Febuary is here. It’s still summertime, yet for many, thoughts are turning to “school” topics.
Sometimes, the media makes “school time” come too soon, with images of school buildings opening their doors in the sweltering heat.
Sometimes, the stores place their “Back to School” items right inside their front doors, tempting families to purchase “school supplies.”
Sometimes, the school bus comes rolling up the street, turning our thoughts toward “school” matters.
But, as homeschoolers, we know that education takes place every day, every month, regardless of whether it’s August or September, January or June.
Sigh a big sigh of relief as the school bus rolls on by!
Thankfully, we don’t need a school bus, we don’t need “school supplies,” we don’t need a school building!
Today’s Activity: Turn back to your children and embrace them and the summer!
Have a picnic in the park, take a nature walk, name the different trees you see!
Skip stones on a stream, discuss the erosion of stones and soil, count the minnows in the water, gauge the water temperature with your toes!
Name the cloud types in the sky, forecast the weather for the next 24 hours, measure the distance from the park to home!
Read a wonderful book together by a new or favorite author! Write a story about your fun day at the park!

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Establish program details including the time you can spend working with your child, the time you want your child to work independently, the books to use as a part of the curriculum, field trips and curriculum with lesson plans. Follow a schedule and have tests regularly, if structure and discipline are your top priorities. Allow flexibility, if you value developing creativity and learning more. Use the “Approaches to Learning” chart to identify the best homeschooling approach that works for you. Remember, traditional, Charlotte Mason, classical, unit study, unschooling or relaxed homeschooling, independent study, eclectic and umbrella program are the most popular approaches to homeschooling.
Review your competency and confidence, time available for planning and preparation, budget and other influences. Review FAQs, homeschooling issues and concerns, and online journals to learn and connect with other homeschoolers. Approach your homeschooling program based on the assessment and your convictions, values and needs.Write the goals for each course. Select content and methods based on your child’s learning style. You can download course goals from the internet and modify them. Using standard goals will help you to exceed the state standards. Fine-tune the curriculum to suit your child’s learning style. Follow teaching guidelines based on good practices during sessions. Check your progress and assess year-end accomplishments.

There is an endless number of approaches to designing a homeschool program for your child. They vary from extremely structured courses to completely unstructured. The past few decades have seen many different teaching styles emerge and have acquires some common names. Three of these, school-at-home, unit studies and classical homeschool are three of the more popular types of homeschooling.

School-at-Home

School-at-home is a general term for the approach that many parents will attempt at first. Because they do not really know what to do, they will turn to experts to design the curricula and supply the materials. Basically, everything that is done in public school classrooms is done in the home. This approach has study schedules, textbooks and recordkeeping.

While this is not a bad first step, this approach to learning has two drawbacks. First, parents will often burn themselves out because of the massive amount of effort that is required to carry on all of the tasks. They soon discover that teaching is not as easy as it may have initially seemed. Eventually, they slack off, become impatient and lose the passion which inhibits the child’s motivation. They are unsure of how to proceed and become frustrated when the progress is slow. Both parent and child suffer and the whole goal of homeschooling begins to unravel.

Second, the soon realize that the materials are usually a good reason why their child was not doing well in public school. There are many hard working public school teachers who truly love to teach, but they are encumbered with materials that are difficult or even substandard. However, parents often do not know what materials would be any better. This is frustrating and again the child’s progress is slowed or even halted. It is often at this point that parents seek an alternative to homeschool or just give up altogether and send their children on to public school anyway.

Unit Studies

The fundamental concept of the unit studies method of learning is that it uses the child’s natural interests as a starting point. This is based on the basic observation that people are interested in certain things and are bored with other activities. This is often displayed very early in life. Some people enjoy drawing; others prefer working math problems or studying science. Some people enjoy being outside running or exploring nature while another prefers the indoors, reading or working on the computer. These value preferences surface at around age two or even younger. By utilizing these preferences instead of fighting them, parents can tailor a homeschool education that is perfect for the child and embraces the fundamental idea of unit studies.

This I also one approach that public schools are never able to achieve because of their one size fits all mentality.

This method is much like school-at-home in that it is very structured, but the materials and approach far exceed it in quality. The reason that this method is superior is because it is based on a superior foundation. The classical method emulates the individual education that was provided in monasteries during the Middle Ages. However, it may also be conducted without any religious overtones. Its primary focus is on developing the child’s mind.

The goal of classical homeschooling is to teach students how to think and learn for themselves.

Classical learning programs can be rather dull with many memorization exercises, but it is made interesting by allowing the child to learn in an orderly manner. This provides a foundation on which the child can build while developing confidence as well.

A popular book that explores the subject is “The Well Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home” by Jessie Wise and Susan Wise Bauer. It explains the classical homeschooling method in great detail. It is a wealth of information for parents who are interested in using this approach.

Many parents will go through periods of uncertainty at first, many will stumble. They will go through a time of trial and error as they explore and learn the method that is best for them and for their child. As long as they are seeking a method that works best with the personality of their individual child, they will succeed.

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If you wish to go for homeschooling, the best place to have a look at is the homeschool family handbook. There are various homeschool family handbooks available for any given situation. Homeschool family books give you an overall understanding as to how you could survive in any situation. These books have become a part of homeschool family. Homeschool are not that easy and can be tough to deal for any parents. Homeschool family is about working together to achieve a specific goal. You do need to make schedule as well as your time management should be effective.
One factor that is quite evident in homeschool family is flexibility. Not only are they flexible but also the ability to engage in activities that they are passionate. If you were to ask a homeschool family if homeschooling is profitable. However if they have a plan at hand and are able to carry forward the set objectives it can be profitable. Many families wish to homeschool but not able to take up the challenge due to inflexibility. The main aim that homeschool family should hold is the passion for education. If you are not quite to take up on the challenge of homeschool family is the only solution. Homeschool family can charge other people’s children to homeschool. This charge is called as tuition fee.
If you do not wish to be called as homeschool family, then the above will be ideal. If you are not able to teach your kids at home then tuitions will help them. This is a growing concept in recent times. However this is an extra expense to your pocket. However as a homeschool family you will not be spending too much in comparison to sending your kids to school. You could also start up a homeschool family which means you can gather up kids who wish to be homeschooled and teach them. This will create revenue for you. Not only will you be gaining but also other parents can reap the benefits from homeschool family. Homeschool family is about creating extra income, flexibility in the homeschool program and changing the education setting.

One of the main issues that are faced by parents who do want to home school their kids is the fact that they are wondering whether the program that they choose is actually well regarded when it comes to further education or a job. The truth of the matter here is that there is a huge subset of parents who do home school their children and once this is done using authentic home school programs that are also accredited then you know for a fact that you are investing in your children’s future. Having said that you need to find out the right programs.
It would be safe to say that the transition from actually studying in a school to studying at home has been safely made. Yet what most people need to understand is that this needs to be ingrained in their minds. While there still is a perception that children who are home schooled are at a disadvantage, the truth here is that this is old fashioned thinking. The best thing you can possibly do for yourself and your children is to get as much knowledge about home school programs as you can. This will help you make a decision at the end of the day.
As mentioned previously there are many accredited home school programs that are great to work with. They would give your children the same benefit as they would to a child who is actually going to a conventional school. If at all it could be said that home school programs are better since they would offer individual attention. Needless to say this is just one of the many aspects that are there when you are concerned with home school programs. In addition to this it would make sense to do a cost comparison as well when it comes to sending your children to school or getting them on home school programs.

Each of the kids made a prediction about what would happen when we put one straw in the cup, one straw out of the cup and then tried to suck the water up through the straw. Would the water come up through the straw faster, make bubbles, go up one and down the other, or do nothing at all?

Each of the kids took turns and had a very hard time getting any water to travel up the straw, but they were determined to try!
Photobucket Photobucket

The Nutshell Reason…

Air moves from areas of higher pressure to areas of lower pressure. When you suck on a straw in a glass of water, the air pressure in your mouth decreases and the water is forced up through the straw {from an area of higher pressure to the lower pressure}.

With two straws, one not being inside the glass, air travels up the second straw into your mouth and the pressure inside your mouth is about equal to the pressure outside…and the water won’t travel up the straw.

After the Experiment…

We had to keep trying! The kids all took turns trying to get the water up the straw. Many giggles and much fun from something super simple!