Homeschooling Education Articles for Teachers - Page 2

Just because summer arrives in all its glory, it doesn’t mean that homeschoolers need to stop learning. But, there are times when a little break becomes necessary. A break recharges the batteries of both the teacher and student. When a respite is needed, some families are reluctant to stop school...

The summer reading programs have begun at most libraries. These annual programs are a great way to get both young and old readers excited about books. For some families, it can be hard to find books that people of all ages can enjoy together. However, there are many titles that fit this descripti...

We all know someone who isn’t afraid to “stick their neck out” to help others. They are people whose selflessness and compassion go beyond good deeds. Here are some simple and practical ways for children to be philanthropic. These ideas can be incorporated into state-mandated curricula, as well a...

On a recent walk around town, I asked my homeschooled children to take photographs of various buildings and other structures they saw. I told them that although each structure might look different, and serve a different purpose, each one was built using the same geometric principles. In order to ...

It's a teacher's nightmare. You wake up one day and realize your credential is about to expire. As a home schooling teacher, there was not a required number of professional development hours I needed to complete each year. Nor was I privy to the workshops and seminars I might have had access to t...

I love going to the zoo. It’s a chance to relax with my children and see incredible, often endangered, animals up close. Many zoos offer educational programs that are tailor-made for groups of homeschooled children. I’ve never taken advantage of such programs, as my children prefer to simply ob...

Literature analysis can be a difficult concept for students to understand. The ability to extract information from a book and reiterate it in written form can be a difficult skill to master. Analysis involves more complex thinking than simply naming your favorite character or part of the book. In...

Summer break is just around the corner, which means it's time for family vacations.  Minivans will be filled to capacity and everyone will be bursting with excitement to reach their intended destination. This is a perfect time to sneak in some learning time. With minimum planning, fun and learnin...

Parents who are new to homeschooling are likely to feel overwhelmed by the notion of how to ‘break into’ this educational arena. They have many questions as to how, when, and where they should school their children. Prior to deciding to homeschool it is wise to weigh the pros and cons in order to...

Here are some quotes most people recognize: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” “I have a dream,” and “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” The most powerful and inspirational speeches of all time contain words that people remember long aft...

Crayfish. Crawfish. Crawdads. What you call them depends on where you live. For those unfamiliar with this type of animal, crayfish are crustaceans that resemble tiny lobsters. They come in a variety of colors, and are generally a few inches long, although the biggest ones can be a couple feet lo...

Learning and discipline are interconnected. The ability to control emotions, effectively manage time, and maintain proper social discourse are important skills that are used in school and throughout life. The issue for the homeschooling parent can be finding a way to instill these values and beha...

One of my children once asked me, "In what war did the most Americans die?" It was a fascinating question.  After some thought, I guessed that the answer was World War II. We looked it up and discovered that I was wrong. The correct answer is, the Civil War. This surprised me, and also got me thi...

One of the biggest surprises our family had when we started homeschooling, was the sibling bonding that occurred. I had feared the worst, but was pleasantly surprised. I found out that siblings can get along. This may seem obvious to some people (the ones who don't have kids who squabble), but fo...

The rainforest. It is home to half of the world’s plant and animal species. But in recent years, due to widespread deforestation, its surface area has decreased from 14% to a mere 6%. What isn’t commonly known about the rainforest, is that it helps to supply us with a great deal of our medicines....

My son hates to write. In fact, there was a time when he was so adverse to writing anything down that I thought he might have an allergy to pencils, paper, or both! All of my previous attempts at creative writing had been met with frustration and apathy. Each project would end in tears--usually m...

For centuries people have built their homes with nothing more than their own two hands and locally available natural resources. Necessity caused people to combine artistic beauty and practical form to construct adobe pueblos, Pennsylvanian barns, Mongolian yurts and Indonesian stilt houses, long ...

Homeschoolers enjoy nothing more than going out to explore the world. The word "home" may be in the word homeschooling, but often there is more time spent outside of home on experiential endeavors, than sitting at home doing book work. Visits to museums, factories and special events, are great wa...

John Constable, the English landscape painter, called the sky the “chief organ of sentiment.” Leonardo Da Vinci called clouds “bodies without surface.” But you don’t have to be a famous painter to appreciate the beauty of clouds. All of us have enjoyed looking up into the sky and “seeing” differe...

This year, the country has been besieged by angry, Old Man Winter. His fierce temper has blanketed most of the nation in heavy, white snow. While school children have enjoyed the treat of snow days, many adults have long since ceased to view the snow as a novelty. On one of these many snow days,...

Students' first impression of the Impressionist Movement when they visit their local art museum might be that they are simply looking at “pretty pictures” without a deeper meaning. But this is not true. Impressionist painters and sculptors were seen as renegades in their time because they chose s...

One of the most useful, yet undervalued, math concepts is estimating. It is a practical skill for use in finding solutions to real-world problems and contributing to higher level math reasoning. Estimation teaches children to use their existing knowledge to figure out a problem. It is more concer...

Music elevates the soul and inspires the mind. By encouraging musical training, you can help your children enhance their listening abilities, discover patterns, and foster creativity. At my house, we have incorporated music into our curriculum every year since kindergarten. Initially, my kids we...

Have you ever seen your child so completely engrossed in an activity that he or she loses all sense of time and place? For my son, it happens when he’s engaged in certain math games on the computer. An hour can pass and, to use a sporting term, he’s still “in the zone.” His key strokes are automa...

Unschooling can be a controversial topic, even for homeschooling parents. People are usually passionate about the subject. They either love the idea, or hate it. However, unschooling can be regarded simply as another method used to teach children. The idea behind unschooling is that the student ...

The world around us provides virtually limitless  ways to teach number patterns to children. I found that our local place of worship, the mall, the park, and our public swimming pool were all wonderful places to investigate number patterns. We visited each place so my son could copy the pattern o...

It’s been my experience that students develop a greater appreciation of math if they can relate its significance to their own lives. Thus, when it came to teaching my own child about math trailblazers, men and women whose accomplishments made invaluable contributions to our world, I wanted to pre...

Bugs are not to be distained or feared. In fact, you can help your children discover the mysterious world of these bizarre and prolific creatures. Insects belong to the phylum Arthropoda, under the kingdom of Animalia. While some are pesky, and can be harmful, they are a crucial element in the fo...

I might be wrong, but I think that as a child, I spent more hours dreaming during the day, than I did at night. Often, a thought unrelated to what I was supposed to be thinking about, would distract me. And off my mind went, willingly, on the journey. Unfortunately, I would come out of the day dr...

My 8-year-old son is not yet at the point where he can calculate numerical extremes. He has no concept as to the mind-boggling vastness of the universe, or the inner workings of an atom. This kind of knowledge will come a bit further down the road. Lately, he has been learning about place value a...