Curriculum is defined as:
1. courses offered by an educational institution,
2. a list of all the courses of study offered by a school or college,
3. a program or plan of activities.
Your "homeschool curriculum" probably matches definition #3, above. New homeschoolers often become confused over "which curriculum to use" or "where to buy a curriculum."
But a homeschool curriculum is simply a "plan of activities" that you use in your homeschool. It need not be an expensive curriculum, nor does it need to incorporate textbooks or workbooks.
Your children will learn more readily and more fully when you and they homeschool in a manner that best complements their unique learning styles.
Observe your child's preferred style of learning -- such as hands-on learning through touch (tactile), or through moving and doing (kinesthetic), or seeing/visualizing (visual), or hearing/verbal (auditory), or a combination of these.
For help determining your child's learning style, check out some of these books:
* 8 Great Smarts for Homeschoolers, by Tina Hollenbeck
* Discover Your Child’s Learning Style, by Mariaemma Willis
* How Children Learn, by John Holt
* Learning All the Time, by John Holt
* The Way They Learn, by Cynthia Tobias
Remember: Homeschooling is not a "school at home." Don’t confuse yourself, or your children, thinking that it should be. You’ll only make it harder on yourself.
As John Holt warned: “To parents I say, above all else, don’t let your home become some terrible miniature copy of the school. Live together, as well as you can; enjoy life together, as much as you can. Ask questions to find out something about the world itself, not to find out whether or not someone knows it.”
Remind yourself each day that your duty is to guide your children, not force instruction upon them. Your role is to help them learn how to learn and to encourage them to seek answers to questions, find materials and information that will help them learn, explore the things that interest them, and allow them the freedom to learn in the style that works best for them.
This, then, will become the curriculum -- the "plan of activities" -- that best suits your children and your family!
For more help creating your own homeschool curriculum, using homeschooling or unschooling activities, or hundreds of educational ideas for weekly homeschool lessons, see our Home page at EverythingHomeschooling.com.
For a pastel painting demo, see "Summer Fields" at MistyGlowStudio.com or on my YouTube channel here: Misty Glow Studio.
Happy homeschooling!
Showing posts with label homeschool curriculum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homeschool curriculum. Show all posts
Monday, August 18, 2025
Monday, August 4, 2025
Create Your Curriculum + Weekly Planner Log Book
Welcome back! And best wishes for a fun and educational homeschool year!
Starting out, you might want to create own curriculum based on your family's goals and objectives for your children.
To write your curriculum, you’ll want to list your educational philosophies, goals, and objectives.
You can download the Homeschool Educational Goals PDF here. Then list your goals and objectives for each child and keep with your homeschool papers.
To record daily activities in a logbook, you may use our Weekly Planner Log Book forms. The Log Sheets can be downloaded at this Weekly Planner Log link.
Print as many as you'd like to plan your days and weeks in advance, or to easily jot down the activities and learning events at the end of each day, week by week.
These Google Doc forms might prompt you to request permission, but I'll see the notification and enable downloading.
For more in-depth planning for the upcoming homeschool year, feel free to read the following post.
Happy Homeschooling!
Planning pointers for the coming year:
As you prepare for the upcoming homeschool year, revisit – or create – a list of your educational goals for your children. If you didn’t reach all your homeschool goals last year, simply move them to this year’s list of goals.
Educational goals for your child might include:
* Developing a love of learning
* Enhancing curiosity in special interests or topics
* Finding joy in daily activities or hobbies
* Managing time and responsibilities better
* Volunteering in the community
Educational objectives and outcomes could include:
* Reading classic literature or books by favorite authors
* Trying more advanced science experiments and recording results
* Applying mental math skills or logic for solving problems
* Researching famous people or current events
* Focusing on daily life skills to increase abilities and self-confidence
From these goals and objectives, you can begin planning a curriculum (the knowledge and skills you’d like your child to acquire) along with creating lesson plans (the activities or studies that support or complement your curriculum).
Curriculum Plans
When planning a curriculum, consider your children’s wishes and input on what they’d like to learn in the coming year. Children will often surprise you with the wonderful ideas and learning suggestions they come up with! Together, you and your children can create a curriculum that is fun, interesting, and challenging to ensure a well-rounded education.
To create a curriculum, think about your educational goals, philosophies, or ambitions for your child. Then determine the objectives or plans needed to achieve those goals. These are explained more fully here:
• Educational philosophies center on what you believe your children should learn in order to achieve happiness and success in their lives. This can include morals and values, respect and responsibility, manners and kindness toward others, faith and spirituality, a love for learning, and a love for life.
• Educational aims or ambitions for your children could include life skills and self-reliance; critical thinking and reasoning skills; creative thinking skills; the ability to work well with others; to enjoy one’s work, life, and career; to show love and respect for one’s family; to be a responsible and upstanding citizen; and to contribute to one’s community.
• Learning goals and objectives should support your educational philosophies and aims for your child. For instance:
* Learning self-discipline and self-control is critical to a happy family life and career.
* Proper manners, social skills, and speaking skills are important when working with others or when contributing to the community.
* Good reading, math, science, or technology skills are imperative to all areas of one’s life, from daily living to getting ahead in one’s career.
* Artistic and creative skills add joy and meaning to one’s life.
* Healthy habits and life skills contribute to a long, productive life.
Write a Curriculum
Once you’ve determined your family’s philosophies, as well as your ambitions for your child’s education and the goals or objectives to support those ambitions, you can begin designing the curriculum. But don’t forget to consider your children’s interests and learning styles!
To write your curriculum, you’ll want to list your educational philosophies, goals, and objectives (see the Homeschool Forms link here), and keep them in a special folder labeled “Curriculum.” On the days when you forget where you are headed with your child’s education, reviewing the list of goals and objectives will be a great help!
A curriculum outline for Grade 5 Social Studies, for instance, could include:
* United States history
* Discovery of America and early settlements
* Colonial and pioneer life in America
* American Revolution and independence
* Westward movement
* Geography of United States
* Industrial Revolution
* Natural resources
* Cultural resources and relationships
Lessons and activities you do with your children will be based on the topics noted on a simple curriculum outline, similar to the above outline.
As you continue determining subject areas your child will study (i.e., Social Studies, Language Arts, Math, Science, Technology, Arts and Music, Health, and Life Skills), you’ll want to slant them toward the goals and aims that you have listed for your child’s education.
For instance, a goal for your child might be having a good, healthy life. Therefore, in studying the human body in Science, you might want to:
* Emphasize lessons on health and nutrition
* Focus on the way the body functions
* Learn how the bones and muscles work in tandem
* Determine how blood carries nutrients and oxygen to all parts of the body
* Research the respiratory and digestive systems
* Point out how proper nutrition, exercise, and healthy habits help the body function as it was designed to function.
As you can see, once you have your goals established for your child (for example, being a healthy individual), you’ll be able to focus on the objectives that you want the lessons to convey (in this case, how to achieve and maintain a healthy body).
Children master skills at varying ages and rates. Keep in mind that your child might read well at age 6, but another might struggle with reading at age 8. Or one child might grasp the relation between fractions and decimals at age 8, while another might not grasp the concept until age 10. One child might write well in cursive at age 9; another may not display attractive penmanship until age 12 or later. So, consider your child’s unique skills and abilities when setting educational goals and objectives.
Less Formal Curriculum
Designing a curriculum might seem like a lot of work. Yet, most parents already have an idea of the educational goals or ambitions for their children, even if they haven’t written them down in a formal outline.
Most parents are already in tune with their children’s interests, abilities, and learning styles, so it might not be necessary to document the objectives of each lesson. You might not need to go into detail regarding the studies or activities that will complement your child’s learning goals.
Unschooling
Unschooling is a nice option for many families. In an unschooling environment, the curriculum tends to accommodate the children’s curiosity and their interest-led activities. Don’t worry! When children are interested in a topic, they will learn! Plus, they’ll retain what they learn for a longer period of time.
If you need to present evidence of the “curriculum” you use for your “unschooled homeschool,” you can illustrate how your children’s interests and activities (such as their hobbies, experiments, creative projects, talents, discussions or books read) accomplish the goals and philosophies your family believes in – even in an unschooling environment.
Convey the unschooled curriculum with photos or short videos showing daily or weekly activities, projects, or experiments. Your child can create artwork or build models or sculptures depicting various projects. Perhaps, together, you can build a bookcase or shelves to hold the projects, sculptures, art, experiments, and displays, then take photos or brief videos of that, too. This serves as proof of continuous learning, regardless of your family’s style of home education.
To record activities in a logbook, you may use our Weekly Planner Log Book forms. The log sheets can be viewed and printed via this Weekly Planner Log link. You may use the log sheets to plan your days and weeks in advance, or to easily jot down the activities and learning events at the end of the day.
Create Lesson Plans
Lesson plans are the activities or studies that complement and carry out the intent of the curriculum and educational goals for your children.
For instance, one of your goals might be for your child to play an active part in your community as a caring, concerned individual. Therefore, you might want to create a lesson plan for Social Studies that has the objective of interacting with others for the good of the community.
Lesson plans, for this objective, could include researching the history of volunteerism in communities. Examples could include Benjamin Franklin, who helped to establish the first volunteer fire department, or Clara Barton, who founded the American Red Cross through volunteering her services. Your children could read biographies of these people, as well as books on how to volunteer. Then they could write or share their thoughts and ideas on how they could help others in your community.
Other parts of the lesson plan could include drawing posters of volunteers, visiting the headquarters of local volunteer associations, and taking an active part in community volunteer programs, such as canned food drives, clothing or toy collections, animal shelter assistance, or visiting with the elderly in nursing homes. Be sure to take photos or videos documenting these activities, too.
In our next post, we’ll cover Lessons Plans in more detail. Stay tuned!
Happy homeschooling!
Starting out, you might want to create own curriculum based on your family's goals and objectives for your children.
To write your curriculum, you’ll want to list your educational philosophies, goals, and objectives.
You can download the Homeschool Educational Goals PDF here. Then list your goals and objectives for each child and keep with your homeschool papers.
To record daily activities in a logbook, you may use our Weekly Planner Log Book forms. The Log Sheets can be downloaded at this Weekly Planner Log link.
Print as many as you'd like to plan your days and weeks in advance, or to easily jot down the activities and learning events at the end of each day, week by week.
These Google Doc forms might prompt you to request permission, but I'll see the notification and enable downloading.
For more in-depth planning for the upcoming homeschool year, feel free to read the following post.
Happy Homeschooling!
Planning pointers for the coming year:
As you prepare for the upcoming homeschool year, revisit – or create – a list of your educational goals for your children. If you didn’t reach all your homeschool goals last year, simply move them to this year’s list of goals.
Educational goals for your child might include:
* Developing a love of learning
* Enhancing curiosity in special interests or topics
* Finding joy in daily activities or hobbies
* Managing time and responsibilities better
* Volunteering in the community
Educational objectives and outcomes could include:
* Reading classic literature or books by favorite authors
* Trying more advanced science experiments and recording results
* Applying mental math skills or logic for solving problems
* Researching famous people or current events
* Focusing on daily life skills to increase abilities and self-confidence
From these goals and objectives, you can begin planning a curriculum (the knowledge and skills you’d like your child to acquire) along with creating lesson plans (the activities or studies that support or complement your curriculum).
Curriculum Plans
When planning a curriculum, consider your children’s wishes and input on what they’d like to learn in the coming year. Children will often surprise you with the wonderful ideas and learning suggestions they come up with! Together, you and your children can create a curriculum that is fun, interesting, and challenging to ensure a well-rounded education.
To create a curriculum, think about your educational goals, philosophies, or ambitions for your child. Then determine the objectives or plans needed to achieve those goals. These are explained more fully here:
• Educational philosophies center on what you believe your children should learn in order to achieve happiness and success in their lives. This can include morals and values, respect and responsibility, manners and kindness toward others, faith and spirituality, a love for learning, and a love for life.
• Educational aims or ambitions for your children could include life skills and self-reliance; critical thinking and reasoning skills; creative thinking skills; the ability to work well with others; to enjoy one’s work, life, and career; to show love and respect for one’s family; to be a responsible and upstanding citizen; and to contribute to one’s community.
• Learning goals and objectives should support your educational philosophies and aims for your child. For instance:
* Learning self-discipline and self-control is critical to a happy family life and career.
* Proper manners, social skills, and speaking skills are important when working with others or when contributing to the community.
* Good reading, math, science, or technology skills are imperative to all areas of one’s life, from daily living to getting ahead in one’s career.
* Artistic and creative skills add joy and meaning to one’s life.
* Healthy habits and life skills contribute to a long, productive life.
Write a Curriculum
Once you’ve determined your family’s philosophies, as well as your ambitions for your child’s education and the goals or objectives to support those ambitions, you can begin designing the curriculum. But don’t forget to consider your children’s interests and learning styles!
To write your curriculum, you’ll want to list your educational philosophies, goals, and objectives (see the Homeschool Forms link here), and keep them in a special folder labeled “Curriculum.” On the days when you forget where you are headed with your child’s education, reviewing the list of goals and objectives will be a great help!
A curriculum outline for Grade 5 Social Studies, for instance, could include:
* United States history
* Discovery of America and early settlements
* Colonial and pioneer life in America
* American Revolution and independence
* Westward movement
* Geography of United States
* Industrial Revolution
* Natural resources
* Cultural resources and relationships
Lessons and activities you do with your children will be based on the topics noted on a simple curriculum outline, similar to the above outline.
As you continue determining subject areas your child will study (i.e., Social Studies, Language Arts, Math, Science, Technology, Arts and Music, Health, and Life Skills), you’ll want to slant them toward the goals and aims that you have listed for your child’s education.
For instance, a goal for your child might be having a good, healthy life. Therefore, in studying the human body in Science, you might want to:
* Emphasize lessons on health and nutrition
* Focus on the way the body functions
* Learn how the bones and muscles work in tandem
* Determine how blood carries nutrients and oxygen to all parts of the body
* Research the respiratory and digestive systems
* Point out how proper nutrition, exercise, and healthy habits help the body function as it was designed to function.
As you can see, once you have your goals established for your child (for example, being a healthy individual), you’ll be able to focus on the objectives that you want the lessons to convey (in this case, how to achieve and maintain a healthy body).
Children master skills at varying ages and rates. Keep in mind that your child might read well at age 6, but another might struggle with reading at age 8. Or one child might grasp the relation between fractions and decimals at age 8, while another might not grasp the concept until age 10. One child might write well in cursive at age 9; another may not display attractive penmanship until age 12 or later. So, consider your child’s unique skills and abilities when setting educational goals and objectives.
Less Formal Curriculum
Designing a curriculum might seem like a lot of work. Yet, most parents already have an idea of the educational goals or ambitions for their children, even if they haven’t written them down in a formal outline.
Most parents are already in tune with their children’s interests, abilities, and learning styles, so it might not be necessary to document the objectives of each lesson. You might not need to go into detail regarding the studies or activities that will complement your child’s learning goals.
Unschooling
Unschooling is a nice option for many families. In an unschooling environment, the curriculum tends to accommodate the children’s curiosity and their interest-led activities. Don’t worry! When children are interested in a topic, they will learn! Plus, they’ll retain what they learn for a longer period of time.
If you need to present evidence of the “curriculum” you use for your “unschooled homeschool,” you can illustrate how your children’s interests and activities (such as their hobbies, experiments, creative projects, talents, discussions or books read) accomplish the goals and philosophies your family believes in – even in an unschooling environment.
Convey the unschooled curriculum with photos or short videos showing daily or weekly activities, projects, or experiments. Your child can create artwork or build models or sculptures depicting various projects. Perhaps, together, you can build a bookcase or shelves to hold the projects, sculptures, art, experiments, and displays, then take photos or brief videos of that, too. This serves as proof of continuous learning, regardless of your family’s style of home education.
To record activities in a logbook, you may use our Weekly Planner Log Book forms. The log sheets can be viewed and printed via this Weekly Planner Log link. You may use the log sheets to plan your days and weeks in advance, or to easily jot down the activities and learning events at the end of the day.
Create Lesson Plans
Lesson plans are the activities or studies that complement and carry out the intent of the curriculum and educational goals for your children.
For instance, one of your goals might be for your child to play an active part in your community as a caring, concerned individual. Therefore, you might want to create a lesson plan for Social Studies that has the objective of interacting with others for the good of the community.
Lesson plans, for this objective, could include researching the history of volunteerism in communities. Examples could include Benjamin Franklin, who helped to establish the first volunteer fire department, or Clara Barton, who founded the American Red Cross through volunteering her services. Your children could read biographies of these people, as well as books on how to volunteer. Then they could write or share their thoughts and ideas on how they could help others in your community.
Other parts of the lesson plan could include drawing posters of volunteers, visiting the headquarters of local volunteer associations, and taking an active part in community volunteer programs, such as canned food drives, clothing or toy collections, animal shelter assistance, or visiting with the elderly in nursing homes. Be sure to take photos or videos documenting these activities, too.
In our next post, we’ll cover Lessons Plans in more detail. Stay tuned!
Happy homeschooling!
Monday, July 25, 2022
Start Homeschooling, Educational Goals, Curriculum, Unschooling, + Homeschool Forms
Today's post covers How to Start Homeschooling, plus Educational Goals, Homeschool Curriculum, Lesson Plans, Unschooling, and Homeschool Forms.
As you prepare for the upcoming homeschool year, revisit – or create – a list of your educational goals for your children. If you didn’t reach all your homeschool goals last year, simply move them to this year’s list of goals.
Educational goals for your child might include:
* Developing a love of learning
* Enhancing curiosity in special interests or topics
* Finding joy in daily activities or hobbies
* Managing time and responsibilities better
* Volunteering in the community
Educational objectives and outcomes could include:
* Reading classic literature or books by favorite authors
* Trying more advanced science experiments and recording results
* Applying mental math skills or logic for solving problems
* Researching famous people or current events
* Focusing on daily life skills to increase abilities and self-confidence
From these goals and objectives, you can begin planning a curriculum (the knowledge and skills you’d like your child to acquire) along with creating lesson plans (the activities or studies that support or complement your curriculum).
Curriculum Plans
When planning a curriculum, consider your children’s wishes and input on what they’d like to learn in the coming year. Children will often surprise you with the wonderful ideas and learning suggestions they come up with! Together, you and your children can create a curriculum that is fun, interesting, and challenging to ensure a well-rounded education.
To create a curriculum, think about your educational goals, philosophies, or ambitions for your child. Then determine the objectives or plans needed to achieve those goals. These are explained more fully here:
• Educational philosophies center on what you believe your children should learn in order to achieve happiness and success in their lives. This can include morals and values, respect and responsibility, manners and kindness toward others, faith and spirituality, a love for learning, and a love for life.
• Educational aims or ambitions for your children could include life skills and self-reliance; critical thinking and reasoning skills; creative thinking skills; the ability to work well with others; to enjoy one’s work, life, and career; to show love and respect for one’s family; to be a responsible and upstanding citizen; and to contribute to one’s community.
• Learning goals and objectives should support your educational philosophies and aims for your child. For instance:
* Learning self-discipline and self-control is critical to a happy family life and career.
* Proper manners, social skills, and speaking skills are important when working with others or when contributing to the community.
* Good reading, math, science, or technology skills are imperative to all areas of one’s life, from daily living to getting ahead in one’s career.
* Artistic and creative skills add joy and meaning to one’s life.
* Healthy habits and life skills contribute to a long, productive life.
Write a Curriculum
Once you’ve determined your family’s philosophies, as well as your ambitions for your child’s education and the goals or objectives to support those ambitions, you can begin designing the curriculum. But don’t forget to consider your children’s interests and learning styles!
To write your curriculum, you’ll want to list your educational philosophies, goals, and objectives (see the Homeschool Forms link here), and keep them in a special folder labeled “Curriculum.” On the days when you forget where you are headed with your child’s education, reviewing the list of goals and objectives will be a great help!
A curriculum outline for Grade 5 Social Studies, for instance, could include:
* United States history
* Discovery of America and early settlements
* Colonial and pioneer life in America
* American Revolution and independence
* Westward movement
* Geography of United States
* Industrial Revolution
* Natural resources
* Cultural resources and relationships
Lessons and activities you do with your children will be based on the topics noted on a simple curriculum outline, similar to the above outline.
As you continue determining subject areas your child will study (i.e., Social Studies, Language Arts, Math, Science, Technology, Arts and Music, Health, and Life Skills), you’ll want to slant them toward the goals and aims that you have listed for your child’s education.
For instance, a goal for your child might be having a good, healthy life. Therefore, in studying the human body in Science, you might want to:
* Emphasize lessons on health and nutrition
* Focus on the way the body functions
* Learn how the bones and muscles work in tandem
* Determine how blood carries nutrients and oxygen to all parts of the body
* Research the respiratory and digestive systems
* Point out how proper nutrition, exercise, and healthy habits help the body function as it was designed to function.
As you can see, once you have your goals established for your child (for example, being a healthy individual), you’ll be able to focus on the objectives that you want the lessons to convey (in this case, how to achieve and maintain a healthy body).
Children master skills at varying ages and rates. Keep in mind that your child might read well at age 6, but another might struggle with reading at age 8. Or one child might grasp the relation between fractions and decimals at age 8, while another might not grasp the concept until age 10. One child might write well in cursive at age 9; another may not display attractive penmanship until age 12 or later. So, consider your child’s unique skills and abilities when setting educational goals and objectives.
Less Formal Curriculum
Designing a curriculum might seem like a lot of work. Yet, most parents already have an idea of the educational goals or ambitions for their children, even if they haven’t written them down in a formal outline.
Most parents are already in tune with their children’s interests, abilities, and learning styles, so it might not be necessary to document the objectives of each lesson. You might not need to go into detail regarding the studies or activities that will complement your child’s learning goals.
Unschooling
Unschooling is a nice option for many families. In an unschooling environment, the curriculum tends to accommodate the children’s curiosity and their interest-led activities. Don’t worry! When children are interested in a topic, they will learn! Plus, they’ll retain what they learn for a longer period of time.
If you need to present evidence of the “curriculum” you use for your “unschooled homeschool,” you can illustrate how your children’s interests and activities (such as their hobbies, experiments, creative projects, talents, discussions or books read) accomplish the goals and philosophies your family believes in – even in an unschooling environment.
Convey the unschooled curriculum with photos or short videos showing daily or weekly activities, projects, or experiments. Your child can create artwork or build models or sculptures depicting various projects. Perhaps, together, you can build a bookcase or shelves to hold the projects, sculptures, art, experiments, and displays, then take photos or brief videos of that, too. This serves as proof of continuous learning, regardless of your family’s style of home education.
To record activities in a logbook, you may use our Weekly Planner Log Book forms. The log sheets can be viewed and printed via this Weekly Planner Log link. You may use the log sheets to plan your days and weeks in advance, or to easily jot down the activities and learning events at the end of the day.
Create Lesson Plans
Lesson plans are the activities or studies that complement and carry out the intent of the curriculum and educational goals for your children.
For instance, one of your goals might be for your child to play an active part in your community as a caring, concerned individual. Therefore, you might want to create a lesson plan for Social Studies that has the objective of interacting with others for the good of the community.
Lesson plans, for this objective, could include researching the history of volunteerism in communities. Examples could include Benjamin Franklin, who helped to establish the first volunteer fire department, or Clara Barton, who founded the American Red Cross through volunteering her services. Your children could read biographies of these people, as well as books on how to volunteer. Then they could write or share their thoughts and ideas on how they could help others in your community.
Other parts of the lesson plan could include drawing posters of volunteers, visiting the headquarters of local volunteer associations, and taking an active part in community volunteer programs, such as canned food drives, clothing or toy collections, animal shelter assistance, or visiting with the elderly in nursing homes. Be sure to take photos or videos documenting these activities, too.
In our next post, we’ll cover Lessons Plans in more detail. Stay tuned!
For the Homeschool Forms mentioned here:
Homeschool forms for recording your Educational Goals and Objectives are available for viewing and printing at this link:
Weekly Planner Log sheets for recording daily/weekly lesson plans or learning activities can be viewed and printed at this link:
Or contact us at EVHomeschooling@gmail.com to receive the forms via email.
Note: Some material published here include excerpts from my book, The Everything Guide to Homeschooling, by Sherri Linsenbach, available online or in libraries and bookstores.
Happy homeschooling!
As you prepare for the upcoming homeschool year, revisit – or create – a list of your educational goals for your children. If you didn’t reach all your homeschool goals last year, simply move them to this year’s list of goals.
Educational goals for your child might include:
* Developing a love of learning
* Enhancing curiosity in special interests or topics
* Finding joy in daily activities or hobbies
* Managing time and responsibilities better
* Volunteering in the community
Educational objectives and outcomes could include:
* Reading classic literature or books by favorite authors
* Trying more advanced science experiments and recording results
* Applying mental math skills or logic for solving problems
* Researching famous people or current events
* Focusing on daily life skills to increase abilities and self-confidence
From these goals and objectives, you can begin planning a curriculum (the knowledge and skills you’d like your child to acquire) along with creating lesson plans (the activities or studies that support or complement your curriculum).
Curriculum Plans
When planning a curriculum, consider your children’s wishes and input on what they’d like to learn in the coming year. Children will often surprise you with the wonderful ideas and learning suggestions they come up with! Together, you and your children can create a curriculum that is fun, interesting, and challenging to ensure a well-rounded education.
To create a curriculum, think about your educational goals, philosophies, or ambitions for your child. Then determine the objectives or plans needed to achieve those goals. These are explained more fully here:
• Educational philosophies center on what you believe your children should learn in order to achieve happiness and success in their lives. This can include morals and values, respect and responsibility, manners and kindness toward others, faith and spirituality, a love for learning, and a love for life.
• Educational aims or ambitions for your children could include life skills and self-reliance; critical thinking and reasoning skills; creative thinking skills; the ability to work well with others; to enjoy one’s work, life, and career; to show love and respect for one’s family; to be a responsible and upstanding citizen; and to contribute to one’s community.
• Learning goals and objectives should support your educational philosophies and aims for your child. For instance:
* Learning self-discipline and self-control is critical to a happy family life and career.
* Proper manners, social skills, and speaking skills are important when working with others or when contributing to the community.
* Good reading, math, science, or technology skills are imperative to all areas of one’s life, from daily living to getting ahead in one’s career.
* Artistic and creative skills add joy and meaning to one’s life.
* Healthy habits and life skills contribute to a long, productive life.
Write a Curriculum
Once you’ve determined your family’s philosophies, as well as your ambitions for your child’s education and the goals or objectives to support those ambitions, you can begin designing the curriculum. But don’t forget to consider your children’s interests and learning styles!
To write your curriculum, you’ll want to list your educational philosophies, goals, and objectives (see the Homeschool Forms link here), and keep them in a special folder labeled “Curriculum.” On the days when you forget where you are headed with your child’s education, reviewing the list of goals and objectives will be a great help!
A curriculum outline for Grade 5 Social Studies, for instance, could include:
* United States history
* Discovery of America and early settlements
* Colonial and pioneer life in America
* American Revolution and independence
* Westward movement
* Geography of United States
* Industrial Revolution
* Natural resources
* Cultural resources and relationships
Lessons and activities you do with your children will be based on the topics noted on a simple curriculum outline, similar to the above outline.
As you continue determining subject areas your child will study (i.e., Social Studies, Language Arts, Math, Science, Technology, Arts and Music, Health, and Life Skills), you’ll want to slant them toward the goals and aims that you have listed for your child’s education.
For instance, a goal for your child might be having a good, healthy life. Therefore, in studying the human body in Science, you might want to:
* Emphasize lessons on health and nutrition
* Focus on the way the body functions
* Learn how the bones and muscles work in tandem
* Determine how blood carries nutrients and oxygen to all parts of the body
* Research the respiratory and digestive systems
* Point out how proper nutrition, exercise, and healthy habits help the body function as it was designed to function.
As you can see, once you have your goals established for your child (for example, being a healthy individual), you’ll be able to focus on the objectives that you want the lessons to convey (in this case, how to achieve and maintain a healthy body).
Children master skills at varying ages and rates. Keep in mind that your child might read well at age 6, but another might struggle with reading at age 8. Or one child might grasp the relation between fractions and decimals at age 8, while another might not grasp the concept until age 10. One child might write well in cursive at age 9; another may not display attractive penmanship until age 12 or later. So, consider your child’s unique skills and abilities when setting educational goals and objectives.
Less Formal Curriculum
Designing a curriculum might seem like a lot of work. Yet, most parents already have an idea of the educational goals or ambitions for their children, even if they haven’t written them down in a formal outline.
Most parents are already in tune with their children’s interests, abilities, and learning styles, so it might not be necessary to document the objectives of each lesson. You might not need to go into detail regarding the studies or activities that will complement your child’s learning goals.
Unschooling
Unschooling is a nice option for many families. In an unschooling environment, the curriculum tends to accommodate the children’s curiosity and their interest-led activities. Don’t worry! When children are interested in a topic, they will learn! Plus, they’ll retain what they learn for a longer period of time.
If you need to present evidence of the “curriculum” you use for your “unschooled homeschool,” you can illustrate how your children’s interests and activities (such as their hobbies, experiments, creative projects, talents, discussions or books read) accomplish the goals and philosophies your family believes in – even in an unschooling environment.
Convey the unschooled curriculum with photos or short videos showing daily or weekly activities, projects, or experiments. Your child can create artwork or build models or sculptures depicting various projects. Perhaps, together, you can build a bookcase or shelves to hold the projects, sculptures, art, experiments, and displays, then take photos or brief videos of that, too. This serves as proof of continuous learning, regardless of your family’s style of home education.
To record activities in a logbook, you may use our Weekly Planner Log Book forms. The log sheets can be viewed and printed via this Weekly Planner Log link. You may use the log sheets to plan your days and weeks in advance, or to easily jot down the activities and learning events at the end of the day.
Create Lesson Plans
Lesson plans are the activities or studies that complement and carry out the intent of the curriculum and educational goals for your children.
For instance, one of your goals might be for your child to play an active part in your community as a caring, concerned individual. Therefore, you might want to create a lesson plan for Social Studies that has the objective of interacting with others for the good of the community.
Lesson plans, for this objective, could include researching the history of volunteerism in communities. Examples could include Benjamin Franklin, who helped to establish the first volunteer fire department, or Clara Barton, who founded the American Red Cross through volunteering her services. Your children could read biographies of these people, as well as books on how to volunteer. Then they could write or share their thoughts and ideas on how they could help others in your community.
Other parts of the lesson plan could include drawing posters of volunteers, visiting the headquarters of local volunteer associations, and taking an active part in community volunteer programs, such as canned food drives, clothing or toy collections, animal shelter assistance, or visiting with the elderly in nursing homes. Be sure to take photos or videos documenting these activities, too.
In our next post, we’ll cover Lessons Plans in more detail. Stay tuned!
For the Homeschool Forms mentioned here:
Homeschool forms for recording your Educational Goals and Objectives are available for viewing and printing at this link:
Weekly Planner Log sheets for recording daily/weekly lesson plans or learning activities can be viewed and printed at this link:
Or contact us at EVHomeschooling@gmail.com to receive the forms via email.
Note: Some material published here include excerpts from my book, The Everything Guide to Homeschooling, by Sherri Linsenbach, available online or in libraries and bookstores.
Happy homeschooling!
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!
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!
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!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Homeschool Curriculum Tips & Homeschool Activities
A curriculum is defined as:
1. courses offered by an educational institution,
2. a list of all the courses of study offered by a school or college,
3. a program or plan of activities.
Your "homeschool curriculum" probably matches definition #3, above. New homeschoolers often become confused over "which curriculum to use" or "where to buy a curriculum."
In reality, a homeschool curriculum is simply "a plan of homeschool activities" that you use in your homeschool. It need not be an expensive curriculum, nor does it need to incorporate textbooks or workbooks.
Homeschoolers can use textbooks and workbooks if they'd like. But it certainly isn't necessary.
Your child will learn more readily and more fully when you and they homeschool in a manner that best complements their own unique learning styles. Spend a bit of time determining your child's own learning style. Consult the book, Discover Your Child’s Learning Style, by Mariaemma Willis. Then, based upon your child's learning style, create your own curriculum -- your own program or plan of homeschool activities.
Remember: Homeschooling is not a school at home. Don’t confuse yourself or your children, thinking that it should be. You’ll only make it harder on yourself.
As John Holt warned: “To parents I say, above all else, don’t let your home become some terrible miniature copy of the school. Live together, as well as you can; enjoy life together, as much as you can. Ask questions to find out something about the world itself, not to find out whether or not someone knows it.”
Remind yourself each day that your duty is to guide your child, not force instruction upon him. Your role is to help him learn how to learn and to encourage him to seek answers to questions, find materials and information that will help him learn, explore the things that interest him, and find new and challenging ways to learn.
This, then, will be your family's homeschool curriculum!
For more help with creating your own homeschool curriculum, using homeschool activities, or hundreds of educational ideas for weekly homeschool lessons, see our Home page at EverythingHomeschooling.com.
Happy homeschooling!
1. courses offered by an educational institution,
2. a list of all the courses of study offered by a school or college,
3. a program or plan of activities.
Your "homeschool curriculum" probably matches definition #3, above. New homeschoolers often become confused over "which curriculum to use" or "where to buy a curriculum."
In reality, a homeschool curriculum is simply "a plan of homeschool activities" that you use in your homeschool. It need not be an expensive curriculum, nor does it need to incorporate textbooks or workbooks.
Homeschoolers can use textbooks and workbooks if they'd like. But it certainly isn't necessary.
Your child will learn more readily and more fully when you and they homeschool in a manner that best complements their own unique learning styles. Spend a bit of time determining your child's own learning style. Consult the book, Discover Your Child’s Learning Style, by Mariaemma Willis. Then, based upon your child's learning style, create your own curriculum -- your own program or plan of homeschool activities.
Remember: Homeschooling is not a school at home. Don’t confuse yourself or your children, thinking that it should be. You’ll only make it harder on yourself.
As John Holt warned: “To parents I say, above all else, don’t let your home become some terrible miniature copy of the school. Live together, as well as you can; enjoy life together, as much as you can. Ask questions to find out something about the world itself, not to find out whether or not someone knows it.”
Remind yourself each day that your duty is to guide your child, not force instruction upon him. Your role is to help him learn how to learn and to encourage him to seek answers to questions, find materials and information that will help him learn, explore the things that interest him, and find new and challenging ways to learn.
This, then, will be your family's homeschool curriculum!
For more help with creating your own homeschool curriculum, using homeschool activities, or hundreds of educational ideas for weekly homeschool lessons, see our Home page at EverythingHomeschooling.com.
Happy homeschooling!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Successful Homeschool Activities
Successful homeschool experiences are most often the result of "student-driven interest" and the willingness to be flexible and adaptable to the learning opportunities that present themselves each day.
We hear from many parents who are thinking about homeschooling their children. Some of their most-pressing questions revolve around "grading" and "testing" their children. However, grading and testing are tools that are used for judging a large mass, when you, otherwise, do not have the time nor opportunity to determine a child's true knowledge, skills, and abilities, one-on-one.
Most tests simply show how well children do in taking tests. They are an indication of test performance, and little more.
When considering homeschooling or a homeschool curriculum, try not to become overly concerned about "grading" and "testing." "Grading" is done through discussing each day's learning experiences with your children. "Testing" is achieved through observing their strengths and weaknesses in the subjects and topics you've been covering.
Yes, tests can be "interesting" and quizzes can be "fun" when they are kept in perspective. But for determining your child's learning successes, you can focus more on discussions and observations to see, first-hand, how well your child is progressing or where he or she might need extra help.
For more insight, see EverythingHomeschooling.com.
Happy homeschooling!
We hear from many parents who are thinking about homeschooling their children. Some of their most-pressing questions revolve around "grading" and "testing" their children. However, grading and testing are tools that are used for judging a large mass, when you, otherwise, do not have the time nor opportunity to determine a child's true knowledge, skills, and abilities, one-on-one.
Most tests simply show how well children do in taking tests. They are an indication of test performance, and little more.
When considering homeschooling or a homeschool curriculum, try not to become overly concerned about "grading" and "testing." "Grading" is done through discussing each day's learning experiences with your children. "Testing" is achieved through observing their strengths and weaknesses in the subjects and topics you've been covering.
Yes, tests can be "interesting" and quizzes can be "fun" when they are kept in perspective. But for determining your child's learning successes, you can focus more on discussions and observations to see, first-hand, how well your child is progressing or where he or she might need extra help.
For more insight, see EverythingHomeschooling.com.
Happy homeschooling!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
How to Start Homeschooling
We've had some questions lately from parents who'd like to know where to start homeschooling.
When starting to homeschool your children -- the best place to start is WITH your children. Discuss what THEY want to learn, what they want to do, regardless of their age.
Remember that "homeschooling" is not "school at home." Rather, it is a natural part of living and learning each day. When families try to "school-at-home," both parents and children often end up disappointed, confused, or frustrated. That's why we are here for you.
Flexibility, variety, and fun ways of learning ARE the KEYS to successful home education.
If you're just starting out, it's helpful to check your state's homeschool regulations and see what they require. The state laws often sound intimidating, but generally they're quite simple to comply with. If you have questions about your state laws, please e-mail us.
In many cases, homeschool families keep a homeschool portfolio, which can include homeschool records. Our "Homeschool Forms" page includes printable Weekly Planner Sheets, Reading Logs, and other forms for our subscribers. For "Homeschool Forms" see EverythingHomeschooling.com. You may use the Forms if you are unschooling, deschooling, homeschooling, or eclectic-schooling.
To use our Weekly Lessons, see our Home page.
Go as far as your children would like to go with the activities -- and, most importantly, let them branch off into any other directions. That's the beauty of homeschooling -- pursuing amazing paths and new adventures sparked by one small idea.
Do the Weekly Challenges, the Hands-On Activities, the Daily Activities, Daily Writing Prompts, Field Trips, Unit Studies -- described on our Home page and designed to provide ideas and inspiration that are interesting, enjoyable, and educational. Write down the activities your children do on the Weekly Planner Sheets from our "Homeschool Forms" page. (Older children can write down the activities they do each day or each week, to save you time.)
The main goal of our site is "Click and Do." It's simple for working parents, single parents, stay-at-home parents. We provide hundreds of educational activities throughout each year.
Simply "Click and Do" the activities, and allow your children to learn, to explore, and to pursue the activities and special interests, or follow new ideas, as well. Help guide them along the exciting paths that inspire or enthuse them.
Feel free to e-mail us with your questions. Our contact information is on our Home page.
Happy Homeschooling!
When starting to homeschool your children -- the best place to start is WITH your children. Discuss what THEY want to learn, what they want to do, regardless of their age.
Remember that "homeschooling" is not "school at home." Rather, it is a natural part of living and learning each day. When families try to "school-at-home," both parents and children often end up disappointed, confused, or frustrated. That's why we are here for you.
Flexibility, variety, and fun ways of learning ARE the KEYS to successful home education.
If you're just starting out, it's helpful to check your state's homeschool regulations and see what they require. The state laws often sound intimidating, but generally they're quite simple to comply with. If you have questions about your state laws, please e-mail us.
In many cases, homeschool families keep a homeschool portfolio, which can include homeschool records. Our "Homeschool Forms" page includes printable Weekly Planner Sheets, Reading Logs, and other forms for our subscribers. For "Homeschool Forms" see EverythingHomeschooling.com. You may use the Forms if you are unschooling, deschooling, homeschooling, or eclectic-schooling.
To use our Weekly Lessons, see our Home page.
Go as far as your children would like to go with the activities -- and, most importantly, let them branch off into any other directions. That's the beauty of homeschooling -- pursuing amazing paths and new adventures sparked by one small idea.
Do the Weekly Challenges, the Hands-On Activities, the Daily Activities, Daily Writing Prompts, Field Trips, Unit Studies -- described on our Home page and designed to provide ideas and inspiration that are interesting, enjoyable, and educational. Write down the activities your children do on the Weekly Planner Sheets from our "Homeschool Forms" page. (Older children can write down the activities they do each day or each week, to save you time.)
The main goal of our site is "Click and Do." It's simple for working parents, single parents, stay-at-home parents. We provide hundreds of educational activities throughout each year.
Simply "Click and Do" the activities, and allow your children to learn, to explore, and to pursue the activities and special interests, or follow new ideas, as well. Help guide them along the exciting paths that inspire or enthuse them.
Feel free to e-mail us with your questions. Our contact information is on our Home page.
Happy Homeschooling!
Friday, January 9, 2009
Homeschool Curriculum & Homeschool Lessons
Do you provide a Homeschool Curriculum?
This is one of the questions we're often asked at Everything Homeschooling.
Yes, we do!
However, different people have different concepts of what a curriculum is. By definition, a curriculum is "a course of study" or "a set of courses."
The Weekly Homeschool Lessons and Homeschool Activities at EverythingHomeschooling.com follow, or complement, the "Typical Course of Study" that most educational institutes follow across the nation.
Yet, even those educational curriculums will vary, depending on the regions or districts where the curriculum is being used.
What one probably means when asking if Everything Homeschooling provides a curriculum is: Do we provide a "packaged curriculum"?
A "packaged curriculum" is not the best educational resource for homeschooling your children.
Why not? Because every child is unique, every child has his or her own learning styles, and every child learns at his or her own pace. A "packaged curriculum," on the other hand, is not designed specifically for your individual child's learning style, pace, or interests.
At EverythingHomeschooling.com, we help YOU help your children learn, by providing Weekly Homeschool Lessons and Homeschool Activities that interest YOUR CHILDREN. Plus, this Homeschool Curriculum can be adapted to YOUR CHILD's individual learning styles and abilities, at any time.
The best Homeschool Curriculum is the one that captures your children's interests, keeps them wanting to learn more, and helps them retain what they've learned. This occurs when the homeschool lessons are fun, interesting, and hands-on. And also because the homeschool curriculum is adaptable, flexible, and varied -- to work for YOUR child!
This is the type of homeschool curriculum we offer at EverythingHomeschooling.com. It's easy to use, very affordable, and, above all, it helps to make your homeschool successful, interesting, and enjoyable, as well as educational for your child.
Happy homeschooling!
This is one of the questions we're often asked at Everything Homeschooling.
Yes, we do!
However, different people have different concepts of what a curriculum is. By definition, a curriculum is "a course of study" or "a set of courses."
The Weekly Homeschool Lessons and Homeschool Activities at EverythingHomeschooling.com follow, or complement, the "Typical Course of Study" that most educational institutes follow across the nation.
Yet, even those educational curriculums will vary, depending on the regions or districts where the curriculum is being used.
What one probably means when asking if Everything Homeschooling provides a curriculum is: Do we provide a "packaged curriculum"?
A "packaged curriculum" is not the best educational resource for homeschooling your children.
Why not? Because every child is unique, every child has his or her own learning styles, and every child learns at his or her own pace. A "packaged curriculum," on the other hand, is not designed specifically for your individual child's learning style, pace, or interests.
At EverythingHomeschooling.com, we help YOU help your children learn, by providing Weekly Homeschool Lessons and Homeschool Activities that interest YOUR CHILDREN. Plus, this Homeschool Curriculum can be adapted to YOUR CHILD's individual learning styles and abilities, at any time.
The best Homeschool Curriculum is the one that captures your children's interests, keeps them wanting to learn more, and helps them retain what they've learned. This occurs when the homeschool lessons are fun, interesting, and hands-on. And also because the homeschool curriculum is adaptable, flexible, and varied -- to work for YOUR child!
This is the type of homeschool curriculum we offer at EverythingHomeschooling.com. It's easy to use, very affordable, and, above all, it helps to make your homeschool successful, interesting, and enjoyable, as well as educational for your child.
Happy homeschooling!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Avoid Homeschool Burnout
Your family can avoid homeschool burnout by discussing what is still enjoyable each day and what is not.
Try these tips to reduce the chance of burnout in your homeschool:
- Discuss what is working and what is not. Ask for suggestions and ideas to inspire and motivate learning.
- Determine the ways your children learn best and use those learning methods.
- Add more flexibility to your homeschool days, and take advantage of spontaneous learning opportunities.
- Avoid over-scheduling your days. You need a good balance of quiet activities with the busy activities.
- Add more fun and laughter to your homeschool lessons and homeschool activities.
- Set aside homeschool curriculum packages or programs that are not interesting to your children. (If your children aren't interested, they won't learn as well.)
- Switch from "busy-work" -- such as worksheets, writing assignments, or dull reading assignments -- to fun, hands-on learning projects and science experiments.
- Try unit studies or "unschooling" for a while, rather than traditional subjects. Remember that "homeschool" is not "school at home." Experiment with different learning methods.
- Ask children what they would like to learn this week, this month, this year. Encourage them to find and share fun ways to learn those things.
- Take field trips to the library and allow children to check out books that appeal to them. Also guide them in selecting informative books that look interesting. Use those books as the backbone of your daily learning, and discuss the books you read.
- Use arts and crafts as an excellent way to reinforce learning and to complement the topics you read, study, or explore.
- Find online homeschool activities that promote family learning projects. Many interesting projects and activities are available at EverythingHomeschooling.com.
- Reduce stress by lowering your expectations. Try not to do so much each day. Get support and help from others.
- Have children record their daily lessons in their homeschool logs, organize their homeschool books and supplies, and clean up after homeschool experiments or learning projects.
- Ask family members to help with daily chores around the home and to be responsible for specific aspects of the homeschool day.
- Take time for yourself to relax and unwind. Spend at least an hour each day on something you especially enjoy, such as reading, painting, knitting, or sitting in the sunshine.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Remove Child from School
About six weeks into the school year, I begin getting e-mails from parents who want to remove their child from school.
"My son is having problems in school. Can I take him out?"
"My daughter is being harassed in school. Can I withdraw her from school?"
Yes, and yes. No child HAS to go to a certain school. Every child CAN be educated at home.
So that you'll know your homeschool laws, check with your state's Department of Education. Don't rely upon information from your school or from the local school district. Call your state's Department of Education and request to speak with the Homeschool Department. (Every state Department of Education has a Homeschool Division.)
Armed with the information you receive from them, write a letter to your son's or daughter's school and explain that you are withdrawing them from school. There is no need to explain why, or to get into a lengthy discussion at your child's school, or try to "defend" your decision. At the same time, if you need to submit an "Intent to Homeschool" notice to your school's superintendent, you can do so. (The homeschool information you receive from the Dept. of Ed. will tell you if a Notice needs to be filed or not.)
Caution: If you start feeling overwhelmed by the legalese contained in the packet of homeschool information you receive from the State, don't let it bother you. Call your local homeschool support group, and they will explain what you need to do. It's truly much simpler than it sounds!
Once you have removed your child from the school system, the fun begins! And so does the learning! You'll be amazed at how much enthusiasm your child will begin showing for learning!
But FIRST, he or she will need to "decompress." This is a very important step that falls between the removal of your child from school and the beginning of the homeschool adventure.
Children are "conditioned" to function in a certain manner in school settings. When they are taken out of school, they need time to get used to NOT going to school. They need time to begin viewing their home as a place where their education will continue. They need to get a feel for how their days will play out in their home. They need a couple weeks -- sometimes more -- to get used to their new routine.
Don't worry. Your child won't "fall behind" during this decompression time. Many homeschoolers finish their homeschool year in half the time of a regular school year!
So go ahead, find out your state laws and withdraw your child from school. Then let the fun and learning begin!
If you need help or guidance, just contact us at EverythingHomeschooling.com.
Happy homeschooling!
"My son is having problems in school. Can I take him out?"
"My daughter is being harassed in school. Can I withdraw her from school?"
Yes, and yes. No child HAS to go to a certain school. Every child CAN be educated at home.
So that you'll know your homeschool laws, check with your state's Department of Education. Don't rely upon information from your school or from the local school district. Call your state's Department of Education and request to speak with the Homeschool Department. (Every state Department of Education has a Homeschool Division.)
Armed with the information you receive from them, write a letter to your son's or daughter's school and explain that you are withdrawing them from school. There is no need to explain why, or to get into a lengthy discussion at your child's school, or try to "defend" your decision. At the same time, if you need to submit an "Intent to Homeschool" notice to your school's superintendent, you can do so. (The homeschool information you receive from the Dept. of Ed. will tell you if a Notice needs to be filed or not.)
Caution: If you start feeling overwhelmed by the legalese contained in the packet of homeschool information you receive from the State, don't let it bother you. Call your local homeschool support group, and they will explain what you need to do. It's truly much simpler than it sounds!
Once you have removed your child from the school system, the fun begins! And so does the learning! You'll be amazed at how much enthusiasm your child will begin showing for learning!
But FIRST, he or she will need to "decompress." This is a very important step that falls between the removal of your child from school and the beginning of the homeschool adventure.
Children are "conditioned" to function in a certain manner in school settings. When they are taken out of school, they need time to get used to NOT going to school. They need time to begin viewing their home as a place where their education will continue. They need to get a feel for how their days will play out in their home. They need a couple weeks -- sometimes more -- to get used to their new routine.
Don't worry. Your child won't "fall behind" during this decompression time. Many homeschoolers finish their homeschool year in half the time of a regular school year!
So go ahead, find out your state laws and withdraw your child from school. Then let the fun and learning begin!
If you need help or guidance, just contact us at EverythingHomeschooling.com.
Happy homeschooling!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)