Elementary Homeschool

• Helping Homeschool Elementary Students Tell Their Stories

  16 April 2013 / Elementary Homeschool, Language Arts, Stories, Writing / 0 Comment

  

  When Allison's kids were little, they told us their stories. Good practice for later school!

  Elementary students in your homeschool need to tell stories as much as they need to hear them.  Are you helping your child tell stories well?  Storytelling skills equip young children for a strong language arts foundation that will prepare them for writing in the upper grades.

  Some little ones are very imaginative, and they love to tell creative stories to anyone who will listen.  Others are not natural story-tellers, so it's important to help them learn to articulate their stories competently and confidently.  Strong, effective writing in middle school and high school will be easier for a child who was equipped to tell his story while he was young.

  Literal thinkers, those who like nature and science and transportation more than fantasy, can be gently coached to tell stories well in the early elementary years.

  Here's an idea for helping your little one tell her story in her own voice.

  1. Ask your child to tell what just happened on your outing.  (Car-rides home are a great time to do this.)  Your question might produce an answer as simple as, "We went to the grocery store and I rode in the cart and we bought bananas and milk."  That answer included a setting and plot elements.
  2. Follow up with a question.  "Did the bananas look good at the store today?"  Your child now has to think about ways to describe the bananas.  "No, they were all really green."
  3. Another question.  "Who cares? Why did it matter?"  Now she's exploring her emotional reaction to something she's described.  "We were going to eat peanut-butter-banana sandwiches for lunch today, but we can't eat the bananas yet when they're green." (These are concrete, literal responses, but your child is observing the effect the circumstance had on her personally.)
  4. Encourage her to articulate the outcome of the situation.  "So what did we do?"   "We bought them anyway.  You said we have to eat grilled cheese today and save the bananas until they are ripe." 
  5. Your child doesn't even realize she is telling a story.  But her brain is practicing the tasks that produce a story when they are performed together.  So now add a twist to her story.  The phrase, "What if...?" is a powerful tool.   "What if the produce manager had come out with a cart full of riper bananas before we left the store?"   She may say, "That would have been good; we would have gotten yellow bananas instead."
  6. "What if he said we had to pay more for the yellow bananas because they were organic?"  Now you have presented a very real possible challenge in the story.  Your child has to consider motive (How badly do we want peanut-butter-banana TODAY?).  She has to make an inference by playing the story forward in her mind.  She has to reach a conclusion; knowing the characters as she does (Mommy, herself), does she think they might have paid the extra money for the ripe bananas?

  A guided conversation like this one helps an elementary child with no interest in fanciful creative stories (the one who will later moan, "I hate creative writing!  I don't know what to say!") lay a foundation for writing using the steps in her thinking that will produce good stories on paper some day.  It will become normal to think in terms of settings and descriptions, characters and motives, plot twists and multiple potential outcomes.  And it may save you both a lot of language arts frustration down the road!

  The 7 Sisters Ebookstore has homeschool resources for elementary students as well as high schoolers.  Have you visited recently to see what's there?

• Elementary Homeschool Co-Op Ideas

  11 April 2013 / Co-op, Elementary Homeschool / 2 Comments

  Co-ops are loads of fun for homeschoolers.  (Are you planning for next year's co-op yet?  Or is there still time to plan a six-week co-op with some friends to finish out this year with something new?)

  Here are some ideas for co-op activities that you may never have thought of:

  * Make a movie.  Take a book you've read in literature, or a historical event you've studied, and make a movie about it!  Here's one our kids made years ago after studying about Columbus.

  * Write progressive stories together.  Here's a vlog I made to help you get started:

  * Produce a mini-drama.  Bring to life characters you've met in books you read this year.  Have a potluck supper for all the families involved, and sit back to enjoy the show after dessert!

  * Try photography.  The kids take turns being the model or the photographer.  Or they can all take shots of the beauty of nature.

  * Write a newspaper.  Kids love to tell others what they're doing in their homeschool.  Collaborating on a newspaper for family and friends is fun!

  * Kitchen chemistry.  Google ideas for simple kitchen experiments with common household items and play mad scientists together.

  * Cook up some fun.  There's usually at least ONE mom in your circle who doesn't mind kids making a  mess in her kitchen.  The rest of you volunteer to buy the ingredients, and hold basic cooking classes for your co-op.

  What co-op ideas do you love for your younger kids?

  When children are together, they get to practice being social!

  What if social skills are a little under-developed?

  Vicki's Social Skills for Children can help.  Click here to see how!

• 5 Tips I Used to Homeschool my ADD Elementary Kids

  09 April 2013 / Elementary Homeschool, Social Skills, Special Needs / 0 Comment

  

  My ADD kids (and son-in-law) all grown and doing just fine.

  The 7 Sisters EBookstore has resources to help you with your Elementary Kids.

  Click here to view these comfortably-priced, downloadable ebooks today!

  Two of my 5 kids were diagnosable ADD when they were young. That was a great reason to homeschool them. We could gear curriculum, format, and schedules around their rhythms (or lack thereof). It was mostly fun...

  Here are 5 tips we used in homeschooling our ADD kids:

  1) Short lessons

  The definition of "short" varied by child (and by day). We worked until frustration built, then took a break to move and play. It stretched the homeschool day out longer but was perfect for my kids.

  2) Lots of color

  We often wrote spelling words and short papers with markers, crayons, and colored pencils.

  3) "What should I be doing now?"

  I would set a timer for one of my kids. Whenever it would beep, she would say, "What should I be doing now?" If she was on task, she got a sticker. Ten stickers earned a trip to the Dollar Store.

  4) Movement as instruction

  In their earliest days, we did addition and subtraction with hopscotch, would memorize Awana verses with homemade songs, and sometimes even do stretches during reading time.

  5) Quiet time

  For everyone's sake (especially mine), each day included a 30 minute quiet time after lunch. Each person would retire to his/her room and read, draw, build with Legos, or something similar. For 30 minutes, no one was talking to me. *yay*

  My kids are grown now and doing just fine. Creative investment in the elementary years helped my homeschoolers to learn well.

  What are some tips you can share about homeschooling your ADD kids?

  Social Skills for Children is a great resource for equipping your elementary kids with tools they need to navigate life...whether they have ADD or not!  Only $3.99 in the EBookstore.

• Notice Your Unique Homeschool Child

  08 April 2013 / Conventions, Elementary Homeschool, homeschooling middle school, Kindergarten / 0 Comment

  It was delightful to meet so many homeschool parents and their kids over the weekend at Great Homeschool Conventions in Cincinnati!

  We talked to little guys with blinking lights on their headbands, high school teens who were taller than we are, tiny girls in sparkly shoes, and marvelous middle-schoolers whose interests were all over the map.

  Do you know what we noticed about the INCREDIBLY DIVERSE group of kids we met?

  

  This group made themselves comfy in our booth and had a chat with Sara.

   

  They were incredibly diverse!  Each one was his or her own person, with interests, fears, dreams, likes, irritations, hopes, frustrations, a sense of humor, insecurities, and a smile like no one else's.

  This week, be sure to notice your child -- that kid right in front of you who just spilled something on the kitchen floor.

  Thank God for that kid -- that one right there who sometimes thrills and sometimes and frustrates you.

  That kid -- that one with the bed-head -- is not exactly like ANY OTHER PERSON on the planet.  And God gave that kid to you to parent and homeschool.

  How cool is that?

  For a free copy of our handout from Vicki and Marilyn's workshop MARVELOUS MIDDLE SCHOOL, click here.

  If you are getting ready to begin your homeschooling adventure with Kindergarten, make sure you download Vicki's book first!

  A Developmental Approach to Teaching Kindergarten helps you understand HOW your child learns before you begin -- a MUST-READ for parents of little ones.

• 4 Cool Ways to Homeschool History in Elementary Grades

  17 February 2013 / Elementary Homeschool, Geography, Give-Aways, News, Social Studies / 0 Comment

  

  Can you guess how long ago this co-op field trip was?

  My favorite years of homeschooling history were... wait... ALL of them were my favorite. Elementary years were SUCH fun for homeschooling my 5 kids.

  There are several different approaches to homeschooling elementary history. At these ages, there is not a specific scope and sequence you must follow, so you may:

  1. Simply follow a curriculum. Covers everything but may be boring. My family never used texts for history until high school.

  2. Take your time and study in-depth each time period, location, or concept. For example,

  

  We love homeschooling in co-op community

  we spent several years on American history rather than blast through it in one year. More depth, more fun, better understanding.

  Here are a few ways we homeschooled history in the elementary grades:

  1. Co-op

  My favorite! We had moms who loved history make crafts, teach dances and games, sing songs, read books with our young

  ones while the older kids concentrated on a bit more academic angles. Then, at the end of each unit, we took some sort of field trip related to our history topic. For a HOW-TO on forming a co-op, check out our free white paper.

  2. Real books

  No matter how we handled history each year, we did lots of read-alouds for history. Let the Authors Speak has been my favorite resource for book ideas, as well as the Newbery Award list. I always made sure my kids had individual reading to do on our topics as soon as they were old enough to read on their own (praise God for our local library).

  3. Integrate with language arts, fine arts, and phys ed
  

  Handling history in this manner naturally integrates language arts- reading and paper writing. Short stories, poetry, and reports can build off history topics. Music and art of the time period and region and era make the arts relevant. Even phys ed can be integrated with the games and dances of the time and region. The internet and library are great resources for ideas.
  

  4. Hands-on history

  We did hands-on stuff at home and with co-op. Here are ideas:     

  

  One of our co-op buddies, Brian, became a re-enactor for real

  
  

  -Make 2-D and 3-D maps

  -Re-enact or go to re-enactments

  -Sew, draw, paint scenes or stories or costumes
  

  -Create lapbooks

  -Play games, sing and dance to the tunes of the location and era

  -Watch dvds- documentary and movies. Here's our favorite history movie post.
  

  One good read-aloud for younger grades is Woodrow the White House Mouse by Peter and Cheryl Barnes. We will be giving a copy away at midnight on Sunday. The winner will be chosen from this week's comments.

  Two of our fun study guides for history/literature (easy, useful guides with no useless busywork) are Sarah Plain and Tall and A Christmas Carol. Check out our other elementary resources.

  There's some fun stuff on my elementary resources pinterest board.
  

  What are some cool ways you homeschool history in the elementary grades?

   

• 5 Tips I Used to Homeschool My ADD Elementary Kids

  08 October 2012 / Differences, Elementary Homeschool, News, Special Needs / 2 Comments

  

  My ADD kids (and son-in-law) all grown up and doing just fine

  Two of my 5 kids were diagnosable ADD when they were young. That was a great reason to homeschool them. We could gear curriculum, format, and schedules around their rhythms (or lack thereof). It was mostly fun...

  Here are 5 tips we used in homeschooling our ADD kids:

  1) Short lessons

  The definition of "short" varied by child (and by day). We worked until frustration built, then took a break to move and play. It stretched the homeschool day out longer but was perfect for my kids.

  2) Lots of color

  We often wrote spelling words and short papers with markers, crayons, and colored pencils.

  3) "What should I be doing now?"

  I would set a timer for one of my kids. Whenever it would beep, she would say, "What should I be doing now?" If she was on task, she got a sticker. Ten stickers earned a trip to the Dollar Store.

  4) Movement as instruction

  In their earliest days, we did addition and subtraction with hopscotch, would memorize Awana verses with homemade songs, and sometimes even do stretches during reading time.

  5) Quiet time

  For everyone's sake (especially mine), each day included a 30 minute quiet time after lunch. Each person would retire to his/her room and read, draw, build with Legos, or something similar. For 30 minutes, no one was talking to me. *yay*

  My kids are grown now and doing just fine. Creative investment in the elementary years helped my homeschoolers to learn well.

  What are some tips you can share about homeschooling your ADD kids?

   

• Sparkle Your Homeschool Co-op with Fabulous Field Trips

  05 August 2012 / Elementary Homeschool, Geography, High School, homeschooling middle school, Science, Social Studies / 12 Comments

  

  Co-op at Gettysburg

  The 7 Sisters and many of our buddies had a homeschool co-op for many years. We loved having a mom who LIKED a topic teach it to our kids. We loved the fun of brainstorming and praying together. We loved watching our kids grow up together. One of the things we loved most, that added sparkle to each year, was the wonderful field trips we took together.

  We can feel homeschool year 2012-13 in the air. In honor of that, and the nostalgia I feel looking back, here are some of our favorite field trips- and suggestions by some of our friends. Can YOU add some?

  -------

  Going on field trips is one of the best things about homeschooling.  Getting to experience tons of learning in unusual and exciting environments, receiving instruction from folks who are passionate about their subject area....that's the stuff!

  We live in the DE/MD/PA area, so many of these field trip ideas are in our neck-o-the-woods, but you'll see a few suggestions that reach far beyond our locale.  Here's hoping you find some inspiration to go someplace fun and learn something fabulous with your homeschoolers!

  * Maryland- Conowingo Dam, Ft. McHenry National Historic Park, Harmon Plantation, The National Aquarium - Baltimore, The Maryland Zoo, National Cryptologic Museum at Ft Meade

  *Assateague, Chincoteague

  * Massachusetts- Boston,  Plymouth

  

  Field trips are a natural part of Career Exploration at any age

  * Virginia- Jamestown National Park, Yorktown National Park, Williamsburg

  * Delaware- Pea Patch Island State Park, Grand Opera House Performances, Old New Castle (historic town), Cape Henlopen State Park, Blood Bank

  * New York City- United Nations, Times Square, FAO Schwartz, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty, New York/New Jersey- State Line State Park

  *New Jersey- Wheatland Village Glassblowers, Cape May

  * Pennsylvania-  Gettysburg National Park, Canoe Creek State Park (cool bats) Raccoon Creek (water bikes), Lancaster, Valley Forge National Park, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, The Franklin Institute Science Museum and Independence Hall in Philadelphia

  *North Carolina- Kitty Hawk, Ocrakoke, Roanoke

  * Washington, DC - the White House, the Monuments, the Capital, Smithsonian Museum, Arlington National Cemetery

  

  My co-op mom friends

  *San Antionio, Tx- Alamo, River Walk, Local Caves

  * Any "special events" at local historic sites where they had costumed guides/reenactors

  * Local Nature Centers

  Ok, we have to stop somewhere. Lots of these trips, we took as a co-op. (If you are starting a homeschool co-op, download FREE How to Start a Co-op.)

  What are your favorite homeschool and co-op field trips?

• Using Literature Study Guides with Elementary Students

  03 August 2012 / Elementary Homeschool, Literature, News / 1 Comment

  I am a huge fan of literature study guides in my homeschool.  I love words, and I think many students get more out of the words in the book they are reading if they have a good study guide to help them notice things that would otherwise sweep past them.

  That being said, I am an even huger fan of only using the elements of a literature study guide that actually ARE enhancing the reading experience for the particular child who is reading the book! 

  There is nothing more tragic than having a book ruined by too much school attached to it!

  When children are young, using a good study guide and using it wisely will lay a foundation for years of reading with their brains and spirits turned on, noticing wonderful things about the book in their hands, and thinking wonderful thoughts about how they might apply what they are reading about in real life.

  The 7 Sisters EBookstore currently has a five literature study guides for elementary and middle school students, and we have plans to create many more in the future.   The titles available right now are Sarah, Plain and Tall, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, A Christmas Carol, Cats by TS Eliot, and The Hobbit.

  May I share what's special about these study guides?

  * They include vocabulary, but they offer several approaches for learning the meanings of the words that are likely to be new to the student.  There is no one right way to learn vocabulary, and these study guides offer lots of ideas for determining which vocabulary learning approach is best for you.

  * They offer comprehension questions to help keep a distracted reader on task as he goes.

  * They offer application questions that encourage the student to think about what she has read, to imagine her own life as it would be different if she were experiencing elements of the story.

  * They encourage observations about the setting.  Sarah, Plain and Tall in particular offers activities to help incorporate both plant and animal science and history learning into your reading time.

  * They offer background information about the author, the time period in which the book was written, or the reason behind the writing.

  * They offer supplemental resources for understanding the story better and suggested topics for writing about it.

  Best of all, they are designed to be a tool.

  You can have your student work through all of the pages or just some; you are encouraged to pick and choose the elements of the study guide that are beneficial to your unique student.  No killing of the book should ever be allowed!  If there are too many activities for your child, just leave some out -- the most important thing is to encourage your child to have a positive experience with reading this book.

  Here's a vlog about using literature study guides in your homeschool:

  ====================================================

  Click to view excerpts from our guides for younger students.  At only $3.99 each, they are an inexpensive way to try an empowering  approach to reading with your homeschooled students.

  The Hobbit

  Sarah, Plain and Tall

  Cats by TS Eliot

  Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

  A Christmas Carol

   

  ===================================================

  What titles can you recommend for study guide creation in the future at 7 Sisters?

• 2 Wise Ways to Avoid Homeschool Overload

  02 August 2012 / Elementary Homeschool, Healthy Living, News, Personal Growth / 0 Comment

  It's easy to feel overloaded as a homeschool mom.

  We are trying to be mom, homemaker, and teacher, and some of us are also working to help provide for our family's material needs.  It is impossible to accurately predict exactly what a day will hold; we plan the best we can, but curve balls still surprise us and throw off the rhythm of life....or make us wonder if there is a rhythm to be found at all!

  On my personal blog at Perpetually Falling I touched on this last week.  After completing this summer's Homeschool Drama Camp (click here to see what THAT is!), I shared some thoughts on doing things

  "God's way or not at all."

  

  The Cast of Drama Camp 2012

  The song I wrote for the Drama Campers this year had these lyrics:

  It has to be Your way or not at all; what You say or I am bound to fall
  Your will, O God, is the safest place to be; I want to trust and live within Your plan for me
  However You direct that’s my priority; it has to be Your way…

  I know that my life is not my own; I need Your hand, Lord, to guide me on
  My plans will fail me and my strength is not enough; it has to be Your way…

  If I knew the perfect road to choose I’d travel it with nothing to lose
  But my vision’s small & I can only see a part, so it has to be Your way…

  "It Has To Be Your Way" (c) Sabrina Justison 2012

  I need to listen to His plans for my life rather than being swept along into the plans He has for people around me, even if those are people I love to play with.  If He doesn’t have it on the agenda for me, I need to resist the urge to pencil it in.  (To read the whole post, click here.)

  Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one who's trying to juggle Jell-O in the homeschool, but then I find encouragement from other homeschool moms who are living it, too.  I love hearing wisdom from the other moms in the trenches.

  Recently Kendra Fletcher of Preschoolers and Peace posted an excellent idea.  Kendra is "the homeschooling mom of eight, all of whom have either been, currently are, or soon will be preschoolers."  Here's what she asked:

  Do you have a NOT-GOING-TO-DO List?

  She will help you tackle life wisely with her thoughts at  Homeschooling Moms CAN'T Do It All.

  Feeling overloaded is not uncommon.  But God is never the one who is overloading us; His plans for us are for our good as well as for His glory.  If we keep to the agenda that He sets, the things that really matter will get done, and the rest of it didn't need doin' in the first place!

  Now, I'm curious....

  What's on YOUR Not-Going-To-Do List for the start of the new school year?

  =======================================================================

  Beginning academic endeavors before your child is ready for them developmentally should be on that not-to-do list!

  Vicki Tillman, MA has written a really helpful guide to determining your child's Kindergarten readiness, and choosing how you will teach this first year of "real school" in a developmentally appropriate way. 

  Click here to download A Developmental Approach to Teaching Kindergarten from the EBookstore today...only $3.99.

• Homeschool Co-Op Ideas for Elementary and Middle School

  01 August 2012 / Co-op, Elementary Homeschool, Middle School / 0 Comment

  Co-ops for homeschoolers are wonderful at any age!

  

  A co-op is simply a cooperative effort by two or more homeschool families who agree to meet together regularly to learn about stuff together.  Some co-ops are formally structured, include many families, meet in a church for extra space, and last all school year long to completely cover certain subject areas.  Others are very casual, involve only a couple of families, meet in homes, and add supplemental activities to subjects already being studied by each family independently.  There are as many variations of co-ops as there are homeschooling families.

   

  When my oldest started high school, we joined a co-op with several of the other moms who now make up 7 Sisters, and studied a number of subjects together every Thursday, taking turns teaching based on our own areas of strength and interest.  Those mini-class settings were really helpful in preparing my kids for learning under a teacher other than mom, someone who didn't have the same approach or the same weaknesses that I had.

   

  When my kids were in the elementary and middle school grades, my sister Allison and I had a weekly co-op for many years.  Each summer we would decide what subjects we'd like to do together in the next year.  These years of co-op were often delight-directed, and we had wonderful adventures learning things together with lots of hands-on activities and lots of bonding among the kids.

   

  Many homeschool families co-op for science and social studies in the elementary years.  But there are lots of other really terrific things to do in a co-op that you might not have thought of before.  Here are some of my favorite memories of co-op in our early years:

   

  - Packing a wagon to take on the Oregon trail.  We researched the amount of space in the average wagon, the list of supplies most families tried to take, and we used representational items of similar size to try to pack our "wagon" (dimensions marked on the floor with masking tape) and still have room for people to ride as well.  It was an adventure!

   

  - Book club with costumes and food and games from the book.  Allison's two older kids were book-lovers from the womb while my oldest was a later reader.  By planning activities based on a book we were able to encourage them all to really think about the material in the book.  We also learned about other cultures as we ate food or celebrated holidays based on the reading we did from another time and place.  Newberry Award winner Sarah, Plan and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan would be a great fit for this type of activity.  Click here to view excerpts from the study guide in our EBookstore.

   

  - Making a movie.  It required a lot more effort to make movies several years ago, and even so the effort was well worth it.  Now that almost every home has an easy way to shoot video, this is a really easy, rewarding activity.  Here's a video some of our kids made about Columbus and his journey to America.

  - Cooking class/basic nutrition.  I liked letting the kids make a mess of my kitchen.  Allison was not so much a fan of kids in the kitchen at her house.  So we did some cooking together at my house, and all of us had fun!

   

  - Photography.  With lots of kids around, there are plenty of models available.  We played with light, perspective and location while the kids were still really young, and they came up with some very imaginative ways to visually capture ideas, feelings, and stories in portraits.

   

  - Producing a mini-drama.  Dress-up meets story-telling and encourages public speaking skills!  It's never too young to get them started on good communication skills that will serve them the rest of their lives...plus give them fantastic memories!

   

  - Art/music appreciation.  Allison has a degree in Art History, and her love for art made the kids excited to learn about the different styles of paintings or sculpture we studied.  We also had fun with an introduction to classical composers; there are lots of great book and CD collections available that facilitate this activity, and we found our kids really enjoyed listening and learning together.

   

  - Writing progressive stories.  For the reluctant writers in the group, progressive stories are a great way to encourage and empower.  Here's a vlog explaining how to do it if you haven't tried writing a progressive story before.

  - Creating a newspaper.  Kids LOVE creating newspapers!  Chronicle your homeschooling and family news.  Creating a newspaper is a lot of work, however, so doing it with a co-op divides the labor and makes it less intimidating.

  ================================================

  Have you seen the resources the EBookstore offers for younger homeschooled students?

    Click here to view them all!