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Dear Julie,
Hello Julie,
I'm wondering where you can point me to find out
about working
homeschool parents. I'm considering starting hs, but being able to
work at the same
time sounds tough. What kind of jobs do hs teachers do? I need to do
career re-entry, so
I'm open to starting something new. My background is in written
communication,
environment, facilitation.
Thank you, Stephanie
Hi Stephanie!
If you can find any way to avoid working outside the home while
homeschooling, I'd encourage you to do so. However, I do know some
single
mothers who homeschool successfully. It's not the ideal situation, but
it can
be done.
Homeschooling becomes a lot harder when you can't make it your
full-time job,
but it can work if A) you have a LOT of energy B) you have a lot of
determination and C) you're willing and able to spend most of your
free time
with your children. I know homeschooling mother's who do after school
care
for neighbors' children for a few hours per day, and do babysitting
all
summer. Some start up home businesses using skills they already
possess e.g.
making wedding cakes, custom sewing,selling Tupperware or
Usborne books or
Avon or some other product, or tutoring school children needing extra
help (
or writing books, like me.) If you think outside the box, you might be
able
to think of a way to use your work experience to start some sort of
freelance
business. Some homeschooling mothers work for companies or
institutions that
allow them to work shifts different from those worked by their
husbands.This
option doesn't allow a couple very much time together though.
Some couples can have happily homeschooling families under such
circumstances, but it does make for a very busy life, and not every
homeschooling family does well with both parents busy earning a
living. It's
important not to let your schedule become so busy that you're too
overwhelmed
to enjoy your children, and give them plenty of your attention.
Here are just a few web sites that might give you good ideas about
working at
home
http://www.kidsusbornebooks.com
http://www.momsnetwork.com/mnemainpage.shtml
http://www.wahm.com/
http://www.bizymoms.com/
http://www.hbwm.com/
If you search using "work at home moms" (I used www.google.com) you
will find
many many web sites devoted to this topic, so you may want to do some
browsing.
I hope this helps.
Julie
Dear Julie,
I have a first grader, who is now beginning to
write. Should she be keeping
a journal/composition notebook. If so , what type of things should I
request
her to write about?
Thanks. Homeschooling mom for 4 years, my oldest started at 3rd Grade!
Hello!
I think it's important not to push a child this young when it comes to
writing. If you push, it can quickly make the child hate writing,
which would
be a shame. I would suggest letting her write whatever she wants at
this age.
I am not saying you shouldn't have her practice penmanship using
whatever
program you use to teach handwriting, but I wouldn't require
journal-writing
or any other sort of writing at this stage.
Many first graders enjoy writing little stories, grocery lists,
letters to
relatives, homemade birthday cards, and in many cases, get plenty of
practice
with no adult interference at all! If you'd like, you can buy her a
pretty
journal for her to write in, little notepads, new pencils, fancy
paper, or
anything that will add to the fun of writing (I keep an eye out at
yard sales
for pretty stationary being sold for next to nothing...little girls
love
it!). As she grows older, you can gradually teach her to write reports
and
other sorts of writing typically taught in school, but at this young
age, I'd
suggest just keeping it fun.
Storybook Weaver Deluxe is a software program that gives young
children some
really fun tools to help them write stories. They can "illustrate"
their
story with scenery and clipart they choose (there are thousands of
choices.) They can even add sound effects! It's really a lot of fun,
and is a
good way to encourage young kids to write. You probably have a
word-processing
program and paint program that came with Windows, and she can have fun
writing and illustrating stories using them if you teach her the
basics of
using them.
You may want to teach her to use email. Most kids love receiving mail,
and
perhaps you could arrange for her to exchange email addresses with a
few other
children whose families you know. Oftentimes writing email motivates
children
to learn to spell. If you make yourself easily available to answer
questions
about spelling, punctuation, etc. you can help her learn a good deal.
However, it's usually best not to help until you are invited! If you
start
hovering over her shoulder and pointing out all her mistakes, it might
make
her decide that emailing isn't very fun, so be sensitive about this. I
hope this helps. Have fun!
Julie
We will be new to homeschooling this fall. My
child has used ABEKA in private school since K. The ISP group uses
Alpha Omega. My child is very visual. She did very well with
ABEKA. Any advice?
Hello!
Those ABeka books are so colorful and visually appealing. It would be
great if your daughter could continue with ABeka, but if that's not
possible, I would suggest that you supplement supplement supplement!
In other words, give her lots of things to do to reinforce what
she's learning, but in ways that suit her visual learning style.
You didn't mention your daughter's age, so I'll give fairly general
advice. Visual learners tend to do well with things like maps, charts
and graphs, photos and illustrations. If your Alpha Omega materials
are deficient in these, you can find colorful, kid-appealing books on
just about any topic in libraries and bookstores, so you might
substitute these when feasible. You might have her watch appropriate
videos relating to subjects she is learning. There's a saying that
creative writing teachers often quote, "SHOW! Don't TELL" This
is also good advice for parent/teachers of visual learners. Any
time that you are giving information to your daughter, you might
consider whether there is a way that you can show her. This gets
rather silly in my house....I remember once having one child walk in
circles around another to explain the planet's orbiting the sun.
Showing might also might mean simply finding her a picture to explain
something, pointing out a place on a globe, or sketching a quick
diagram to clarify a concept. Instead of just verbalizing points you
want her to learn, you might write them for her to see. If you are
pointing out a punctuation mistake for instance, instead of saying,
"you need to put a comma in that compound sentence" you can take a
pencil or pen and insert that comma yourself so your daughter can see
where it goes while you are orally explaining. Be on the lookout for
any places or events that have things she can see....museums,zoos,
historical buildings and monuments, reenactments of historical events,
plays, movies, festivals and fairs, etc.
Dear Julie,
I have 3 boys ages 3 (almost 4), 2, and 3 months. We always agreed
that we would home school our children, but I am a little concerned.
Our oldest son,is 3 and will be 4 in September. In our state of South
Carolina, the cut off to enter K4 is September 1. Therefore, our son
is being forced to wait until he is almost 5 to start K4, even in our
private schools. I know every parent thinks their child is smart, but
my husband and I feel that he is ready. He began talking very early,
and he asks lots of complicated questions. He knows all of his colors,
numbers, letters, and really wants to learn to read and write. I do
not like being forced to make him wait to begin his education. I know
with homeschooling I can choose when to start him. My question is how
do I make the time to home school him, keeping him focused on school
work and not be distracted by the 2 year old and 3 month old. I'm sure
there have to be other people who have had this problem and handled it
well. I would love any advice on how to tackle this.
Hi Summer!
Since you've always wanted to homeschool your children, I think it's
perfectly reasonable for you to go ahead and do it. If your son really
wants to learn to read and write, by all means teach him! A lot of
mothers worry about how they're going to be able to teach the older
child with a baby and toddler in the house. It's not as impossible as
it sounds. You don't need 5 or 6 hours of quiet time to homeschool a
little child. As young as he is, his learning can all be playful and
fun, and spread throughout the day in small chunks of time. Don't feel
like you have to have "school time" in which
things are all scheduled. Your little boy already has learned so much.
I suspect that while you raise your little boys, you've already BEEN
homeschooling them. If I were you, I would keep doing whatever you've
been doing! You probably read to them a lot, talk to them, take them
to the grocery store and other places where they see things and learn
things. When you start teaching your little boy to read, you can just
squeeze in a little reading lesson for 10 minutes here and there
whenever his brothers are busy sleeping, playing or whatever. Little
boys that age are so fun, and I'm sure
you'll enjoy homeschooling yours. :)
Dear Julie,
I have a 12 year old daughter who will be entering 8th grade in the
fall. I am seriously considering home schooling her. In March of this
year, she took a series of tests called Stanford 9's, and the feedback
from these was really eye opening. According to their standards, her
reading comprehension is post high school, vocabulary skills are at
10th grade level, math at 9th grade level, language arts(pre-writing,
composing and editing) at a post high school level, history and
science at a 9.5 grade level. With the variety of levels of knowledge,
how do I start homeschooling her? After having her in the public
school system for 7 years I am afraid I will fail miserably at trying
to home school her now. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you. Diane.
Dear Diane,
It's normal to
be nervous about homeschooling for the first time, but most parents do
just fine. Since your daughter is so advanced for her grade, even if
you were the worse homeschooling parent imaginable, she'd still be
ahead! :) So, relax....it could really turn
out to be a great experience for you and your daughter. You'll
probably make some mistakes along the way...we all do, but it will be
wonderful for your bright girl to be able to learn at her own pace.
There's no reason you can't homeschool your daughter so that she's
learning different subjects at whatever level is right for her
in each subject.
There are many many different ways you could
handle homeschooling her, and I want you to know that my ideas are
just one way. If my ideas don't suit your family for whatever reason,
there are plenty of experienced homeschooling parents who can give you
other good ideas.
Since she is already very advanced in
language arts, that takes a lot of pressure off you. If she were my
child, I would make sure that she gets a good bit of practice writing
one way or another...you could buy a writing program but you don't
necessarily have to. I would get a math program, and have her do a
little math each school day. Saxon Math is very popular amongst
homeschoolers. Your daughter could do the work without you even
needing to know the math yourself, because the textbooks explain
everything so well. Saxon's web site has a little test she can take to
help you figure out which level of math book is best for her. You
could buy other curricula, like science, social studies, etc if you
want to. Personally, I think it's much more fun (and they learn a lot
more) to NOT use textbooks for these subjects. There are soooo many
good childrens' books on every science, history, etc topic imaginable,
that you can find in public libraries. Having her read library books
and web sites about certain topics will probably be more interesting
for her than using regular textbooks. I like to read books aloud, even
to my older kids. If they are learning about the Civil War, for
example, I find a bunch of library books having to do with the Civil
War, and read some of them out loud (you and she could take turns
reading to each other.). We stop and talk about interesting things I
read, and if the book turns out to be dull, I drop it and find a
better book. We all learn together this way, and they end up knowing
much more about the Civil War than they would if they just studied it
from a textbook. Obviously space is limited here, but I gave you
a few ideas to consider. Best wishes!
Dear Julie,
I did not finish high school, yet I want to home school my daughter.
What are the requirements to be a home-schooling teacher? I live in
Illinois.
Thank You.
Hello!
Parental qualifications required for homeschooling vary from state to
state, since every state has it's own laws pertaining to
homeschooling. In some states a parent must have a high school diploma
or G.E.D. in order to be permitted to homeschool, but in Illinois,
according to my information, there is no such requirement. However,
don't take my word for it! Read the requirements for yourself,
and check to see whether you are required to fill out any forms or
meet any other requirements. Here are some websites for statewide
homeschool organizations in Illinois. These state organizations
generally are good sources of accurate homeschooling information.
http://www.illinoishouse.org/a14.htm
http://www.iche.org/homeschool_law.htm
What about Socialization?
How will a child become adequately
socialized if he or she spends all day at home rather than in school
with his peers?
We address this issue in
The McGraw-Hill Homeschooling Companion This is perhaps the most
frequently asked question about homeschooling. Homeschooling
parents believe that socialization of children is a function of the
family. They reject the notion that a child must spend his day
surrounded by age mates in order to become “socialized.” A
homeschooled child typically has playmates of a range of ages since he
hasn’t learned that all his friends have to be his own age.
Socialization involves learning to interact
appropriately with others, and homeschooling parents have plenty of
opportunities to facilitate this process. They intervene when
the child needs “assistance” in maintaining acceptable behavior.
Parents also serve as role models for their children, teaching them
many social skills through their example. Children get to
observe their parents dealing with a variety of people as they
accompany them on the business of day to day living. In these
ways, the homeschooled child learns how to function in society, and
this is “real-world” socialization.
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