Homeschooling

Archive for November, 2007

Question: What are some good Dvd Homeschool Programs?

I have looked at Abeka and it looks like the videos are about 45 min per subject. And then my child has do do school work. I figure it's going to be an 8-10 hour per day program

Answer: I know that BJU has both HomeSat (classes by satellite) and DVD classes, they will also send you the entire curriculum on a hard drive that you can do on the computer. I don't personally do these - my son just plain doesn't learn that way - but I've heard really great things from my friends that use them.

The one thing that we do by DVD is math - we use Math U See (which I recommend 100%) and will be starting Videotext Interactive next spring when we start Algebra. (MUS also has algebra - precalc or something like that, but I like the setup of Videotext better.)

Hope that helps!

I Will Survive- Homeschool Version

Question: What does a typical day of preschool look like in your home? I need more ideas!?

I've been Homeschooling my daughter since she was 3 1/2 (she is 4 and 3 months now). I'm looking for new ideas on how to 'spice' up our preschool lessons a little, without spending ridiculous amounts of money.

She knows quite a bit about letters, the sounds they make, reading some words, colors, animals, shapes, numbers up to 15 (we struggle with numbers a little), pattern basics, and coloring. Along with the fact that she is on track developmentally and such.

How long does a typical 'preschool' day last in your home? We try for about 3-4 hours, but I'm starting to think that is just too much to ask of her.

As far as field trips go, we visit farms and ranches every now and then, but we live 80 miles away from any cities...so traveling is not feasible on a regular basis.

Answer: When we were at that stage, we'd do 15 or 20 minutes of "lessons" once or twice a day.

I did a lot of reading aloud.

For science:
We planted seeds and took care of them. We collected seeds from things we ate or plants we saw and put them on poster board and labelled them. We took nature walks and looked at the things around us (insects, birds, puddles, etc.). We played with containers of colored water (colored with food coloring) to learn about how colors mix. I read about various animals. We watched "Magic School Bus" videos.

For math:
We counted things. We counted when they needed to be in time out. We counted how many times I would push them on the swing or how many M&Ms they would get, or whatever. We played board games. We played with coins ("Can you find one like this? It's called a dime." and let them dig through a pile of change to find the right one. Later include it's value. Or play store with real money or play money.) We played card games--which helps with numbers. I put up a picture of what the clock would look like at the end of "nap time"--really it was a quiet time when they'd stay in their rooms and play or read quietly--and have them figure out how to tell from the clock when nap time was over. We watched "Multiplication Rock" videos to learn to count by 2's, 5's, and 10's.

For English:
I read aloud to them a lot. They learned some sight words and the sounds that letters make (first single letters, later combinations of letters, and later we did "word families" with lists of rhyming words). They memorized some nursery rhymes and such, mostly from saying them over and over so often. They learned the alphabet song, and I found a song online for the days of the week and another for the months of the year and taught those to them.

For social studies:
We talked about the places in the community that we went to, and the people we saw (the mailman, the police man, the store clerk, etc.) and their jobs. I read to them about different periods in history--books about castles and princesses and knights, or ancient Egypt and mummies and pyramids, or whatever. I read aloud the "Little House..." series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. And we occasionally watched videos on geography or history.

Other:
We did lots of crafts (coloring, cutting and pasting, painting, playing with playdough or clay, using chalk or markers or even "painting" with water on the driveway, stringing beads, "sewing" with yarn around the edges of lightweight cardboard that I first punched holes into--these are all good for building hand-eye coordination to help get her ready for writing). Field trips can include running errands, going to a friend's house, seeing places around you and discussing their history or importance, anything that involves getting out of the house and making use of what's in your community that can teach her something.

Mostly though, include a lot of reading aloud and LOTS of play time...

Preschool Learning Ideas-Ideas For Parents/Teachers