Top 10 Ways to Get Your Kids Excited About Reading: Family Bonding

Do you want to get your kids excited about reading? If so, get ready for the countdown: ten days of ideas that will get you and yours into reading! Today’s challenge? Make reading into a family event. While all of the past suggestions that I’ve made apply to families, today’s ideas focus on reading as a family bonding time. Make a book of family stories, or collect memories from family members. One of my favorite school projects involved collecting stories from my grandfather. I’m sure that you have some family stories floating around. Even if they’re newer stories about what … Continue reading

Top 10 Ways to Get Your Kids Excited About Reading: Reading’s Delicious!

Do you want to get your kids excited about reading? If so, get ready for the countdown: ten days of ideas that will get you and yours into reading! Here’s day two! We all love dessert. Even if it’s “just” fruit, dessert is special because it is dessert. Call a bowl of brussels sprouts dessert and I might just be inclined to eat it, almost. Ok, maybe not brussels sprouts. What if you made reading dessert too? Too often we have a tendency to make reading something that we have to do. Kids need to read for a certain number … Continue reading

Top 10 Ways to Get Your Kids Excited About Reading: Go Public!

Do you want to get your kids excited about reading? If so, get ready for the countdown: ten days of ideas that will get you and yours into reading! Now, by going public with reading I’m not saying that you need to stand on a street corner reciting Shakespeare, although that would certainly make life interesting. No, by making reading public, I mean that you and your children can enjoy reading that takes place in a public venue. From story times to world famous authors, from poetry slams to a visit to the children’s bookstore, there are many ways to … Continue reading

On This Day in History: January 16 – January 20

Looking for fun ways to spice up your homeschooling plans for this week? Here are some ideas taken from history. January 16 – in 2003, the space shuttle Columbia was launched on its final mission, and ended up exploding on reentry. Talk about space and the solar system, then take paper grocery sacks and cut a face hole in the front. Put it over your child’s head like a space suit. On the inside of the sack, they can draw a speaker and a microphone so they can stay in touch with the “controllers” on “Earth.” Then tell them to … Continue reading

More about Teaching Reading Fluency

My last article began a discussion on teaching reading fluency to students. At the end of the article I began describing some activities that can be carried out to increase fluency and encourage repeated reading. I have a few ideas left to share. Echo reading: In echo reading the teacher (or other adult) reads a line or a passage from a book. The students echo the teacher. The teacher should read with expression. Most students will echo the text with the same expression. Recorded reading: Many teachers have reading centers set up with headphones and books on tape. The child … Continue reading

2006 in Review: Homeschooling Blog at a Glance

As a new homeschooling blogger at Families.com, I wanted to know everything that has been discussed to date. In response to my own curiosity, and in an effort to make perusing our articles easier for you, our readers, I have compiled all of the blogs for the year 2006. Deciding to Homeschool Why homeschool Am I qualified for this? Reasons that Homeschooling Works! My Most Important Advice for Homeschoolers. The Cost of Homeschooling Instead of standing up for their own kids, why not stand up for all kids? Disclaimer: I am hardly an expert in education. Did You Know? ‘Empirical … Continue reading

A Day in the Life of a Highly Regulated Relaxed Homeschooler–Part 2

If you haven’t read the first part of this blog, you may want to read it before finishing the second part of our day. Andrea, my co-blogger here in homeschooling, had the great idea to let people read two different perspectives. We left off in our last blog discussing our lunch time conversations and the importance of such time. 1-3pm After my son cleans up lunch, we start doing what we call electives. Electives are anything from history and science to Swahili to ballet to crafts. They generally can involve everyone on some level, and are usually (but not always) … Continue reading

The Questions Continue Part 2: Q and A with Kaye

Kaye and I have been publicly discussing our views of home schooling vs. schooling out of the home (as homeschoolers would call it). Kaye’s last blog has asked so many questions that I have decided to answer them in three blogs instead of just one! The next section of Kaye’s questions are best answered Q and A style. The answers are so varied for each individual family, but perhaps some of you considering homeschooling can get a picture of what my day looks like. Can you share with me what a typical curriculum for homeschooling looks like? No, actually I … Continue reading

Homeschooling for Free

Buying curriculum can take a big bite out of your budget, especially if you’re homeschooling more than one child. But here is a list of free or nearly free items that you can use to supplement your curriculum: The Homeschool Mom has created a variety of free planning pages. There are several variations including lesson planning pages, an unschooling planning page, and even weekly menu planning pages! Word2Word offers free foreign language courses in a variety of foreign languages. You can learn just about any language you could possible think of! The National Anti-Vivisection Society loans out replicas of animals … Continue reading

The Traditional Approach

Often overlooked in a world of vogue methods and new ideas, the traditional approach is still the choice of many homeschoolers today.  The traditional approach seems vanilla and therefore rarely a topic of conversation anymore.  I started my homeschooling years using this approach and transformed into a Charlotte Mason method until finally settling in with an eclectic approach.  There is nothing wrong with this approach if you have a learner who is ordered, craves routine, and is an auditory learner.  We read all the time about textbooks being unnecessary but this approach loves textbooks.  Some believe it is a tried and … Continue reading