A is For Apple - Learning Alphabetical Order With Fruits and Vegetables

Here's an ABC order activity for the new spellers in your family:  Can you think of one fruit or vegetable that begins with each letter of the alphabet?  Ooh - harder than it looks, huh?

I started this project with my little ones this week, and we're making each letter into a fruit or vegetable.  This takes an awful lot of creativity!  Start by making a list of one fruit or vegetable for each letter.  Once that's done, you can brainstorm with the kids on ways to make the pictures.  (Use the internet for ideas!)  If nothing else, it will teach the kids a little about ABC order. but hopefully they'll learn enough to count this as a nutrition lesson too!  You could even stretch your art curriculum with a fun project like this.    

So let's see....A is for Apple, B is for Banana, C is for Carrot, D is for....???

Can Diet Soda Help You Lose Weight?

Contrary to popular belief, diet soda does not help with weight loss.  This seems backwards, doesn’t it?   How can the diet sodas so many people use to help keep them thin, and with virtually no calories in them, actually cause weight gain?   Unfortunately, the artificial sweeteners in diet sodas, as well as many other products on our grocery store shelves, have plenty of ill effects on our health.  If you think about it though, it makes sense.  How could a cocktail of chemicals be healthy?

A study at the University of Texas Health Science Center investigated the relationship between diet soft drink consumption and waist circumference.  The study tracked hundreds of participants over a 10 year period and found a 70 percent increase in waist circumference among those who reported drinking one diet soft drink per day.  Shockingly, participants who consumed 2 or more diet soft drinks per day had waist circumference increases of 500 percent over those who did not drink diet soda.   Unfortunately, this is only one of many research studies that have detected a correlation between obesity and diet soda consumption.

But why?

Researchers believe that the artificial sweetener often found in soda, aspartame, actually increases blood glucose levels.  The exact mechanism by which this occurs is subject for debate, but one possibility is that when the body tastes something sweet, a chain of events is set in motion to mobilize insulin in the bloodstream to deal with the expected onslaught of sugar.  In the case of artificial sweeteners, that insulin proves useless.   But elevated insulin levels are a precursor of type II diabetes, obesity, and related conditions.

Speculation also abounds that since artificial sweeteners are many times sweeter than regular sugar, our taste buds react to them by expecting a sugary treat, triggering chemical changes that result in those same elevated insulin levels.    Scientists don’t yet know for sure, but it is certain that the use of artificial sweeteners do predispose people to obesity and elevated insulin.

What Can You Do?

It’s best to limit soda consumption to an occasional indulgence, and then to drink soda with real sugar, not high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners.  If these studies are any guide, at least your body knows what to do with real sugar, and the insulin it releases is used appropriately to allow that sugar in your blood to enter the cells.

Better yet, since a diet soda has no nutritional value whatsoever, just imagine what a relative 500 percent increase to your own waist circumference might look like, and opt for water instead!

Blog Writing For Middle School

Trying to homeschool middle school?  If your kids are old enough, they might enjoy writing their own blog.  By middle school, most kids are at an age where they understand the writing process well enough for blogging.  For this age group, it can be as simple as telling about their day, or as complex as writing elaborate works of fiction.  My middle schooler is writing her first novel, or maybe it just seems that way!  :)

Kids like the combination of writing and internet, so go with it and make it work in your favor.  Add some photos or graphics and have fun with it.  A blogging project would be perfect if you want to call it schoolwork, but writing for fun is a great thing to encourage too.

How about keeping a food diary on a blog?  Have the kids write down everything they eat for several days or a week.  Then go back and figure out how many servings of protein, vegetables, etc. they ate.  Have them brainstorm ways to improve their nutrition.  They'll be learning good eating habits and working on their writing skills too!

Preschool Nutrition Flashcards

One of those most basic parts of teaching young children about nutrition is learning which foods fall into which food groups.  What kind of foods are peanuts, celery, lentils, or butter?  Learning the food groups is the first step in learning how to eat healthy.  Preschool games and flashcards work well for younger kids, and can even be fun for older ones.

Have your kids draw pictures of different types of food on index cards, or cut out pictures from magazines or grocery store sales ads and glue them onto the cards.  Hold them up and see which of your children can name the food group first.  You could make the game harder by using flashcards of foods with more than one ingredient, like a turkey sandwich, for example.  Can the kids figure out all the food groups present in a turkey sandwich?   How many servings of bread are in that sandwich?

Most early child education only gives nutrition a passing glance, but if you start with some fun flash cards and games to learn the food groups, you're building a foundation of nutrition knowledge for kids to add to later.   They can't plan a proper meal if they don't know what they're eating!

Here's a great tool for inserting images onto printable flashcards that works well for this project.  http://quizlet.com/faqs/faq-how-do-i-add-images-to-my-flash-cards/

Are You On Track For 2014?

We're into the first month of the year, and with so much of 2014 still before us, it's a great time to sit back and reflect on our homeschooling experience.  From the first phonics curriculum you chose, to the high school writing class they will someday take, and everything in between.  How has the last year of homeschooling been?  Are you on track for 2014?  If not, take a minute to rethink your homeschooling goals and how to get there.

What's so amazing to me is that my kids are turning out pretty well, in spite of all the mistakes I've made, and all the things I would have done differently if I could go back and do it all over again.  I'm sure that's not a sentiment unique to homeschoolers, but in terms of our curriculum choices especially, etc. it's never a bad idea to re-evaluate and try to improve.

If you haven't started the nutrition lessons here yet, the new year is a great time to emphasize nutrition and healthy eating.  It's that time of year, after all!

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.