1. You must have a plan: Figure out which direction you are going in with your home school education plan before you start. Do your research to see what is available and make a choice. Day 1 of home schooling is not the time to scramble around looking for school work for your child.

2. Have a scheduled time for school work: Yes homeschooling should be flexible when you need it to be for Doctor appointments, shopping or special occasions but try to keep to some type of schedule and stick to it. Pick a schedule that works best for you and your child and stick to it. It will be so much easier for you and your child if they know they have a set time to get their work done.

It will be much harder if every day you are trying to find the time to fit school in when it really should be a top priority.

When we decide to home school our children we make a commitment that we need to take seriously. It only hurts our child if we do not teach them as we set out to do. You only get out what you put into it. It is so easy to just put it off until tomorrow. Children can easily fall behind too, so scheduling is important.

3. Have a set bedtime: This is important in our house because children can easily get off track and if they are going to bed at a different time every night it is kind of hard to stay on a set schedule for school. Also children need to be well rested so they can have a easier time understanding and retaining the information that is taught to them.

4. Establish consequences: Home school is not the equivalent of no school at all and children must be made to understand that from the beginning. No child is perfect and at times they may not feel like doing their work. They have to made to understand that home schooling is real school and if they attended a brick and mortar school they would have to do the work presented to them by the teacher.

At times in the beginning of our home school journey a couple of my children have had what I refer to as a home school is no school, type day.

I swiftly let them know that home schooling is just as important as if they were sitting in a traditional classroom and that they would face consequences if they did not complete their work as I knew they could.

Once they realized that they would lose privileges such as viewing their favorite television programs, playing video games on the weekends or even playing with their favorite toys just the same as if they neglected to do their work in a traditional school the problem cleared right up.

My children knew I meant business and they eventually adapted to our home school schedule. It can be a little hard on them at first especially if they are used to attending a brick and mortar school. What you view as school time they may view as complete freedom and a long vacation until they get used to and fall in line with the schedule.

5. Have fun: Home schooling can be a fun and wondrous adventure if you choose to make it that way. Enjoy the time with your child.

Make the lessons fun with activities that go hand in hand with what you are teaching them. Do science experiments. Teach your child to prepare easy recipes. You could have themed parties or fun times with arts and crafts like painting, working with clay, making homemade cards or jewelry etc.

You can also take them on fun educational trips. Young children love these type of activities and you can enjoy them together.Make the most of your home schooling education plan. It can be a wonderful experience for you and your child.

Alice Coaxum is a happily married mother of four beautiful girls a dog and one frisky cat. She home schools hers daughters and taking care of her family is a top priority to.

She is a partner with Vitamark and runs Wahms Beautiful Deals Traffic Exchange and loves networking and meeting new people. http://wahmsonline.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alice_Coaxum

The best thing about this curriculum is its incremental nature. It builds upon the foundations, line by line and percept by percept. The incremental teaching method slowly and gradually unfolds the intricate and significant structures of mathematics. The curriculum enables the learners to grasp and absorb the concept in chunks. Moreover, the curriculum emphasizes a lot on the retention of these concepts.

The curriculum is divided into three portions. It systematically links instructions, practice and assessment with each other. It simplifies all the concepts for the parents. The curriculum also suggests ways to improve the understanding of their children. It is based on simple and familiar terminologies and algorithms. After thorough instructions, the curriculum has practice exercises to keep on revising the previously introduced concepts. Finally, every chapter has cumulative assessment section. It consists of worksheets, based on the previous questions and problems.

The Saxon math, a home-school math curriculum is augmented with marvelous features to guide and teach you at every level. The home-school curriculum caters all levels from primary through middle to the high level homeschooling.

The Saxon Math curriculum is designed to teach the basic mathematic concepts such as patterns, geometry, time and comparison and ordering of numbers. The curriculum extends to teach basic addition, subtraction and multiplication concepts. The primary level curriculum focuses on the manipulative math. It offers a manipulative kit to help students to apply their learning in hand-on play. Thus, the Saxon primary grade math proffers a solid foundation of early elementary basics, enabling students to successfully branch out into excellent performance in the upcoming grades.

The Saxon middle grade curriculum smoothly shifts the learners from manipulative and worksheet math to textbook approach. It emphasizes on algebraic and geometric concepts. Following its iterative approach, the new concepts are merged with the older concepts. The new chapters include reviews of the previous concepts. It comprises of upgraded levels of learning ad teaching. The middle grade curriculum holds investigative approach to give an in-depth treatment of math concepts. For convenience, parents can have the solution manual, which offers step-by-step solutions to the problems.

Saxon high grade math curriculum covers algebra, geometry, advanced math and calculus. Algebra offers quite a challenging but enjoyable experience to the students. It explains the concepts with self teaching examples and thus develops a habit of understanding and inferring the concepts independently.

Apart from all its advantages, it has some weaknesses too. According to some instructors, though it provides solid mathematical foundation, but it is quite slow for the bright students, as reworking the same problems everyday makes it boring for the students with a quick pick.

Are you seeking for some Saxon Math help? Visit our recommended site for comprehensive information about saxon math homeschool curriculum

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carlton_Watson

Taking attendance, making announcements and getting absent students caught up and other distractions use up too much of the teacher’s time.

While these things are not bad, they greatly dilute the teacher’s effectiveness in advancing the curriculum goals of the day. I know how this works because I was a classroom teacher for 28 years in public middle and high school schools.

In an online tutoring/teaching situation, the student and teacher can get to the point of the current lesson immediately. If the tutor has done a professional job of getting to know the student in the first few sessions, and has a good conversation with parents about the learning goals of the child, this interaction can be very powerful.

Classroom teachers can only give a student a few seconds of attention throughout the class time available, if any at all. In my experience, only a few students can gain personal attention of the teacher: the students who are aggressive in asking for the teacher’s time, the ones who are self-confident enough to ask questions, or the ones who impact the class negatively with their behavior.

None of those situations come to play in the one-on-one environment of an online class session. The experienced and talented tutors and teachers get to know the learning style and skills of their students, and can make extremely effective use of the session time. A parent consultation or conversation at the end of the class session is an important benefit to the student, also.

A online teacher can ask pertinent questions, allow the student to take their time in explaining their thinking process, and can really listen to the child to best help them.

So, when your child connects with a great online teacher, you will know that there will be no wasted time and that the student is definitely getting your money’s worth, unlike the typical overcrowded school classroom! So, think about this: during a school classroom lesson, your son or daughter could have experienced 3 quality learning experiences with an online tutor. 3 for 1, and much more effective, motivating, and targeted!

A middle school and high school classroom teacher for over 25 years, Terry VanNoy takes pride in his ability to engage his students with creative ways of showing important concepts. He and his students use a shared computer screen, whiteboard, and use text chat and live voice (like a phone call) to work together during the instructional sessions. His online tutoring business caters to middle and high school students who need a confidence boost to get to the next levels and feel excited again about becoming math students who can achieve amazing things!
Terry VanNoy’s class sessions, Math with Mr V are by appointment only… Call toll free 1-877-317-3317 to arrange a free consultation! Help your child feel more successful in his or her math classroom.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Terry_VanNoy

When you first to do this it is important that you evaluate what your child actually knows. You should use alphabetic flashcards and get your child to identify each letter. Very young children may not be able to do this but may only identify the letters using the alphabet song. If this is the case your first step will be to get your child to recognise each letter separately.

You should then start to connect sounds to the letters that are making them. There are many ways in which you can do this but one of the best would be to get an alphabet floor puzzle. You should make sure that your child becomes adept at putting all of the letters together and understanding the noises that each one will make.

You should also be getting your child to recount back to you the different sounds made by each letter. It is important that you accept that certain letters are far more difficult to grasp, such as those that have two sounds such as C or G, and those letters that do not really sound like their names such as Y or X.

It is also a good idea to invest in different learning techniques such as the use of phonics books. These can be purchased from different shops all you can even download them from different websites, and they will certainly be helpful in allowing your children to identify the different letters and begin to put them together into words.

Want to your kids to learn to read faster? All you need to know and more now on http://www.follifootfarm.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mark_Andrew_Woodcock

1. High Quality Video and Audio Recordings: Some programs out there have really taken the time to put together some quality material online for people wanting to learn to play the piano. The video and audio recordings that you can download will help you see and hear first hand what you are going to be playing. For those that learn well by playing by example, this method of piano lessons works extremely well.

2. Different Approach to Learning: Music lessons, piano or otherwise, always include learning theory; while some people might enjoy the technical side of things and have no problem learning it, most of the time this is the subject that people tend to hate. But online lessons that you can download are now teaching people in a very fun way, using games to teach this previously boring part of reading music and understanding timing.

3. Convenient and Cost Effective: You can save a lot of time and money by using piano lesson software; not only will you not have to pay for lessons each and every week, but you won’t have to pay for the gas to get you there. Highly motivated people who want to learn to play the piano will find taking piano lessons at home online an extremely cost effective and fun way of learning. If you are homeschooling, this can fit it very nicely into your curriculum schedule. The programs don’t cost very much and are perfect for teaching any age and any skill level.

This article discussed homeschool piano lessons and 3 benefits of using online piano software and instantly downloading lessons to your computer. High quality video and audio recordings make learning a breeze since you can see first hand what you need to do and theory is made fun with some creative games. Since you are probably homeschooling your child in other subjects, this method is extremely convenient, cost effective and fits nicely into your daily learning schedule.

Of course not all of the programs that let you download piano lessons are created equal.

To learn more about online lesson options, visit Homeschool Piano Lessons.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jess_Kasey

Does the thought of teaching someone to read scare you?

It did me when I first started home-schooling. Teaching reading was a far cry from biology, which was my major in college. Since I had taught high school biology for several years, I knew I could handle any of the math and science courses, but reading? The thought terrified me. Somehow I had come to believe that the whole “learning to read” process must be some mystical endeavor beyond the grasp of everyone except the chosen few (aka certified reading teachers).

Since, according to my husband, I do things “cookbook style”, I began to passionately research the various reading methods to formulate a plan for a task I previously believed to be a murky and obscure process. Yes, I’m one of those people who reads the instructions first before putting something together.

To condense all my research into a nutshell I decided that using a phonics based approach would be best for our family. Through trial and error I hit upon a system that was highly effective (and cheap! – we couldn’t afford some of the great programs with all the bells and whistles). By introducing a few letters and their sounds each week along with blending together real words with just those few sounds as well as learning some sight words, I was able to put together a highly effective beginning phonics program for my kids.

According to Merriam-Webster, phonics is “the study of sound.” Its second meaning, the one we are interested in is “a method of teaching beginners to read and pronounce words by learning the phonetic value of letters, letter groups, and especially syllables.” Now, my definition in English: Phonics is the simple relationship between sounds and the letter or group of letters they represent. For example, in English we have no letter or letter combination to represent the flapped r that Spanish has. They write the sound of a flapped r as an r with a tiny v over the top.

However, in English, we do use the same flapped r sound when we talk, it’s just that we don’t have a unique letter(s) to represent it. For example, the word auto in English actually has the flapped r sound in it. It is the sound between the au and the o. We use a t to represent the sound. There are approximately forty different sounds in English, but only twenty-six letters to represent them. A single letter, double, or triple letter combination that represents one of those sounds is a phoneme.

The following are a few of the basic sounds and the most common letters that represent them.

a, “a” as in at or to the phonetician /a/

e, “e” as in egg /e/

i, “i” as in it /i/

o, “o” as in lot /o/

u, “u” as in up /u/

t, “t” as in tent /t/

m, “m” as in mom /m/

s, “s” as in see /s/

p, “p” as in pup /p/

n, “n” as in net /n/

j, “j” as in jam /dz/

The way the “j” is pronounced is actually two sounds that are said almost as one. A “d” and a “z” are said together quickly. English speakers only think of it as one sound.

Other weird sounds:

The x is really only a ks blended quickly together.

The q is really a kw blended quickly together.

When learning to read by phonics, the sounds represented by letters are learned individually and then students practice blending them together. So, the sound of “c” followed by the sound of “a’ which is then followed by the sound of “t” becomes c-a-t or cat. Some words, especially ones that we use frequently that do not follow basic phonic rules are usually taught as sight words. These words are memorized by the way they look or their shape. This is not a phonics strategy but it is a strategy that works well when using phonics to help students learn to read more effectively.

Lynda Delo is currently a teacher-librarian with a passion for literacy. She believes that with the literacy rate as low as it is in America, something needs to change in the way we are educating our kids. By making more connections between community groups, neighbors, schools, libraries, and other individuals, ties can be formed that will strengthen our society. By providing free resources on her website, not only is she helping to improve the literacy rate in America but is also reaching out to others in need. Visit her website for more information and to access her free basic phonics program at http://www.shelterwoodbooks-teacherresources.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lynda_Delo

Even perfect strangers may express concerns over your ability to meet the needs of your child, but the needs of the parent are often ignored. Let’s address some of the concerns parents of high schoolers face.

Burn out

Is it possible for a loving, patient, attentive parent to become burnt out from the endless demands for their attention? I will allow for the possibility that there is one parent who is so extremely competent as to never face burn out. This is written for the rest of us.

What can you do to overcome burnout while homeschooling high school?

Remember you do not have to do it all. Have clear priorities. Stick to doing those tasks which are most important. Perhaps you will need to take a break from some outside obligations for a while. That is okay. Learn to say, “No.”

In addition, realize that as you homeschool high school, your student should be learning to work more independently. That doesn’t mean your role as a teacher is obsolete. You still need to offer guidance, answer questions, grade tests and record information, but you should also transition into the role of coach and counselor while helping your teen develop self-discipline and independent learning skills.

Expenses

As you homeschool high school, you may find that it can be a pricey endeavor. You are no longer making popsicle stick puppets. You’re dealing with some heavy-duty subjects with heavy-duty price tags. Your student will need to take Biology. Biology requires a microscope. And slides. And a frog that smells of formaldehyde. Just like clothing, school costs more when it comes in big kids’ sizes.

How can the average family cope with the expenses of homeschooling through high school?

We live in a glorious age where we have public libraries, online resources and Ebay at our disposal. Used curriculum can be purchased for a fraction of what it would cost new. If you have a homeschool support group, you may know people who would be willing to allow you to borrow or purchase their gently used curriculum.

Teaching Weak Subjects

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. It can be downright fun to teach a subject that is your cup o’ tea. Unfortunately, the school day isn’t a tea party and you must also cover the courses you dislike.

How can you make sure your child’s education is not suffering due to your weaknesses?

As you homeschool high school, make use of co-ops, private tutors, or video and computer courses. I suggest that you earmark a larger portion of your homeschooling budget to cover your weaker subjects. For the mom who can’t trill a Spanish “R” to save her life, Rosetta Stone’s Spanish program on computer can worth every penny.

Feeling of Impending Doom

What if all of those skeptics were right? What if you really aren’t capable of educating your child at home and having that child grow into a happy, worthwhile adult?

How can you cope with your own insecurities while accomplishing what needs to be done?

Find some support. If you have friends who have already graduated a homeschooled child, learn from their experiences. If you have friends who are currently homeschooling a high schooler, lean on each other.

Even if you don’t know a single person in real life who falls into one of those categories, you don’t have to walk this path alone. Find an online forum for homeschooling parents. You may have to try out a few forums before finding one that feels like home.

Organization

How can you keep up with the necessary paperwork for homeschool transcripts when you haven’t even completed your student’s baby book? For those of us who are not naturally organized, that is a daunting concern.

You can overcome your organizational challenges and prepare professional transcripts for your teen directly from your home computer.

Follow this link for more information about preparing homeschool transcripts that will get your child accepted to college.

Follow this link for more information about curriculum, graduation, diplomas, prom, class rings and other challenges you may face as you homeschool high school.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carletta_Sanders

One very important part of college acceptance, especially when you are homeschooled, is having quality scores on the ACT and SAT. These scores indicate that you learned what you should have learned during the high school years. If your child gets a high score on these tests, being homeschooled or lacking official credits does not matter so much. Colleges understand that those scoring highly on these tests are the types of students that can handle college material with ease.

In order for your child to get a good score, you have to start preparing them as needed. The first bit of preparation is to make sure that you are teaching the subjects that are found on these tests. Generally speaking they favor high English, Reading, and Math based skills. If you have done well with these subjects with your child, most of these tests won’t be a problem for him or her at all.

These tests also have a certain format that your child will need to be aware of. This means that it’s important to take some practice tests so that your child will understand the dynamics of both tests. There are many practice tests that can be picked up at book stores or online. These will come in large books with a CD that will also have additional information and more tests.

Before your child takes the SAT or ACT have him or her sit down with these booklets as part of each school day and do some studying. The interactive CD will help quite a bit since it will quiz and tutor them showing progress or not. Doing this over time will improve these tests scores considerably.

Gill Tally enjoys baking bread. She has recently purchased the Zojirushi bread machine which she has written a review about. Take a look at her site at http://zojirushibreadmachineinfo.com to read this review along with other information and some great deals.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gill_Tally

We live in a world that likes instant gratification and immediacy, so time is not something that we like to wait on. But sometimes, instant gratification does not have the longest term byproduct. Think of the weeds that sprout up quickly in the spring. They don’t live very long, do they? In my back yard, we’ve had some particular challenges this year. A very cold winter complete with an overabundance of rain has wreaked havoc on our grass. Add to that the fact that we have two, yes two, Great Danes just a little over a year old, and you can imagine that the wear and tear on our lawn has been great. I see a lot of weeds coming up, but not as much St. Augustine this spring.

However, that St. Augustine grass is there. I can see pockets of it. It will need nurturing and extra care and attention, but it can come back. With a little effort, time, and a lot of patience, I will eventually be able to say that I’m tired of cutting the grass this summer, just as I’ve said in other years. But for now, it looks as if the weeds are winning the battle and may die out leaving me a lot of dirt.

This is similar to homeschooling in a way. As homeschoolers, we see pockets of growth in our children, but sometimes we focus on the weeds. We are busy instructing and training, but sometimes we exaggerate the weed-killer necessary instead of the fertilizer. Both are needed.

As a Christian, I regularly seek the scriptures for guidance, but on occasion, I will also look to the Hebrew texts. It was in the Jewish culture that Jesus grew, so the Hebrew texts can be fascinating. In the Hebrew Talmud, I recently saw an intriguing quote. It said, “When you teach your son, you teach your son’s son.” Patience. Expectation for the future. These things take time, but as homeschoolers, perhaps it will be helpful to keep this in mind. We may be teaching our own children now, but it is those same children who will impact the next generation, so whether we see it immediately or not, we are indeed impacting the future – for many years to come.

We see this principle in the Bible, too – Luke 8:8 is the punch line for the parable of the sower. “Other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” So be patient in teaching. Take care to fertilize and pull a few weeds. Remember that homeschooling is not a quick fix, and above all, know that what you are doing to educate your children is a gift for future generations to come, even if you don’t see the immediate results.

If you would like to get more information on college prep, educational coaching, homeschooling, or curricula for middle school and high school, please visit our website, http://www.nationalhomeschoolacademy.com. To download your free “Casting Your Vision Statement” guide, click here. http://www.nationalhomeschoolacademy.com/default.aspx?name=nha.support

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Camille_Rodriquez

While the socialization for a home schooled child might be different then a public school child the need is met. This is a fear that is legitimate that friends and family might have for a child that they feel might be leaving a conventional form of education study with the social factor built in. Depending on the age of the child the opportunities that are available for the child to learn and socialize are great. Following are a few places were socializing can happen for the home schooled child.

If there is a YMCA in your community there is probably a weekly home school gym day. The kids come in and play a variety of sports with other home school children in the community, friendships and gym class can be taken care of in one car ride to the Y. An art museum or pottery shop might offer classes for home schoolers where children of different ages and even mom and dad can become involved in projects exposing the family to the arts and at the same time introduce them to other families who enjoy the same activities. 4-H is a great activity to involve your children in. There are so many different activities available in 4-H that you can probably find something that each of the kids in a family enjoys and can become involved in. Specialized clubs, such as computer, art, chess, even specialized sports teams such as soccer and hockey are available in larger communities. Music is also an important element for most home schooled families, young children starting out in kinder music offered through the Y to private lessons as the child grows older and then joining a home school band or community orchestra.

Older kids can socialize with others in different age brackets as they work perhaps with the elderly in their church, or help out in junior church. Jobs also offer socialization to teenagers as they gain experience dealing with the public, with their peer group and with the boss. A lot of the time things come full circle for teenagers as they step into roles of teaching younger children at the same classes they use to attend when they were younger children.

At one time perhaps socialization might have been an issue when home schooled families were more afraid of how society would react to the lifestyle they chose. But today, it would be very hard to find home schoolers shut up behind their doors with no social contact with the outside world.

Shawn is half of the partnership of The Odd Couple Blog. Where the topics of family, marriage, finance, online business, home repair, home remodeling and other various topics will be covered. Come and visit at http://theoddcoupleblog.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shawn_Snyder