Archive for the 'Homeschooling' Category

by Rachel Dominique
Nowadays many parents are very anxious to see their children be effective readers even before they enter elementary school. They are afraid that their child lose out to others and fall behind in the fast changing pace of education.
To give your child the edge one should start through cultivating the interest in reading in the child while they are young.

Here are tips on how you can make reading more interesting

Tip # 1 Read anything and do it often.

Reading could be done anytime/anywhere throughout the day and not only confined to bedtime stories before they sleep. You can read out snippets from the magazine/newspapers that you subscribe as a change from the usual storybooks. This can help stir their interest in the daily happenings and increase their knowledge in current issues. It also helps you build up a close bond with your child as you are sharing with him/her what is close to your heart.

Tip #2 Do not just read the book from cover to back

Bring the story/article to life. Discuss with you child what the story is talking about. Get him/her to interact with the story by asking inferential questions. Use hand actions to place focus to certain items on the page which you would like to emphasize. You can also add in songs and dance to make the story move lively.

Tip #3 Make reading fun.

Make it a positive and happy activity. Never force your child to sit and read a book if he/she is unwilling. By doing so it will only instill negative thoughts towards the activity and make them shut themselves off from being receptive to the pleasures of knowledge building through reading. If you yourself show that you enjoy reading, your child will slowly develop the same desire and interest too as they love to model and emulate what us, adults, do.

Rachel Dominique is a elementary school teacher and mother to two active toddlers. More of her parenting experience is shared here at www.r4parenting.blogspot.com

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by SandyN
Fine Motor Skills is the ability to control small precise movements with the fingers, wrists and hands. These skills are important for day to day activities in life. They also play a very important role in the school activities. A child’s handwriting skills depend on the child’s fine motor skills. There are lots of activities you can do to improve your child’s fine motor skills.

It’s not a good idea to get a child to practice handwriting until we expose the child to writing some straight lines and curves etc.
There are many activities you can expose your children to - A lot of activities are fun and also help in developing fine motor skills…..There are basically three kinds of activities which will help to develop your child’s fine motor skills:
Grasping - example: using pencils, crayons, brushes etc
Manipulating - example: scissors, kneading, picking etc
Hand-eye co-ordination - example: writing, cutting, threading etc

Here are a few activities that can improve your child’s fine motor skills:
Playing with play-dough
Using scissors to cut lots and lots of paper. Make sure the kids don’t use the adult scissors but use the safety scissors.
Picking beads or other tiny objects using tweezers.
Finger painting
Stack objects - cards, coins, blocks etc
Connect the dot puzzles
Drawing and scribbling
Beading activities
Doing puzzles
Any activity which isolates finger activity - example playing a piano or typing
Kneading dough, mixing cake batter - get them to help with your cooking…
The best age to teach good handwriting skills to your children is between 3 and 10. Practicing handwriting can often be hard and boring for the child. Take it slow and do it the right way. Get them to practice the fine motor skills first and then move to the alphabets. Also make sure that the pencil grip is correct.

Good posture is important and plays a key role in handwriting skills. Bad posture creates stress on young spines. Here are some tips to get that perfect posture for your child:
Make sure your child has her own table and chair for writing purposes (height has to be adjusted as per the child’s height).
Feet have to be flat on the floor or on a foot rest.
The child’s back has to be supported by chair. The child’s bottom has to be pushed into the back pocket of his/her chair.
Head has to balanced on top of shoulders - should not tilt sideways or lean forwards.
Its not good to have too much strain on their shoulders (bending too much sideways to write)

One general tip when they are walking is -
A lowered chin means your neck muscles are carrying the weight and the strain will flow right down the neck and down the back. So now slouching….
Here are some tips for right posture when your child is working on the computer:
The computer monitor has to be at the child’s eye level. Otherwise they will strain their necks. Above eye level is not good at all.
The keyboard and mouse have to be slightly lower than a writing desk so that the shoulders can be relaxed.

Sandy Naidu runs the website - http://www.handwritingebooks.com/ On this site she sells uppercase and lowercase handwriting sheets. All the alphabets used on these handwriting worksheets are approved by education software cooperative. There are also numerous fine motor skill exercises.

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by Dianne Lockhart
MONTE VISTA. COLORADO-Why is the home schooling system growing? Many parents are breaking away from the national public school attendance model, for various reasons, including quality of education, lack of exposure to belief systems that go against their own, and having the ability to transfer classroom learning to real life situations. A Penn State researcher, specifically seeking answers for her field of expertise, geography, sought answers to that question.

“Until the 1980s, most of the students kept out of regular schools to be home schooled were breaking state laws,” says JoAnn C. Vender, graduate student in geography. “In research on the geography of education, there are very few studies on home schooling because the data are hard to pin down. Homeschoolers represent a significant, but under-studied segment of the education universe - estimated at about 1.1 million students, about 20 percent of the privately-schooled population in the U.S.”

In an article, recently, entitled, Home school Numbers Growing, Tracking Difficult, Vendor explores the reasons, demographics, and legal requirements and how they vary from state to state.

“An outgrowth of the 1960s alternative school movement, home schooling, is on the upswing in the United States, and a Penn State researcher is trying to piece together a snapshot of the movement where in many cases, states require little record keeping. Fundamentalist Christians and other religious groups, who adopted the practice with vigor in the 1980s, pushing states to legalize the practice in the ‘80s and ‘90s, fueled the home schooling movement. A typical home school family is White, middle-class, conservative Protestant with more than two children, in which the mother is primarily responsible for the children’s schooling. But there are also many homeschoolers who do not fit that demographic. Homeschoolers reflect the whole spectrum of American society. They can be divided into two broad groups, those who home school primarily for religious reasons — termed believers by sociologist Mitchell Stevens — and those who home school for ideological, social or simply practical purposes — inclusive. In many cases, believers would enroll their children in faith-based schools if those existed in their area, but many homeschoolers live in rural areas where private schools are limited or nonexistent,” she said.

Home schools in one cluster of small rural towns

One of the arguments against home schooling, historically, has been the lack of social activity. Home schooling parents address that issue by involving their students in band, athletics, and other programs at the public school. This helps the public school by allowing them to receive state funding for the extra students in particular classes, and it helps families provide a rounded education for their home-schooled children. One parent who, for years, home schooled her children in the San Luis Valley, in southern Colorado, said that some home-schoolers only participate in sports programs at public schools. Her own children “were always in band, sports, and the girls were in dance.” Terry and Joyce Wiley believe in the home school concept, and lived it, with their children. “(Public schools) are putting emphasis on different things,” said Joyce Wiley, “our emphasis (in home school) is ‘How do you relate this to real life.’ What’s missing is purpose.” She gave an example of how children in public schools are encouraged to use calculators, instead of doing the math in their head or on paper. When asked if the value of performing math problems without a calculator was an exercise of the mind, she agreed. The value of exercising the brain, instead of using a calculator goes back to purpose- it’s the exercise, in some instances that sharpens the skills of students, as opposed to just trying to make a good grade. “We told our kids that they need math, if they want to be successful in business,” said Wiley. She said that reading was emphasized more, with her own children, “the girls (who are now in a private school) have read forty books in three months. In some schools they’ll spend three months just to read one book. Of course they’re going into all aspects of the book…” She mentioned how learned Benjamin Franklin was, because he was an insatiable reader. She gave an example of what private and home-schooled children can achieve, “One former student of the schools where the girls are attending, created the internet site, Earthlink, by the age of 24.” She said her children achieved better results, at home, because there wasn’t the social pressure detracting from the schoolwork. Her son decided to try attending public school, and has been in public school for two years, in high school. “It’s more fun,” said Wiley, “but school is for learning.” In addition to the band and sports programs, their children are involved in 4-H, allowing them to be a part of another group of young people with a common goal, and learning to be competitive. She said her son enjoys attending public high school in Alamosa.
Bryan and Virginia Christensen home school three children, a fifth- and eighth-grader, and one who is attending half-time at Monte Vista Schools, at the sophomore level. Virginia believes it’s the best thing for their children, “but it’s not for everybody. It’s not the best situation for everybody- if they don’t have the time (because of jobs) or just can’t deal with it, but it’s one choice that works for a lot of people.” Christensen said the best thing about home schooling is “at an early age, you can see what they’re learning or not learning, and repeat it, if necessary.” She said the worst thing is you have to be a Jack-of-all-trades, “you have to be in a lot of paces at once.” Her reasons for home schooling might differ from other parents’ desire to insulate their children from belief systems that collide with their own. For the Christensen’s, the reason is more educationally basic- “to give them a good start.” She said there a lot of good people in the public schools, and other (ideals and belief systems) exposure wasn’t part of my concern, though there are problems in the public schools.” Their motive was a good education, and a desire to teach their children themselves.

“A lot of people worry about socialization, but our kids have taken music, art, ballet, jazz, clogging, and sewing, and they show horses in 4-H, and the boys are involved in motorcycle racing. The eighth-grader does small engines and they hold offices in the county and district levels in 4-H. They get out and visit with a lot of kids,” she said.

Legal requirements

Though legal requirements for attendance and testing vary from state to state, Colorado law has safeguards that are more flexible than some, and more stringent than some. Home-schoolers are required to be tested periodically, using nationally standardized tests such as the Iowa Basic, the Stanford, or the California Achievement test, and the test results must be submitted to the local district or a recognized private school. As an alternative, a certified teacher may also evaluate students.
“By law, they have to be in “school” in their core classes four hours a day,” Christensen said. “If you added art, music, and P.E., that would be more, but all we have to record by law is the core courses.” Christensen records it all, even though it’s not required, just for her own records.
Local school districts are compensated by the state, based on the amount of time the child attends classes there. If students are enrolled half time, the school is compensated by the state for half time, full-time attendance results in full day compensation, and less than half time enrollment results in no compensation to the participating district. Credits counted for compensation cannot include after-school sports or other programs.
Many parents who home school their children are doing so, not because they are anti-public schools, but instead, they want to be the one guiding their children’s education on a more substantial level.

Resources

There are many resources available for researching the topic of home schooling. For more information, visit:

http://chec.org/
http://www.homeschool.com/
http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling
http://www.home-school.com/
http://homeschooling.about.com/
http://school.familyeducation.com/home-schooling/education/34389.html
http://www.kevinswanson.com/AboutUs/Index.html

Dianne Lockhart is a freelance photojournalist, writer, humorist, Internet broadcaster, business owner, and marketer, and parent, who resides in Southern Colorado.Her Websites:Meander Media Group: http://www.rockindj.comSolace Radio website: http://www.solaceradio.comSolace Radio listen link: http://www.live365.com/stations/solaceradio

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by Bayan Khatib
There are many different methods of home schooling your kids. Some parents prefer strict schedules and lesson plans; other parents allow for child led learning and look for learning opportunities as they naturally arise. Some homeschooling parents view their role as educators, while others see themselves as simply facilitators. Each of these different methods comes with pros and cons.

Before deciding between these different methods of homeschooling, think about what curriculum and teaching techniques suit your child’s particular needs. After all tailoring your child’s education to their specific needs is one of the great benefits of home schooling. Spend some time observing your child. Different children have different methods of learning and different preferences in terms of what atmosphere or environment is most conducive to their learning.

Whatever home schooling method you decide upon, keep in mind that homeschooling can be very demanding and requires consistent discipline. In the same way that working from home can be difficult, homeschooling can be challenging because it requires you make a distinction between home and school while still remaining at home. Like almost everybody, there are going to be times in your family life when you are busy, stressed or dealing with serious distractions. It can be tempting during these times to try and multi task: that is, to both educate your children and deal with other aspects of your life. Some home schooling parents tend to place an assignment in front of their children and then leave the room to engage in other activities. This severely limits the value of your child’s education.

When homeschooling you should think about public and private school systems, and use them as a sort of benchmark. You should be trying to surpass, or at the very least match, the level of education your child would receive in one of these environments. Now, if you think about a public school classroom, you’ll see that the teacher is always in the room. It is one of the most fundamental rules of teaching — even if the students have been assigned work to complete on their own in class time, the teacher remains in the room in order to assist the students. No matter which home schooling method you choose to follow, you should also adhere to this principle.

Bayan Khatib, mother of four and author of two books, has been homeschooling for two years. She holds a degree in English and Professional Writing. Read more of her homeschooling articles at www.homeschool-central.com

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by Jeydn AP Geyt
Home schooling has become quite a common practice with many today due to various reasons.

Schools have become increasingly more dangerous to attend, or parents who are not able to pick up and drop of their kids.

However, there are many children in home schooling programs, there are in fact many options, connecting to the internet is easy.

To get connected, you will need a computer, and a connection to the internet.

The internet should preferably be through broadband because it the speed is fast and thus, you will be able to download and access any data, such as educational videos, quickly in double quick time

You can perform your programs interaction through the internet connection.

The internet connection will also help you get connected directly with teachers and students on the specially designed school forums; this is where you can chat and ask questions with the teachers or students.

Most of these forums are 24 hours a day to allow students to interact anytime they want.

This is because children who undergo home schools find themselves at times isolated and lonely, and the forum can certainly help with that side of the home school connection.

Home schools have many advantages because the parents get to be a even bigger part of their child’s life by being his or her school teacher, however, there are a few things you must ensure before enrolling your children in a home school.

You need to ensure that the school your kid goes to is accredited.

Another very important factor is that home schools don’t just give your child the normal social life other children access by attending traditional schooling everyday.

You must ensure that the home school connections also have active forums for your child to interact freely and make friends as all other children do in school.

There are many home schools available currently, so do your homework and pick with care the one your child should follow, as that will determine his or her future, probably.

Most wonder whether you must Choose Accredited Home Schooling Curriculum For Your Children? See how you can start Home Schooling Programs for your kid.

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by Darren Lintern
One of the more overwhelming challenges is that faced by a parent that wishes to take on practical home schooling, but doesn’t have a partner. For many in this situation, the requirement to earn adequate income to support both child and parent is vital.

But many single parents that are determined are able to find ways each year to home educate their children. The final results are typically worthwhile. A home tutored child will typically surpass their equals on similar tests and have a high rating on college admissions listings.

The initial issue is often related to time management. A well prepared parent soon discovers that they have more available time for practical home schooling than they might expect. That is typically true if you account for the actual tuition hours offered in a public school. In a school day, there’s a break between classes, lunch breaks, and a good deal of sitting about not doing much. By being certain that each hour counts at home can easily compensate.

A child can be left completely free to act on any topic that interests them, and at their individual pace. Or, they might be offered with guidance and resources to execute a great deal of individual study. The answers can be reviewed later on in the day and alterations made, if required.

Tutoring in a variety of styles is one more choice for a single parent that wishes to home school. Tutors can range from an in-house instructor to an online resource that’s entirely automated. The costs are likely to vary greatly, but a lot of tutors tend to cost less than full time day care. In some cases, a tutoring role can be combined with day care service.

Some single parents will opt to begin a home based business. Once you add up the expense of gasoline for the vehicle, full time day care, and the time spent on travelling back and forth, a home based business can often appear more cost effective. This does not even take into account the potential tax savings from additional write-offs.

With a small amount of creative thinking and fair measure of research, a single parent can discover the resources and time for practical home schooling their child. Both child and parent are likely to benefit significantly if they do.

If you’re interested in getting a more detailed look at practical home schooling (like how to go about hiring a tutor), including a huge variety of detailed information on the pros and cons of home schooling, take a look at http://www.Home-Schooling.andAllAbout.com

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by Darren Lintern
One of the common concerns that parents will contemplate with practical home schooling is the aspect of legal restrictions. They fear that home schooling is either illegal, or that parents need to jump through various hoops to comply with the governments demands. This fear is somewhat justified, dependent on where the family is situated, but is often larger than necessary.

Home schooling is actually legal in all 50 states; however regulations and laws will vary from state to state. Texas and Idaho, for instance place few restrictions on those parents that opt to home educate their child. Others, such as New York and Massachusetts are heavier handed. They ask that the student’s programme of study is approved by the state, parents intend on submitting their children’s achievement test results, and might even expect to receive a home visit.

Legal attempts are ongoing to observe and defeat bills that would extend the power of the state to compel the attendance at a public school or to enter the home. In 2006, various such attempts were defeated. Nonetheless the overwhelming majority of families will never have to be concerned about their rights being taken from them.

In 1983, an organization was founded to defend for the rights of parents that wish to home school. The Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) aims to track legal issues that relate to practical home schooling and has with success fought numerous legal cases on behalf of parents.

Although rare, there have been instances of over zealous social workers that see it as their responsibility to protect a child from their parents. Sadly, they might do so even when there’s no ground for parental abuse. That possible action and the legal / social issues occasionally make its way into the home schooling field. The HSLDA and others can offer resources to parents to make certain that they never need to deal with this situation in the first occasion.

Parents that are debating the option of home schooling would do best, though, to enquire about the supervision, paperwork, and other legal demands of their particular state. The first instruction required in practical home schooling is that of the actual parents.

If you’re interested in getting a more detailed look at practical home schooling (like how to go about hiring a tutor), including a huge variety of detailed information on the pros and cons of home schooling, take a look at http://www.Home-Schooling.andAllAbout.com

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by Jeydn AP Geyt
Home intellectual acquirement is swiftly becoming the contemporary rage in intellectual acquirement.

In any case homeschooling has been at hand since the takeoff of the 20th century, it is not until now that it has elevated in fondness, with more and more families concluding to have their youngsters experience the goodness of homeschooling.

In the United States, it has been suggested that at hand, there are 3 million young people who are involved in homeschooling programs.

There are several reasons why Dads chose to educate their kids at home. One of the primary reason is the safety of their kid, the security in junior high school has gone from bad to worse recently.

School children who are home schooled are expected to understand an assortment of subjects.

There are several homeschooling text publications that have been specially designed to cater to the homeschool kids.

Students who are engaging in unit studies are armed with unit study publications or guides. This is a centralized theme strategy.

This will have all of the guidance that the kid will require while they are being trained on a distinctive lesson or issue.

Another way of gaining intellectual is to forge use of prepackaged program curriculum. This incorporates the general education that is used in the society schools.

The text publications are designed to allow the student to follow step by step, therefore making it easy for them to follow.

A great abundance of youth who are home schooled to boot borrow their text publications from libraries. This is a very sensible way of procuring all of the tips that they will need.

Books are an important element in the student quest for knowledge.

Homeschooling publications becomes an important part of the homeschool kids.

Homeschool or public schools? See the pros and cons at Home Schools Vs Public Schools. It is great putting your children in a homeschooling program.

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by Darren Lintern
There are many, quality studies that indicate that practical home schooling on average develops better quality students. Part of this effect can be explained by observing that parents that have a say on tuition no matter which route they adopt. A parent that’s truly involved in the education of their children assists in motivating the student, resulting in better results.

Reported in one of the studies sponsored by the Dept of Education, practical home schooling test scores were especially high. The average score for each grade was so much higher than those of public and even private and Catholic school students.

The typical home schooled child in grades one to four were one grade higher then their peers. Once the students had reached the equivalent of eighth grade, they were in the region of three years in front of those that had attended a public school.

A factor of those findings that ought to be noted is the consequence of the public schools doing a particularly poor job - not simply that home education had been doing better. Nevertheless practical home schooled students often exceeded those at private schools.

Also, costs are much lower as well. Public education schools often spend on average $6000 per year for each student; the private schools spend just $3,250. Home schooling comes in by far the lowest at $600 per student each year. Of course, that last figure does not take into consideration the time a parent spends tutoring for free that a school teacher would be salaried for.

It’s estimated that over one million students are home schooled across America each year. Hundreds gone on to universities and colleges and in many instances the most difficult and prestigious at which to be admitted. In practical home schooling there’s a lack of the peer pressure that will tease those that exhibit a keenness to learn. As an alternative, there is a concerned tutor or parent that encourages the very best from within the child.

If you’re interested in getting a more detailed look at practical home schooling (like how to go about hiring a tutor), including a huge variety of detailed information on the pros and cons of home schooling, take a look at http://www.Home-Schooling.andAllAbout.com

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by Darren Lintern
There is so much that parents need to learn before they can start to offer practical home schooling for their children! But like any complex and vast objective, breaking it down into simple to digest blocks makes it easier to get to grips with.

There’s no one ideal starting point for everybody, as parent’s experience and skills will differ. But, many will be presented early on with questions about whether home schooling is perfect for their children and family. Within the confines of the family home parents are able to offer a secure and friendly learning environment that’s been adapted to their child needs, something that public schools are unable to do.

Here are the main tips and recourses that relate to practical home schooling:

Support Groups - Many organizations have been establish over the last forty years that home schooling has been in effect, covering each state and virtually every district in America.

The Law - Learning about the legal restrictions and requirements is a great project to tackle early on. The Home School Legal Defense Association can offer you oodles of assistance, and this makes it much simpler to determine the law in your state.

Resources and Materials - most parents will select the School-At-Home system at the start. This basically means that the materials are provided by a local school district and transferred into a home teaching environment, with the parent taking on the role of tutor.

Magazines and Books - With the ongoing growth of the Internet, the available information on offer to practical home schooling students and parents has expanded radically. Apart from support groups, encouragement, and legal issues, there are hundreds of articles and books to be had to offer guidance and statistics.

Your child’s eventual objective might be art school, or college, or simply a great foundation for a keen mind and knowledge. Whatever the issues and concerns, there’s a resource to assist you in getting started and to overcome any problems that you might come across in achieving your practical home schooling success.

If you’re interested in getting a more detailed look at practical home schooling (like how to go about hiring a tutor), including a huge variety of detailed information on the pros and cons of home schooling, take a look at http://www.Home-Schooling.andAllAbout.com

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