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Category: Homeschool For Success

  • How Do You Get Kids Interested in Writing?

    It’s Dr. Deb Friday, and this week’s discussion question is about writing. Some children naturally love to put their thoughts down on paper and they start composing stories early. But many find the creative process daunting and the expectation that they must write things down frustrating. What do you do in the latter case? And is this practice even important?

    First, it is important. The process of composing our thoughts and crafting them into written language is a powerful brain-building technique. Many kids find writing difficult because there are so many choices to make: What is a good idea to write about? What words should I use? What order should I put my thoughts in? We can help them embrace this process by assuring them that making all these decisions is great exercise for our brains. The more they practice generating and ordering their ideas, the faster they will become at this decision-making process. More importantly, the practice of writing regularly is the key habit that produces good writers. And the future belongs to the eloquent. No matter what path they head down up ahead, they are going to have to use written language to open doors of opportunity and to complete their daily tasks on the job and at home. Look at how often you or your spouse must write today! E-mails, Facebook posts, texts, letters of protest or appeal, proposals, job queries, journal entries. We communicate far more often with written language these days than face to face.

    Here are 10 tips for getting kids interested in writing:

    1. Set aside a regular time to write. Stick to it. Slowly, even the most reluctant will start producing ideas to put to paper.

    2. Let them choose what to write about.

    3. If they are stumped, give them two or three suggestions, but let them choose.

    4. Find new experiences to prime the pump. “Hey kids, why not jot down what you noticed about some of the animals you watched during our field trip to the dairy farm this week.”

    5. Don’t emphasize spelling and grammatical correctness. Save that for only a few drafts you polish to perfection. Make their ideas what you talk about most.

    6. Give them an audience for their writing. It can be sharing in a regular writers’ group or around the family dinner table once a week.

    7. You write too and share your compositions as well.

    8. Give them cool writing gear or an online portfolio: a special pen, a unique journal, a personal blog or Facebook page they can share with family and friends.

    9. Encourage them to illustrate their stories and reports.

    10. Find opportunities for them to connect with favorite authors — most have websites where they interact with readers. Watch for author visits in your area to libraries, schools or book stores.

    What ideas can you add to the list?

  • Who Says Science Isn’t Creative?

    by Vicki Dincher

     

    Creativity isn’t just for the arts and humanities. It requires a great deal of creativity to think like a scientist. In fact, some of the world’s greatest scientists were also accomplished musicians and writers. One of the best ways to encourage a love of the sciences in your children is to foster their innate creativity when it comes to learning science principles. Think about what an engineer goes through as she attempts to design a new package to keep Oreo cookies fresh and unbroken until we get them home. (Did you know this is quite a large industry and pays newly graduated engineers big bucks!) There is a lot of creative thinking that goes into designing and refining the perfect package. And determining where to start and how to tweak things to produce desired results all require creativity. The same can be said for all great scientific advancements. Imagine where we’d be today if Alexander Fleming didn’t think creatively when he found mold growing on his petri dish of bacteria! Cultivating creativity in your home school science curriculum can help improve critical-thinking skills, motivation, and engagement in reluctant learners as well as helping students begin to understand the vital role of creativity in the development of new scientific information.

    So, what might this look like? Well, picture the average 8th grader who is studying the concept of motion. He should certainly read about motion and Newton’s laws, but I’m not sure how motivating and engaging that might be. But if you assign  him the
    project of designing a water rocket that will fly over a specific distance (say 50 meters or more) and then to spark his creativity tell him to study the physical characteristics of a variety of different balls (baseball, tennis ball, football, etc.) as they travel through the air, he just might learn something in spite of himself. (As a note, I do think these types of active learning approaches are great in small groups, so definitely include siblings or a small co-op class and you’ll find even more engagement occurring.)

    Make sure your student investigates the relationship between the ball’s physical characteristics (like mass, volume, density, shape, material, whether solid or hollow, etc.) and the distance it travels when thrown. Allow your student to decide how to analyze each relationship and how to control as many variables as possible – this will definitely bring out his creativity! For example – should each ball be thrown in the same manner, bringing the arm back to just the same spot, releasing the ball at just the same spot? how many throws for each ball should there be? how can we figure out where the center of gravity is? – see what I mean?

    After the data is collected, it should be analyzed in light of Newton’s laws and momentum and then another creative opportunity arises—designing a water rocket that has similar characteristics as the ball that traveled the farthest. With just a two-liter soda bottle, water, tire pump, and various household items used to modify the shape of the bottle and add ballast, students should be given the task of designing, creating, testing, tweaking (lots of creativity involved in testing and tweaking – how much water to use? ballast or no ballast? etc.), and sharing the ideas that led to their rockets. This, by the way, is the same process that engineers and working scientists use every day. I guarentee that your student will walk away with a better understanding of Newton’s laws of motion—not to mention how to approach and try to solve a problem—when learning through a water rocket experience than without one. And remember, there are no failures with this type of active learning. As Thomas Edison so wisely pointed out, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” If you’d like a little more background information on building water rockets (but let your student figure things out on their own) check out the websites below.

    We can use water rocket (active) learning for all concepts of science. It does take a little more time and it might get a little messy (make sure to launch your water rocket outside), but the payout is so much greater. And isn’t that part of the reason that we home school?

     

    https://wwong.homestead.com/rockets.html

    https://www.instructables.com/id/Soda-Bottle-Water-Rocket/?ALLSTEPS

     

    Vicki Dincher has been teaching science to home educated students for 17 years and teaches physical science, biology, and physics for Aim Academy.

  • The Best of the Web for Teaching Writing

    Aim Academy Pre-AP English teacher, Lauren Bailes, has compiled a list of the best interactive writing tools on the web you can use to help your kids learn to love the process of writing.  We’re making it available as a free PDF file you can download here.

    Here is a snippet you will find inside:

    Select & organize
    https://www.exploratree.org.uk

    There are thousands of graphic organizers out there, but
    some are a little stale. Exploratree is the next generation of graphic
    organizer. With dozens of templates plus customizable shapes, colors, and the
    possibility for collaboration, this site is actually capable of capturing
    thinking as it happens – and as it changes. (Bonus tech tool: use this teaching guide
    for additional pointers with many graphic organizers.)

     

  • Four Year Plan +1 for High School @ Home

    In the Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Teens, Chapter 12,  I write about the necessity of laying out a tentative schedule of coursework and tasks for high school at the beginning of  8th grade.  That’s for those of you with foresight.  ( I didn’t gain that until my third child.)

    The benefit of the plan is to make sure everything important gets done and that you distribute the tasks in a way that minimizes overloading the teen’s schedule.  ( The senior year, for instance, needs to have time for filling out college applications and making the college decision.)

    I’ve uploaded the Four Year Planning Grid and an example with pre-labeled tiles you can move around in your quest for the best workable schedule: Four+Year+Plan+Movable_Tiles.  These are Word documents.

    I include the extra year ( +1) because when you work backwards from the most competitive next step your teen will possibly take following high school graduation, you’ll find some things need to be done by the end of 8th grade, too.

    I’ve also created a High School Checklist that includes desirable coursework and activities you might want to consider.

  • Ultimate Planner Review

    This review made my day! And there is an Ultimate Planner giveaway attached.

  • Two-Fold Purpose of the Ultimate Homeschool Planning System (UHPS)

    I love homeschool moms.  I love their passion, their resourcefulness and love for their families. But now with the luxury of viewing homeschooling through the rear view mirror, I can see a couple of sore spots that contribute to our exhaustion and occasional loss of vision.

    • We are more aware of our own shortcomings in our homeschool life than we are of God’s activity.
    • We feel guilty when our kids work independently of us because our image of a good teacher is one who micro-manages her students.

    If there ever was a ploy of the devil in our midst, this is it.  Our enemy doesn’t want you to notice God at work.  He wants you to keep believing it all depends on you! Secondly, he’d never want your kids to learn independently.  That would give them too much motivation and investment in this venture, and he isn’t looking for a successful outcome.

    The Ultimate Homeschool Planning System (UHPS) is a small attempt to keep your eyes of faith focused on God and not yourself.  Even though you are writing down the nuts and bolts of your academic plan each week, we ask you to first spend time recounting God’s faithfulness and surprising blessings from the week before.  We give you a place to list small beginnings, signs of progress, notable achievements and unexpected acts of kindness all under a heading we call “Evidences of Grace,” just so you can remember what the source of these memorable moments s — God’s unmerited favor in your family’s life.  We also know from our own homeschooling days your kids are going to look inside your planner to see what you think is worth noting.  We want them to find a record of God’s activity as the focal point, not a manmade effort.

    Secondary to that ultimate goal, we want to help you raise an independent learner. If you don’t, you aren’t going to finish the course. Dependent students are a key contributor to homeschool burnout.  We want you to know the truth about learning: You can’t teach anyone anything.  Is that a shocker? Especially from a teacher with thirty-some years of experience under her belt? You can only motivate a student to engage in learning. And learning only results when effort on the student’s part is expended.  If your child is staring at you dull-eyed and slack-jawed, go find something better to do with your time.  Kids only learn when they are cognitively engaged. The outward signs of that are effort, interest, motivation, and initiative.

    Here’s some really good news about that reality: God has hard-wired your kid to learn.  That’s right, we are built for learning. We will live longer, and lead happier, healthier lives as long as we keep using our brain to learn. An ugly truth about this is schools aren’t built to encourage independent, healthy learning. Rather they are built for crowd control.  And because most of us were schooled under that system, the powerful model in our mind is a teacher at the front of the room controlling our time, our work, our interests, our learning.  The Ultimate Homeschool Planning System ( UHPS) which includes a planner for mom, a planner for students ( 4th-8th) and a planner for teens (7th-12th) is designed to foster and reward independence and initiative while you provide accountability and strategic guidance.

    We pray putting our planners in front of you each day will be a gentle reminder of the central and secondary goals of homeschooling:  Seeing God’s handiwork in the details of your family life and raising up the next generation trained to seize responsibility and lead their own families according to His plans.

    How has God been faithful in your family’s life this past week? Let’s get that down in writing.