Archive for the ‘Homeschooling Helpers’ Category

Over these 20 years of homeschooling we have tried many spelling programs that all promise great results. I’m sure all of the programs will help your children be better spellers but when we found one that promises and delivers great results, that is easy and affordable for busy moms to use, we became fans! This incredible spelling program is…

• Easy for moms
• Simple for kids
• Effective
• Works for all ages
• Non-consumable
• A great value

And best of all – it works!

Give them a CD player, a notebook and pencil and they are on their way to better spelling!

The Phonetic Zoo – Available in 3 levels.

Elementary students are wonderful to teach. Their imaginations are ripe and their brains are little sponges…they want to learn.

“Not my kids!” you say???

Yes, your kids. The elementary age years are a time for you to enjoy working with your kids on things that will be foundational to their development, both academically and in their character development. If you’re at the elementary stage and it’s a struggle, let us submit an idea: perhaps you need to experiment with how you are teaching them as well as what you are teaching them. The number one mistake homeschool moms make with their elementary students is trying to do too much. Here is our simple list of how to make homeschooling your elementary age* students more enjoyable:

• Run with their favorites and gently encourage working on what they don’t like as well without killing the joy of learning. You want to foster a love of learning, so pick topics that interest them.
• Reading should be done daily – it is foundational to all learning and makes it easier
  • Wait for reading readiness -Your child does not have to learn to read just because he is five and “in Kindergarten.” I have five boys and only one wanted to learn before he was seven
  • Resistant readers: five minutes a day will improve their reading without being torture for them
• Read out loud to them and to you – read things that matter
  • Stories that have good morals and story lines
  • Skip “Jane ran” books
  • After reading, discuss what you learned
  • Allow kinesthetic learners to play with Legos, do crochet, roll on the floor or use their hands while listening to you
• Work on learning math facts so that they are effortless to recall
  • Make it into games (flash cards, card games and other movement games are great)
  • If they understand a concept, don’t require them to do 30 problems on a worksheet just because they are there. If they get the concept after 10 problems, move on.
  • On the flip side, make sure they learn the facts completely; don’t rush their curriculum just “to finish”
• Unit studies are great. We’ll write more about until studies in a few weeks when our TEACH TALK topic is “Multi-level homeschooling.”

* A word about “elementary ages” (or any age or grade levels). Remember to evaluate your child individually. Some children are reading for 1st grade work at the traditional public-school age of 6-7. Yours might not be. He may be slightly behind or slightly ahead. Teach to your child’s ability, not the “grade level” that the school system says they are.

What one book do I think every homeschooler should read? It’s called “Educating the Wholehearted Child.“ Order it this week and you’ll get two bonus gifts** when you enter the coupon code “WholeHeart.” First, a free down load of the article “Putting Fun Back into Homeschool.” And second, while supplies last, we will send a set of math flash cards absolutely free!

**2nd bonus gift has limited availability, so act quickly.

Preschool Activities in a Bag

I was at the park and got into a friendly chat with another mom who was there. We started talking about kids (naturally) and she asked me “Where did your daughter go to preschool?”

“Chez Us,” I replied.

As she stood there looking confused, I gave her the explanation she needed “I homeschool my kids and we did preschool at home.”

Another time, a friend was expressing concern about the upcoming school year…how will she manage her older child’s classes with a toddler at home?

And yet another friend commented on the project her daughter had done while at our house one morning “You’re so creative. I could never think of activities like that” she lamented.

Oddly, the answers to all three of these conversations have the same answer…Preschool Activities in a Bag. You see, yes, we do preschool at home; yes, my toddler can do “school” while older siblings do their work; and NO, I am not that creative…I just know a really good resource!

Preschool Activities in a Bag are a lifesaver. Each book is chuck full of step-by-step instructions, templates, supply lists and activity explanation (telling you what skill it is teaching) of over thirty activities that stimulate, educate and entertain your toddler. Why waste energy stressing out over how you’re going to occupy your little one when the hard work is already done for you?

I’ve chosen to use these activities only during “school time.” It’s my way of having my kids understand that there are certain times during the day that we do certain activities. These activities only come out during school, so my little ones don’t get tired of them.

Another bonus of the books…the authors suggest having a “swap” of activities. They give you step by step instructions for hosting the swap, but the gist of it is that you invite “X” number of friends to the swap. Each friend comes with “X” number of one activity already prepared. Then you “swap” activities. It’s like a cookie exchange…only you’re exchanging activities. So instead of you preparing 20 different activity bags for your preschooler, you prepare 20 bags of the same activity (this totally helps keep the cost down because you can buy supplies in “bulk”) and then each mom comes to the swap with her activity and you trade. What a great idea!

You can click here or on the picture at the right to download a pdf document to the template for “Fruity Puzzles;” an activity from Book Two that develops color and fruit recognition as well as sorting skills. It’s our gift to you. Try it! You’ll love it. And if you’re looking for a way to take the pressure off yourself on what to do with your toddler…don’t sweat it. Preschool Activities in a Bag are your solution! And did we mention…the wonderful women who wrote these books did their best to keep the projects in the price range of $1.00 per project! Sweet!

Finally, this week, with the purchase either of the Preschool Activities in a Bag books, you’ll receive a free download of Lorrie Flem’s book “So Much More Than Play Dough.” That’s a $9.97 value!

Preschool Curriculum is Big Business. What better way to make money than to tap into every mom’s fear that their child will be academically challenged if they aren’t being a-b-c’d and 1-2-3′d every moment of their life, with the latest and greatest preschool curriculums out there?

Not to say that these curriculums aren’t good. There are many good things about them. But here at TEACH we are just firm believers that you don’t need to spend a lot of money on programs with all the bells and whistles to educate your child. We believe you can do it with a few simple resources. Our suggestions will help you feel like you are “doing” school without necessarily going all-out.

1. Remember that at this age, less is more. Less bookwork and more time with mom. This is the absolute number one way to educate your child. This is what he needs, this is what she wants, and this is absolutely FREE. Roll on the floor, snuggle and blow tummy raspberries, give them a spray bottle of water and let them help you “clean” the windows.
2. While ABCs and 123s are important, what you really want to develop at this age is their character and a love of God. Teach them to say “Good Morning” to God before they even leave their room. Train them (by modeling it yourself) to pray when they are upset or happy. This will develop the habit of prayer.
3. Make them familiar with the name of JESUS and with stories from the Bible. We did this using the Bible Study Guide for All Ages (our favorite Bible Study guide for over twenty years!). We also use memory verses as a way for training their characters.
4. Take advantage of resources that are already out there. Don’t re-invent the wheel! There are so many wonderful resources already waiting for you. One of my top picks is “Preschool Activities in a Bag,” which you can read about in a separate article in this ezine. I also created a set of character training memory verse cards to make it easy for you to find verses to teach your kids.
   (And just for reading this article you can take $2.00 of the cost of the verse packs when you use the coupon PreschoolVerses at check out.)
   One coupon per customer allowed at checkout.
5. I can’t stress enough that these early years are the time to work on WHO your child is becoming more than WHAT they can do.
6. Learning the numbers and letter sounds in the preschool years is easy and fun. Watch your child for cues as to what s/he can handle. Don’t force learning, but foster it. Free downloadable coloring pages are ample with the internet! Teach them the look, name and sound of a letter by having them color it. Then play “I spy” and point out things with that letter.
7. Remember that play is learning! Preschoolers learn through lots and lots of hands-on play. Let them explore things-turn things, touch things, twist things, etc-that’s how they learn. If they play a game, rules aren’t important at this age…allow them to invent rules. It’s okay. They will develop a love of learning when learning isn’t “forced.”
8. Perhaps the number one thing you can teach your preschooler is self-control. Now, before you tune me out, hear me out. You can begin to successfully teach your preschooler self-control. My new ebook “Teaching Self-Control
   to Toddlers + (to Those from 4 to 144!)” will guide and encourage you as you work with your child on this important issue. The book will be released in the next month, but you can order it on “pre-sale” right now…as soon as it’s released, it will be sent to you. Order it now for the introductory price of $7.97 plus receive a free download of the article “Ending the Dawdling Dilemma” as an added bonus for buying the pre-sale of Lorrie’s new ebook.

And finally, read, read, read! This is perhaps the most important thing you can do for your child and with your child. Read to them. They love it, you’ll love it and best of all, it’s snuggle time that counts as school!

It is summer vacation once again, and along with that comes the summer reading programs.  We have listed several below to get you started.  Don’t forget to check out the summer programs at your local library, also.

Wednesday Bookworms  – Every Wednesday at 10:00 am beginning July 8th for six weeks. A fun and rewarding summer reading program developed to encourage young children to read during the summer months. BOOKWORM WEDNESDAYS entitles kids to free admission to a select children’s film when they present a book report at a participating Showcase Cinemas, Multiplex Cinemas or Cinema de Lux box office. Accompanying parents or guardians and children under six receive free admission and do not need to submit a book report.

http://www.nationalamusements.com/programs/bookworm.asp

Borders/Waldenbooks – Children 12 and under read 8 books and bring in the completed form.  The child may then choose one of the selected items for $4.99, a savings of at least 50%.

Barnes and Noble – Children 1st-6th grade read 8 books and bring in the completed form. The child may choose 1 free book from selected titles.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/summerreading/

Chuck E Cheese – Read 1 book a day for 2 weeks and bring in the completed calendar.  The child will receive 10 free tokens with food purchase.

http://chuckecheese.com/promotions/pdf/RewardReading.pdf

Scholastic’s Summer Reading Challenge – Children sign up to be placed in 1 of 4 teams.  Then they read books for points.  The team with the most points at the end of the summer vote on which Save the Children U.S. program receives a donation from Scholastic.

http://www.scholastic.com/summerreading/

Half Price Books – Children 12 and under can earn a $3 Half Price Books Gift Card for each week they read at least 15 minutes per day.

http://www.halfpricebooks.com/feed_your_brain.html

TD Bank – Read 10 books and bring in the completed form to receive $10.

http://www.tdbank.com/summerreading/

Read with Kids Challenge – Log your time reading with your children for a chance to win a US Airways vacation package to Walt Disney World, plus other prizes.

http://readwithkidschallenge.com/

“Splish” summer reading program (The Old Schoolhouse Magazine) – Sign up to follow the blog posts.  There will be contests and book give-aways.  Stuff for kids and parents.

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/summerreadingsplash/

And finally, don’t forget to check with your local Christian bookstore, as they might be offering their own program this summer.  And if they aren’t, talk to the manager and suggest they offer it next summer.