How We Homeschool
SOFTWARE:
To begin with, right off the bat, I believe Homeschool Tracker is essential for ANY method of homeschooling! When I add a finished assignment to tracker I align it to state goals for the grade my child is in.
Homeschooling software doesn't replace the need for other teaching methods. It does however fill any gaps you might be un aware of! To that end I reccomend a software that is a basic "grade" Like Jumpstart made by Knowledge Adventure and Reader Rabbit/Clue Finder made by The Learning Company. We have Both sets From Preschool to grade 6. In Middle School we have the set Excel @ middle school which was also created by knowledge adventure I downloaded all the teachers guides they USED TO HAVE. Groliers Cornerstone Home and for Grade 4-12 we bought the 74 CD set Learning 2000 and Skills Bank Which was made by the same company that made Cornerstone Home and then they were bought out by The learning company. Some of these have Printable worksheets. All of these Programs have Printable reports for your portfolio. Some give the date and score each activity is completed. Which is Still a HIGH priority!!
Another software company that has gone extinct is 7th Level their software was of the highest caliber! Tuneland was useful in helping the kids memorize nursery rhymes and also developed mouse skills in my daughter to the point where she actually draws BETTER on the computer than she does her sketch book. Then there was Word Adventure which taught Language arts and Math Adventure really improved our kids Math. Where as Tuneland was my favorite i also loved the Universe According to Virgil Reality, their science Program it is witty and fun and has a ton of printables, you'll want a color lazer printer for these though! None of these are still available anywhere except EBAY or other auction sites. However since they run on any version of windows. 3.1 through Vista most who own them are not willing to give them up! After searching a bit I did find that Archive.org has the webpage with a few of the worksheets that came with the software. The webpage was called Kids World.
In Homeschool Tracker I list these as FREE CHOICE Educational Software and Add notes as to what they were doing. I allot 45 min max for this activity. In pretracker days I printed out a checklist for each week that went into their "learning tote" We Still add the worksheets to the childs Independant learning tote where they can choose wich they want to do. At the end of the week I add them to Homeschool Tracker and move them to the evidence tote for each child.
UNIT STUDIES: (A rose by any other name ...Some might also Use the Term Lapbooking/Notebooking/Scrapbooking but basically a lapbook/notebook/scrapbook is a means of storing activities completed in Unit Studies.)
We use mostly Unit Studies. I Printed every sheet I could find on a topic and added it to their learning totes. At the end of the week I add them to Homeschool Tracker and move them to the evidence tote for each child.
For Unit Resources I used I subscribed to the Newsletter from School Express Each Month they give 1 free unit and each week they give a new set of Activity Pages that match some of their units that they sell. We bought memberships to them for their materials so i have most of them and the free activities complement the units nicely. Teacher Created Materals , Evan Moor, and Teaching and Learning are Excelant sources for activities that match units. I'll add my other sources to typical course outlines for each grade as time goes on. Here is a Quick unit on Pork's role in nutrition.
As far as Lapbooks Go my favorites by far are the "hands of a Child" Kits They are available several places online but their site offers a Free Unit every quarter. To Get the Free lapbook you will need to LOG IN. Membership is free and once you order the lapbook it stays downloadable in your account So do it ASAP so you dont miss any. Mark it on your calender to check every three months.
Two other free lapbooks can be found at the Live and Learn site and the Knowledge Box Site.
More Free Lapbooks care found at Homeschool Share.
Activities of My Congregation:
We include our study for meeting as part of our Homeschool Curriculum. Magazines read are connected to the objectives as any other activity would be. Community Service is added as a Social Studies Course which I require 3 Hours per week.
Gesofari:
This tool has many Capabilities, From unit Studies to Classroom technology centers to the back seat of your car on long trips.
One advantage of the laptop version is its compact size while still maintaining the functionality of the larger models. The laptop Geosafari comes with 126 games of either Preschool to age 8 or 8-Adult. No matter which set you get initially you can always purchase the other later.
Additionally the codes are all the same for the larger Geosafari and can be found online. Therefore you will find it very easy to create your own card sets for your unit studies, Learning centers, quizzes and reviews. We use this tool to reach kids creative side by having them create cards to show what they are learning. They love being able to quiz others, Older kids like creating quizzes for their younger siblings. This tool can be used alone, Peer to peer, and tutor to student as well as with small teams.
There are many clones to this machine out there with all their whistles and bells the DO NOT leap the level of flexibility the geosafari has. They limit creativity where this one encourages creativity in teacher and student alike by limiting the number of retail cards and allowing for personal made cards that suit your units. The laptop geosafari is superior to the full size in that a card can be made on one sheet of standard size paper where as the larger takes two. These smaller sheets better fit small laminators you may have in your classroom or home.
Student made cards naturally lend themselves to portfolio evaluation. Just keep them in a folder and you have an instant review of what you have covered. Sets of cards can be progressive from one skill to another or theme based If you make cards on the computer you can specialize each set to suit a particular child simply by changing decorative art or adjusting the skill level to that of the child.
This machine requires batteries but Even with daily use the batteries have lasted us well over a year.
These lend themselves nicely to Homeschool Tracker since each card already has the max points on it and you just record the name, number, topic, and points scored in tracker after you have added the set to resources.
Television and Video:
Before you snicker at this think what is the point of the millions of dollars spent on television commercials? Point you CAN learn with this media!
For reading we used exclusively Between the Lions form PBS.
Standard Deviants has Many full courses on DVD their courses make learning easy and fun! They have a nice SAT test course that teaches how to take the test. I found it helpful to prepare for any standardized testing.
These Videos are Free but your Homeschool Support Group Leader must Request them.
If you are having difficulty deciding if a Movie can or Should be used as an Educational tool Kids in Mind will help.
Cable Television has much to offer if you don't mind the commercials! We got sick of them and resorted to buying individual shows on Itunes. They cost about $3.00 each but don't force us to watch the pure garbage that they call "advertizing". One favorite here is Myth Busters as a show that teaches about the scientific process. Other great programs can be found from History Channel and A&E, Numb3rs makes a great Highschool Math Program.
We all have movies we love, one of mine is Ice age, another might be Young black Stallion, and I might REALLY like Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends! Have others you prefer? Try the YMI site they have a revolving collectioin of teachers guides for many shows!
This is really a drop in the bucket of Materials you can use to homeschool. The Idea is to meet the needs of your Child! Our Children all for whatever reason decided that they wanted to have a "Nationally Acredited" Diploma. I was surprised to find that not all PUBLIC highschools are Nationally Acredited!! Our Search led us to two options. NARHS and PENN FOSTER. NARHS was best for our 2 Independant Learners they were allowed to design their own courses. Unschooling works here! Even if you don't choose this school it is a great Idea to download their handbook. It will help you decide what type of documentation you need to keep if you ever do need a Acredited diploma. Our middle kid is a Textbook-Test learning style Kid and wanted to do Penn Foster.
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