Tag: Foreign Language

The Great Courses Plus, Changing the Way I Homeschool

Posted on by resources_38ie7n

The Great Courses Plus, Changing the Way I Homeschool

Wondrium

**Update: The Great Courses Plus is now called Wondrium and has added much more content.

Sometimes you come across resources that change or reshape the way you homeschool. I have been homeschooling for over 20 years now, so this has happened to me a lot. My oldest is 22 now and I believe I started at birth, maybe before. I always felt like a homeschooler, these children are my responsibility and I want to give them everything so that they can have the best opportunity in life.

When I started, the internet was new. I would come across an educational computer program and get excited, or an educational series on VHS (remember those?)

But now there are so many resources you can’t keep track of them all and access with technology is amazing! Back then, I would buy one VHS (or DVD later on) and we would watch it like crazy until I could afford another. Now we have streaming access online or on TV. YouTube is exploding with educational content and I use Pureflix and even Netflix.

But I have come across something that is changing the course of our homeschool once again. And when I say homeschool, I mean life, because homeschooling for us is just life. Yes, we pick courses each year and have curriculum and lessons, but the majority of it is just free learning. I gear it toward our “theme” courses for the year or the grade level they are at but mostly we just have fun. For example, we are going to study Eastern Hemisphere History this year so naturally, programs, stories, or activities having to do with Japan, China, Russia, Korea, etc. will peak our interest and supplement our learning.

So what is this resource that is changing our homeschooling? The suspense!

Well, you must have seen the title. It is The Great Courses plus. You have probably heard of the Great Courses. I have gotten their catalogs and seen the ads online, they have high-quality, high school/college level DVD courses. But they are pricey! They usually range around $300 or more for one course. Sometimes I’ve seen them on sale for around $70 or so and I’ve even seen them in the used book store but I could never justify the price, especially for only one subject and not being able to preview it. What if we hated it or what if it wasn’t in line with my beliefs? Especially since there are so many other resources out there, yeah they might not be as high quality or as refined but I could make due. I could just never justify the price.

But I recently discovered they now have a subscription, The Great Courses plus!! You have access to over 11,000 engaging video lectures (with more continually being added) on Math, History, Science, Travel, Health & Wellness, Entrepreneurship, Photography, Language, Cooking, and more, from award-winning college professors and experts from National Geographic, the Smithsonian, The Culinary Institute of America, The Mayo Clinic, and more. All for one low monthly price! You can even try it for free and cancel anytime!

The Great Courses is a mainstream, secular resource created for High School and lifelong learners (think college courses) I expect you will use your own discretion when picking courses from this resource as I do. You will get everything from Biblical Hebrew to Evolutionary Science courses. There are so many choices, pick what is relevant to your family. If your beliefs lie on the side of Creation Science as ours do you probably won’t find many courses in the Science area, but the Math courses are amazing as are the cooking, language, history and culture, plus so many more I’m sure I have not been able to review yet. For our family, this is replacing Netflix. Even though it is created for older children my younger ones are also enjoying many of the courses too.

Most of the lectures are about 30 minutes long so I figured I could pick 4 or 5 courses at a time that can supplement or in some cases be the complete curriculum. That would depend on your child, family, and the subject. That would be about 2 hours of educational video instruction! That is very doable. I personally will still use YouTube for my younger ones but I have struggled to find everything I want for middle and high schoolers on there.

Some people do not like too much “screen” time but I find it extremely valuable to my children’s education if I choose wisely.

You can watch these easily on your computer, phone, or tablet. You can watch them from your TV with Roku, AppleTV or the Amazon FireTV or Echo. If you don’t have one of those and want to watch it from your TV you can plug your laptop (or desktop computer if it is close enough) to the TV and voila! Some smart TVs can pair to your phone which might also be an option. I personally use a laptop that is kept near my TV and set it up to easily hook up to it (it usually stays hooked up) we watch videos on our large screen and do some online lessons this way too when I want multiple children to see.

Also if you have a high schooler it is important for them to learn to become an independent learner, with your guidance of course. It is always necessary to oversee your students, they cannot homeschool themselves. You have to know what is going on, what they are learning and guide them when they need help or encouragement. In comparison, if they were at school they would have teachers and administrators at home they have you and the resources you provide. I will suggest that you consider The Great Courses plus as one of those resources for your High Schooler. For about the same price as Netflix or similar service you can have access to these high quality courses.

You know I rarely write blogs about products but, I was so excited to find this I wanted to share it with you. This is going to change my homeschooling this year. We have added this to our Resource page or you can click on the links in this blog. We are an affiliate for this company and if you purchase here it will benefit the school. But keep in mind we first and foremost share resources we use or would recommend then, if they have an affiliate program we participate in that. There is no risk to try it for free and preview the courses to see if this would benefit your family. You may find that it greatly enhances your homeschooling too.

As always, Happy Homeschooling!

Homeschooling in our House

Posted on by resources_38ie7n

Homeschooling in our House

I get asked a lot, How long each day do I spend homeschooling?, or How do we homeschool? Homeschooling will be as different for each family as there are families homeschooling. But for the sake of ideas in your home, I will share what works well for us.

First, let me share a little about our family and our lifestyle. We have seven children ranging from 18 down to my one-year-old. I knew I would homeschool from the time I was pregnant with my first child, at the time I didn’t know anyone else who homeschooled, it was just what I felt and I have ever since. We have a farming lifestyle, so our School changes with the seasons of the year and the seasons of life.

So how long do I homeschool each day? This is a tricky question. I may only sit down for an hour or 2 of truly directed “schooling.” But to us “Life is School” So I could also argue that we homeschool for as many hours as we are awake.

Right now, at the beginning of spring, I will share our typical day. The weather is nice. We have lots of dairy goats to milk and chicken eggs to collect and a new puppy to train into a working farm dog. We all get up bright and early to get the chores done, all the animals taken care of, little children fed and diapers changed. This takes everyone’s cooperation and even the littlest ones get some kind of chore. This is instilling teamwork and a good work ethic, not to mention the science involved with the animals, child care, and strengthening our family as a unit.

 

Then we all gather around our table, this is my favorite part of the day. We read a Psalm (or any part of Scripture) we like to read the same portion each day until we have it memorized. Then we pray, this can be a challenge with little ones but trust me the more consistent you are, the more loving direction you give, and the more they mature, they will grow to expect it. Of course the one-year-old we just try to keep occupied with something quiet or hope he takes a nap, but my 3-year-old, who is quite wild, now sits mostly still and likes to put his hands together, he will even pitch in with something like “Thank you YHVH for turtles” Everyone gets a turn, as I want them all to be comfortable praying, depending on Yahweh and trusting in Him.

Then we get into the more “school-like” stuff. We are reading poems by Emily Dickenson, we spent one day reading about her life, and now we are enjoying discussing and trying to figure out what she was trying to convey in her poems.

Then we read out of a child’s devotional book, “God’s Amazing Creatures and Me” We learn some interesting facts about a characteristic of an animal and then look at what that teaches us, we talk about listening better or watching our tongue, and then we read a bible verse related to it. We are liking this book, I will be sad when we finish it.

Then I use flash cards. My older ones are working on reading Hebrew, so while they pick out a few Hebrew cards to read to the group I give my little ones ages 7, 5, and 3 worksheets ( the 3-year-old just gets a coloring sheet ) I am doing Dolch words with them, they are common English sight words, you can look it up. We review words we have done, then I go back and forth giving my little ones a new word to write in their worksheet and while they are writing my older ones 18, 17, and 15 take turns reading a Hebrew word and showing the group. It’s all good practice and I try to keep everyone busy. Then my little ones get a handwriting worksheet appropriate for them. (The 7-year-old is doing cursive, the 5-year-old is doing reading readiness-type stuff, and the 3-year-old is still sort of coloring or getting into whatever manipulatives I have brought to the table.)

As they do handwriting we start our Polyglot training, we have always been interested in foreign languages, we are all studying Hebrew, we have learned some Spanish and French, and we start sign language with our babies (We like the videos Signing Time) So we decided to see if we could learn a bunch of languages at once, a Polyglot is someone who speaks many languages. So we picked 6 languages and are simultaneously learning phrases and vocabulary for all. It is slow going but fun as we try to remember and quiz each other each day. The little ones repeat the words too as they do their writing. I will let you know how it works out, it is all an experiment right now, but language stimulates different parts of the brain and if we are enjoying it, I know it will benefit their learning as a whole whether we end up polyglots or not.

Finally, we talk about any news or things we need to do for the day, I give my older children their independent assignments (English, History, Science) and we break for lunch.

In addition to the assignments I have given them, for the remainder of the day, my older children also have ongoing math, music, and Hebrew Rosetta Stone lessons; they dabble in art from the many books we have; Abi sews; the boys are learning programming, and we all are interested in fitness and health. As long as they do the assignments I give them and stay active, I don’t bother them much. I do show interest and give them advice and then I check the assignments when they are done. I am blessed that we don’t have many problems, we have always had a learning environment and my children enjoy it.

As for my little ones, I find a good time to sit down with Rebekah my 7-year-old, and do her reading lesson, we have tried a lot of different reading programs, I am using “Hooked On Phonics” with her right now and we really like it. You need to find what works with your personality as well as your child’s learning style. I am doing the “Hooked On Phonics” cards with my 5 and 3-year-old. Once they are comfortable with all the sounds we will move into the workbooks and reading. Kaleb is almost ready.

Other than that the rest of our day is filled with reading aloud; crafts; playing; nature; an educational video; listening to a CD of music, a story, or history; and some days we run errands. At the end of our day we do our chores, have dinner, and clean up, and some nights as a treat we watch something on tv together, a movie or educational program. Sometimes with organic popcorn.

We really enjoy homeschooling and my children are thriving academically, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. What more could we ask for?

I will share more about what we do with our high schoolers in my next blog.

Happy Homeschooling!