Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Colleges Are Noticing

Nationwide there are over 2 million children being homeschooled. What used to be abnormal and strange to society has now become one of the most popular forms of education. Just in my state alone, NC, there are more than 83,000 homeschoolers. When you consider our state only has about 10,000,000 people in it, that's a huge amount of children being homeschooled! What used to be a private school preferred state has now became a homeschool preferred state.

Not only is homeschooling becoming more popular, homeschoolers are also scoring higher on standardized tests. According to a 2009 study from the Home School Legal Defense Association of almost 12,000 homeschooled students, homeschoolers scored 37 percentage points higher on standardized tests than their public school counterparts.

Combine rising popularity with high academic scores and it's no surprise that well respected, well known colleges and universities are starting to see homeschoolers in a new light. According to Stanford admissions, “Homeschooled students comprise a small yet growing percentage of our applicant pool.” Princeton “welcomes” homeschooled applicants, noting that one homeschooler went on to graduate as the university’s Class of 2002 valedictorian. And at Duke, admissions materials state: “For the past several years, homeschooled students have been admitted to Duke at a rate equal to or higher than that for the entire applicant pool.”

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

e-Camp Closing Soon

I just got word from Aurora at Supercharged Science that they are closing down enrollment in summer e-Camp 2012 by TOMORROW.

Click the link below to get all the details before it's too late:
ScienceLearningSpace.com

If you're not familiar with e-Camp, here's the scoop. e-Camp is an all out totally fun AND educational online science camp. If you want to keep your kids' learning this summer, but you also want it to be totally fun, this might just be the answer. Imagine having all the fun and excitement of a live-and-in- person summer camp, but being able to have your kids do it on their own schedule... (It's set up so they can do it on their own - just set them up and they'll be engaged for hours). Plus, as a parent, you can feel good because even though they're having a total blast, they're actually learning good solid science. The kind of learning that really relates to the world around them. Rather than try to explain it all, I'll leave that to Aurora herself. I have seen her stuff, and I can tell you that she really over-delivers. Last year over 800 people enrolled in e-Camp in less than 4 days! Today and tomorrow are the last days to enroll for summer 2012. Click the link below now to learn more and to enroll:
ScienceLearningSpace.com

I know your kids will have a great summer in e-Camp!

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Homeschooling An ADD Or ADHD Child

If you have a child who suffers from ADD or ADHD you know it is often difficult to get your child to sit still for more than two minutes. Knowing this makes some parents ask "How am I supposed to homeschool when I can't even get them to sit down long enough for me to tie their shoes?" The answer: "You just do!" Is it going to be difficult? You bet. Are you going to want to pull your hair out at times? Absolutely! BUT, will you and your child develop a stronger bond and learn way more than either of you ever thought possible? You can count on it!

Homeschooling, in and of itself, can be a difficult, stressful process, especially in the beginning. Adding a hyperactive child to the mix can make things even more difficult and stressful, but it's not impossible. If a public school teacher can teach a class of 30 students, including those with ADD and ADHD, you can homeschool your own child, or children, even with their ADD and ADHD. A public school teacher has a set curriculum, set schedule, and set pace they must work at. You, as a homeschool teacher have the liberty to choose your own learning style, adjust your schedule to fit your families lifestyle, and you and your child set the pace for learning.

If your child excels in one subject, but struggles in another, you simply use a higher grade level learning style for one subject and a lower grade level learning style for the subject they struggle in. If you know there's a certain time frame during the day that your child is just not going to sit still, regardless of what you do, you just block out that time frame and teach only when you know you can get your child's attention. If you have tried anything and everything under the sun and still can't get your child to sit down and write even two words on a piece of paper, you stop what you're teaching, go outside, maybe do some science or math learning (look for ideas in a previous post), then go back in and try language arts or writing once your child is able to sit down and focus.

Some homeschool mothers have found that computerized curriculum is effective for their ADD and ADHD child. In a computerized curriculum you pick the subject for your child to learn, and your child is then given games and other online activities that teach your child the subject. With your child constantly having to focus on "winning the game" by clicking the computer mouse they are more apt to sit down for longer periods of time, and the best part, they don't even know they're learning!

Another great learning style is putting activity into your curriculum. A public school wants your child sitting down to learn everything, but in a homeschool classroom, guess what, if your child wants to stand on the couch while you learn language arts, they can! If your child wants to run around while reciting their spelling words, they can! Get creative! Math doesn't always have to be sitting down figuring out a math problem. Math could be counting blades of grass, moving rocks around to figure out a difficult math problem, or even doing enough jumping jacks to figure out their addition problem. Movement can be used in almost every single subject, so use your brain, ask your child for ideas, do some research online, and put some movement in your classroom! And hint, hint....that movement you're doing in math to figure out 2+2..yeah, that's P.E too, so be sure to keep up with your activities and incorporate them into all the appropriate subjects.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Free Homeschool Gifts For The Summer

My friend Aurora with Supercharged Science is giving away even MORE great free gifts for your kids this summer!
She's got one of the top Homeschool Science Curriculum's, and this is a free selection of activities and experiments from her summer e-Camp program.

Get it while it's free --> CLICK HERE!!

You're going to get actual sections of e-Camp, complete with all the explanations, step-by-step videos, and lots more.
Everything you need for your kids to be doing some really cool activities and experiments!
Here's that link again --> Check it out here
Enjoy!

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Homeschool Numbers On The Rise

It should come as no surprise that the number of students being homeschooled has risen dramatically since the 90's and even the beginning of the 21st century. Ask most any parent that has chosen to homeschool, myself included what their main reasons for homeschooling their children are, and they will almost always list: school bullying, other forms of violence in public schools, drugs, and classroom sizes that are way too large for even the best of teachers to handle.

Now it seems that not only are average Americans catching on to the rising numbers of homeschoolers, even former NFL players are noticing the trend. Terry Bradshaw, former Pittsburgh Steelers football player, turned TV host on Today In America, has not only noticed the trend, but has added a completely new TV series on the topic. His new series, titled Home School Essentials, focuses on the rise in homeschool numbers, as well as discusses the many questions that new parents have as they debate on whether or not to homeschool.

You can read Today in America's entire story by clicking here

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Art in Homeschool

One of the things I have found that most of us tend to overlook when we are designing our homeschools are art classes. My two boys loved art in public schools, but when I began creating my classes I was going to teach I never once thought about art. I loved art in school, and still love drawing and painting today, granted I'm no Van Gogh, but I still have fun with art.

Even though my school year is pretty much already planned out, I did decide to take at least two days a month and do some art projects with my kids. Normally on Fridays we have "test day" where we simply test on the things we have learned throughout the week. Normally when we finish testing I let them have the rest of the day off, or we will go on a field trip, but I decided that from now on I'm going to use at least two of those Fridays to introduce art. It's something I know my children enjoy so it won't bother them at all to spend an extra hour or so drawing or painting.

Once I began searching the Internet for homeschool art lesson plans and curriculums I came across a website that both my children and I fell in love with! You can do everything from simple art classes for the beginning artist, advanced art which is for ages 10 and up, and you can even incorporate Bible lessons into your art! I already have a Bible class so I plan on using the Bible art lessons as a part of my regular Bible class from time to time.

The website is See The Light Shine. There are literally hours and hours of art lessons you can choose from. You can even order your art materials through the website. Some of the lessons cover black light drawing, so if you know you need the fluorescent chalk and the black light to do the project, you simply order the materials while you're right there on the website!

I have yet to find any art related website that compares to See The Light Shine. You have DVD after DVD, you have music you can purchase, and like I said, you have hours and hours of different art projects you can do with your children. If you haven't checked out See The Light Shine yet, you definitely need to! Allow the inner child to come out in you as you and your child learn how to draw!