Month: July 2015

Museum of Flight-Seattle. WA

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We just went on a field trip to the Museum of Flight yesterday in Seattle.  I have lived my whole life in Washington but this is only the 2nd time that I have been to the Museum of Flight. I went a couple of weeks ago with my hubby on his day off and then decided to go with our homeschool group on this trip. This is a great field trip for kids.  They gave the kids each a booklet that explained the different planes and then had them go on a scavenger hunt to find and learn about them.  They also had fun activities like flight simulators that were of high interest to my older kids.  Another fun thing for the younger kids was the “FlightZone” area where it was an indoor playground made out of different airplanes or helicopters for the little ones to play in.  I especially like the building that held the World War I and World War II planes and how they taught about the different people that fought for our country.  The differences between the World War I planes and World War II planes was interesting.  It really showed how we had progressed in flight even during that time period. The Museum not only had airplanes but also had an entire section on NASA.   After our trip to the Museum of Flight my 12 year old son was talking to me about what it takes to be a fighter pilot.

The most economical way to see the Museum of Flight is to go with a homeschool group.  If you have 10 students you can create a homeschool group tour.  The cost is discounted for students and chaperones go free, you also get discounted on the different documentaries and even the flight simulators.  If you want to be even more thrifty, the Museum of Flight is one of the many museums that have a free day once a month for the public.  Most museums in our area have a free day the first Thursday of the month.  The last time I checked for the Museum of Flight’s free day it was a Thursday evening in the beginning of the month.  This is a great way for the whole family to enjoy a field trip.

A New Way of Hearing

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“Can You Hear Me?”  by Brad Jersak is a book that focuses on teaching people how to hear the voice of God and the different ways that He speaks to us.  He also wrote a kids version that is an amazing tool to use in discipling kids on hearing the voice of God.  It explains to kids in a clear way the different ways that God speaks to us.  For example, He can speak through the Word of God or through dreams and visions.  I have loved Jesus since I was four years old but it took awhile to learn how to be in relationship with Him and hear Him speaking to me.  That is why I think books like this are a fantastic tool to show kids at a young age how they can interact with God.  The back of the book also give parents ideas on teaching kids to hear the voice of God.  Each page of the book is colorfully illustrated and talks to kids about a different characteristic of God.  When I use this book with my kids, I usually only read one page a day and have a discussion with my kids on what it was about.  Kids are amazing at hearing the voice of God and they can be used powerfully to change the world.  I have seen kids be so excited when they recognize the voice of God in their lives.  I have also seen kids be used powerfully by God to change people’s hearts towards Him.  I never really thought about having to teach my kids to hear the voice of God.  When I found this resource, I was excited to see how this could help kids have a deeper relationship with Jesus at a young age.  God is amazing and desires to speak to the young and the old.

Young Scientist Club

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I have a 7 year old son who loves science.  It is the first thing he asks to do for school daily.  He wants to do experiments and hands-on activities all the time.  I was looking for a science curriculum that was easy to use and supplied the materials for the experiments.  I do not like to hunt down materials for science experiments.  It is so much easier if it all come in a kit or package.  The Young Scientist Club is a great science curriculum for ages 5-12 years old.  They even have some science kits that are for the preschool age kids.  Each kit comes with all the materials you will need to do the experiments.  Sometimes there are common materials from your kitchen or home that they require, but rarely do I need to go buy something. They do an excellent job of explaining different science concepts to young children and each kit has 4 or 5 experiments per subject that they are teaching.   When you order the young scientist club sets you get 3 kits per box that they send you.  The cost is $24.99 per set that you buy which includes 3 kits and up to a dozen or more experiments.  This is ideal for my son who can’t seem to get enough of the hands-on activities.  This is a great curriculum to develop a love of science in the elementary grades.  You can find the Young Scientist Club at theyoungscientistclub.com.

Highschool Social Studies/Study Skills

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I have been researching more about homeschooling high school.  I recently took a webinar class about homeschooling high school that had some new information for me. Interesting information that I didn’t know with regards to Social Studies.  Colleges are looking for 4 different types of Social Studies on your students transcripts.  These are U.S. History, World History, Economics and Government.  If you student loves Social Studies, then they can definitely do more than this but these are the classes that colleges look for on a transcript when looking for your Social Studies credits.

Another interesting tidbit of information was on teaching your child Study Skills.  Institute of Excellence of Writing gives a class called, “Advanced Communications Series” which teaches you note taking and other communication skills.  The homeschool mom then had the creative idea of using the teaching company courses which are college level lectures to allow her children to practice their note taking skills.  Awesome idea!  This would help them not be freaked out when they get into a real college situation.

The webinar class I took was “Keys to Highschool Success” by Lee Binz.  Worth your time and money to check it out.  It had some interesting insights and facts that I did not know for homeschooling high school.  The webinar class is found at thehomescholar.com.

Knights Kingdom- Audio Books

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Audio books are a great tool that I have used for teaching, enjoyment or building character in my kids as we drive to places.  “Knights Kingdom” by Chuck Black is an excellent audio  series that helps develop character training in kids in a creative way.  Chuck Black is a homeschool dad who told amazing bedtime stories to his kids, which he turned into fiction books for kids.  His first series is an allegory of the Bible using knights and swords.  They are very well done and my kids loved the audio versions of the books. They use multiple voices for the audio version which makes the story even more enjoyable.

His second series features different knights that are part of the kingdom.  I loved his second series even better because it focused on character training.  For example, one of the books addressed greed and another talked about overcoming fear.  Each main character was a knight that would have a journey and lesson that they needed to learn.  My favorite one was “Lady Carliss” who set people free from the lies of the enemy that were keeping them in prison and helped them see the truth and their need for the Prince, who represents Jesus. My kids enjoyed them at a young age but I want them to listen to all of them again as teens because of the powerful lessons that are portrayed by the author.  The only caution I have with these books is that the sword fights can be detailed, so I would say that age 10 and older is probably the best age to listen to the audio books.  My younger children listened and had no problems but you know your child best and what age would be appropriate.  You can find “Knights Kingdom” by Chuck Black on Amazon or Christianbook.com.  He also has is own site kingdomseries.com where you can purchase his products and learn more about the series.

How do I teach my child to read?

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I love reading and I prefer books to any movie any day.  I am one of those people that think the book is usually better than the movie.  As parents we get the amazing privilege of developing a love of reading in our children.  The easiest way to get your kids to love reading is to read to them when they are young and keep reading to them even after they learn to read.  My teens still enjoy our read aloud time and we go on many different adventures through books.

I have a few favorite curriculum choices on teaching kids how to read.  The first reading curriculum that I like is “How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons”.  I like this curriculum because it is easy to use.  It writes out a script for the parents for each lesson and it works.  At the end of 100 lessons or even before you are done, your child is reading.  This curriculum is contained in one book and all you have to do is buy the one book and nothing else.  There are not any bells or whistles in this curriculum, so if you have a kinesthetic learner, this may not be the choice for you.  Each child has a certain learning style that fits them the best.  The most challenging thing for me is when it doesn’t match my own learning style and I have to step out of my comfort zone.  I have one child who did amazing on “Teaching Your Child to Read…” and another child who was miserable with it because it didn’t have hands-on activities.  He was a more kinesthetic and visual learner.

If you child is more hands-on and like games and other activities to motivate them to learn to read, then I would recommend the “Primary Arts of Language:  Reading and Writing” by Jill Pike.  You can find this curriculum on the website of Institute of Excellence for Writing.  It has games and other activities to reinforce reading.  I really like how it combines whole language with phonics to teach reading.  I also like the “Phonics Museum” by Veritas Press.  This is a fun curriculum because it uses “real” books to teach the kids how to read.  For example, the first reader is a story about St. Patrick and his life as a missionary.  The language is simple for them to read but connected to someone in history.  On the back of each book is the moment of history that the book is about.  These both are more expensive options then the first one, but definitely more hands-on.  You can find “Primary Art of Language” at iew.com and you can find “Phonics Museum” at veritaspress.com.

Hopefully, this gives you a little bit of a starting point for teaching your child how to read.  Delight in the journey.

Where do I start with homeschooling?

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I live in Washington State, so this will be most helpful for those who live in Washington. Check out HSLDA.com for other state homeschool laws and requirements.  The compulsory age for Washington State is age 8, so you do not have to declare that you are homeschooling until the school year your child turns eight.  The benefit of waiting is that once you declare you are homeschooling, they have to take state tests once a year.  I personally wait until they are 8 years old so I have the option of not testing.

In Washington State, you have to fill out a “Declaration of Intent” before September 15th or within 2 weeks of the first day of school.  A parent also has to have a total of 30 semester college credits or the equivalent of 45 quarter credits to be eligible to homeschool.  Another alternative in Washington State is to take a parenting homeschool class that is provided if the parents cannot meet the required college credits.  Once you have signed up your child by filling out the the “Declaration of Intent”, they must be tested once a year.  These records need to be retained by the parents and kept as a permanent part of the their child’s record.  The test scores are not submitted to any public district.  For more detailed information on Washington State Laws on homeschooling, go to hslda.com.  They are the Homeschooling Legal Defense Association and they have every state’s homeschool laws in the entire country.

If you are starting at the beginning in the elementary years, the best thing to start homeschooling is to develop a love a learning.  Reading, Writing and Math are important in the elementary years but you also want the kids to love learning.  I have found when they are little, they have a natural desire to want to learn about things.  So if my preschooler or 1st grader wants to learn about hippos, then we go to the library and get books on hippos.  We still do the basics daily, but I do like to incorporate fun learning things that they want to know about.

If you are unsure about what you are doing in this new adventure of homeschooling, get a curriculum that has is all laid out for you like Sonlight.  Another full curriculum that I like is “My Father’s World”.  A good resource to check out if you are willing to do some research is CathyDuffyreviews.com.  She reviews a ton of curriculum, so parents can get a jumpstart on what they might want to use.  I will continue in the near future to put some of my favorite recommendations for various ages on this blog.  You can also feel free to ask me questions through the comments on this blog if you are wondering about anything that I have written or want further details on something.

Sonlight Curriculum

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Sonlight Curriculum is a literature based curriculum.  This means that they use “real” books instead of textbooks to teach the kids the different parts of history, science, bible and other subjects.  They are a user friendly curriculum because they lay out each day for the homeschool parent.  The teacher manuals are a great way to keep records by writing in the dates that you do the different readings or activities.

I love the selection of the different books that they incorporate in the curriculum.  They do not always use just Christian literature.  I like this aspect because it gives my kids a worldview that I can bring the biblical perspective to.  We were recently reading a book on a young girl’s life that had her belief system in Hinduism.  This opened up discussions on what the Hinduism religion was about and how we can pray for the people in India and Tibet to find Jesus.  My kids enjoy the different variety of books that end up being part of our library.

A more economical way of doing Sonlight is to purchase their teacher manuals only and then get the books from the library.  If your local library does not have it, they can  usually buy it for you.  Our library has all this information online and we can reserve books for pick up.  You can also buy the books on a Kindle app for sometimes a fraction of the price of buying the actual book.  If you are going to buy the book, I would buy it from Sonlight.  Their prices are competitive with Amazon and you can order just one book and still get free shipping if you are a member with Sonlight.  If you purchase a teacher manual you are automatically a member on Sonlight.

Sonlight is a great curriculum for a new homeschooler but also enjoyable for a seasoned homeschooler.  I am quite an eclectic homeschooler, I enjoy a variety of different curriculum and tools to help the unique learning styles in each of my children.  Regardless of the curriculum that I am using, I usually have some kind of library of Sonlight books that end up being part of my year.  Check it out at sonlight.com.

Fun Fact Cards

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I love little tools to help make a subject I am teaching my kids a little more fun.  “Fun Fact Cards” by Sally Borrink is a  great tool to use with your elementary kids for any subject.  Fun Fact cards are a set of cards that have a fun fact on each one.  We are working on the Space set.  My 7 yr old son loves space and looks forward to picking out the next card that he wants to read.  For example, one of the facts was telling us that there is no wind on the moon, so the astronauts footprints can still be seen today on the moon.  When we visited the Museum of Flight recently, my 7 yr. old son remembered this fact.  Sally Borrink has fact cards for many different subjects, holidays and seasons. You buy them as a download and print them.  Even my older kids want to be part of learning the fun fact cards.  The older kids enjoyed the U.S. Presidents set.  Each card also has an illustration  to go along with the fact for the day.  You can find “Fun Fact Cards” at Sallieborrink.com .  Its a great way to enhance some of your history and science subjects or in helping to remember the significance of a holiday like President’s Day.

IEW-Institute for Excellence in Writing

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Writing is not my favorite subject to teach but I wanted my kids to do well in communicating verbally and with the written word.  I found IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) to be a great resource and curriculum for writing.  It gives a formula to teach kids how to write and then uses that knowledge to expand the kids writing ability.  I love how they first give the kids a foundation on how to structure a well written paragraph or paper and then the kids use their own creativity with the solid foundation of writing that they have built.

This really helped my reluctant writers who couldn’t come up with any ideas if you gave them a writing prompt or their writing didn’t grow beyond what they were writing in the elementary grades.  IEW gave them tools to use in their writing that were clear and easy to add into their writing across all the subjects.  Once my kids learned the process of IEW and how to structure a well written paragraph, we used it in other subjects such as Bible, History or Science.

IEW has programs from Kindergarten all the way through high school.  They also have curriculum for Spelling, Poetry and different types of Unit Studies for writing.   We are doing the “Fun and Fascinating Facts” writing curriculum which the kids enjoy because they are learning about bugs, inventors, and other interesting facts as they write.  I also love how IEW has curriculum of high school that teach kids how to write short essays or research papers.  This is helpful especially to the parent that is unsure of how to make sure their child is becoming an effective writer.

IEW Student Intensive A or B, depending on your child’s age and readiness is what I would recommend.  Its a DVD set that walks you through the entire lessons step by step.  This helped me understand how to be more effective in my adventure of teaching writing.  Institute for Excellence in Writing is  a great resource that I am still enjoying in teaching my kids how to write.