Where is the spring going? Seems like we’re mowin’ down one week after another with reckless abandon, and this year is flying by already as we approach the end of the ‘traditional’ school year here in the northern hemisphere.

Mowing a lot of grass, too, now that the spring rains have kicked it into high gear. And we’ll be picking our first lettuce and spinach this week. Strawberries coming just around the corner, too. No stoppin’ it now…

Speaking of the passage of time (planned segue as you’ll see in a minute), our friend Clint, who is a missionary to the Navaho Indians in Arizona,  sent us this video that we wanted to share with you today. It’s called “The Watchmaker” and you can see it here.

 With the “evolution only” teaching in the public schools, even though it’s contrary to sound scientific principles and laws, as well as the Bible, it’s no wonder so many of us are turning to home schooling as the only way to teach our children the truth.

Still skeptical? ‘Watch’ the video .

Amazing how such a simple comparison can open your eyes to the wonder of God’s creation, isn’t it!? 

The spring rains have finally come to northwest Ohio. After all the snow and rain we had in February and March, it was hard to believe that it was actually getting a little too dry. But now everything is greening up like it’s supposed to.

Hope we haven’t put some kind of jinx on ourselves by wishing for rain–next thing you know, we’ll be backing out of our driveway in a boat. Be careful what you pray for… 

Some of our newsletter readers have asked: How do you teach older children when you have one or more toddlers demanding your attention?
 
This is obviously something that adds to the stress of a home schooling day (as if there wasn’t enough stress already from trying to squeeze everything into your daily schedule).

Here are a few simple tips that can help make life easier:
 
1. If you can, have one of the older children play with the toddler
while you teach the first child, then switch and let that child play
with the toddler while you teach the second.
 
2. Have someone (maybe Grandma or a friend) watch the toddler
while you teach.
 
3. Enlist the father of these children to teach some of the subjects
and/or play with the toddler.
 
4. Do a fun activity with the toddler before starting class.
 
5. Don’t try to have a solid block of “school” that lasts four or
more hours. Divide up the time. Do an hour in the morning, maybe
two in the afternoon (during naptime) and finish in the evening.
 
6. Don’t think you have to do every subject every day. For example,
you can double up on science on Monday & Tuesday, then do history
Wednesday & Thursday and review Friday. Enjoy and take advantage of
the fact that your home “school” does not have to resemble public
school.
 
7. Use curriculum or an online academy that allows the older
students to work independently.
 
8. Have special toys and books your toddler can play with only
during class time. Make sure these are quiet toys
 
9. Don’t allow yourself to become agitated by interruptions (we
know, this is easier said than done). They are going to happen.
Pray BEFORE they happen.
 
10. Take one day at a time. It can seem so overwhelming if you think
about how many weeks and months of teaching there are ahead.

Some parents decide to stop home schooling when their children get to be 12-16 years of age. Maybe you’re one of them. The reasons for this decision are varied.

Some may believe that their children are now mature enough to handle school. Others feel that they may not be able to teach the more difficult subject matter. And some may mistakenly think their children need a public school diploma to get into college (they don’t, by the way).

So why go to the bother of teaching a teenager?
 
The simple answer is: for many of the same reasons you want to teach your grade schooler. For example:
 
* Academic success: As with the younger students, high schoolers
learn more, and learn it faster with one on one instruction.
 
* Variety: Educating your own teens means your child can learn the
things that interest him rather than things he will never again use
in his life. This allows him to get a head start on his future
career. It also gives her time to make mistakes and find out what
she is good at.
 
* Socialization: Your teenager can learn to relate to people of all
ages and backgrounds. He can learn self discipline, respect and
integrity instead of what is currently “cool”. Where did anyone get
the crazy idea that same-age peer groups are the best vehicle to
socialize a child anyway?
 
* Safety:  They are much less likely to be acquainted with criminal
elements in the community, or become victims of random violence.
Sad that we have to list this one.
 
* Family: Teen and parents have time to develop close relationships
while the parents teach the teen to be a responsible member of
society.

Forums are a great place to hang out for ideas and encouragement. At the Home School Enrichment web site forum, you’ll find other parents of high schoolers discussing their experiences teaching high schoolers at home. And Yahoo has a group called HomeschoolingHigh-Schoolers.

If you’ve already been home schooling before HS you probably have some idea of how you’re going to prepare your young person for the real world.

On the other hand, if high school is where you’re starting to home school then you’ll need to do the same thing parents of grade schoolers do. Explore your options… Do your research…

Many parents are taking the road less traveled with their teenagers. These parents are putting less emphasis on books and more emphasis on real life experience.

They encourage their children to find jobs and gain some work experience early. Other youth are volunteering at local charities, missions, animal shelters or zoos.

If this is the way you are directing your children you may enjoy the book, “Real Lives: Eleven Teenagers Who Don’t Go To School” by Grace Llewellyn.

Other parents feel that their knowledge of high school subjects is a bit too rusty for them to teach their children. Some of these parents are enrolling their students in on-line academies.

If your student is heading to college in a few years, this may be a good choice. To find an academy that is right for your child, just do a search for home school academies, or check these out here, here, here, and here. 

Some parents are forming co-ops with other home schooling parents. In a co-op, a group of families will share the teaching of their children. One parent will teach English while another teaches chemistry, for example. This way your child can learn about a subject that is not your specialty.

If you belong to a local home school support group, ask some of the other parents if they’d be interested in forming a co-op.

You may be one of the many parents who prefer to teach their children without any outside assistance. Cathy Duffy’s book “Christian Home Educators Curriculum Manual, Jr./Sr. High School“  should give you some much needed information.

Other resources include Home Schooling All the Way Through High School by Renee Mason, College-prep Homeschooling: Your Complete Guide to Homeschooling Through High School  by PhD David P. Byers and Chandra Byers, Home School, High School and Beyond by B. Adams-Gordon (A Time   Management, Career Exploration, Organization, and Study Skills Course), and Home Schooling High School: Planning Ahead for College Admission by Jeanne Gowen Dennis.

Home schooling your teenager during the high school years has it’s own unique challenges, no doubt, but is arguably the most rewarding time to be involved in teaching them as well.

It’s been more years than we care to remember since we were teenagers (hold the dinosaur jokes, please), but we vaguely recall it as being a time of rapid change and challenge in our lives.

So yes, you will undoubtedly hit some rough patches in your home schooling program at times, for both you and your teen. Might even get a little scary. Just be aware that it will happen and expect it.

So the one-sentence summary would be to stay the course if you’re already home schooling your pre-teen, and don’t be afraid to start if they’re already teens. Pretty simple, huh?

Time seems to be a scarce commodity in our household these days. Our boy’s homeschooling continues on, of course, but now that the outdoor yard/garden work season has arrived, things are really hoppin’ and poppin’.  

Brian has finished repairing our front yard where a (drunk?) driver took out the fire hydrant and a small tree in February. We were jolted by a loud ‘thud’ that shook the ground around 1:30 a.m. that evening (morning, actually), and just caught a glimpse of the SUV as it sped away, leaving behind its mess.

Fortunately, the main did not break, so there was no ‘cool’ geyser of water spurting upward, but it knocked the hydrant clean off its base, toppled the tree, and left tire ruts. We promptly summoned the Township police, but of course by then the perpetrator was long gone.

We were surprised that the hydrant broke off so easily, but the officer explained that they are designed to do so for safety reasons. Yeah, good thing for our hapless driver, or it could have totaled his (or her, who knows?) ride, and resulted in a trip to the hospital instead of a quick getaway. So just remember, the next time you’re thinking of taking out a hydrant with your vehicle, they do break away .

Wish we had some pics for you, but the ones we took the night it happened didn’t turn out. Too dark, we guess, for our cheapie camera, even with a flash.

The hydrant has since been restored by the Township, the branches and stump cleared away by Brian, and the area is now planted with (2-year-old) grass seed. Hopefully with the now-daily watering, and some TLC and prayers, it will soon look like a yard again.

Now let’s switch gears and zoom ahead (staying clear of fire hydrants) with our homeschooling topic today: ADD/ADHD. 

ADD/ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a growing problem.

Children with these conditions usually have a hard time keeping their minds on any one thing. They may get bored with a task after only a few minutes.

If they’re doing something they really enjoy, they have no trouble paying attention. But focusing deliberate, conscious attention to organizing and completing a task or learning something new is difficult.

Some, but not all ADD/ADHD children, are also hyperactive and impulsive.

Now, you have to be careful, because even ‘normal’ children can have some or all of these same behaviors, but at a lower level.  So it’s not always easy to reach a clear conclusion.

Home schooling families are certainly not immune to this problem.

In fact, many people choose to home school for the very reason that the schools have not done a good job of teaching their ADD/ADHD children.
 
Today we’d like to share with you some tips on how to teach an easily distracted child. Again, this is a child that has difficulty concentrating for even short periods of time.

Maybe this is beginning to sound like your child… So here’s some things to consider:
 
1. Do not expect these children to sit for long periods of time. Have shorter, more frequent lessons rather than fewer, longer lessons. Give them (and yourself) breaks.
 
2. Incorporate motor skills into learning. For example, teach phonics by placing the letter cards on the floor and have your child move the letters around to make different words. This will keep him from getting antsy while sitting since they will have to get up to move the cards.
 
3. Give them something to do with their hands. Play Dough® is always good. Have them make a model of the lesson. Example: The three ships of Columbus (you do remember them, don’t you???), a wigwam, or George Washington’s horse.
 
4. Don’t do the same thing every day. Be creative. If you use Playdough® today, paint tomorrow.
 
5. If you are doing math, remember everything doesn’t need to be written down. Have her do her problems orally some days.
 
6. Put fewer problems on the page. Too many problems on one page seems overwhelming to these children.
 
7. Use things like Learning Wrap-ups® and games. These give them something to do with their hands while learning.
 
8. Don’t assume that if they are on the floor with their feet in the air that they are not listening.
 
9. Use visual and auditory blinders. Put up some cardboard blinders between the child and the distractions. If a quiet place does not exist in your house you may find that having them listen to music with earphones might actually help them to concentrate.
 
10. Keep in mind that most ADD/ADHD children do not learn well in the classroom setting. Take advantage of the fact that home schooling allows you to do things differently.
 
Remember God gave you this child. You can handle it, with His help. God doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle.
 
There is an old saying, “What you are is God’s gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.” Help your child to take what what God has given her and turn it into a beautiful gift for Him.
 
For some encouraging articles on teaching children with ADD/ADHD please visit:
>>> http://christianadhd.com/articles.php

When your child stays at home all day, and mommy is the teacher, there are certain areas of discipline that need to be maintained. It’s easy for the child to take advantage of the freedom he has at home and feel that homeschooling is just a long summer holiday. This can be a potential landmine and children need to understand that learning takes priority right from the start.

Homeschooling gives you and your child a lot of flexibility, which is good. You can both decide where to learn, how much to learn and when to learn. These decisions should be made in the beginning stages of your home schooling program.

If your child is too young to take an active part in the decision, chart out a few hours of the day for the various activities, and stick to it. Once you make a schedule, it doesn’t have to be rigidly followed forever, but give it some time and careful consideration before you make any changes.

If your child is old enough, include her in the decision-making process and find out when she wants to learn. Apply your parental discretion and come up with a reasonable daily schedule.

Homework is also a part of homeschooling. This means that once lessons have been taught, the child should be asked to do some part of the course work by himself without your guidance. You need to make sure that your child gets in the habit of willingly finishing his work without being badgered.

Courtesy, good manners and punctuality are some of the character traits you’ll want your child to develop in the early years of his life. While homeschooling, the child should be taught the importance of speaking and behaving in a proper manner.  Appropriate discipline need to be meted out if their behavior begins to drift from your standards.

It’s a good idea to set aside a particular room or a part of a room for your homeschool. The child should be expected to be at his desk at the appointed time, in proper attire with all the necessary material. We’re not talking about being overly picky or unreasonably rigid, but sloppy habits and sloppy appearance often lead to sloppy work.

Without proper discipline, it’s easy to allow the ’school’ to become an extension of playtime if your ground rules are not laid out and followed. As the teacher, supervisor, principal, janitor, and chief bottle washer all rolled into one, you should approach the homeschool program with a cool, professional attitude, but again, you don’t have to be like a drill sergeant. Have a little fun with the learning process to keep it interesting.

Your homeschooling program could be in serious jeopardy of failing without patience. And you’re more likely to keep things under control if you’ve had the foresight to get your rules established and in operation ahead of time. But in spite of all the precautions and schedules you may have come up with, it’s still easy for a child to get lax in their discipline at homeschool.

Sometimes you may find it difficult to get your child to focus on their work and listen to instructions. Maybe it happens frequently. When it does happens, switch to something new. Allow your child to take a play break and enjoy a break yourself. In other words, be flexible while maintaining the framework of your schedule.

Homeschooling isn’t easy. But you knew that going in, didn’t you? It requires a lot of hard work and patience. The informality of the homeschooling process, which is usually considered an advantage over the public school environment, sometimes works against you by making it too easy to get sidetracked.

But if you take steps to establish rules at the very beginning and stick to these rules, your homeschooling experience will be much more likely to be positive, and a success story in the making. 

Still haven’t decided whether you should home school or not?

You already know by now that the ‘average’ home schooled child performs well above the level of the ‘average’ public school student…

Homeschooling is certainly not a new concept - Thomas Edison, Agatha Christie, Benjamin Franklin, and our Founding Fathers in the USA were educated at home. With the coming of computers and the internet in our day, as well as a rapidly growing selection of teaching materials, homeschooling now offers students an even more creative and stimulating way to learn.

Although studies prove that the benefits of homeschooling far outweigh those of our private and public schools, the decision to homeschool your children can often be difficult. Anything new or unknown is often a little scary.

Finding the information and resources to accurately determine if homeschooling is the right option for you and your child can be difficult. Until now…

Doug Dillard and his wife, the proud parents of two boys, ages 7 and 4, were also faced with this important decision when their eldest son was close to schooling age.

They decided to explore a variety of educational options. They were impressed that studies had shown that homeschooled children were more advanced than their public and privately schooled counterparts.

But at the same time, finding the information and resources to figure out if homeschooling was the right option for them proved to be elusive, not to mention frustrating.

In fact, they had heard many stories from families that hadn’t found the right information, yet invested the time and money into homeschooling and ended up making (what they felt) was a big mistake.

After hours upon hours searching through websites, visiting forums, and reading articles, they were finally able to piece all of the information together.

They shared their knowledge about homeschooling on forums and chat lines, and before they knew it, they were receiving emails from people all over the country, asking them what information they had uncovered.

They decided that they should share what they had learned with others and help people find the homeschooling answers that they were looking for.

That’s why they wanted to put everything they had learned into a single comprehensive guide; a guide that would help other families determine if homeschooling was right for them.

With the help of this Home Schooling Guidebook it’s finally possible to make an educated homeschooling decision. Yes, you can probably find this information online for free, but it comes down to a question of how much time you want to spend finding it.

In the Guidebook, you’ll learn the answers to questions like:

* Are my kids going to get a better or equal education?

* Will I have the right attitude and dedication to homeschool?

* What costs are involved in homeschooling?

* What can be done to homeschool on a budget?

* How can I determine my child’s learning style and the best way
to teach them?

* What kind of record keeping is required?

* How do I get started? What start up costs can I expect?

* AND MORE…

If you’re still struggling with the decision to homeschool, or you just want a comprehensive guide to essential home schooling information, we recommend checking this out. It’s a good shortcut method to get the right information into your hands now rather than searching out the free sources.  And it won’t put a big dent in your budget. 

Even if your child is already in the public school system, it’s not too late to begin homeschooling NOW. Don’t let indecision keep your child from getting the best education possible. Now you can quickly find the homeschooling information you’ve been searching for…DECIDE… and MOVE FORWARD.

It’s only natural to have fears about homeschooling your child when you’re first considering it. Fears about how well you’ll be able to teach, what your friends and family will say, how you’ll have to rearrange your schedule, and so on.

Most people that you’ll meet and those you already know have been educated in a public school setting and probably will not understand your decision to teach at home. You may have even have been a public school grad yourself.

If you’re a Christian, you should consider it to be God’s calling, since you’ll be keeping your child from the God-less public school environment and placing them under the hearing of God’s Word.

God often calls us to do things that seem uncomfortable or go against the ‘mainstream’. That’s just part of being a Christian. “Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat”.

Don’t let the pressure of doing the ‘normal’ thing keep you from doing what you know is right in your own heart. It doesn’t hurt to distance yourself a little bit or limit your conversations with certain people, especially when you’re just starting. Better than feeling like you have to defend your decisions or beliefs in the face of naysayers.

Everyone has an opinion, but it’s usually only based on that person’s life experience or what they hear in the media. Try to understand where they’re coming from, and consider that they usually think they’re just trying to be helpful.

Sometimes people will even confide in you about their own self doubt or fears of doing what God is calling them to do, because your actions are a challenge to what they’re doing with their lives. So your decision may eventually inspire them to step out of their comfort zone and take the plunge.

Keeping things simple is another concept that will ease your fears. Don’t fall prey to the idea that you have to duplicate a classroom setting in your home. You are transitioning into this, and your program will take on its own character as you progress.

The truth is, it will take you a little while, maybe even a long while, to get into the swing of things and figure stuff out. Your schedule will eventually work itself out, and your teaching skills will continuously improve with experience.

Have confidence you can do this, and trust the Lord to handle the details. Before you know it, your mind will be at ease, your home schooling program will be chugging along in the right direction, and you’ll think back to this time of uncertainty and say, “What in the world was I so afraid of?”