Community Blog

The Learning Treasures website has this handy list of tips:

10 tips to home schooling with toddlers

There are many things that I love about homeschooling — the flexibility, being able to customize an education, the strengthened sibling relationships — but I think the greatest gift of all is TIME.

Time to live in an unhurried way. Time to be a family together. Time to volunteer together. Time for my children to take on increased, real responsibility, unhampered by loads and loads of homework. (Were you ever excused from chores because of school work as a kid? I know I was.)

My dear friends whose kids are in school tell me about the homework infringing on family time, about time spent volunteering at school, fighting the school… It all takes time: using school or choosing to homeschool. But how are you spending your time?

For me, the right choice is not to fight with the school, but to spend time with my children, time as a family, and set up experiences for them to learn, and keep their excitement about learning alive.

What about you? What’s the greatest gift of time for your family?

The views expressed in this post belong to the blogger, and do not necessarily reflect those of The Community Co-op. This blogger respects the right to choose school, and doesn’t mean to give anyone a hard time for choosing school.

This book is a great supplement to the study of Plymouth with young children. By the time were had completed ours, each child had a delightful “scrapbook/portfolio” of different aspects of Plymouth life.

The book explains how to set up your project “portfolio.” You can do all the projects or choose the ones you prefer (we liked them all). As we completed a project, we displayed it for awhile in our family room and then later it would go into the corresponding pocket. One thing I like about creating memory books or portfolios of subjects studied is that they’re fun to pull out later. This is instant review, hitting the highlights of what we had studied.

I found it key to run off all the copies needed ahead of time and get any unusual supplies ahead, as well (not much in addition to easy supplies such as construction paper, scissors, markers, and glue.) For me, having the whole thing ready to go makes all the difference in our really using it. We also found that there was too much coloring, so we just colored certain aspects of projects and left the rest white. It still all looked fabulous! On the other hand, if your kids love coloring, coloring while listening to a book read aloud can work beautifully.

Check it out at Amazon where you can “look inside.”

We loved this book! We used it to supplement our introductory study of ancient history. What we liked about this History Pockets was that it provided some very easy hands on projects to bring our study to life for my oldest (when she was younger).

The book explains how to set up your project “portfolio.” Each pocket in the portfolio focuses on a different ancient culture. You can do all the projects or choose the ones you prefer (we liked them all). As we completed a project, we displayed it for awhile in our family room and then later it would go into the corresponding pocket. By the end, my daughter had a wonderful book of memories which she would pull out and talk about just for fun. This was instant review, hitting the highlights of what we had studied.

I found it key to run off all the copies needed ahead of time and get any unusual supplies ahead, as well (I think we needed popsicle sticks and large construction paper in addition to “typical supplies” such as scissors, markers, and glue.) For me, having the whole thing ready to go makes all the difference in our really using it. We also found that there was too much coloring, so my daughter just colored certain aspects of projects and left the rest white. It still all looked fabulous! On the other hand, if your kids love coloring, coloring while listening to a book read aloud can work beautifully.

Check it out at Amazon where you can “look inside.”

Some homeschoolers use actual tests to determine whether the student has learned the material, others don’t. So how do you know if the student has mastered the material? Written reports are one way, but some kids don’t love writing, and maybe you need another option. What to do?

Here are a couple of novel ideas for output, ways for your child to show mastery of the material, to share with others.

The first is a concept called lapbooking. Some links are below to find out more about it, but basically, you take a manila file folder and open it up, then fold the two sides in, so that they meet in the middle. Now you have a folder that opens in the middle.

Now the child uses that as a canvas for communicating about their subject using visuals, mini books that go into little pockets, sections of writing, and other things — it could include a map, anything, whatever it takes to get the information across.

Picture one of those big tri-fold display boards they use at science fairs — only smaller and more fun!

One of the benefits to the parent of the lapbook is that they are small and orderly — you can actually file them away. And they can be a handy portfolio item.

That’s one way to encourage a reluctant producer-of-output to create a report of some kind. They might even really get into it, because it’s fun. And learning should be fun.

What’s another way?

We haven’t done this yet, but I think it’s a great idea. Instead of a traditional written report, your child can create a report of sorts online in the form of a Squidoo Lens. What’s a Lens? What’s a Squidoo? Squidoo is Squidoo.com and it’s a fun site that’s very easy to use. A lens is a mini website on a specific topic that teaches you more about a topic.

There are lenses on all kinds of things including grilled cheese sandwiches. Really. And, important for parents, you can set your Squidoo user id to a G rating, so any adult Squidoo Lenses are blocked.

Many Squidoo Lenses include recommended products, such as books from amazon, and any money earned from books purchased by people visiting your Lens, or from ads that appear there, can be paid to you, or donated to the charity of your choice. (However, you don’t have to included any product links, it’s very easy to just leave them out.)

Why use Squidoo as opposed to another way to publish online?

Well, not all kids know html, or want to learn.

You can publish a Squidoo Lens quickly and easily without knowing a single bit of html. (though you can do more if you do know html, and using Squidoo is a fun way to learn a little.)

It’s free, and your child’s Lens is more likely to be found and read on Squidoo than on a freestanding website.

And, your child can share their Lens with friends and family far and wide. Grandparents can read and comment on the report. Visitors can rate the Lens by giving it stars. How fun, to have people read your homework and actually like it, maybe give it 5 stars!

I haven’t looked up whether minors can have a Squidoo account; if not, you would need to share your account with your child and co-publish.

Here are some sample Squidoo Lenses, all rated G, of course.

http://www.squidoo.com/grilledcheese

http://www.squidoo.com/pumpkin-pie

http://www.squidoo.com/georgewashingtoncarver

Here are some links with more detail about lapbooking:

http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking

http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking-vs-notebooking

http://lapbooking.wordpress.com/examples

(Advanced web users could use a blog for a larger, longer online report, but that’s a subject for another post.)

If you hang out with homeschoolers much, you might hear the phrase, “spine,” and wonder what on earth they’re talking about.

I wondered, and I asked a more experienced homeschooler.

A spine is a single book that is the basis for your study of a given subject for a given time. You’re not limited to that book, but that book forms the spine.

Here’s an example: For math, you may use the appropriate grade level text and workbook from Singapore Math, but in addition, you might play games from the Right Start Math collection, or Times Tales book.

That’s an easy example. You most often hear of spines with the study of history.

So for example, a family might choose The Story of the World, or The History of Us as their history spine, and in addition, they might use the Story of the World activity books, or videos from the library on the time in history they’re studying.

Why have a spine?

It helps keep you on track. “We’re studying ancient history right now, we’re using this book as our spine.” Then when you decide to get an educational video from the library, or visit a museum, you can choose a video or exhibit on ancient Egypt, or ancient Greece, or whatever you’re studying.

A theme like this just helps learn. There’s context, and reinforcement from a variety of sources.

It’s easy to work with a spine, and in a world of unlimited choices, it can be a relief to choose a spine and stick with it!

What can be a spine?

Anything! Obvious choices are history series, like the ones mentioned above, but it’s not the only way to go.

We’re using the Dear America Series as our spine for American history; and Royal Diaries, for our spine for ancient history.

I felt sheepish about this, using “regular” books for history. But more experienced homeschooling friends put it into perspective for me. They said,

“You’re using historical fiction as your spine for history.”

I felt better about it then. Which is why I wanted to bring it up.

Even things that can seem like an unorthodox choice can be valid learning choices. In fact, they can even be superior choices. If the Dear America books are engaging, and invite further exploration of different times in history, well, then that’s a good way to learn.

It’s hard sometimes, as adults who went to school to let go of the idea that learning has to look a certain way. That history means a dull textbook and learning about wars and memorizing dates.

If your student (aka child) is engaged by historical fiction, then that’s a valid choice. I mention that for the new homeschoolers, because I know it can be hard to de-school yourself and explore new, more fun ways of learning.

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What’s your history spine? Do you use The Story of the World or The History of Us? Post a comment below, or submit a review. Thanks!

Talking with a new homeschooler today, the topic of doubt came up. My friend said, “How do I know what I should be covering? How do I know what books I should be using?”

This is a common concern among new homeschoolers, so I thought I’d write about it here.

Books like, “What Your 2nd Grader Should Know,“ can be a useful check in, to see what kids your child’s age are doing in school. I’ve flipped through them at the library, and usually feel much better, I put the book back and go, right, we’re doing fine.

That’s one way to know. You can also find out the state’s goals for each grade, somewhere. I’ve never felt compelled to look it up, but if anyone wants to know, post a comment and I’ll find it.

What about the other part of it? Choosing the right resources for your family?

The first part of the decision, I think is curriculum vs. pick-and-choose.

We don’t use a curriculum, so I can’t speak to that choice, but maybe I can entice a guest blogger to do that.

For assorted reasons, we’ve chosen a build-your-own-curriculum.

Now in our 3rd year of homeschooling, I’ve finally gotten the hang of choosing what works for us, and I’ve also learned what my child’s learning style is. It turns out my child is a very visual learner, so resources that play to that strength make things work so much more easily!

So, how does that help you choose your books and resources? I think the guidelines are:

Know your child.

Ask other homeschoolers what they like.

Try lots of things! Test drive books and videos from the library before you commit!

We talked in an earlier post about some options for math. In future posts I’ll list some options for homeschoolers in grammar, history and more. Have a request? Please post it in the comments, thanks.