Monthly School Tips

April 2004--Will Your Children Never Be Quiet?!: If you are like me, you enjoy hearing your children talk, and it is probably one of the reasons you chose to homeschool--you like to be with your children and interact with them! That said, it can be very hard to start lessons when you have several children and they all are trying to talk at one time. What we have done here is give each child about 4-5 minutes at the beginning of our group school lessons to express anything on their minds that is important to them. Usually I end up hearing things like, "Mom we need more chewing gum," or "John stayed up late after you told him to go to bed." At any rate, it seems to get the chattering out of the way and allow each child to focus on the lesson at hand.

May 2004--A Laminated Map: I happen to love maps, and I bet you do, too. One of the first purchases we made for our homeschool was a very large wall map from Sam's Club. At our local Wal-Mart I purchased a roll of clear Contact paper. We spread the map out, cut sizes of clear Contact paper large enough to cover the entire map, front and back. We hung it up, and this has been one of the most enjoyable and durable items in our homeschool. It can be wiped off with a cloth, is sturdy enough to move without tearing it, and the push pins seem to work better with the Contact paper cover.

June 2004--Enticing Emerging Readers: I can't count the number of times I have seen one of my little ones hit that "I can read!" stage, only to lose ground because they did not actually do enough practice reading! If your child is an emerging reader and is yearning for a special something (a special something that is actually affordable, that is), why not hang up a reading chart and reward them with what it is they are longing for, after they have read a certain number of books? Load a basket up with bright, fun readers and let your child fill their reading chart up to earn their reward!

A Mother's Journal

Livin N Writin About It

Five In A Row ~ The "Heart" of our Homeschool:

Art of the Month:
"Rowing"

Quotations

"A rich child often sits in a poor mother's lap."
Danish proverb

"I hear and I forget.
I see and I remember.
I do and I understand."
Chinese proverb