As human beings we all know that we have a breaking point.  The place where we all stand and just start screaming because we are losing our calm.  This occurs with children as well, but instead of always screaming they might start acting out and ignoring the material that you are trying to present to them.  Such an experience occured here recently when my youngest (whom I highly suspect is ADHD) stopped paying attention at all to her reading lessons.

While she loves the book that we are using, she just cannot sit still.  Each lesson would end with me putting my head to the pillow and screaming while everyone else in the house looked at me as if I was crazy, and she bounced away without remembering anything.  After several days of this I stopped working on her reading.  She was still permitted to “read” books on the couch, and such to help encourage her reading habits, but the actual lessons stopped.

Just the other day I decided to give it a try again, she had been driving me insane asking for another reading lesson.  We gave it a try and it went along fabulously.  In fact, it was one of the best reading experiences that I have ever had with her.  Regardless of the reason, this was now the perfect situation to blog about.

When you find that you are hitting walls with your child and everyone is walking away from lessons unhappy it makes the perfect time to take a break.  Look for different ways to still encourage learning during that time, but instead of the focused lessons look for a different approach temporarily.  Then after a week or two, come back to the material and try again.  You just might discover that the small break was the perfect opportunity to clear the air and start all over again positively.

Tags: complications, curriculum, unusual learning

If you are starting to homeschool you have likely worried that you are not doing enough for your children.  The state in which you reside likely has some specific laws that pertain to how much formal education time your child should have, but is that really enough?  Is it possibly too much?  Most people never really know until after they have started getting into a routine, and even some seasoned homeschooling families never figure it out.

For the state of Tennessee, where I live, you are required to have your child schooling for a minimum of 4 hours a day for 180 days each school year.  This is quite slender compared to some states, and stricter than others.  While some parents worry about how to cram the entire 4 hours in, others are worried that they are spending closer to 8 hours each day.

The truth that is important is you need to realize, your child is learning regardless of whether the 4 hours are all together, or they are broken up into smaller pieces.  Typically, a good streamlined homeschool program can be wrapped up in around 2-3 hours a day.  If you are diving further into depth it might take longer, if you have a child that requires extra attention it can also take longer.  Additionally, if you have more than a single child, it will take quite a bit longer as you juggle the assignments that everyone has.

Tags: complications

We have all had days, weeks or even months where NOTHING seems to go right.  Those times all find us wondering exactly what are we teaching our children.  The reality is, most of us grew up believing that schooling and in turn actually learning required the usage of desks, a rigid schedule and a teacher with a chalk board.  Missing any of those critical elements meant that someone was not getting a proper education.

As homeschooling parents we know well enough to realize that this is grossly inaccurate, but how do you really try to ensure that small problems in scheduling do not keep you from overlooking the critical aspects of your child’s education?  For many parents tools of the trade are invaluable, they feel best with their chalkboard and other typical educational tools, but for others, it is important to ensure that there are additional options available.

To help ensure that when disaster strikes your child is still able to stay on target there are a few different ways to prepare ahead.  You can look to laptops, Nintendo DS systems, and even some small books to make immediate portable schooling options.  The degree of depth that can be covered this way will of course vary, but these are all tools that can be quickly gathered and taken if you end up taking an unexpected road trip.

What are you to do when you are still at home though, things have gone wrong and your schedule is out of wack?  For the average family it is just a matter of survival.  Get through as much material as you can, without losing your sanity.  If your child misses math for a few days, they will survive.  Come back and cover the lessons once things settle down again.  There is no need to stress if you are not able to cover all of the material on the exact day that it is scheduled.  Your child will still succeed, and the world will continue spinning along happily.

Tags: complications, technology, unusual learning

Most people are well aware of the benefits that homeschool groups can provide during the journey through homeschooling.  However, finding a great homeschool group that fits your needs is not always as easy as it might seem.  There are tons of groups that exist, and each one exists for a reason.  Finding a group that is a good match for your needs is vital if you expect to really benefit from the group.  Wasting your time with a group that is wrong for your needs can leave you frustrated.

* You can always look around online for different groups such as Google Groups and Yahoo! Groups.  These are great ways to start tracking down different groups in your area.  Additionally, start looking for groups that are state specific rather than city specific.  This can be a good way to locate groups that are in your area and might suit your needs.

* Check out different homeschool websites and blogs in your area to see if you can find any recommendations.  If you find a blog that you really enjoy find out what group they belong to.  Most often if you find one person that you fit in with, you might enjoy the rest of the group as well.

* Talk around to differnet homeschool parents that you know and see what groups they recommend.  This can be a wonderful way to locate several different groups in your area.

* Check at your local church to see if there are other homeschooling families that are active in a group.

Once you find a group though, be sure to start asking plenty of questions and try to attend a couple of meetings before you make a committment to a group to ensure that you are really satisfied with the group.

Tags: getting started

If you have ever tried working with your kids and trying to get all of the basic math concepts down to no avail you are certainly not alone.  Each year parents find that math is one of the hardest subjects to teach successfully and yet it is one of the subjects with the greatest amount of resources to help!  Knowing that it is a difficult subject to teach can certainly help, but it is also important to use the proper tools.

Math for Children is a DVD series that features short 23 minute long videos on a total of 12 different topics.  These are designed for kids in Kindergarten through 4th grade and are entertaining as well as educational.  Sold either seperately or in the complete set through Library Video you too can provide these great videos for your children.

While the price tag is a bit steep at $29.95 each, you can frequently find these at your local library as well.  This is actually how I stumbled upon them and have been extremely happy with the opportunity to incorporate them into our lessons.

With a total of 12 videos you are covering topics such as:

Addition

Subtraction

Decimals and Percents

Division

Fractions

Gathering and Graphing Data

Geometry

Measurement

Money

Telling Time

Number Sense

Multiplication

As you can see, there is a great selection of videos.  I use these almost daily with my 4 year old and 5 year old and they really enjoy them a lot.  They are quickly starting to pick up the concepts taught in the videos and are really learning.  Feel free to check these out for yourself to see just what is possible.

Tags: curriculum, math, videos

At some point you should start to realize that as a homeschooling family there really is no point in sticking to the traditional models of school.  There are no permission slips to fill out, and just waking up and getting a cup of caffeine in some form is a good enough excuse for a field trip.  Most people know that museums, aquariums and other interesting places make good field trip locations but there are plenty of other places as well.

Pick out a career that your child is interested in.  If they love animals try to check out an animal hospital.  This gives you a great way to show them exactly how science is really invovled in the job.  Plus it can allow them to see what is going on outside in the real world.

The grocery store makes a fabulous place to visit.  While you are getting grocery shopping done you can spend some time learning about responsible budgeting, price comparison and even identifying colors and numbers for small children.

The gym makes another great place.  Learning about different parts of the body can allow you to have the perfect springboard for teaching how each part moves.  This is great regardless of the age of your child and is a great way to reinforce the names of bones and muscle groups.

Tags: field trips, unusual learning

Have you actually considered how a blog can help your children?  Most adults spend at least a few minutes each week surfing around on the internet.  You might be looking at blogs, checking out the news or other similar features.  Have you considered how to turn this experience that you have into a learning tool for your children?

You can actually use the idea of blogging to teach your children several useful skills.

1.  Never hand out extremely personal information.  This cannot be stressed enough no matter what, parents are continuously shocked to learn what children are sharing.  A parent monitored blog makes a great place to start really learning this lesson.

2. Share personal opinions.  Most children have something that they are extremely passionate about.  Allowing your child to blog gives them a chance to share their passion with the world.

3.  Practice proper grammar, spelling and vocabulary skills.  Of course writing a report, essay or worksheet would probably be the same exact effect but blogging can be a lot of fun.  Plus, since the world can see what your child is writing, they are more likely to put some extra effort into it.

4. Learn proper usage of a blog, including many of the useful features of the different software programs.  Laugh all you want, but many children have turned the internet into their own personal ATM machine.  By allowing your child the time to learn proper skills online they can easily develop their own business.  Knowing these skills well ahead of the children that are coming out of public skills can make them a valuable asset for companies.  How many businesses have you seen with official blogs lately?

5. You can help instill a sense of responsibility.  Since blogs succeed by having regular content this gives something that your child is responsible for keeping updated continuously.  Rather than having a single assignment that once completed is done, a blog gives you a great reoccuring assignment.

Surely you too can come up with some great ways to integrate blogging into your own situation.  What do you think would be additional great usages of blogs?

Tags: technology, web resources

There is nothing worse than working with a math progra that you hate.  Even if you child loves the program you actual impression of the program will play a huge role in just how successful it will be.  Additionally if your child hates the program but you love it, then it is going to be extremely hard to actually make it work.

If you are lookig for a complete program that will cover years you need to look to some of the major publishers of them such as Saxon and the Math U See curriculum.  I personally use Saxon and while my kids love it and I enjoy it as well, we are only in the Kindergarden book presently.  I can give a much better opinion on the program once we are much further in, but right now only a few weeks in we are almost half-way through the book.

The kids love the manipulatives and I really love all of the lessons laid out neatly in the teacher’s book.  For us this works wonderfully.  Some families do not enjoy Saxon quite so much, before you go invest in a curriculum though you need to spend some time flipping through books.  Not all publishers teach the same material in the same order.  Ensure that you are comfortable with all of the materials, additionally if your child does not enjoy manipulatives then a curriculum such as Math-U-See or Saxon is not likely to be suitable.

Always follow your own personal preferences as well as your child’s personality and learning style before you buy any curriculum that you might end up regretting.

Tags: curriculum, getting started, history, math, science

If you are a homeschooling parent you know that you have a great deal of flexibility that is available to you.  This extends to your children as well.  Day like today we will be taking things easy, why you ask?  Simple, it’s my birthday and I am determined to teach my children that birthdays are special because the person who is having a birthday is also very special.

Take advantage of the time before birthdays to do some simple art projects that can be given as gifts.  Many take a trip to a fabulous place that is really special and spend some time enjoying the experience with everyone so that the birthday is a truly memorable experience.

Tags: birthdays, history, math, science

Who ever knew that when we were kids ourselves the toys that drove our parents crazy would actually turn into the best educational resources available.  If you own a Nintendo Wii or a Nintendo DS then you should be aware at this point that there is a huge assortment of titles that are fabulous for injecting a bit of educational value into the games that were typically only good for wasting time.

Taking advantage of these game systems is not hard.  Search at yard sales, pawn shops, flea makets and even online at places such as CraigsList and eBay to find great deals for huge discounts off the typical price.  Games are also available from these sources for a fabulous deal which makes it really easy to take advantage of the educational value that is offered.

Games such as Brain Age, Big Brain Academy, My Word Coach and lots of others all make great additions to your standard curriculum and if you are buying a Nintendo DS and the DS version of the game you can easily take them with you on trips, running errands and even just sitting around at the doctor’s office.  Take advatage of these spare moments with a few of the great games that are available and if you want to try before you actually buy, places such as GameFly are fabulous for saving money by renting rather than buying.

Tags: history, math, science, technology, video games