion for science. The problem comes in when the parent feels they can’t meet this need in their child, and they struggle with how to fulfill it.
As a hands-on science teacher who some kids think is a bit wild, I’ve found that there are certain very specific keys to teaching science well, and without getting burnt out doing it (especially important for me, because groups regularly hire me to do multi-day science workshops for hundreds of homeschool kids). Actually, these keys just the opposite of how most schools try to teach science.
When I teach a science class, this is the questions I get asked most: “What science stuff does my child need to learn?” Parents are wondering exactly what bases they should cover for their kids to understand science before they hit the high school or college scene.
Have you ever picked up a textbook, filled out a worksheet, or done a science activity and wondered…“What is my child really learning with this?” Parents wonder exactly what bases they should cover for their kids to understand science before they hit the high school or college scene.
Did you have a teacher that really had an impact on you? Remember the excitement? Or the thrill you felt when you taught something to someone else and they really got it? First, let me thank you for your commitment to education – a value that is high enough for you that you are stretching for resources to help you reach your goals. In this article, I am going to share with you some of the common mistakes that educators often make.
I’ve been traveling a lot lately and after seeing what’s on the market for science equipment… well, I just had to write this article to help you separate the trash from the treasures. (I’ve been to 13 different educational conventions in 16 months, 17 weeks of science camps, and countless other science-related workshops!)
Sometimes I’m lucky just to get my teeth brushed in the morning, let alone design an experiment that illustrates Einstein’s photoelectric effect for my 7-year old son. Luckily, though, YOU don’t need to reinvent the wheel (or the light bulb), because here’s a quick list of cheap and easy experiments that really drive home the basic principles in physical science.
