Hiring a Tutor?

Even in the world of homeschooling, there are some constants and there are some things that are constantly changing.  One of the current homeschool trends is to hire a tutor for subjects in which parents may not be proficient.  This isn't a completely new idea, of course, especially as kids get into the high school years and need help with their calculus homework!  My own daughter takes Spanish lessons from a tutor, since I don't speak Spanish myself.  Some parents hire tutors for upper-level math or science classes.  If you're not so great with art games or music lessons, your kids might benefit from a tutor in those subjects too.

For high school kids, preparing for the SAT takes time and energy they'd rather devote to other things.  Hiring an SAT writing tutor might be an option to consider, just to help make that prep time more efficient.  Don't think that because you're homeschooling you need to be well-versed in all subjects - part of the challenge of being a homeschooling parent and teacher is knowing when to delegate bits and pieces to an expert! 

Homeschooling High School

Quite a few parents who have homeschooled during their child’s younger years are bewildered when it comes to homeschooling high school. They wonder what to do, and how to go about it, once that imaginary line is crossed and their child begins high school. But when you boil it all down, it really isn’t complicated to choose high school curriculum at all.

Sometimes the best approach is to stick with the program you’ve been using. If a certain homeschool curriculum has worked well for you, and it’s possible to continue through the high school years, why not? For other people, entering high school is a good transition point to begin a new program.

One of the most important things to look for when choosing a high school curriculum is how easily the information provided converts to a high school transcript. As a homeschooler, it’s your responsibility to keep accurate records and compile them into a transcript. This will be necessary if your child decides to apply to college, or even to enlist in the military. Your state may have specific requirements on how transcripts should be formatted and what information they should contain, so be sure to check on the details. Generally, a homeschool transcript should list courses taken, a brief description of each, and the final grade received.

Some high school curricula lend themselves more easily to the process of compiling a transcript, and this should be considered in your decision-making process. For example, if a short synopsis of what is covered in each class is provided, you won’t have to sift through the course material to determine what to enter on your transcript.

Some homeschool programs try to mimic the course progression found in public schools, such as Biology in 10th grade, Chemistry in 11th grade, and Physics in 12th grade. This sort of thing is really a matter of personal preference, but worth some time for consideration.

By high school, many homeschoolers have developed their independent-study skills to a high degree and don’t require much input from a teacher or parent. An independent study program may work well for these kids. Similarly, high schoolers have different learning styles, and homeschool curriculum should be chosen according to the method by which they learn the best.

Some people prefer traditional lectures and note-taking, and others do well if they are given reading and written assignments to complete. Some kids may learn best in completely non-traditional ways like hands-on activities or apprenticeships instead.

Often, kids will have some idea of their future career aspirations by high school, and one of the great things about homeschooling is that students have the flexibility to explore what interests them. Consider their interests and likes or dislikes when you choose curriculum to make sure they enjoy what they’re learning about and that they’re exploring career options that appeal to them along the way.

Finally, it’s always a good idea to include your student in the decision of choosing their high school curriculum.  Not only will they be more inclined to do their best work, but high school students have an innate sense of what will work for them, and what won’t, that shouldn’t be ignored.  Keeping your student informed and included in the process of choosing curriculum will be beneficial to the whole family.  Learning how to homeschool high school is a process for the whole family.

The Pros And Cons of Homeschooling

There are a million reasons to homeschool, but as with anything else, there's a downside too.  The pros and cons of homeschooling is a complicated issue, and probably different for each individual and each family.  The biggest downside for me is that it's pretty time-consuming!  Time management is key, or you'll lose your sanity trying to keep up with everything, especially if you have more than one child.

One of the parts of homeschooling I like the most is that I can tailor lessons to each of my kids' learning styles.  Teaching math to a right-brained visual learner or science to a kinesthetic learner, or language and writing to an auditory learner....You can do all of things with homeschooling because you control the methods you use for teaching.  That's certainly not the case with the one-size-fits-all approach of most public schools.  Homeschooling gives me so much flexibility, not only in scheduling lessons but in how those lessons are taught.  And if your child is struggling with a new concept, sometimes how you teach it makes all difference!

Learning About Syllables in Nutrition

Learning about syllables is important because in many cases syllables represent phonemes, the smallest bits of pronunciation in words.  So learning about syllables helps kids learning to read.

It's time for back to school, and time for homeschooling moms to consider curriculum and lesson plans for the year.  Have some fun with syllables to get the year started!  Here are some examples:

nutrition     =     nu-tri-tion

protein      =     pro-tein

carbohydrate     =     car-bo-hy-drate

healthy     =     health-y

fat     =     fat

organic     =     or-gan-ic

How To Memorize Spelling Words

Here are some fun ways to make memorizing those spelling words a little less painful.

1.  Come up with them yourself!  Kids are more likely to learn a word's correct spelling if they've chosen it themselves, so have your kids highlight (or jot down) words they come across in their studies that give them trouble.  Let them add one of these to their weekly list of spelling words!

2.  Playing spelling games!  How about hangman, sentence unscrambling, or word finds to have some fun with it?

3.  Repetition!  Write the word and say it out loud.  Again!  Flashcards word well for this purpose too.  Have your kids take an spelling test online to see how they do.

4.   Use different brain pathways to learn the spelling - try fill in the blank or matching definition exercises, draw a picture of the word, write a description of whatever the word is about, spell the word in a song to help you remember, or link that word to something more familiar in your brain that could help you remember it.

5.  Break it down into syllables or phonemes, or remember the rhythm of the word.  You could also use a mnemonic to help you remember, such as triggering the rule "i before e, except after c" in your head.