My Homeschool Guide

The Organization of a School Room

Jennifer Wagaman — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 14:50:36 +0000

Organization of Shelving Unit

Ok, so we obtained the shelving unit – which is larger than I anticipated! I almost do not know what to do with all of the shelves.

So for now here is how the organization of the room is going:

1. Craft supplies on the shelving unit. For now I have all our colored paper spread out among the shelves to make it look like it is being used, but as we collect more craft items, the paper will be consolidated. My thought for organization here is:

Paper for painting/drawing
Paper for printer
Paper for writing letters (has fancy border)
Paint supplies including paint, paint brushes and paper plates
Stickers
playdough
Oobleck
Flubber
Craft books
pipe cleaners/pompom’s and other supplies
glue/tape
unfinished projects

2. We placed a stool at the craft table, and there is room to add more stools as necessary. This is helpful because the table is a bit high for a child to sit at a chair.

3. The desk will be a place for me to work or for drawing. The roll top cubbies will be a great place to organize pens, pencils, colored pencils, markers, rulers, stencils, and more.

An artist's masterpiece!

4. Bean bag chair in front of child’s bookshelf full of books, and the other bookshelf has my teacher books.

5. Coffee table will eventually turn into a sand table, but with the weather warming up and an outdoor sandbox calling my daughter’s name every day, we may put the sand table off until next fall.

So for our first craft time, we had some fun painting!

Just joining us? Check out the Creation of a School room.

The Creation of a School Room

Jennifer Wagaman — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:23:02 +0000

The Start of a School Room

Our daughter is not ready for Kindergarten yet, but we already know that we want to homeschool. So we decided: we are going to turn our spare bedroom into a school room, but for now, it will be basically a craft room. I have these lofty ideas of all sorts of crafts and art activities we can do together and eventually add preschool academics in as she gets older.

I have visions of artwork and laughter and creativity floating through my head as I start the process. First, I needed to clean up and clear out. The spare bedroom had begun to be a dumping ground for anything we didn’t know where to put at any given moment in time. As I cleared things out, some stuff went on freecycle and others went to their rightful place in the house.

We obtained a great craft table, and as you can see, I had to put my special mark on it. My inspiration behind the paint, if anyone cares, was the free flowing creativity that I hoped would pour out of my daughter and any other children who went to work on that table in the future. I hope to add more creativity to both sides and possibly the legs too, I haven’t decided yet.

Craft Table

Thoughts for the room at this stage in the process:

Painting table/place to glue thing together – basic craft area
Desk set up for drawing/coloring (the nooks and cubbies of the roll top desk is a great place for a treasure trove of markers, pens, pencils, crayons and more!)
Sand table (the coffee table will turn into the sand table hopefully!)
Shelving unit still to come and organize supplies and lesson ideas
One book shelf for children’s books, and one bookshelf for mom’s teaching supplies (mostly collection of stuff from when I taught in the public school system).
Foam floor puzzle for a carpet (it’s in the closet waiting for the furniture to all be put in place)

Follow along as we continue to build our school room! I plan on discussing organization as well, once the shelving unit gets here!

Free Science Experiments

Jennifer Wagaman — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:44:21 +0000

Hunkin's Experiments

I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up I loved science experiments. It may have been the learning or just the time spent doing something fun with my family, but either way, science experiments hold a special place in my heart.

Here is a website that provides over 200 science experiments for free. They are all illustrated in comic form, with both written and drawn explanations on how to preform each experiment.

Experiments include math, food, biology, sound, light, and much much more. There is supposed to be one fake experiment listed as well, and if someone thinks they know which one is a trick, they are supposed to email. Otherwise every experiment is supposed to work.

This is a great way to get children excited about learning and trying out a variety of different experiments on every day items.

Check out Hunkin’s Experiments.

Free Subscription to Lesson Pathways

Jennifer Wagaman — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 13:50:31 +0000

Finding free quality lessons is not too hard these days with the internet. But finding free curriculum is another story. Lesson Pathways provides parents and teachers with lessons put together in an organized way that can serve as a curriculum, and the best part, is that it is free!

Lesson Pathways has changed their subscription service to a free advertising supported website. This is a huge benefit to parents wishing to homeschool as there are now 900 free weekly topics with detailed lessons for grades K-5 available at your fingertips.

Features of Lesson Pathways include:

Guided Pathways, which are 36 weeks of lessons in a single subject area. These look a lot like a traditional curriculum with a scope and sequence.
Pathways, which are individual units that take a week to complete.
Stepping stones are the individual lessons and activities within any given topic.
A student planner

This resource is invaluable for homeschool parents and even teachers. Use as a curriculum or supplement another curriculum.

Check out Lesson Pathways today!

How to Deal with Home School Criticism

Jennifer Wagaman — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:50:28 +0000

Defending the Decision to Homeschool Photo provided by morguefile.com

Many people think it necessary to criticize a family that has decided to home school their children. Each individual has his or her own reasons for the criticism, but the bottom line is, in most cases, the criticism is unwarranted.

It is important for the home school family to think carefully about any response to criticism, and sometimes the best response is no response. Here are a couple of ideas for families facing criticism about their educational choices:

“Why aren’t you supporting the public school?” and similar home school criticism:

This allows the home school parent to either brush off the criticism, “We feel our choice is in the best interest of our child(ren)” or to dig deeper to a more personal conviction: explanation of safety, medical, special needs, or other considerations.

“You’re not a teacher, how are you teaching your own children?” and similar criticisms of homeschooling:

If the mom is trained in education, often she can use the teacher excuse: “what better teaching position than to teach my own child?” and all home school decisions will be excused. But when the mother is not a teacher by profession, many will challenge her ability to teach, and teachers will often feel personally slighted that the family did not trust their child to a “trained professional”.

Families facing this criticism can either brush it off without a true answer: “It is a challenge but we are having fun and learning together” or for someone who might be more open to learning more about homeschooling, share some of the curriculum choices and educational materials that make it possible for parents to teach without a teaching background.

“You are stunting your child’s social development” and similar accusations against homeschooling:

This is a common criticism about homeschoolers and comes from those with the least information about the homeschooling community. A quick explanation of the social opportunities your children have will generally turn away these criticisms. Some examples of social situations your child may participate in include:

Home school support group field trips
Church, bible study and other church activities
Volunteer work
Band and other music lessons
Sports teams and other extracurricular activities

The bottom line is that homeschooling is a controversial educational choice that many do not understand despite the growing home school movement. Answering criticisms honestly is important, but it is not necessary to defend the choice to home school.