flynn011

To my mind, there’s nothing better than staying home to learn and to live.  We spend our 2 1/2 hours every morning in our school room, not always getting through "the plan", but always focussing on something that’s interesting and stimulating. The picture to the right, for example, was taken on a day we had been learning about whales in the Apologia Science text, called "Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures on the 5th Day."  The photo shows how long a blue whale actually is, tracing back to our starting point where the sidewalk ends in the distance. One welcomed addition this year is our opening routine.  We do stretches called "yes, no, maybe", starting with our heads (yes and no are self-explanatory, but maybe is tilting your head side-to-side to point each ear toward your shoulder).   Then we have adapted an idea called Five Rhythm Dance to a music appreciation segment.  Using something like "Bolero", we start off with slow, ...

I'm not talking sodium nitrate and colouring and collagen casings here -- I'm talking a fun game that you can play with your children that's especially useful if someone is upset or grumpy or out of sorts. First, I'll admit that this game wasn't my idea. I got it from a book called "The Out-of-Sync Child Has Fun" by Carol Stock Kranowitz. An "out-of-sync" child has many guises: over-hyper, total couch potato, extra-clumsy. All these symptoms and several in between could be indications of Sensory Integration Disorder, where a child's brain doesn't quite register senses properly. I still haven't decided if my 7-year-old has a form of this -- he definitely requires over-stimulation to feel right, such as going to bed with a flashlight shining in his eyes and never being able to find his "inside voice". I've decided, however, that the label of SID isn't as important as Kranowitz's suggestions for tackling it, whic...

If you’re new to homeschooling, then sooner or later you’re going to want to explore the whole issue of different methods to try. Here’s a short explanation of the main methods in a nutshell. First, there’s the school-at-home option.  This is where you try to imitate the kind of schooling you probably grew up with: desk work, worksheets, workbooks, perhaps computer-based lessons, schedules, grades.  Some people try to cobble together a version of this with different curricula, while others might opt to purchase a comprehensive curriculum such as Sonlight or the Bob Jones University Press materials.  Pros: it’s all done for you.  Cons: it’s expensive, and sometimes, it’s difficult to pinpoint the right level for your child. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the un-schooling method.  Perhaps it would be better labelled as the child-led method since un-schooling smacks of doing nothing.  Most educators and parents come to realise that children are natur...

If you’ve got a boy, then chances are that you are worried about his reading attainment.  Maybe it’s just a gut feeling, if you homeschool, or it’s there in black and white every time you receive a school report or have a parents’ evening. You aren’t imagining things – boys often read less well than girls. The statistics are sobering: the average boy reads 1-1/2 years behind the average girl; he reads less than 30 minutes a day; he’s likely to be 7-percentage points behind the average girl in reading assessment at the end of primary-school age. Then there are the scare stories – men with poor literacy struggle with lasting relationships later in life; 43% live alone; 22% still live with their parents; only 50% are satisfied with their lives, while those with good literacy rank at 78%. Something must be done, right? (You don't want your son living at home with you when he's grown, do you?) Here are some quick tips for improving your son’s reading ability. First, don’t panic....

Are you thinking about homeschooling?  Or, are you just starting out? Either way, you're probably full of questions right now: what curriculum should I use? what kind of schedule should I have? what equipment do I need? how do I convince my friends/family that it's a good idea? should I go see a psychiatrist? As a homeschooling veteran of seven years, I have three simple pieces of advice for newbies: first, don't rush into anything, especially not curriculum purchases.  Mistakes on this front can be expensive, and it's also likely you'll change your mind a lot as you get more informed and get to know your children better.  If you're desperate to get started, then just use the library for a while. Second, read anything you can get your hands on with regard to homeschooling.  Terrie Lynn Bittner's book, "Homeschooling: Take a Deep Breath -- You Can Do This", has a lot to recommend for itself as a good beginner's book.  Its reviews on Amazon are o...

Boyschooling is a blog for you, all those parents out there who wonder if homeschooling boys isn't the daftest decision they've ever made. Of course, a child doesn't have to be male to have the urge to turn a breadmaker into a robot; girls can equally prove a challenge when it comes to focusing on the child and finding the best learning fit.  Therefore, some of the observations and suggestions I make will be relevant to any gender. Also, the very act of homeschooling in the first place can be daunting, brave, even going against the grain, and so I'm here to encourage you however new you are, however many children you have, boys or girls. However, it must be said that most people know, if only intuitively, that school situations are more suited to girls in general, and to teach boys appropriately, one must find new strategies, new ways of thinking, new approaches which will get these wiggley, fidgety, lego-loving creatures into a positive learning mode.  I don't have...