During the summer, most of us spend a lot of time doing things we wouldn’t usually do during the school year. Every single one is a learning opportunity if you take advantage of it! Let’s take a look at a few of the things you can be teaching your kids this summer . . . all of which are just as important as booklearning.
Beach Trips
While at the beach, you can see tides and currents in action. Let your kids dig in the sand and mention how the sand is made up of tiny bits of stone. Have them collect shells and water worn glass that you can study back home. Tide pools offer a wealth of learning opportunities, too. Take pictures and you can look the animals up back home.
Visiting Relatives
Whether you go to visit relatives or they come to see you, summer is usually a favorite time for this. You can use this time to learn a little about the history of your family, family trees and also to reinforce manners.
Road Trips
While in the car, take advantage of this time to play family word games, listen to books on tape and discuss the scenery. You can also let the kids take turns navigating, putting map reading skills to use, and learning the rules of the road. It’s never too early to learn!
What are you doing this summer? How can you turn it into a learning experience for your kids?
Tags: education, homeschool, road trip, summer, summer vacation
Study habits are something that rarely get covered in homeschooling. Since it is a more flexible environment, it can be tempting to ignore this area of study, but if your children are going to go to school at some point, even if it’s college or uni, they will need to know how to sit down and study.
1. Teach them. They can’t practice good study habits if they don’t know what they are! You’ll find plenty of information on this online, but there are also workbooks that you can go through with your kids.
2. Provide the materials. Give your kids highlighters, notepads and a well-lit area to sit and go over their texts.
3. Practice, practice, practice. This is very important. You can practice by having your kids watch a documentary and take notes, then quiz them afterwards. Notetaking is a very important part of studying and your kids should know how to do this whether they are unschooled or strictly textbook learning.
What are your tricks for making sure your kids know how to study?
Tags: habits, homeschool, school, study
We all strive to teach our children to be the best people they can be, but sometimes, in a world full of consumerism and “stuff”, it can be difficult. That’s why I recommend volunteering as a part of your homeschool curriculum. In fact, summertime is the ideal time to do this!
Not sure where to start? Well, hands on is always best when it comes to kids, so here are a few ideas:
- Volunteer for weekly duties at the local soup kitchen. Your kids can serve food to people who really are greatful for every spoonful. Or, if you prefer, just make up some bags with a sandwich, drink and a chocolate bar to hand out to the hungry yourselves.
- Sew some blankets to give to the homeless. Warming Families is a great place to learn more information about this. If a blanket is too big a project, start with hats and scarves to give out come winter.
- Take a trip. There are thousands of charities around the world that could use a hand and it’s a great way to show your children how others live. You might try Habitat for Humanity or look for orphanages or schools in a country that you are interested in for volunteer opportunities.
- Write a letter to a sick child. Sending a card or note to a child who is in the hospital is a wonderful way to brighten someone’s day. You can learn more and find sick kids to write to here.
- Snacks for homeless kids. Take some paper bags and put a treat inside, along with a snack such as a granola bar or packet of cookies. Your children can decorate the bag and then drop them off at the local women’s homeless shelter, to be handed out to children.
- Walk some dogs. Many animal shelters welcome kids to play with and walk some of the animals. This lets them get out of their cages and get some exercise, without overworking the staff.
Not only do these activities teach compassion and open your children’s eyes to the world around them, it can also promote skills like sewing, crocheting and writing!
What do you do to teach your kids compassion?
Tags: charity, compassion, homeschool, kids, volunteer
With summer here and no strict routine in place, chances are you find yourself with some bored kids on your hands from time to time. Fortunately, they don’t need to stay bored for long. Stock up on the craft supplies, dive into one of these sites and keep them busy creating!
Family Fun: A great site for all sorts of age appropriate games and crafts.
Kids Craft Weekly: An awesome online magazine chock full of simple and fun crafts for kids.
Kids Craft Blog: A blog that covers various craft related activities and news.
Fem Manual: In Spanish, but the pictures speak for themselves . . . or you can always use Google to translate.
Zakka Life: Lots of super easy, very cool ideas for little ones.
Dollar Store Crafts: Sick of paying the big bucks to make nice things? This site has ideas that are not necessarily meant for kids, but can be made by any age.
What do you do to keep your kids busy during the summer months?
Tags: boredom, crafts, homeschool, kids, summer
This summer, a large number of parents are looking at homeschooling their children in the coming school year. And the vast majority of these new homeschoolers are scared spitless!
It’s completely normal to stress out about whether or not you are a worthy teacher, to wonder if you are doing the right thing or if you are going to destroy your child’s life and traumatize him forever.
First of all, the very fact that you are looking into homeschooling proves that you are a worthy teacher. A good teacher isn’t necessarily the one who knows the most, but the one who is passionate about children and if you are considering homeschooling, you are that already. You care about how your children are educated and that is a great place to start from.
Are you doing the right thing? That is the question you need to answer. Chances are, if you are planning on homeschooling, you have a good reason for it. My suggestion? Write down your reasons. Whether it’s because you don’t want your child to study in a potentially dangerous atmosphere or dislike the school system or simply want to keep your children near you to enjoy them longer, write it down. Then put it somewhere that you can see it every day, like your sock drawer. When people tell you how terrible a parent you are, look at the reasons and remember why you want to do it.
There will be naysayers and we will address that in an upcoming post. But for now, stand firm in the reasons that you decided to consider homeschooling your kids in the first place.
The last one, will you mess your kid up, is pretty unlikely. Yes, it’s possible to turn out children who are unable to function in society, but if you are one of those parents, you wouldn’t be reading this blog. 
Kids are thrilled to learn when the information is presented the right way and learning at home is a great way to promote parental bonding and give your kids one on one tutoring . . . how could that be bad? As long as you know when to bring in outside help when necessary, homeschooling will be an enriching experience for the entire family.
What are your fears about homeschooling? Why are you scared to homeschool? Let us know in the comments and we will do a future post answering your fears.
Tags: homeschool parents, homeschooling, scared to homeschool, school system, should I homeschool
Back when homeschooling was illegal in most areas, it was hard to be a homeschooler. You didn’t get to talk about school and kids had to stay indoors on school days, during school hours, so the neighbors wouldn’t talk. These days, we are far luckier, with the freedom to enjoy the playground off hours and meet up with other homeschoolers. One of the biggest advantages is being able to take part in online homeschool communities.
The internet is a big place and thanks to it being worldwide, we are able to connect with other homeschoolers around the world. Just on this blog, for example, we have two homeschool parents from the US and myself, from Canada, but living in the beautiful country of Guatemala.
Just what are the benefits of being part of an online homeschool community? Well, let’s take a look.
- Get viewpoints and new ideas from other homeschool parents.
- Let your kids safely connect with other kids who are in similar homeschooling situations.
- Talk with people from around the world and let your children learn about other cultures by actually interacting and asking questions of those living in those cultures.
- Find tutors in areas of school that you just aren’t good at teaching.
- Problemsolve and brainstorm with other homeschooling families.
- Work together on school projects with one or more families.
- “meet” other homeschoolers even if you live in a remote area or are on the road.
- Trade schoolbooks and curriculum, saving time and money.
There are plenty of other reasons why you might want to join an online community, including special resources and ideas provided by the administrators. What are your favorite reasons for partaking in online communities?
Tags: homeschool, homeschool community, homeschooling, online homeschool community
Often, when a child is attending school in a public forum, they need days off from time to time, just as adults occasionally need days off from work just to recover. These days off are typically called “mental health days”. But are homeschoolers in need of these, as well?
I think we can all agree that just because a child doesn’t want to do something doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have to do it. However, when your little one is feeling lousy about studying and really, really doesn’t want to do school, do you think about letting them just have one day off?
When kids feel that things have gotten too stressful for them (and yes, this can occur even in homeschooling), they will often complain of being ill, having a headache or a stomachache. Sometimes the ailment is real, brought on by anxiety, other times it is made up just to get them a break.
While I am not yet at the point where this is an issue for me, I recall days as a child when I just didn’t want to get up and would pretend to be ill. My mother’s solution? She happily let me lie on the couch, feigning illness, but when my sisters were finished working and headed out to ride bikes in the sunshine or play in the fresh snow, and I wanted to get up and play, too, she had me do my schoolwork first . . . you have never seen a child work so fast!
What do you do when your child wants a mental health day?
Tags: day off, homeschool, mental health, school
We’ve talked before about getting homeschool resources off the internet, but what about doing more than just that? If you are traveling or simply don’t have the financial resources to buy expensive curriculum, then learning online could be the best option.
I know a family here in Guatemala that is homeschooling their family entirely online, since they were limited in what they could bring with them from the US (they have 10 children). Having absolutely no curriculum and very few books, they are using the web to provide all the information their sons need in order to learn.
There are quite a few options online for homeschoolers. You can download free printables or even ebooks, but these will, of course, be of limited quality. Other options include paid membership sites where you can download higher quality curriculum, or simply using the internet to find the information you need, not necessarily for homeschoolers in particular.
I`m interested in how our readers use the internet for homeschooling, what are you using?
There is a lot of dissention among homeschool parents about when a child should learn to read. Some parents are all for early education, others think it is best to wait. So, what IS the right age to start reading?
Let`s take a look at the pros and cons of each age group.
Early Readers (3-5 years)
Pros:
Kids this age are already in super learning mode and may pick up new things faster than older kids.
They will have a head start on other kids going into the school years.
Reading isn`t looked at as a chore at this age, but something fun.
Cons:
Young children rarely have the attention span to sit and study something as complicated as reading.
Very small children will still be learning normal speech and it may confuse issues to start working on reading skills.
It`s easy for parents to push too much at this stage, wanting their child to be a genius.
School Age Readers (5-6 years)
Pros:
At this age, most children are considered to be developed enough to understand the concept of reading.
Writing can also be integrated, making it easier to learn reading at the same time.
School books and readers are usually geared to this age group.
Cons:
Some children may not be ready to read at this age.
Reading might be looked at as a chore, since it is part of school, particularly if the child has a dislike of all things scholarly.
Late Readers (7+ years)
Pros:
Leaving reading until the child decides he wants to learn means he will be more dedicated to the task.
Reading will take on more meaning when the child finds that she cannot do some things without knowing how to read.
Cons:
Delayed reading can hold up other areas of education.
The child will be far behind his peers, though late readers do tend to catch up fairly quickly.
It can send the signal that reading and writing are not important skills.
In the end, it all comes down to what is best for you and your family. Look at your kids. Are they interested in reading? Can they speak clearly? Are they taking an interest in letters or trying to read on their own? Then you might need to start teaching that skill soon.
For example, my 3 1/2 year old, Dorian, has been sounding out letters on his own and asking what sounds different letters make, so we`ve started working on some very simple lessons from Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. Would I recommend this to all parents? No, because each child is different and you need to make the decision yourself based on their level of interest and abilities.
Tags: age, homeschooling, reading