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Quantity Versus Quality For Homeschoolers

Ever notice how “the good stuff” seems to be in smaller supply than the regular stuff? This seems to be a common lesson in life. There are a lot of ordinary days, but only an occasional great day. There are a lot of regular episodes of your favorite television show, but only a rare storyline that you actually remember the next week. Many, many good books are published, but only a few classics…

The quality things in life tend to be a bit harder to come by, don’t they? There’s a reason for that. The quality things take time to develop. They don’t just happen by chance. More often, we find “filler” in life. That happens in dog food, pasta dishes, plot lines in movies, junk mail in our mailboxes, and even in education. Homeschool families have the unique opportunity to focus on the “good stuff” in their homeschooling in order to break this pattern. The expression that comes to mind is that sometimes you have to sacrifice the good for the sake of the great!

Take for example a recent trip to my grocery store. I purchased my regular box of granola cereal, “Wild Oat” flavored, but I also saw a new flavor with nuts and berries added, so I bought one of those to try, too. When I got home and put them on the shelf, what I found was that the regular box was a 17-ounce box. The box with the extra goodies was 13.5 ounces. They were the same price. The regular box had some extra filler in it, but the good stuff was valued higher. Can you guess which flavor I like better? Or, guess which flavor I will go back to next time? The good one, of course!

Homeschool families need to look at this analogy for their homeschool program. Take the time to develop a quality program, based on the “good stuff” and not on filler. Focus on the core learning and academic foundations that will give your students a strong, competitive application for colleges. Focus on teaching-learning skills so that your students will be able to teach themselves anything and know how to process information. Too many homeschool families provide their children with meaningless exercises or workbooks that spoon-feed information rather than teaching children to think and analyze information on their own.

Homeschooling families have an obligation to provide educational substance in their programs. Math, Science, Literature, Grammar, and Social Sciences should be given prime attention in the development and skills training of your children. This can be done in engaging ways, but these core subjects must be given priority over those things that only fill up our lesson plans with numerous activities yet don’t add the same value. This will take your time and your energy. It is a demanding role. But, if you take this role very seriously, you can create a quality homeschool program that will be worth the higher value.

Like my cereal, imagine the future generations you can impact if your children grow up to have such strong foundations and solid skills that they want to return to that type of quality education for their families. Many things can be good to do, but not all things will be great. Go for the great in your homeschool program! Give your children that kind of value so that they can reap the benefits of a sound education for their future.

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Top 4 HomeSchool Math Games That Make Learning Fun

Playing games can be fun and math-friendly, and can help at any grade level to happily and painlessly hone math skills. Most classic, well-known games can easily be adapted for math practice. Buzz, Bingo, Tic-Tac-Toe, to name just a few, can be transformed into math skill-building versions. Have fun adapting some family favorites; here are a few to start with:

1-2-3 SPIDERWEB Grade 1 (counting, skip counting)

1) Wind bulky yarn (rainbow’s nice) or soft clothesline into a ball, tying a loop at the end.

2) Players (at least 5) sit cross-legged in a large circle with one of the players holding the ball.

3) That player starts by saying the first number, rolling the ball (while holding on to the looped end) to another player.

4) The yarn or rope is held by each player who then rolls the ball to the next player while saying the next number.

5) Play continues until the ball is unwound and a “spiderweb” pattern is formed.

6) The ball is then rewound as the last player rolls the ball to the next to the last player, following the pattern and either counting the same number sequence backward or starting a new sequence.

1-2-3 BUZZ Grades 1 and up (counting, skip counting, times tables)

1) Players sit in a circle and call out numbers in turn.

2) Start by counting numbers in order up to 100.

3) Move on to skip counting 2s, 5s, and 10s up to 100 by saying the word BUZZ in place of those numbers (for 2s: 1-BUZZ-3-BUZZ-5-BUZZ, for 5s: 1-2-3-4-BUZZ-6-7-8-9-BUZZ, etc.

4) Begin with the lower and progress to the higher times tables as they are learned, by saying BUZZ in place of those numbers.

5) Anyone who misses a number or a BUZZ is out, and the last player wins.

B-I-N-G-O Grades 2 and up (number recognition and ordering)

1) Use small squares of paper to write numbers 1-75 one on each square, with the following letters: 1-15/B, 16-30/I, 31-45/N, 46-60/G, 61-75/O.

2) Make a BINGO card for each of the players with 5 rows of 5 squares, with one of the letters in the word B-I-N-G-O written at the top of each column.

3) Each player chooses 5 random numbers from the groups for each letter, and writes them in the 5 spaces below that letter, in numerical order.

4) The center space (the 3rd one under N) is FREE.

5) Each player is given 25 markers (buttons, stones, glass gems).

6) The 75 numbered and lettered squares are placed in a bowl, and numbers are called, one by one.

7) The first player to spell BINGO, across, down, or diagonally, wins. Fill up all 25 spaces for an extra challenge!!

MAGIC SQUARE TIC-TAC-TOE Grades 3 and up (patterning and addition)

1) Draw 2 parallel vertical lines crossed by 2 parallel horizontal lines to create the classic 9-square Tic-Tac-Toe grid.

2) Assign the even numbers 2, 4, 6, 8 to one player, and the odd numbers: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 to the other.

3) The player with odds goes first, placing one of the odd numbers in any square.

4) The other player does the same with one of the even numbers.

5) The object is to construct a vertical, horizontal, or diagonal row that adds up to 15.

6) The first player to do this wins or the game ends in a draw when all squares are filled.

Favorite card games are fun to transform and play with as well. Math can be exciting and interesting, and playing games is a great way to keep math skills sharp!

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Homeschooling is an Alternative Method to Deliver Quality Education

You are what you are today because of how you were brought up in your family, the type of environment that you are living, and most especially from the education that you learned in school. Academic education is very important especially that it teaches us all about life. With the different subjects offered, you are able to learn a lot of things from varied aspects. The type of education that you have determines how you deal with other people, what job you will have someday, and how you will face your life in general.

Before you plan to choose a school for yourself or for your children, you cannot deny that you are more of the quality and the cost. Practically, if you cannot afford a private school, you would definitely opt for the public schools in your own locality. Looking for the school that you need is just like looking for stun guns. You check for the producer, the features, and the cost of the product. Since education is very important, you make sure that the school administration and the school have the necessary features which are cost-effective and delivers quality education.

However, when you are not satisfied with your local public schools, you can always prefer homeschooling. There are a lot of families today that selects homeschooling than letting children go to campuses for a lot of reasons. Safety, budget, type of subjects offered and quality are a few of the reasons why people decide to let their children study at home. Though it may not involve interaction with a lot of children, it is still as effective as letting your children go to school if you will follow the correct curriculum and you have the important resources available.

One advantage of homeschooling is that you can create your own curriculum based on the capacity of your child and based on the subjects that you wish your child to learn. If there is no subject in the public school that includes a lesson about your religion, then you can include it in your own curriculum at home. You can really monitor the progress of your child and the pace of his or her learning capacity. Aside from that, it is cheaper because your references can be located in a lot of resources.

There are a lot of resources for your homeschooling curriculum. You can borrow books from the library in your own community or you can ask for books already used by some schools in your locality. Moreover, you can buy your own books in your local store. It is also very easy to look for resources through the internet, just as easy as how you buy stun gun online. You just place your topic on the search engine and there you have it. Different topics will come to you as a list. In addition, videotapes and audio training can be a good source of education. You can make use of your own television for educational purposes.

Homeschooling is also an alternative method to deliver quality education aside from that in schools and colleges. But it must be done in the right way with the up to date curriculum used.

 

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If You Are Trying To Find A Great Homeschool Curriculum You Are Not Alone

You’ve made the huge decision to homeschool your children. You are positive this is the right move for you and your children, but what should you do next? You may have never taught a lesson in your entire life and the thought of choosing a curriculum and writing lesson plans is mind-boggling and intimidating. Do not fret – millions of people have been in the same place before you and have paved the way for you with a host of resources to help you make your decision.

The very best homeschool curriculums come in a variety of styles and varieties and vary by subject. Spelling, math, social studies, science, health, foreign language, and even religion are popular subject areas with various curriculums available. Some curriculums are written and geared toward a Christian centered education while others are traditional non-religious based curriculums.

When reading reviews, you may consistently see the same programs ranked among the best homeschool curriculums. These are curriculums that have been around for a long time and are widely used by homeschooling teachers. There are so many options for curriculum with each subject area, it is impossible to rank them all in just one place. The best approach is to first decide on your child’s learning style and what objectives you want or need your child to master. Next, focus on those subject areas you wish to focus on and research these subjects and their associated curriculum. Your child may learn math differently than he or she learns science or writing, so you may need to cross-pollinate and introduce a few different curriculums and methodologies depending upon the subject matter.

Books are available on the homeschool curriculum reviews with various authors focusing and reporting on the many available homeschool curriculums. Often times these authors use consistent criteria to rank curriculums and present the data in easy to read charts, making it easy to compare and contrast competing curriculums. Core subjects such as mathematics, science, and history will have many more available homeschool curriculums than more specialized subjects such as economics, financial literacy, or government studies.

Depending upon your child’s learning style and interests, homeschooling curriculums provide the flexibility to make learning fun for YOUR child. For example, a 4th-grade curriculum helps students learn division and multiplication facts through audio repetition and songs. Everyone learns and retains information differently. That’s why the best homeschool curriculum is what will work best for YOUR child’s learning style. Some popular math curriculums incorporate everyday, practical exercises such as trips to the grocery store, to reinforce core mathematical concepts.

When selecting the best homeschool curriculum, be sure to first check any specific state criteria or curriculum that will be required for mandatory testing. You want to make sure your student is on par and equally prepared (or more prepared) than those in the public or private schools.

There certainly is no shortage of available information on all the best homeschool curriculums, but it can be overwhelming for the first time homeschool teachers. What works for one child may or may not work for yours, so look at specific ranking criteria rather than just popular opinion when evaluating the best homeschool curriculum options. Again, the best approach is to focus on a subject or two at a time and think about your child’s specific needs and learning style. Once you decide on a methodology for one subject, your research and knowledge will be easily transferable to other subject areas, and choosing a curriculum should become easier for you.

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Secret Facts About Home Schooling

For home schooling to work and for children to get the type of learning they will need to successfully navigate the Earth, an array of options ought to be considered.

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The Awful Side of Home Schooling

You may not visit a conventional school each day, but it’s still true that you should check in with friends and family about all that important kid stuff! however, it’s also one that can cause them lots of concerns. Other schools may concentrate on the arts, science and math, or internet learning. Most schools have a web site with contact details. In the event the school mentions that you need to do more to withdraw the kid, it’s ideal to not visit the school. As an example, my daughter’s school employs the Montessori method.

What Does Home Schooling Mean?

The students get a chance to look at various aspects involved with film making. Along with allowing enough time to be thorough and clear, you have to be helpful at explaining new things in order for your student will see what you mean. As part of the graduate program, students might be asked to take an exam inside their final semester in order to reach a passing grade.

Who Else Wants to Learn About Home Schooling?

Students have to be withdrawn before the outset of homeschool, and homeschooling should start whenever the student is withdrawn from school. Younger students that are attending college for the very first time could benefit from the conventional learning atmosphere.

Parents do not even need to let anyone know what they’re doing. They choose to homeschool their children for many different reasons. Whatever it’s that you opt to do, attempt to reach out to the parents in the start of the year to begin your working relationship off on the proper foot. however, it isn’t perfect either. Homeschool parents should make sure that their kids get the instruction and the experiences they require.

What a great way to delight in your children growing up. Even if he or she displays most or all of the above criteria, it is still not a given that they should absolutely start kindergarten. Getting in a position to put yourself in the area of somebody who has lost a kid, or other loved one, somebody who has lost a job, or whose marriage or other important relationship has failed, is a fantastic ability to get.

You and your children will be pleased you did. Children learn at their own pace provided that there is daily practice there’s nothing to be concerned about. They are learning all the time.

Even children have become obese and developing type two diabetes. By law, you’re required to supply your children with an education. If your children are in school and you’ll be bringing them home, deschooling is a significant consideration. It is very important to include your son or daughter in the adiscussiona and make them feel part of it.

What You Need to Do About Home Schooling Starting in the Next 7 Minutes

If homeschooling is something that you have thought about, here are a few things you might want to look at. Homeschooling is a huge choice, but it doesn’t need to be difficult or overwhelming to start. Homeschooling wasn’t always a success. Homeschooling is not something which needs to be taken lightly. Homeschooling is governed by the state as opposed to the federal government, which means you will want to look to the particular regulations in your state to discover what, if anything, you’ve got to do to be legally homeschooling.