I thought I would put together a list of websites that I would recommend to people (some apply to homeschoolers, others apply to anyone with kids). Some of them I use regularly, but others I have not had the chance to benefit from yet. Those sites I have listed because they look like they will be very useful to me someday and so I thought I would include them as they might be useful to some of you. So here they are:
www.familyzip.com - assortment of tips about anything and everything related to kids and families.
www.thehomeschoolmom.com - free newsletters offer tips, encouragement and sites of the week for homeschooling families.
www.kaboose.com - site full of great craft and game ideas, as well as parenting tips and recipe ideas.
www.learnhowtomakeit.com - learn how to make just about anything, from arts/crafts to websites, and everything in-between.
www.pbskids.org - fun and educational games for kids.
www.starfall.com - kids learn to read while having fun.
www.funbrain.com - all kinds of fun learning games
www.eclectichomeschooling.org - great site for homeschoolers full of articles, resources, tips, etc.
www.lessonplanspage.com - 1000's of free lesson plans.
I hope you find these sites to be useful and relevant to you!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Homeschool Unit Studies
I just finished reading a great book about unit studies that has really got me excited about the prospect of using unit studies in our homeschool program. The book is titled "Everything You Need To Know About Homeschool Unit Studies" and I got it at the library. The book was great because it explained how to go about creating your own unit studies and even gave suggestions for many different topics that can be studied.
I'd heard a little about unit studies already, but this book really gave me the confidence to make the decision to use them for most of the school subjects. I will still need to use a set curriculum for language arts and math, but I can incoporate all other subjects (like history, science, art, music, social science, geography) into any unit study I do.
The whole idea of a unit study is to learn about a topic comprehensively, but in a fun and interesting way. So, instead of just reading a textbook about, say, the civil war and trying to memorize dates and facts, you could read period literature and do activities that really help bring to life what you are learning and cement it in your mind.
We are currently doing a unit study on the human body. Most of it I created myself by just looking online for ideas. We started with the 5 senses. My great friend and fellow homeschooler, Malinda, gave me two books on the senses and we used these for our read aloud time and then I found some ideas online for activities and crafts that help reinforce what we learned in the books about each sense. We are now moving on to the rest of the body and for this I have a Magic School Bus Journey Into The Human Body Science Kit. This set has 10 experiments related to the body that we will do and then we can write our findings in the included journal. Cameron loves doing anything that seems like an "experiment" so he has been having lots of fun with this unit study. And I love knowing that he will remember most of what he learns because it was interesting and relevant to him.
My problem now is trying to decide what unit study to do next. I get so excited when I think about all the fun things we will be learning that I just want to do it all right now! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to take it one step (or unit study) at a time. I am thinking about a study of winter animals. Any thoughts?
I'd heard a little about unit studies already, but this book really gave me the confidence to make the decision to use them for most of the school subjects. I will still need to use a set curriculum for language arts and math, but I can incoporate all other subjects (like history, science, art, music, social science, geography) into any unit study I do.
The whole idea of a unit study is to learn about a topic comprehensively, but in a fun and interesting way. So, instead of just reading a textbook about, say, the civil war and trying to memorize dates and facts, you could read period literature and do activities that really help bring to life what you are learning and cement it in your mind.
We are currently doing a unit study on the human body. Most of it I created myself by just looking online for ideas. We started with the 5 senses. My great friend and fellow homeschooler, Malinda, gave me two books on the senses and we used these for our read aloud time and then I found some ideas online for activities and crafts that help reinforce what we learned in the books about each sense. We are now moving on to the rest of the body and for this I have a Magic School Bus Journey Into The Human Body Science Kit. This set has 10 experiments related to the body that we will do and then we can write our findings in the included journal. Cameron loves doing anything that seems like an "experiment" so he has been having lots of fun with this unit study. And I love knowing that he will remember most of what he learns because it was interesting and relevant to him.
My problem now is trying to decide what unit study to do next. I get so excited when I think about all the fun things we will be learning that I just want to do it all right now! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to take it one step (or unit study) at a time. I am thinking about a study of winter animals. Any thoughts?
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Why Do I Homeschool?
Ask any homeschooler and they will all probably give you a myriad of reasons why they homeschool. But most (or all) have only 1 or 2 main reasons, and consider all the others just great benefits. So it is with me.
I never knew what homeschooling was until I met a few families at my old church that homeschooled their kids. I had only ever heard about Independent Study, and that from high school, where the only kids who did that were the ones that seemed to not have been able to handle school for various reasons. So, of course, my first thought was that these "homeschooled" familes I met must have weird, socially stunted children. What I found was pleasantly surprising. These families had children that were (are you ready for this?) normal. So this sparked my interest and began my pretty intense study of homeschooling. I checked the internet, read books, went to a homeschool fair, and then decided that I liked all that homeschooling had to offer.
I guess one of my first reasons for homeschooling came about because I lived in the Bay Area where the schools are not that great, unless you live in an affluent neighborhood and I knew that we would never be owning a million-dollar home. So the thought that I could give my children a superior education (or at the very least, an education comparable to the public schools) was very appealing to me.
A few years later, as I have come to be in a much deeper relationship with God, my main reason for homeschooling now is to help my children view life and all things learned from a biblical perspective. God created everything and has given us the tools we need to help us understand how He did it. It is utterly amazing to me. So I want my children to see God and His workings in all subjects.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that families can't do this if their children are in public schools. I know many great God-fearing families who have done a wonderful job imparting a biblical worldview to their public schooled children. I am just saying that I know myself, and I know that if my children were in school it would be way too easy for me to be lazy about their education and leave it all to the school and not get involved. So homeschooling kind of forces me to do what God calls all parents to do.
I should also tell you that all the other benefits of homeschooling really appeal to me. Like the flexibility of being able to do school when we want and take vacations when we want. I also like being able to choose the curriculum we use. One of the greatest rewards, however, is seeing the excitement in Cameron when he learns something new and I feel blessed to be an integral part of that. I look forward to many years of watching my children learn, and also learning right along with them.
I never knew what homeschooling was until I met a few families at my old church that homeschooled their kids. I had only ever heard about Independent Study, and that from high school, where the only kids who did that were the ones that seemed to not have been able to handle school for various reasons. So, of course, my first thought was that these "homeschooled" familes I met must have weird, socially stunted children. What I found was pleasantly surprising. These families had children that were (are you ready for this?) normal. So this sparked my interest and began my pretty intense study of homeschooling. I checked the internet, read books, went to a homeschool fair, and then decided that I liked all that homeschooling had to offer.
I guess one of my first reasons for homeschooling came about because I lived in the Bay Area where the schools are not that great, unless you live in an affluent neighborhood and I knew that we would never be owning a million-dollar home. So the thought that I could give my children a superior education (or at the very least, an education comparable to the public schools) was very appealing to me.
A few years later, as I have come to be in a much deeper relationship with God, my main reason for homeschooling now is to help my children view life and all things learned from a biblical perspective. God created everything and has given us the tools we need to help us understand how He did it. It is utterly amazing to me. So I want my children to see God and His workings in all subjects.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that families can't do this if their children are in public schools. I know many great God-fearing families who have done a wonderful job imparting a biblical worldview to their public schooled children. I am just saying that I know myself, and I know that if my children were in school it would be way too easy for me to be lazy about their education and leave it all to the school and not get involved. So homeschooling kind of forces me to do what God calls all parents to do.
I should also tell you that all the other benefits of homeschooling really appeal to me. Like the flexibility of being able to do school when we want and take vacations when we want. I also like being able to choose the curriculum we use. One of the greatest rewards, however, is seeing the excitement in Cameron when he learns something new and I feel blessed to be an integral part of that. I look forward to many years of watching my children learn, and also learning right along with them.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
First blog ever!
OK, well this is my first attempt at blogging. Let's see how good I do! I thought it would be fun to keep a blog of our homeschooling adventure for several reasons: 1) I think putting my thoughts in writing might help to keep me sane, 2) I want our friends and family who do not homeschool to understand what we do and how our day looks, and 3) I hope to encourage those of you out there who already homeschool or are thinking about starting.
I'm not sure how often I will be posting or excatly what kind of info I will include in each post. I guess I will just see what feels right. Keep coming back once a week or so to check on any new posts.
If you have any feedback or comments, I would love to hear them! For now I will say goodbye and try to figure out what I want to write next.
I'm not sure how often I will be posting or excatly what kind of info I will include in each post. I guess I will just see what feels right. Keep coming back once a week or so to check on any new posts.
If you have any feedback or comments, I would love to hear them! For now I will say goodbye and try to figure out what I want to write next.
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