Category: Home School

Posted in Blessings of Habit, Home School, Homemaking, Inspiring, Pre-schoolers, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

Spring into Cleaning With – Everybody!

Posted on by Katharine
Coat closet
Coat Closet

Okay, girls, today our fast-clean project is this stuffed coat closet. Oh, we have so much to do to make it better! Here, Little Mary, you can play with all these wonderful wooden hangers. Can you pile them onto the couch for mom? Great! Thanks!

Hey, Big Sis, look at Daddy’s old umbrella–it needs mending. Write that on the list for me, will you? First write “mend”, then I will spell “umbrella” for you, okay? Thanks!

Oh, look, here is the glove you were looking for, Leah! I’m so glad we are cleaning this closet out. Maybe we’ll even find some MONEY hiding in here. Run and put the glove with your other one, okay?

Oh, I wonder what is in this box–Would you look! It is empty except for one cap. What a waste of space, and just when I was thinking we needed a bigger closet! Are you back already, Leah? Take these road atlases over to the couch beside the hangers. Yes, that’s right. Thanks! No, Little Mary, those are grown-up books. Good girl.

Okay, this other box has candles in it. Can you tell from the lovely perfume coming from it? Here, everyone sniff and tell me what it smells like . . . Right! Just like flowers, isn’t it? Good job! We’ll set it on this big chair, and don’t you let me forget to put it back, when things in there are dry.

What else is up on this shelf? Daddy’s two good hats are dusty. Big Sis, do you know where the whisk broom is? Get it for me, please. Thanks. I didn’t know I would need that in here. Leah, could you bring me back the big box? Yes, that’s the one. Let’s put Daddy’ good hats in it, since he doesn’t wear them often. That will keep them clean and keep bugs off them. Oh, here’s that broom. Good. Now we can clean the hat before we store it. Won’t Daddy look sharp in this new, clean hat? What? You want to try it on? Okay, but let Mommy help you–Whoa! You look just like Daddy!

You know, I think I will pull all the coats out of here before I wash the shelf. I don’t want to get soap on our good coats, if I spill. We’ll lay them across the back of the couch. There. Much better for the coats, and you help me remember to take this graduation gown to my closet, okay? Okay!

Big Sis, how are we for time? Fifteen minutes? We need to hurry more.

Little Mary, would you like a job? Can you carry out all the umbrellas off the floor in here? You can? Great! Leah, you help her with that huge one. Yes. Good.

Big Sis, hand me the step stool. Thanks. Let’s see if Mom can fit up inside this little closet. Oh, sure, I see we need to wipe the shelf, so here goes. Can you fetch the fan from the dining room? I want this to dry fast so we can put everything away before the timer goes off. Do you know why it should be dry? Yes, the box could stick to the shelf. That would be a big mess. I think I will clean this door, too. Somebody handled it with grimy hands. Too bad!

Now to sweep the floor right quick . . . There!

Let’s put the coats back and let’s be sure to check all the collars. Uh-oh, Daddy’s trench coat needs dry cleaning, see? Look at that. We’ll take it out to the car in a while. Everything else looks good, so back it goes, into its place. Hey, Little Mary, I’m ready for you to bring me the hangers again. Thanks, Baby. You are such a helper. Okay, let me get the candle box. Now the hat box. We are almost done.

You two put the umbrellas back except for the broken one. Mommy will take care of it. Whew! All that work made me hungry! Who wants a cookie?

There you have it: one session of the new Spring Cleaning plan, in a one-sided conversation, with three imaginary girls helping. Of course, your children are not exactly like these and your words would differ, but do you see how it might work to incorporate children into this job?

They SO need the attention and the teaching. Let’s go for it!

Posted in Believe it or not!, Home School, Pre-schoolers, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

Look Out! You Just Look Out!

Posted on by Katharine
Christians Make Bad Parents in UK

 

The United Kingdom has decided that Christians are not acceptable as foster or adoptive parents and that Christian beliefs are harmful to children and violate a child’s international human rights.

Since when are personal beliefs a reason to deny children a home and a family? If religion, of all things, violates child rights, what will be next?

Such problems are built in to the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and would plague the United States if we ratify that treaty.

You know, we’ve been kicking these ideas around for about forty years.

Happily, I can say, a resolution opposing ratification of the CRC will appear in the U.S. Senate probably next week. Still, only the Parental Rights Amendment can end the threat of ratification permanently.

The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether a child has the right to be protected from seizure and interrogation without a warrant, emergency circumstances, or parental consent.

To learn more, and to guard your children, go to parentalrights.org/petition

Please check these facts and pass them on. Thanks.

Posted in Believe it or not!, Home School, Pre-schoolers, Who's the mom here?

6-Year-Old Hauled to Psych Ward Despite Parent’s Wishes

Posted on by Katharine

Last week, a school in Los Angeles sent a little boy to a psychiatric ward without his mother’s leave. Why? Worrying about the fact that his dad had been deployed to Iraq, the boy had drawn a violent picture and had written that he wanted to die, which caused the school to manifest this knee-jerk reaction.

The mother told school staff she would take her son to a therapist, but she was told it was (conveniently!) too late – the ambulance had already been sent.

This six-year-old child spent two solid days in a place foreign to him before anyone would let his mother have him back. Of course, this only further traumatized the poor child, as if the trauma of seeing his daddy leave for overseas combat were not enough.

ParentalRights.org president Michael Farris states, “Clearly, giving school and other government officials complete control in these kinds of situations goes too far.”

The proposed Parental Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution would affirm that “[t]he liberty of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is a fundamental right,” and would help defuse such situations as above.

Please pass this post to others you know who might find such atrocity terrifying, and urge them to visit parentalrights.org/petition

Posted in Believe it or not!, Good ol' days, Home School, Inspiring, Who's the mom here?, Wisdom

The Last of the Unsupported Homeschoolers

Posted on by Katharine

Growing old in home school!We were homeschoolers when homeschool wasn’t cool.

We had no support because there was no such thing as a homeschool support group.

We started about the same time as Home School Legal Defense Association started, but they and we did not know about each other, so we also had no legal support.

Internet was only a child, then, and had not maximized its potential to help homeschoolers. Computers had no practical applications in home schools.

All, all the curriculum available to us was published for collective schools and some publishers refused to sell to home educators.

Back in these very good, old days, only the driven, committed, principled, loyal, persevering, stubborn, maverick, determined, motivated, obsessed, dedicated, devoted, steadfast, unswerving, faithful, home educating parents survived. We had somewhat of a reputation for being a pain, especially among status-quo legislators.

Many of us could relate to the Washington/Jefferson/Adams triumvirate, always questioned by those around us and always questioning ourselves, testing ourselves, proving ourselves.

Always hunted and attacked by the government that claimed to protect us.

Always in semi-hiding.

Always ready with an escape plan.

Always losing money on this project.

Always making do with do-by-self.

We faced obstacles, penalties, hindrances, impediments, barriers, hurdles, deterrents, limitations, and interference.

We were hated.

We were arrested.

I guess it’s the American way.

Now that home educating is the bright star that it has become, and we have retired after a quarter century of it, people want our opinions.

  • What curriculum do I think is best? Pick one you like and get busy.
  • What is my child’s learning style? Lazy and stubborn. What about yours?
  • Do I homeschool during summer? All parents homeschool at all times.
  • Do I think you’re harming your child? Probably, but better you, than someone who doesn’t care.
  • What do I do about socialization? I talk to my child; I teach my child; I read to my child.
  • What about computers? Teach your children to read, spell, write legibly, and type, and to love English, first, in that order. No computers allowed until high school and no Internet until the last half of the senior year.

Does all that sound harsh to you?

Does it sound grumpy?

You will not get a marshmallow answer from a homeschool-callused person.

We did not plant our homeschool garden with a tractor, but with a shovel and a hoe.

We did not have curriculum choice unless we wrote the curriculum, so we did.

I beg you, for your own and your children’s sakes, pick one you like and get busy.

Posted in Home School

Do You Need an All-in-One Curriculum?

Posted on by Katharine

Twelve years curriculum all on cd's.Every man, woman, and child in your home owns a computer. You built them yourselves. You like them. You can’t help it.

You really wish someone would put everything your children need for their entire school career on a few disks, to save you some time. After all, when you prefer life in front of your computer, you hardly feel like shopping at curriculum shows in some out of the way huge city.

Funds are tight for you, too, and you’d be willing to do more than your share to save some money. You could use a true, budget-saving curriculum that has no frills but doesn’t charge for them, either.

And you’ve noticed lately that the house seems to be shrinking and home school materials haven’t helped that problem much—you never guessed it all would take up so much space! Isn’t there some tinier, tidier version that you could stuff in a bag or something, and not have to build shelves or buy a storage hut for?

Is this the 21st century or did I imagine it!

And whose bright idea was it to make the teacher book identical to the students’! Everything takes twice the space and funds, that way, and really, if you can’t score first grade math without an answer key, well, wow.

It just seems to you all the materials you need could be in one package and that could be the end of it.

Why prolong the agony?
Why keep going back and going back, just to get what you knew you would need, anyway?
Seems like if it were all pre-packaged, it could cost even less.

Is this you?

Do you need something that saves time, money, space, and doesn’t insult you?

Is it out there?

Yes.

A great old-fashioned schoolbook type curriculum has been committed to CDs and includes everything you need from lined paper for penmanship practice, through all textbooks, all the way to every outside reading book you will ever need to educate a child, ALL ON CDs. True, you’d want to print off some of it, since it is not interactive, but it is all there, from that first kindergarten matching exercise, to the last calculus test, and all points between.

At the risk of seeming to bend the guidelines, which I am NOT, (this is only an informative blog, please!) let me suggest you scout out the Robinson Curriculum.

It may be the answer to all your needs.

Posted in Home School

Do You Need Unit Studies?

Posted on by Katharine

Curriculum to draw a horse while studying horses.You probably seldom saw unit studies in your collective school past, except maybe on holidays or after the first snow.

Unit Studies is a relatively new term that conveys the idea of studying only one topic at a time in every school discipline.

So, if your children wanted to study horses and you were teaching through unit studies, they would read Black Beauty or something similar.
Their English assignments would be reports or essays about horses.
Math would cover statistics about horses.
You would teach the history of horses, complete with maps.
Spelling would include equine and other “qu” words and whether racetrack and several others are closed, hyphenated, or open compounds.
Biology might cover the horse skeleton.

Get it?

And often, every student is studying the same topic, so while the high schoolers are learning to render a horse in oil paints and apply the logic of game theory, the first grader is filling a color book about horses and learning to count the pintos in a certain mixed herd.

Some people love unit studies, and I have used them a time or two, myself, enjoying the results. They really ring the bell for people who thrive on research, and I do. The consummate teacher, whose every cell longs to provide all, all, all the input from the depths of her soul, will inhale this idea with great joy.

Often, the homeschool teacher who loves unit studies has a teaching degree, or had begun to acquire one, or always wanted to be a teacher.
Perhaps she has a lot of experience in teaching maybe Sunday School or some other public place, such as job orientations at her old workplace.
Something about her life has handed her a great amount of confidence she can do a better job than any old book.

Often she has given birth to children who also enjoy much “hands-on” experience in life.
They must contemplate while they learn (unlike the ones who grab up facts and contemplate later.)
These children seem to grow taller when they have a “project” in the works, and sometimes it is an ever-expanding project.
The wise teacher of this type of learner will keep a constant supply of projects in the wings, waiting for the right moment to introduce them.

One other important aspect of teaching through unit studies is the time factor: It takes a great amount of time.

Unit studies require a life of total devotion to providing content for the students.
You have to know, months in advance, what you are doing and what you plan to be doing.
There are no textbooks already planned out for you.
There are no answer keys.
Often there is no summer vacation for you.

Thing is, you love this stuff.

Also you need to know there is no maid. Either you have to provide that, yourself, or else you have to be okay with some things undone.
If your husband freaks over a cheerio in his chair, hmm.
If a sticky floor drives you crazy, hmm.

I counseled a lady who asked me, “My husband has told me that if I will homeschool our children, he will hire me a maid. Do you think I could do it?”
I told her, “With a maid, there is much greater time to devote to the business of teaching. I would only be concerned about the children not learning to carry their own load with chores.”

She took that counsel to heart.
She has the maid.
Her children have strictly enforced chores.

And she, for some reason, chose unit studies.

Are unit studies for you? There are companies that provide grace and guidance for those who embark for this journey. Check out Konos, Sunlight, and Weaver, to see if you could love this way.

And last, but not least!

Posted in Home School

Do You Need Disposable Workbooks?

Posted on by Katharine

Schoolbooks sitting around look like a stack of magazines.

You’ve seen these before, too: oversized, paperbound booklets, that look almost like magazines, with 30-80 pages, for reading a small amount and writing the answers directly into the book. You either loved them as a child, or else not.

As a home-educating mom, you may just learn to love them the way your teacher did: they make learning, and thereby teaching, so much easier.

If you, Mom, as the teacher, must be gone, you must leave someone you trust in charge of your students.
This person may love your children to pieces, but not feel your drive to be a good teacher.
This person may be your husband or your mom, so firing is not a resort.

But workbooks may be.

Workbooks are inherently geared to any teacher, including the student, himself. He reads a little, answers a few questions geared to comprehension, and then repeats.

Because the coursework is so intensively interactive, the student learns more, faster, and retains it longer.
Because the student can feel the acceleration of his learning, he gains confidence.
Because the incremental teaching and much-needed confidence is built into the book, the teacher finds the student needs less direction.

Sounding good?

The Non-Standard Student.

Perhaps you already figured this, but if your child is not inherently gifted for student-hood, workbooks can carry him along until those long twelve years are finally over. Many children finish the day’s work by noon, and still learn enough to do well on exit tests.

It’s just easier. Not only for the student, but also for the teacher.

On the other hand, if your student is far, far ahead of his peers—or maybe even of his teachers—a curriculum that could test and place him where he belongs could be a tremendous asset, in many ways.

Home Business.

Finishing by noon makes time for a home business.

And finishing by noon, daily, is not such a stretch, you will learn.

Early Graduation.

Finishing by noon makes time for doing two day’s worth per day, which can create time for graduating and starting college earlier than you thought.

For some students, it can mean graduating at age 18 instead of 20, after all.

For others, it can mean graduation from college by age 18.

It’s a thought.

Learning Gaps.

If you are taking a child out of a collective school environment, you probably have little idea where he is in his learning or where he should be.

He may have learning gaps or even be behind the kids his age.

But with workbooks come . . . placements tests!

Placement tests are the tool that lets you know exactly which book to buy for your child, and why. You can have the confidence that comes with knowing this material is exactly the right level for your student; not too easy or too difficult.

The Unsure Beginner.

Of course, you also are unsure about what to do or how to do it.

(Don’t feel bad; most professional teachers who begin homeschooling feel the same!)

But with workbooks, the self-explanatory nature goes both ways—for the teacher and for the student. Since the workbooks do all the work, you, Mom, will have more time, more confidence, and more understanding of what your child needs.

And more time for folding laundry? Maybe?

Accuracy in Placement.

You know this equals accuracy in spending, which is so important during these times of economic chaos.

Especially if you begin in the middle of a school year, you can buy only what you need because workbooks cover only three weeks’ worth of studies.

You could never buy half of a regular text!

Is this all ringing true for you?

If so, you may need to change to workbook style curriculum. Classic types are: A.C.E. and Christian Light.

Check them out!

Still not getting it? Try unit studies!