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A Home Business WorksHomeschool-Success.com |
Learning Materials & ResourcesWhether new to homeschooling or a veteran the topic or choice of a learning materials is something that needs to be considered each year. Whether you are unschooling or following a more structured curriculum, you will still be making choices regarding educational materials you are providing for your children. Because I was seeing my son's enthusiasm for learning dwindling in the few months he was in public school, I gave him time to de-school and just concentrated on his interests and making learning fun again. He had been bored in school and already knew everything they were doing, so I didn't worry too much about covering what he was "supposed" to learn at that age. You need to find what works for your family, and that may change as the needs of your children change. It is important for our family to go with the interest of the children. Some refer to this as "delight directed" learning. My feeling that if a child has an interest in something they will retain what they learn. Some people choose to completely go with the interests of the child and if that is what works for your family, that is your choice. I recommend reading books by John Holt and other unschooling books, if you are interested in this approach. Whatever your choice of educational approach, relax, experiment with what works for you and your children, and trust that they are learning much more than they would be in public school. That is the wonderful thing about homeschooling, you can meet the needs of your child or children as individuals. What is working well for us right now is working a little more structured Mon - Thurs. My children have 3-ring binders with assignments in the basics for each week. Anything I need to photocopy, I make in advance and put together their work for about 9-10 weeks at a time. The assignment sheets I make the weekend before on the computer. We cover the basics: math, writing and reading. If they finish their assignments by Thursday, Friday is a fun day of their choice of learning activities. If they don't, it is a catch up day and their choice afterward. Another thing that has helped my children stay more focused is that I tell them they have my help and attention from 9am-12 noon. They sound easily be able to finish the basics by then. After that, I have things I need to do and they will either have to complete their work on their own or wait until I have a free moment. T.V. and computer is off limits until their assignments are done. This motivates them to keep focused and get their work done or finish up independently. This has been a necessity because I run a home business as well as home school, but has turned out to be helping my children become more responsible and independent learners. There are some great books and programs that could be used with your children whether you have a more unschooling, open style of homeschool or if you prefer a more structured style. I include my children in planing and goal setting so they choose topics and activities they have an interest in. If one child doesn't have an interest in part of the program, he or she may later or one of the other children will. Both Make Reading Fun!™ and Ten Terrific Weeks™ are design to capture a child's interest, so I am sure your child will have a high interest level in most or all of the activities. My children love Usborne books and actually choose them over other books in our house. My son even bookmarks the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History with post-it notes so he can go back to the pages he likes the most. I didn't want him taking it to bed, in case it would get damaged by being slept on or dropped in the night and he even tried to sneak it up to bed under his robe! I guess I need to get the library-bound copy, which will stand up to that type of usage. Below are some other books or educational material I recommend: check subject links on the right, more materials will be added soon
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