Monday, September 12, 2011

Weekly Homeschool Lessons: Week 3 Overview

Week 3 at "Everything Homeschooling"

For 36 Weeks of Weekly Lessons for Grades K through 12, visit our Everything Homeschooling website weekly at EverythingHomeschooling.com.

Overview of Week 3

* Language Arts:

- Learning about, and discussing, the many different types of literature, drama, and poetry.
- Read the excerpts and examples of the different types of literature and poetry.
- See and read the suggested genres, stories, and books for experiencing more of the different types of literature and drama.
- Act out or perform the plays, comedies, or tragedies, using the suggestions provided for each grade level.
- Become familiar with the list of authors everyone should know.
- Choose books from the Picture Book Database.
- Do worksheets (if desired) on Reading Skills, Vocabulary, Spelling, Grammar, Phonics, Writing, and more.
- Create and write stories or poems, as described on our Daily Writing page.
- Try the fun learning games to enhance vocabulary skills, special skills, critical thinking skills, and more.
- Print the Reading Logs for books you read and use this week in your homeschool.

* Social Studies:

- Researching your community, your city, your state, your world.
- Creating replicas of your community with the fun, hands-on projects provided.
- Use libraries and museums to research the history of buildings and historic homes in your area.
- Use the various activities to practice and enhance map-reading, map-making skills, and creative-thinking skills.
- Use the ideas to create a “Community Journal” and add to the journal throughout the year.
- Browse and print History Worksheets, Crossword Puzzles, and Word Searches on topics such as Famous People, Medieval Times, Pioneer Life, Civil War, World Wars, Presidential Elections, and more.

* Math:

- Focusing on problem-solving techniques and strategies this week.
- View the problem-solving strategies outlines.
- Use the techniques described in the activities to help enhance problem-solving skills.
- Try solving the 30 Math Problems, using the step-by-step instructions.
- Print the Math Problem-Solving worksheets and solve the problems together.
- Try the challenging Brain Boosters to stimulate reasoning and logic skills, and more.
- For worksheets on math skills, choose Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Units of Measure, Fractions, Decimals, Negative & Positive Numbers, Geometry, Algebra, Graphing, and more.

* Science:

- Comparing living and non-living things.
- Cataloging, discussing, and sketching living things.
- Using estimating skills to guess the size of various living things.
- Visit the insect zoo and research insects.
- Using creative-thinking and critical-thinking skills.
- Creating new creatures and imaginative stories about creatures.
- Try the Science Worksheets and Activities on topics such as Animals, Birds, Insects, Reptiles, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Magnets, Machines, Weather, Seasons, Marine Life, Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and more.

* Life Skills, Health, & Safety:

- Discuss heroes and what being a hero means.
- Visit the heroes/heroines website for researching and writing.
- Read and discuss the heroes in Greek mythology.
- Write about favorite heroes/heroines.
- Use the ideas for enhancing character education.

* Arts & Music:

- See where to learn more about Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Brahms, and other amazing composers.
- Play the educational online game based on composers in various periods, such as Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, etc.
- Play the musical online game about Beethoven.
- Have fun making the musical instruments and singing favorite children’s songs.
- Continue with the Art Appreciation Program discussed in Week 2.
- Continue with the Music Appreciation Program discussed in Week 2.

Plus, Free Activities, creative writing, weekly challenges, hands-on projects, unit studies, unschooling ideas, and more at: EverythingHomeschooling.com.

Happy homeschooling!




Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Weekly Homeschool Lessons: Week 2 Overview

Week 2 at "Everything Homeschooling"

For 36 Weeks of Weekly Lessons for Grades K through 12, visit our Everything Homeschooling website weekly at EverythingHomeschooling.com.

Overview of Week 2

* Language Arts:

- Make books, using a variety of different, yet easy, methods.
- Reading Comprehension: Read stories together, then help children answer comprehension questions. Use the charts and worksheets described.
- Do worksheets (if desired) on Reading, Vocabulary, Book Reports, Story Maps, Poetry, and more.
- Creating and writing stories and poems.
- Vocabulary games to enhance vocabulary skills, word building, root words, suffixes, prefixes, antonyms, synonyms, spelling, phonics, and more.
- Reading suggestions for practicing Reading Comprehension.
- Reading Logs for printing and recording books read and books used in your homeschool.
- More Language Arts Activities to enjoy and learn from, for reading and writing skills, adverbs, adjectives, mnemonic skills, and more.

* Social Studies:

- Research your family history and learn about genealogy and creating family trees.
- Make a family tree out of real branches!
- Interview family members, grandparents, and other relatives and record family stories.
- Correlate family histories with other historical events and create timelines of events.
- Browse and print History Worksheets, Crossword Puzzles, and Word Searches on topics such as Famous People, Medieval Times, Pioneer Life, Civil War, World Wars, Presidential Elections, and more.

* Math:

- To practice Math Skills, use the Math Worksheets and Activities on Decimals, Estimating, Money, Geometry, Algebra, and more.
- Geometry: Do the fun activities, such as 3-D Drawing and Geometry, Buckyballs, Tessellations, Crystalline Structures, and more.
- Money Concepts: Try over 30 Money Lessons, such as Funny Money, Money Values, Shopping Skills, Banking Skills, Cash & Credit, and more.
- Play the online cashier game to practice money skills.
- Try the money activities, such as Money Word Problems, Money Order Form, Money Unit and Activities, and more.
- Learn more about Consumer Math topics, on understanding Commission, Discounts, Sales Tax, Interest, Unit Prices, and more: Click here and scroll down to “Consumer Math.”
- Read the suggested books on money concepts and skills.
- For worksheets on money and money concepts, choose Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division, Units of Measure, Fractions, Decimals, Negative & Positive Numbers, Math Challenges, and more.

* Science:

- Science is all about making new discoveries. What new discoveries have been made about our solar system recently?
- What makes a planet, a planet? See the differences in planets, their composition, surface, atmosphere, and other unique characteristics.
- Do the activity on the size of the planets and their distance from the Sun.
- Construct a miniature replica of the solar system, using the example.
- Create a replica of the solar system in a new or different way, using your imagination.
- See how to think like a scientist, exploring and analyzing your ideas and experiments.
- Read the suggested books on scientific-thinking, science experiments, and the scientific method
- Try the Science Worksheets, Science Reports, Crossword Puzzles, and Word Searches on topics such as Animals, Birds, Insects, Reptiles, Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Magnets, Machines, Weather, Seasons, Marine Life.

* Life Skills, Health, & Safety:

- Read about the many benefits of exercise and physical fitness, as well as mental and emotional fitness.
- Discuss the benefits with children and how fitness helps us to handle everyday activities.
- Encourage children to create a Physical Fitness program or routine for the upcoming homeschool year.
- Choose from the exercise ideas, such as Wiffle Tag, Long Rope Skipping, Watermelon Crawl, Upper Body Strength, and other activities.
- Read the suggested books on exercise and physical fitness.

* Arts & Music:

- Begin an Art Appreciation Program to complement your child's interests this year.
- Begin a Music Appreciation Program with the Mozart Music Appreciation Lesson.
- Browse the ideas to best suit your child's art interests.
- With your child, play the suggested online games about arts, music, literature and dance.
- See the art lessons and activities for imaginative artistic ideas.
- Read the suggested books on art and masterpieces.

Plus, Free Activities, creative writing, weekly challenges, hands-on projects, unit studies, unschooling ideas, and more at: EverythingHomeschooling.com.

Happy homeschooling!


Sunday, August 28, 2011

Weekly Homeschool Lessons: Week 1 Overview


Week 1 Lessons & Activities at "Everything Homeschooling"

Here are some of Week One's lessons and topics, as we gently ease into the New Homeschool Year! Enjoy!

Explore, Do, and Learn About:

* Language Arts:

- Writing, thinking, sketching, drawing, and keeping a Writing Journal.
- Reading and discussing a variety of books.
- Reading "Animals of the World" to learn about Geography.
- Reading stories about endangered animals online or from the library.
- Reading Classic Stories online, such as Aesop's Fables, Alice in Wonderland, Jungle Book, Time Machine, O Pioneers!, Great Expectations, and many more!

* Social Studies:

- Learning World Geography by reading about animals of the world.
- Reading and learning about habitats of animals around the world.
- Finding endangered species in your region through the interactive map.
- Visiting virtual zoos in locations around the world.
- Creating and crafting animals, habitats, dioramas, visual displays, and collages.
- Choosing history and social studies worksheets to do, if desired.

* Math:

- Measuring how high a rocket or kite flies.
- Making a geometric T-shirt with geometric designs.
- Creating animals, and more, with tangrams and your imagination.
- Choosing math worksheets on topics such as basic or advanced math skills, fractions, decimals, percentages, geometry, algebra, graphing, trig, if desired.

* Science:

- Observing and drawing constellations in your night sky.
- Visiting a planetarium online and viewing constellations.
- Learning 88 constellations to share with family and friends.
- Making a shoebox constellation viewer.
- Playing the Constellation Matching Game.
- Reading books on constellations.
- Building an easy DNA Model.
- Choosing science worksheets to do, if desired.

* Life Skills, Health, & Safety:

- Remembering to take care of ourselves.
- Having a stress-free homeschool year.
- Reading "cooking with kids" cookbooks for healthy meals.
- Trying some healthy recipes online.

* Arts & Music:

- Learning about different styles of art and artists.
- Designing and creating artistic hot air balloons.
- Printing and drawing art pages.
- Being creative with arts and crafts ideas.
- Choosing a new instrument to learn to play.
- Building the DNA Model on the Free Homeschool Activities page.

For 36 Weeks of Weekly Lessons for Grades K through 12, remember to visit our Everything Homeschooling website weekly at EverythingHomeschooling.com!

Happy Homeschooling!




Thursday, August 18, 2011

Why Homeschooling Is Not "School at Home"

Summer is winding down, and September is just around the corner. It's the time of year when thoughts turn to "school."

As you begin your homeschool year, remember that homeschool is not "school at home." Home education is simply a natural part of living, thinking, imagining, creating, learning, doing, and growing each day.

The "school" system was unfortunately modeled on authoritarian Prussian schools. Intents were not necessarily the "intellectual training of children but the conditioning of children to obedience, subordination, and collective life."

The state viewed itself as "the true parent of children."

As a dissatisfied Albert Einstein said about his experience with Prussian schooling: "It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry."

An early proponent of state control of education in America states: "Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property." - Benjamin Rush

Sociologist Edward Ross believed in giving the child a teacher to imitate, instead of his father. He saw the school as the means for gathering "little plastic lumps of human dough from private households and [shaping] them on the social kneadingboard."

"Education reformer" Horace Mann said: "We, who are engaged in the sacred cause of education, are entitled to look upon all parents as having given hostages to our cause."

These are just a few of the reasons why it's important to understand that homeschool is not "school at home."

As parents of wonderful, curious, eager children, spend time talking with your children to determine what interests them, what they want to explore this year, what they want to learn or delve into, and their ideas on how to go about learning these things.

What amazing things can your child imagine? What fantastic creations can your child conceive of, invent, construct, create, bring to life? What unique capabilities or qualities can your child share with others or use in a way that makes a positive difference in his or her life, as well as in the lives of others?

As author Joel Turtel stated: "Parents, for your children's sake, walk away from the public schools. Also, don't depend on vouchers or charter schools, which are few and far between. Take control of your children's education and the values you teach them by homeschooling your kids or enrolling them in a low-cost Internet private school of your choice. Your children's future is at stake, and so is, by the way, the future of our Republic and our liberties."

So, as you begin your homeschool year this year, remember that it's not "school" you want to model your homeschool upon. Rather, it's your family's values, morals, and educational goals of your children that you want to keep in mind. It's the way they learn best, that you want to model your homeschool upon. It's their curiosity, eagerness, and joy of learning that you want to follow. It's the excitement of guiding them and helping them to learn, which results in a positive educational experience for your entire family, a lifetime of wonderful memories that you will all treasure forever.

Happy homeschooling from EverythingHomeschooling.com!





Saturday, August 6, 2011

Easy Homeschool Forms for Keeping Homeschool Records

Our Homeschool Forms make record-keeping easy!

Subscribers can print and use the following homeschool forms from our EverythingHomeschooling.com site.

* Weekly Planner Logs - Includes space for recording daily lessons for all subjects, week by week. Tip: Use the 36 Weeks of Lessons on our site. Then jot down the activities for each subject area each day, along with any other educational activities you do.

* Reading Logs - Includes space for recording all books read, plus all reference materials you use, along with the authors' names.

* Attendance Records - For recording the days that your homeschool is "in session."

* Report Cards - For recording your child's grades, if desired.

* High School Transcripts - For recording grades and credits earned in each subject, semester by semester, year by year.

* Notice of Intent to Homeschool - For submitting to your school district, if required.

* Educational Philosophies & Educational Goals - For determining the directions you want to go with your homeschool, along with your goals and expectations for your child's education.

* High School Diploma - For awarding to your child upon his or her graduation, when your child has met the goals and standards you set for your family's homeschool.

To print these Homeschool Forms, click the "Homeschool Forms" button in the menu on the left of our EverythingHomeschooling.com site.

Happy homeschooling!




Friday, June 17, 2011

Summer Activities

Here are a few Summer Activities your children can enjoy:

* Travel Maps: On short day trips or long vacations, map out the routes you travel and label your map with the places you see along the way. Research the places you see or visit, to learn even more about them.

* Summer Constellations: Select a good book depicting the summer constellations, such as Constellations of The Night Sky or Glow-in-the-Dark Constellations, and use the illustrations to locate and learn about summer constellations.

* Creative Writing Activities: Use summer themes, such as picnics, parks, pools, beaches, flowers, sunshine, cookouts, fireworks, ice cream, camping, hiking, to stimulate creative writing and drawing ideas.

* Insect Crafts: Make fun, simple, or imaginative crafts that mimic summer insects. Discuss each insect, where or how it lives, and try to find them outdoors, too.

* Create a Summer Time Capsule: Make a shoebox or tin-can time capsule and include items that depict this summer's adventures and events.

* Remember to Read: Summer reading programs began in the 1890s, to encourage children to read during summer vacations. Reduced reading over the summer results in lost reading skills. Yet, reading skills are important for comprehending topics across the curriculum. So visit your library often, and encourage your children to select a wide variety of books to read this summer!

If you have suggestions, see our Home page at EverythingHomeschooling.com.

Happy homeschooling!