Avoid Over Planning Homeschooling Activities

How Many Homeschool Activities
Guest Article by Mary Joyce

At first we panic when we begin trying to come up with enough homeschool activities to fill our lesson plan. We research, we seek, we find, we accumulate... and finally we overload our calendar. Do you sometimes look at your homeschool calendar and long for date that is not completely filled? Many of us do. And you know that you can only have one top priority at a time. You can’t have 5 top priorities….. can you? If so, which one do you do first? Which one of your top priorities do you complete first for your lesson plan?

And as you progress further into homeschooling you will no doubt soon be reaping the rewards of all your researching and contacting by constantly receiving all kinds of helpful materials on homeschool and preschool activities in your mailbox. As a result, you can literally over-schedule your day with activities. And really, it can happen without warning and before you know it!

So early on in the hunt for homeschool activities, take it easy. Try to curb your enthusiasm for signing up for all these very interesting classes and field trips. As I said earlier, in the beginning it may seem as though you have no contacts or resources, but very soon you will have more than enough. In a word, keeping your homeschool activity schedule simple is the best advice. Don’t try to ‘make up’ for all the activities that you may think your child is missing because they are being homeschooled.

Please don’t take the aforementioned thoughts as being against activities. Not at all. Activities, field trips and such are one of the very important advantages that we as homeschooling parents have over the public school system. Just give yourself and your child room to breath. Keep all of your great ideas and homeschool resources handy and readily accessible, you don’t have to do them all within the bound of one homeschool year.

Keep your fingers on your (and your child’s) activity pulse. Fine tune your homeschool activities calendar, and don’t let it get too crowded. Give and take with your activities, if you add one, then drop another. You’ll soon find what works best for your situation.

Mary Joyce is a former educator, successful homeschool parent, and the primary contributor to the Homeschool-Curriculum-4u website. Please visit (http://www.homeschool-curriculum-4u.com) for a complete list of Mary's articles, resources on homeschool, ideas, and curriculum information.
Also tips guides and how-to's to help you successfully teach your child at home.

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Increasing the Attention Span of Boys

Increase the Attention Span of Boys With These Tips
Guest article by Michelle Caskey

As a general rule, the attention span of boys tends to be shorter than that of girls. Obviously this varies with each child. There are more boys who suffer from ADHD. And even boys who have wonderful powers of focus still have a tendency to move, bounce, fiddle with objects, look around, and generally want to be on the move.

Fortunately, it is possible to promote a healthy environment for your boys which will be more conducive for their homeschooling. Consider these lifestyle choices to better keep your son's attention:

* Organize your day - A consistent routine is good for all children and especially for boys and/or those who might struggle with ADHD.

* Turn off the TV - Keep TV watching and listening to the radio to a minimum. Children need quiet times without background noise in order to think, listen, and read to their full potential.

* Consistent Bedtimes - Set an early bedtime, one which will allow your child to get plenty of sleep. If your child is getting 8 hours of sleep per night or less, they are NOT getting adequate rest at night. Children need a surprising amount of sleep. At age 5, your child needs 11 hours of sleep. By age 10, they still need 9.75 hours of sleep. At age 18, children still require 8.25 hours of sleep!

* Breakfast - Make sure your child has a hearty breakfast and a multi-vitamin. Having a well-balanced breakfast will help them to think more clearly and not get as tired during their studies.

* Discipline - Provide consistent discipline for your children. Set a few clear rules and stick to them. If your sons are well disciplined during regular life, they will also be much better disciplined during school hours. Your son's attention span should be at least 3-5 minutes long for each year of his age. So the typical kindergartener should be able to stay on task for at least 15 minutes. When we are homeschooling boys, there are several things we can do to help increase the attention span of boys as well as their enjoyment for learning:

* Breaks - Take a break between topics and allow your boys to get up, stretch, run down the hall... even to run a few laps around the house. Including some activities for boys such as these will allow them to release their pent up energy will go a long way towards helping them to stay focused while they study.

* Change it up - Boys get easily bored with the same information or the same methods. If they understand a topic, move on. You can go back and review later to make sure that they fully grasp the information. If you review over and over with boys they will become bored and their minds will disengage. Also, try new techniques with boys. If you usually do math worksheets, try having them answer orally or on the computer. This will help them to remain interested and will certainly increase the attention span of boys.

* Control - Boys love to feel that they have at least some control over their studies. Give your sons several choices that you would be happy with and let them make some of the decisions. Or let them decide which subject they are going to tackle next. When boys are given this kind of freedom, you will find yourself struggling with them less throughout the day.

* Interest Area - The greatest motivator for boys is to teach them something that interests them. Let your boys pick topics they are interested in and then allow them to explore them fully. They can do this in addition to their regular studies or during breaks. Their excitement for all of their studies will increase when they are allowed to pursue things they love as well.

* Manipulatives - Give your boys objects that they can taste, touch, smell and see. Boys learn well with tactile and kinesthetic learning; so, the more of their senses you can incorporate into activities for boys, the more understanding and enjoyment they will have of their lessons.

* Movement - Ensure lots of opportunities for movement. Boys have lots of energy. If you allow them to expend this energy in accepted ways, they will be less likely to act out when it isn't appropriate.

* Spread Out - Rather than keep your boys confined to a desk, let your boys spread out at a table, on the floor, or on the couch. If boys are allowed to move around a bit while doing their book work or papers, you will find that they will get their work done more quickly and with less resistance.

* Silly Stuff - If you're finding it hard to hold the attention of your sons, try speaking in a silly voice or acting goofy as you are presenting the information. Injecting a little bit of unexpected humor into your presentations can really grab and hold the interest of boys.

* Talk Breaks - Provide frequent talk breaks for your boys to minimize disruptions. Boys have lots of questions - make sure you give them opportunities to ask these questions and to probe as deeply into a topic as they would like.

* Visuals - Use lots of visuals to maintain interest. Most boys learn visually, so seeing the information will make it easier for them to learn that just hearing the information.

Incorporate these tips into your school day and watch the attention span of boys in your house increase. With a little bit of creativity, homeschooling boys can be a rewarding experience for both you and your sons.

Michelle Caskey has been homeschooling her sons for five years. Michelle graduated from the Western Michigan University with a degree in English and Computer Science. Read more of her homeschooling articles at http://www.homeschool-your-boys.com

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A Positive Look at Homeschooling Stress

Why Stress Isn't All Bad

Although I’ve not heard other arguments to support my theory, I’m convinced that certain types of stress have a valuable place in our lives and may in fact provide just the motivation needed to better a condition or circumstance. I’m specifically speaking of situational stress, rather than that which may be confined to brain chemistry, so if you’re usually pretty comfortable with life, this article pertains to you.

Here’s something to think about…. if we were all 100% content with everything that we were doing or in the world around us, we’d never produce anything new, we’d never improve on anything, we’d make no new discoveries, we’d not challenge ways of thinking, and we’d never see advancements. What kind of world would that be?

Stress often gets us moving, and moving is a positive isn’t it? Sometimes that proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back is just the thing we need to put our fist down, to get back on our feet, or to speak up when things aren’t as our heart tells us they should be. In fact, stress or dissatisfaction might be what brought you to the decision to homeschool in the first place. If you’re a new homeschooler and you’re finding yourself dealing with the heebie-jeebies, realize it’s normal, and in fact can be healthy so long as you manage it well. Best of all, the stress you feel today, will be the victory you’re celebrating tomorrow.

What does homeschooling stress look like? The stress and anxiety that find their way into a homeschooling environment come largely from two sources… the most obvious stemming from confidence issues with the parent, but the less obvious and oh so real source comes from external sources, like from the doubting words and concerns of family and friends. Well meaning people like to plant little seeds of doubt and uncertainty into our minds… probably because they don’t understand how doable and effective educating our kids from home can be, yes… even without a teaching degree.

Fortunately, these two sources of stress usually diminish over time. Every year that a parent homeschools, they’ll do so with more confidence, less apprehension, and a greater degree of proficiency and sense of fulfillment. Once the parent finds a curriculum or teaching method that suits his child’s learning style, it’s just a matter of getting into that daily grind and keeping up the momentum.

Finding the right homeschooling system or structure is a trial and error proposal and it may take more experimentation than what was initially planned for, but when you’ve found that right fit and your child begins to flourish in this intimate home learning environment, what you’ll witness is all the motivation you’ll need to inspire you to continue. At that point, you’ll likely find new things to concern yourself with, that will consequently make your curriculum and way of educating even better.

As for dealing with family and friends who simply don’t understand, remember that homeschooling families are somewhat like pioneers… so there’s bound to be some amount of discomfort involved and a whole lot of resistance along the way, but being a pioneer is also incredibly exhilarating. You’ll have good days and bad… unspeakable highs and never before chartered lows. When you’re down people will say “maybe you should quit”, “I know I couldn’t do it”, and even those wonderful words of heart-felt support “I told you so”. When your kids are shining like the brightest stars in the galaxy, your critics won’t say a word. By the way… that silence is golden.

As you conquer one challenge after another, you’ll become somewhat of a homeschooling prize fighter, equipped with an exuberant new confidence and a prevailing sense of accomplishment. The memories of all the naysayer’s will actually bring a smile to your face and as you realize all that you and your children have accomplished together, all that joys you’ve shared, all the time you’ve shared, and no one will ever be able to steel that from you or make you wish you’d done things differently.

The third most common source of stress has to do with the student… your child. It’s the one stress I have the most experience in dealing with, the one that has nearly taken me down more times than I care to share. I’m convinced any public school would encourage me to medicate my son for symptoms of ADHD. Oh, the struggles we’ve had. He provides plenty of reasons for me to say enough already and send him out the front door to wait for the school bus, where he’d become someone else’s problem. Would that really alleviate my stress? If I sent my son to school, I’m fairly certain my stress would only intensify. The phone calls, the parent-teacher conferences, the homework at night, not to mention my guilt as I watched him fall behind… and all for what?

The stress I’ve encountered in this situation has motivated me in the following way. I’ve come back into the boxing ring of our living room classroom time and time again, ready to go another round, but with a new way of approaching the lesson. I spend more time researching learning styles and sorting through tools and resources that can be incorporated into our lessons, and less time worrying about who else is doing it that way. Less time worrying about trying to compare my son to another boy his age and more time exploring his interests with him and realizing how much further we can get with a tailor made lesson. Realizing that my son actually knows more about certain subjects than schooled kids years older than him. Yes, I’m a pioneer, I’m innovative, I’m productive, I’m moving forward all thanks to a little thing we like to call stress.

Let me finish by saying that while homeschooling is definitely not for everyone, those who are serious about wanting to experiment with the idea should never be persuaded against trying, simply because it might mean some amount of stress is involved. Isn’t there some degree of stress involved in anything concerning our children? Stress can be very motivating… especially when you’re running the show, whether you thought you were the leader type or not. For these reasons, I’d actually argue that for the homeschooling family in particular, stress is a positive.

My Review of BestHomeschooling.org

Why not conduct a real honest to goodness review here on The Home Schooling Blog? I decided today it would be a lot of fun to actually review homeschooling sites and resources, rather than just mentioning their name as I stumble upon them. It's especially thrilling to review a site that's as awesome and inspiring as BestHomeschooling.org.

I found this site just a few moments ago upon typing in the words... "Homeschooling Advice". Why on earth would I be looking for homeschooling advice? lol I'm sure you've done the same a time or two before. It's fun to get another persons take on the topic, especially when they've been there... done that. Who do you turn to for advice? When you want reliable, trusted advice you likely turn first to experts in the field. Who exactly qualifies as an expert though?

This site is written by seasoned homeschoolers! What could be better? From the looks of things this site might just serve as cybermentor to those of us just starting out and well, maybe struggling a bit. Even for those of you who've been at this awhile, there's always something new to learn. Someone to learn from. Perhaps you're looking for new ways of managing a school day, solutions to a problem at home, or advice on keeping yourself motivated and on top of your game?

Here are my thoughts on what I've read at BestHomeschooling.org thus far. It's incredible. I truly recommend this site for anyone looking for encouragement and support. If you've got a late reader for example, you'll find so much encouragement from Annette MacKay who mentions her son who didn't really pick up reading until he was 10. She goes on to say that at 13 her son loves a good book! These writers speak from the heart about their personal experiences. Real life situations with real life problems and real life resolutions, all at your disposal.

This site scores high in my book for overall appearance, variety of subject matter/topics covered, usefulness/applicability, and it's written exceptionally well. It reads much like an online magazine, but without any noisy advertisements or pop ups... what a perk!

Congrats BestHomeschooling.org on being one of the most enjoyable, insightful, encouraging, and best organized sites I've found thus far on homeschooling! ; ) Woo hoo!