Category: Learning Environment

Encouraging Creativity

by Maribeth Spangenberg I admire the person who can visualize a concept in their head and then transfer it unto a blank sheet of paper. The woman who is able to mentally match swatches of colored material and turn it into a beautifully, decorated room has my greatest compliments. However, considering that I have lived in my present home for ten years and I still sleep in a white walled bedroom, shows my limitations in this area. But as much as I lack in artistic ability, I have come to realize that creativity has many forms. It includes the...

Read More

8 Ways to Sabotage Your Homeschool

The power of a successful homeschool journey cannot be over emphasized. Every parent who home schools wants to enjoy the adventure, grow close to their children and have well rounded children at the end of it. But moms hold the power to sabotage their own homeschools and often they do not even know they are doing it. Here are some warnings (and remedies) for homeschooling parents so that you are do not become one of them. Warning #1 – You have no systems in place How do you know this is happening? You cannot find your school books, the...

Read More

Using Songs to Reinforce Learning

Every Week(tune: Are you Sleeping) Every week has 7 days,See how many you can say.Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,Saturday. What’s today? Days of the Week(to the tune of Frere Jacques!) These are all theda-ays of the we-ek,Sing with me,Sing with me. Sunday, Monday, TuesdayWednesday, Thursday, FridaySaturdayA day to play.     Dates(To the tune of “Frere Jacques) Today is Monday(Today is Monday)April 12th(April 12th)1998(1998)That’s the date(That’s the date). Days of the Week (to the tune of Frere Jacques) Tuesday, Tuesday,Tuesday, Tuesday,All day long, all day long,Yesterday was Monday, tomorrow will be Wednesday,Oh, what fun! Oh, what fun! Sunday, Monday , Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday, Friday, Saturday Today is Song(To the tune of “Frere Jacques”) Today is _______.Today is _______.All day long, all day long.Yesterday was ______.Tomorrow will be _______.Oh what fun!Oh what fun! The Months of the Year(To the Tune of “Three Blind Mice”) January, February, March,April, May, June.July, August, September,October, November, December.These are the twelve months of the year.Now sing them together so we can all hear.How many months are there in a year?Twelve months in a year. Months of the Year (to the tune of “Ten Little Indians”) January, February, March, and April,May, June, July, August, and September,October, November, and December,These are the months of the year. Good Handwriting If you are wiseYou will organizeYou handwriting alwaysTo be the right size.The shape is importantRound and neatUsing your handsNot your...

Read More

The Educational Value of Chores: How to Make Chores an Integral Part of Your Children's Naturally Le

Someone once said to me, “ Work is not “work.” It’s the main part of living.” I liked to look at work another way: we play at working and we work at playing. As my children grew I encouraged them to consider work not as a chore, but as something that helps build meaning into their lives. The word chore is laden with emotion for most of us, but there’s no way we can hide from the daily work that is aptly described as ‘chores’. A homeschooling parent will quickly burn out if he or she doesn’t learn to delegate work throughout the day. We consider that all the participants in our home life are responsible for the chores: this helps to spread the load. Although we take the lion’s share the children have always been involved, and this has resulted in a more equal sharing as they have grown into adolescence without a lot of the pain experienced by many other families. When asking the children to help I am careful to work with them, modelling the behaviour, attitudes and actions I want them to adopt. Years of experience has taught me to start off small, with short tasks when the children were little, and to be there, supervising, even when they became older, rather than letting them just get on with it themselves. A tip to remember...

Read More

Setting Up A Learning Environment

After several weeks of talking about issues concerning teens, it’s time to look at home schooling our littlest ones. Just what are the foundational principles for getting our children ready to learn? Here are a few strategies. Note how inexpensive these are to pull off: Language-rich environment The most important thing you can do with your young children is to talk with them. Engage your preschoolers in conversation throughout your daily routine. As you are running errands, point out activities going on about the town, help them to recognize and discuss important community centers such as the post office, library, churches, or recreational park. And don’t use a dumb-downed vocabulary; rather, help them expand their own vocabulary by using precise word choices. If you don’t know the specific word for, say, a piece of road equipment yourself, then ask someone who does. It is equally important for our young ones to see that we are lifelong learners, intensely inquisitive about the world around us and equipped with a skill set that helps us get the information we need, i.e. we ask questions, we read books, we use the Internet, or we find an expert. It is important to note that researchers have found the amount of “live” conversation going on in a child’s environment is the key to language-development. However, “passive” language, i.e. the television, video or radio, doesn’t...

Read More

The Beauty of Reading Aloud

THE BEAUTY OF READING ALOUD by Virgina Knowles Reading aloud is a child’s first introduction to good literature. Why is this so important? Reading aloud connects parent and child. It links you together in a personal way around interesting ideas and words. Young ones are soothed by the sound of our voices. I tend to be so much more calm when I am snuggled up on the couch enjoying a great book with them, rather than chasing them around the house trying to keep them out of mischief. Reading aloud builds warm memories, too! What will they fondly remember looking back to their childhoods — pages upon pages of worksheets or the great stories they read with Mom? Reading aloud gives your child a splendid vocabulary. Good literature is rich in descriptive vocabulary. Your child can gain an impressive arsenal of new words to use in speaking and writing. A child can encounter a word in print, and even know what it means, but not know how to pronounce it. Is the word charade pronounced CHAIR-ray-dee or shuh-RAID? If he hears you say it while he is looking at it, he can make the connection and hopefully remember it the next time. Reading aloud prepares a child for learning to read. Study after study has shown that being read to often as a young child is one of the...

Read More