Understanding The Benefits of Home Schooling
July 16, 2008 Category: Home School No Comments »
As parents, we all know the importance of a top quality education for our children. It does not take a special education degree to know and understand just how important schooling is for our children. Now, you can become your child’s teacher and reap the rewards of home schooling! In the past few years, a strong movement has occurred in the home school endeavor. Parents everywhere are joining together and enjoying educating their children at home.
Today, more than ever before, parents are starting to know and understand the importance of a solid education with active participants from the family. Here, I will express the benefits of educating children at home as the parent of two children that are home schooled.
When a family decides to homeschool their children, it is extremely beneficial in that it actually enables the bond between all individuals to become stronger. In families where the children attend a traditional “brick and mortar” school, it is common to see distance between everyone – as each person seemingly goes their own way. In the home school family, nine times out of ten, the focus of attention goes to the children and their upbringing.
In the homeschool family, it is common to see that the attention is placed on the education of the child, or children in the home. Schedules put the educational and moral upbringing of the child or children as priority. The bond of the entire family unit is actually strengthened.
The next benefit to providing a home school education to your child is that you can take their individual beliefs, learning styles, personalities, and more and turn it into a customized learning plan that can be really beneficial to that child. You have the choice to teach the lessons as you want and apply the plans that are best for that particular child. Just as long as you stick to the educational guidelines that are put in place by your state, you have as much flexibility as you want and/or need.
There are many different ways that you can teach your children from the comfort of your home. You can integrate the use of poetry, puppets, blocks, art, music, and more! In addition to this, if you have specific religious values that you want your child to learn, you can also incorporate these lessons into your day to day activities. You and your child can experience a lot of flexibility when it comes to scheduling, lesson plans, and activities in general when home schooling!
Many children are locked in the same classroom day after day, studying the same books, and not receiving the personalized attention that they need to succeed. However, if you elect to home school your child, they can enjoy a lot of flexibility in where they study, where they receive instruction, as well as how they learn in general. This is a major benefit of providing your children with a home school education!
There are many unique strategies that can be used to teach children in a homeschool environment are numerous. Many parents incorporate field trips, community service, nature walks, and various other types of outdoor and educational experiences in order to supplement the lessons that they provide to their students. Having this luxury is extremely beneficial.
Home schooling allows parents the opportunity to take responsibility for the education of their children. The home classroom has evolved in such a way that it makes use of computer technology, the internet, hands on training and lessons, and various other things. All of these, when combined, creates an enriching and stimulating educational setting for children. There is no more “uniformity” in the educational environment. This environment has flexibility and creative approaches when it comes to stimulating the minds of today’s youth.
If the home school approach sounds exciting to you, and you feel that your child will grow from it, you should research the opportunities in your community. You may find that there are a lot more resources and methods of assisting your child than you ever imagined! Home schooling your child may be the best choice you ever make!
How High Visual Intelligence Can Cause Apparent Dyslexia
July 16, 2008 Category: Home School 1 Comment »
Most teachers of 5 and 6-year-old children will tell you how baffled they can be by this phenomenon.
There will be bright children in the class, who work hard but struggle to read.
Initially everything can seem OK. But, while other children’s reading progresses steadily, these children will hit a plateau at around 6. As the text they are expected to read gets more complicated, they will get more and more confused, often guessing wildly.
And then their confidence collapses under the pressure. They can feel everyone’s concern and don’t know what to do to fix the problem.
Sometimes this leads to a diagnosis of dyslexia, which is quite wrong.
Dyslexia is a broad term that covers any fundamental problem with reading despite normal intelligence.
But these children are usually just trying to read the wrong way. There is no reason why they should not be able to read.
Let me explain what’s happening.
A very visual child will find the alphabet easy to memorise. Then the first words they are show they will memorise as well. Everyone praises their progress and as far as they know, they are reading. The early reader books feed into this by using a very limited vocabulary that repeats a lot.
So all seems well.
But this technique gets more and more difficult as the text gets more complex. Children with a good natural ear for the phonic structure in words will now switch to decoding the words instead.
Others cannot make the switch without careful instruction. Their auditory perception just isn’t up to hearing the phonic structure of the words.
And these children are heading for failure
They become more and more addicted to wild guessing, using the context and the first letter of the word as cues.
They find themselves down a cul-de-sac and don’t know the way out. At the same time they can feel how worried their teacher and parents are, but can’t do any more than they already are.
Without expert guidance, these children will become part of the 20% who still cannot read properly by the age of 11. Their academic career and earning potential for the rest of their lives hangs in the balance at this moment.
And what a tragedy. We routinely watch them become confident readers in just a few weeks. They only need to be guided back onto the right path.
The label dyslexic carries a great risk that everyone will just relax into acceptance of the situation as inevitable. That leaves the child to deal with a much harder path through life.
Homeschooling the Charlotte Mason Way
July 16, 2008 Category: Children's Education No Comments »
Homeschooling used to consist of four or five children sitting around a table scribbling away in a pile of workbooks, while a stern parent stood over them and lectured. With the help of innovative teachers like Charlotte Mason, homeschooling has come a long way. Today, there are many different methods of homeschooling. The Charlotte Mason method has become quite popular with homeschooling parents today. If you’re thinking about homeschooling, you should definitely consider the different practices out there and see which will suit your children and family best. In this article, I will introduce you to Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling.
More and more parents today and choosing the Charlotte Mason method to homeschool their children. Charlotte Mason founded the homeschooling movement in the early 1900’s (1842-1923). Her enthusiasm and commitment to the education of children paved the way for a comprehensive and adaptable program. The foundation of the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling is a focus on core subjects with an emphasis on classical music, fine arts and literature. Charlotte Mason dedicated her life to creating an effective educational program that would engage children and provide them with quality and lasting educational experiences.
Charlotte Mason coined the term “living books” when she described the types of text books teachers should use. One of the most important requirements for a “living book” is that it must be written by someone who is passionate about the subject. The book should also be written in a narrative or conversational style which is sure to capture the attention children much more powerfully than the dry factual texts often found in public schools today. Books that feel “alive” and engaging will inspire a similar feeling towards the subject. Mason also coined the term “twaddle,” to describe books that condescend to children by dumbing down information or using unsophisticated language. Mason criticizes “twaddle” for killing a child’s enthusiasm and insulting their intelligence.
An important part of Mason’s program includes reading literature and narrating. Children must become proficient at narrating in their own words what they have read. The narration can be oral, written or even expressed in drawings. Narrating after reading helps to ensure comprehension. Younger children can narrate orally or through drawings but by ten years old, the child should be able to narrate a story by writing. Narration ensures that the child has synthesized the reading, organized the information in their mind and determined how best to communicate this information.
Another cornerstone of the Charlotte Mason method of homeschooling is nature diaries. Teachers should often conduct quick and catchy lessons outdoors and then ask children to conduct their own observations of nature and draw what they see. Mason believes that the consistent study of nature paves the way for the meaningful instruction of scientific topics. Spending a significant amount of time outdoors helps children create a bond with mother nature and a sincere respect for the environment. If you would like to incorporate the Charlotte Mason method into your homeschooling program, a great first step would be to ask your children to keep a nature diary which can include prose, poetry and pictures.
Children educated the Charlotte Mason way must not only develop literary, scientific and mathematical skills, but also excel in building good character and discipline. Mason was a firm believer that children must learn to govern themselves and develop a sense of inner discipline. Parents and teachers play an important role here, for they must guide children towards the development of good habits. Some of habits Mason encourages parents and teachers to nurture in children are: respect, patience, cleanliness and timeliness. Mason stated that it often takes four to six weeks for one of these skills to solidify as a habit. Parents who want to incorporate The Charlotte Mason method into their homeschooling program should try to implement as many of these practices as they can.