Tag: Inspiration

Family Style Homeschooling

Posted on by resources_38ie7n

Family Style Homeschooling

I’m so excited to have Heidi Cooper as a guest blogger today. She is a homeschooler and the author of “It’s OK to Hide in the Bathroom” and other books on practical wisdom for us moms in raising our children in a biblical way.

She runs the website Torah Family Living where she has lots of encouragement and practical ideas to incorporate Scripture, especially the Torah, into your homeschooling and daily life. She is a member of AliYah Academy and a friend.

 

I hope you enjoy her article on her Family Style of Learning as much as I do.

Heidi Cooper

Family Style Learning

My father-in-law used to say, “The day you stop learning is the day you die.” This is so true for everyone, but especially for a homeschool family.

I was homeschooled in high school, and my husband and I are now homeschooling seven children ranging from preschool to eleventh grade. Learning together as a family has become second nature.

I’d love to share some of our tactics in hopes that you can feel more comfortable with family-style learning.

Better Together

The first step in mastering family-style learning is valuing your home life. Your home should be the central hub of your lifestyle, not just a resting place at the end of the day. Your home should be a welcoming, comfortable haven where your family actually wants to be. Part of this atmosphere is the physical condition of your home. While you certainly don’t need a magazine showroom, it does help to keep your home tidy and organized. Many families find this goal easier to achieve after getting rid of extra belongings. You can’t create a mountain of laundry or dishes if you don’t own a mountain of laundry or dishes. Life changing!

I feel, though, that the emotional atmosphere is paramount. Does everyone feel safe just being themselves? Can your children confidently come to you with problems? Do you laugh and have fun together? Are lots of hugs passed around each day? These all contribute to a home that your family will want to be in most of the time.

I would encourage you to also keep your children together for at least some of their lessons. My children work independently for most of their subjects, but we watch educational shows together, read Bible together, etc. Combine where you can, and allow your children to learn together. You can also pair an older child with a younger child. This morning, my eleven-year-old helped my four-year-old with his ABC and numbers flashcards.

Embrace Uniqueness

We are so unique as moms, and our children are so different from each other. We can capitalize on this, and when we do it right, learning can go through the roof.

One of my teenage daughters is currently obsessed with Japan. With some creativity, we were able to build on that theme in history, art, foreign language, and more. I don’t have to hound her to do those subjects! It also helps to make up for the non-negotiable subjects like math that she doesn’t particularly enjoy. Look for your children’s interests and incorporate them into their studies where you can. This can be as simple as book selections, writing assignments, and documentaries, or as involved as field trips. I don’t, however, envision a trip to Japan anytime soon lol.

Be forgiving of your mom personality as well. We are all so very different that there is no use in comparing ourselves to other homeschool moms.

Teach From Overflow

Many years ago, a mentor of mine taught me an important lesson – teach from your overflow. At the time, I was teaching Sunday school and Bible clubs, but this insight has been invaluable as a homeschool mom.

What does this mean? It means that, as the teacher of your homeschool, you keep on learning and filling your own knowledge tank. Continue to read good books. Talk to other families to learn new ways to handle things. Listen to podcasts. Watch a cooking show. Pursue your own interests. Maintain a hobby, such as knitting or bird watching.

Most importantly, fill your spiritual tank by spending time in your Bible every day. I also try to read Biblical articles so that I can share what I have learned with my family during our Bible study times.

Build Your Foundation on Scripture

This is perhaps the most important step in embracing family-style learning. Your home must be built on a solid foundation in order to thrive. So

me families are able to coordinate a Bible study time every day, which is wonderful. Our family doesn’t manage an organized time every day, but we do set aside time every Shabbat afternoon to read the Bible and discuss how it applies to us.

If you are not able to read and study the Bible together every day as a family, there are other ways to incorporate the Bible into your home life.

Assign Bible reading as part of your children’s schoolwork.

Use Scripture copy work to instill Biblical principles in your children’s lives. Don’t forget that Scripture copy work is great for moms and dads, too!

Memorize passages together as a family, for example, learn the 10 commandments together while celebrating the feast of Shavuot.

Post Scripture around your home, and use Scripture in everyday conversation, so your children understand that Biblical principles apply to everyday living.

As you make the Bible accessible and relevant to your family, they will develop the skill of understanding the principles behind commands. It all boils down to loving God and loving our neighbor. These are the principles that we want our children, and ourselves, to be living out. This is perhaps the main reason many of us have chosen to homeschool in the first place. We want to not only learn academically as a family but grow spiritually as a family as well.

I have put together several resources to help you learn together as a family at my website, www.torahfamilyliving.com. I have Scripture copywork books, parenting books, and a children’s book of the Torah portions. You are cordially invited to take a look and see if anything will be helpful to your family.

In what ways have you incorporated a family style of learning in your home?

Mastery Learning: Why Your Child Should Make A’s

Posted on by resources_38ie7n

Mastery Learning: Why Your Child Should Make A’s

Here at AliYah Academy, we are always reassuring parents that it’s OK, if not typical, for our children to make all A’s while homeschooling. For some reason we feel guilty like maybe we aren’t hard enough on them or maybe we are showing favoritism, after all, most children in traditional schools aren’t making all A’s.

There is a very good reason for this, apart from the fact that your child IS a genius and you ARE an awesome teacher (one of the best,) you are teaching to mastery. This is something that would be quite challenging, if not impossible, in a traditional school setting. Your child gets A’s simply because your child has you. For example, if your child takes a math test and misses a question you do not simply mark it wrong, give him or her an arbitrary grade A-F, and move on to the next chapter of the book. No, you stop everything and help your child understand and correct the problems they did wrong and then you pay attention and celebrate with your child when you see that they figured it out on their own and now understand the concept. Whether it happens that day or weeks down the road, you, without thinking, teach to mastery because it doesn’t make sense to skip over or rush through something your child doesn’t understand. We naturally want our children to understand, to learn. If they don’t understand a concept we don’t give a grade of failure, we just simply aren’t finished with that concept yet. This holds true for all subjects and skills. We want our children to do their personal best and be their personal best.

I have been explaining this to parents for years now. Mastery Learning is something we instinctively do with our children, but is not (maybe can not) be practiced in a classroom of 30-plus students, who have just met a teacher for the first time that year, and may not see said teacher again after the year ends, to move on to the next unknown teacher, and so on. This is the traditional system, but you have made a different choice, to teach Mastery. To enjoy the process, not just check off required boxes but teach your child to master each task set before them and teach them to love learning.

I recently came across this video from Khan Academy that explains Mastery Learning pretty well. I am thrilled that others are realizing the need for change in the current system and I hope it continues. You can find a link to Khan Academy on the resource links page, They have a free, good math program. Enjoy.

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!

Confessions of a Homeschool Mom

Posted on by resources_38ie7n

Confessions of a Homeschool Mom

So here it is, January, mid-school year, and time for us to record semester one grades. I have to confess, even though I am confident in the education that my children are getting, I have a moment of doubt when it comes time to record grades. After all, I am a busy mom, I work 2 days outside of the home and I also help to run our business from home. I have a one-year-old who is still quite attached to me; a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old who both require lots of my attention and constant activity; and a 7-year-old girl who is such a big help but still needs much guidance and training. Then I have 3 teenagers, high schoolers. I spend so much of my time reading to and teaching little ones, that I doubt, for a moment, that my high schoolers have gotten what they need. Besides that as a homeschooler our “school” does not have to be founded on grades, these are my children. For most subjects, we go over or they go over, whatever material is at hand until it is understood. We don’t move on until it is mastered, it’s as simple as that, it’s an “A” or we aren’t done. In a typical school setting where there are 30 students in a classroom, one year with each teacher to accomplish said subject and all subjects are compartmentalized. Yes, a grading system would be needed to try to “chart” how much of said subject was internalized by each student that year. But we as homeschoolers are not limited in that way. When I hear my children discussing “the British perspective of the Revolutionary War vs. the “American” perspective”… Then I know they “got it”. That would mean the material was mastered and that, my friend, deserves an “A”. So now here I am, mid-year to record my children’s grades. I go subject by subject that I have put before them at the beginning of the year to complete. I have trained up my high schoolers to be independent. I stay mostly hands-off, only to check final reports I have assigned, and I commonly discuss with them what they are doing just to check that they are still on track with their “school,” after all, their school is still my responsibility. I allow them to chart their own course in high school but they know the boundaries and what is expected. If they get off track, I am there to guide them back. So I get to each subject, some of them they do on the computer, I check their progress, remind them where they need to be by the end of the year, we make a new plan for completion if needed, then move on. I get to English… What have they done for English? I can’t even think, have they done anything? I had a teacher in high school who, at grading time, would call me up to his desk. “What should I give you an A or a B?” This was so crazy to me, did he not know my grade? Did I really have a choice? I would then have a discussion with him that would end up with me reminding him of all I learned and accomplished in his class. Everyone did not pass his class so I know our grades were not only based on that discussion but looking back, how brilliant, to remind the student of all they had learned by getting them to regurgitate it back, or was this not unlike our family discussions around the dinner table and me being able to see that they “got it”. So I call each child to me, first Mason, a senior this year, “What have you been doing in English?” He reminds me he is writing a novel. Of course! He is using the book “Learn to Write the Novel Way” by Carole Thaxton. He references it and uses it to get his writing juices flowing. He is always discussing his ideas with his dad, his brother, and me. He shows me his progress, I have to say, I am impressed. We discuss plans to complete it by the end of the school year and I happily mark down “A”. Now Ethan, a junior this year, … oh my what has he done? So I call him to me, “What have you been doing for English?” He says “Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction”… at first I’m about to blow that off as a joke, it’s a book by Jason Austin, using office supplies to make fun little gadgets like catapults, slingshots, etc. Then he says, “No really, I’ve read it like 3 times.” Then I start thinking, he had “OKed” a project with me concerning this book, I just didn’t think of it as English. But he is making “how-to” demos on YouTube. He writes and creates a dialog, does research, and creates video media, not to mention computer skills, mathematical, and scientific applications. Oh yeah, he gets an “A”! We discussed what I would like to see by the end of the year to include more writing, and I continue with my grading. By the way, we are always reading and discussing novels and Scripture around here, so I know that we have that covered, in their English, I am looking for more writing. Now Ethan is very hands-on, he would much rather be reading a manual than a story. Twice in the past few weeks, I have heard the quote “Find what you love and you will never work a day in your life.” I do believe, that is what both of my boys have found this year in English, so much so that I didn’t even see it as work until they showed me. To me, this is a dream come true, for my children to love to learn. For them to be finding their strengths and building on them. Now, again, I have no doubts. And I LOVE homeschooling! It is my hope that this will be an inspiration to you in your home.

Happy Homeschooling!